Wojo Post Game (Comments on JJJ DNP)

[NotAnAlum]

There WAS PLENTY of talent on this team when Wojo took over to be an NCAA team..period.

You really thought going into the season that the team we had at that time should have made the NCAA tournament.   WOW!  I looked at the same team and figured that with luck they could avoid the BE basement and finish maybe 7th.   NIT at best.

[TAMU, Knower of Ball]

A year that began with 10 scholarship players.  Perhaps 11.  Wojo kicked Todd off team.  8 Top 100 players.  One being a 5th year senior, another a senior, one a junior (Steve, albeit not a good player), and then 4 TOP 60 players as sophomores - Burton, Fischer, JJJ, Duane. And Cohen as a freshman.

Good Lord - talk about having low expectations.  What narrative HAS BEEN CREATED by the usual suspects, is that this year should be a rebuilding year.  There WAS PLENTY of talent on this team when Wojo took over to be an NCAA team..period.

I responded to this in another thread and you never responded. Here are the 13-14 stats of the team that Wojo inherited.

Here's a better way to think about expectations for this team. Let's look at what their 13-14 stats looked like.

PG: Derrick Wilson: 5.0 ppg, 3.8 rpg, 4.2 apg, 1.3 spg, 1.5 tpg, .391 FG%, .071 3P%
SG: Matt Carlino: 13.7 ppg, 3.4 rpg, 4.3 apg, 1.7 spg, 2.0 tpg, .385 FG%, .339 3P%
SF: Deonte Burton: 6.9 ppg, 2.2 rpg, 0.5 apg, 1.1 spg, 0.9 tpg, .478 FG%, .500 3P%
PF: Juan Anderson: 3.2 ppg, 3.3 rpg, 1.0 apg, 1.0 spg, 1.0 tpg, .378 FG% .192 3P%
C: Luke Fischer: 2.8 ppg, 2.1 rpg, 0.3 apg, 0.8 bpg, 0.5 tpg, .556 FG%, .000  3P% (not available to December 16)

Bench:
1: Jajuan Johnson: 4.3 ppg, 1.1 rpg, 1.0 apg, 0.4 spg, 0.5 tpg, .443 FG%, .290 3P%
2: Steve Taylor: 2.5 ppg, 2.7 rpg, 0.4 apg, 0.3 spg, 0.7 tpg, .324 FG%, .154 3P%
3: John Dawson: 2.0 ppg, 1.1 rpg, 1.0 apg, 0.1 spg, 0.7 tpg, .320 FG%, .269 3P%
4: Duane Wilson: No Data Available
5: Sandy Cohen: No Data Available

Team Stats:
40.4 points per game
19.7 rebounds per game
12.7 assist per game
437-1086 .402 FG% Matt Carlino by himself had almost as many attempts (426), as FGM by the entire team (437).
88-295 .298 3P% Matt Carlino had 60 of those 88 makes

Really, what about this lineup's production from the previous season screams that they would be a tournament team this season? The improvement that Wojo has gotten out of each of the players is nothing short of amazing. Some simply had too high of expectations going into the season.

If you have any scrap of basketball knowledge, you would never pick a team that produced the above numbers to be a tournament team. You are continuing this myth you started last season that our players are good, they are just being mistreated and misused by our coach, when that is simply not the case.

Do you really think high school rankings are more relevant than the player's production from the previous season?

[tower912]

Don't forget the part about defense.   A year ago, Buzz said (and was pilloried for saying)that STjr, Deonte, JD, JJJ didn't play more because they did not play defense to his standards.   This year, that was borne out by the fact that their man defense was so collectively bad that Wojo had to abandon a lifetime of man to man defense and play zone. 

Or the bit about, prior to Luke becoming eligible, no one on the team taller than 6'7.   

[Lennys Tap]

And one more for my "friends" - Many of you guys defended the hell out of Vander as a sophomore.  Keep in mind he's playing on a Sweet 16 caliber team with guys like Jae and DJO. Vander and JJJ as sophomores are basically the exact same player...

http://statsheet.com/mcb/players/compare?add=vander-blue&i=1&p1=3-jajuan-johnson&vander-blue=2011-2012

One big difference I noticed. Vander was a poor (25.8%) three point shooter and realized it. He took about one every 30 minutes. JJJ is a much worse three point shooter (17.5% total, 4.3% vs non cupcakes) yet launches them 3 and a half times as often (1 every 8.6 minutes). That's dumb in addition to being bad - a combination that results in bench time.

[TAMU, Knower of Ball]

With 3 open scholarships, and possibly a 4th given the Nick situation, really not sure it is wise for Wojo to being playing mind games with one of his most talented underclassmen.  Soon it could be 5 open scholarships.  Trust the process?? 

Ners, again you are lying and make sh*t up. Do you talk with Wojo regularly? Has he told you what kind of conversations he is having with JjJ? Do you observe practices? Are you BFFs with JjJ and texting him regularly about all of the injustice's Wojo is committing?

I know you desperately want this to be true. Because if it was, it would mean we have a chance to start winning again. But it is not. It is a fiction. Check out my signature, it might help.

[g0lden3agle]

I'm really glad I'm not an employee of the Ners' frozen yogurt empire.  Working my butt off conscientiously just to see some slacker get promoted over me because Ners liked him more during the job interview more than two years ago.

Amazing analogy!

[NersEllenson]

You really thought going into the season that the team we had at that time should have made the NCAA tournament.   WOW!  I looked at the same team and figured that with luck they could avoid the BE basement and finish maybe 7th.   NIT at best.

Considering we are a just a few colossal meltdowns away from being 4-1 in the Big East WITHOUT Todd Mayo and Denote Burton - 2 guys I figured would be our leading scorers - yes, I felt we had legit NCAA prospects.

If you don't expect 4 consensus Top 60 high school players to take a major leap in their sophomore year in a program - Fischer, Duane, Burton, JJJ - then the perhaps you need to look at the coaching staff as to their ability to develop players.

[NersEllenson]

Again, JJJ wasn't benched because of game production. He was benched because of poor practice(s).

If he has a string of great practices, it's likely his "leash" will get longer. BTW, he's a soph. avg. 21+ min per game. His leash isn't that short.

Context - On a team with 8 scholarship players...and one of whom is a freshman.

[TAMU, Knower of Ball]

Context - On a team with 8 scholarship players...and one of whom is a freshman.

Dear God, last year you needed at least 10 minutes to get into the flow of the game. Now 21 isn't good enough.

JjJ is the first kid off the bench. Based of his production, that's about where he should be. Even you have admitted that. 21 minutes a game is a ton of playing time for a kid who comes off the bench. A lot of starters on other teams don't get that much playing time. If you really think playing your 6th or 7th best player for 21 minutes a game is "mind games" you have a very warped view of reality.

[TAMU, Knower of Ball]

I'm really glad I'm not an employee of the Ners' frozen yogurt empire.  Working my butt off conscientiously just to see some slacker get promoted over me because Ners liked him more during the job interview more than two years ago.

A comical, yet sadly true analogy.

[MerrittsMustache]

I'm really glad I'm not an employee of the Ners' frozen yogurt empire.  Working my butt off conscientiously just to see some slacker get promoted over me because Ners liked him more during the job interview more than two years ago.

If only he had given you a longer run before allowing you to go on break!

[NersEllenson]

Dear God, last year you needed at least 10 minutes to get into the flow of the game. Now 21 isn't good enough.

JjJ is the first kid off the bench. Based of his production, that's about where he should be. Even you have admitted that. 21 minutes a game is a ton of playing time for a kid who comes off the bench. A lot of starters on other teams don't get that much playing time. If you really think playing your 6th or 7th best player for 21 minutes a game is "mind games" you have a very warped view of reality.

Stop being a clown. The mind games comment was made solely and only due to the benching against Xavier.  That's exactly what that tactic is - trying to send a player a message.  It will go one of two ways:  Message heard loud and clear and JJJ responds in the way Wojo wants - and in so doing JJJ gets more playing time.  Or, it alienates the kid, causes him to lose respect for his coach, and ultimately check out - much like JJJ did last year.

[MerrittsMustache]

Stop being a clown. The mind games comment was made solely and only due to the benching against Xavier.  That's exactly what that tactic is - trying to send a player a message.  It will go one of two ways:  Message heard loud and clear and JJJ responds in the way Wojo wants - and in so doing JJJ gets more playing time.  Or, it alienates the kid, causes him to lose respect for his coach, and ultimately check out - much like JJJ did last year.

And which type of player would you prefer to have on YOUR team?

[GGGG]

Stop being a clown. The mind games comment was made solely and only due to the benching against Xavier.  That's exactly what that tactic is - trying to send a player a message.  It will go one of two ways:  Message heard loud and clear and JJJ responds in the way Wojo wants - and in so doing JJJ gets more playing time.  Or, it alienates the kid, causes him to lose respect for his coach, and ultimately check out - much like JJJ did last year.

Why would we want a player who repeatedly loses respect for coaches and checks out on the team?  Because of his high school ranking?

[g0lden3agle]

Stop being a clown. The mind games comment was made solely and only due to the benching against Xavier.  That's exactly what that tactic is - trying to send a player a message.  It will go one of two ways:  Message heard loud and clear and JJJ responds in the way Wojo wants - and in so doing JJJ gets more playing time.  Or, it alienates the kid, causes him to lose respect for his coach, and ultimately check out - much like JJJ did last year.

If it's the latter that would make two consecutive years with two different coaches that JJJ checks out.  Is that really someone that deserves to be on the Marquette's basketball team?

[NersEllenson]

And which type of player would you prefer to have on YOUR team?

Obviously the first type.  Yet, as are all relationships - the player/coach relationship is a two-way street.  If a player begins to sense things aren't fair as far as how the coach is allocating playing time - it breeds discontent.  

Furthermore, I wouldn't take a ridiculous measure to bench a kid for a whole game because "I didn't like the way he practiced."  I'd call the kid into my office after practice - and if it was clear he was half assing it, goofing off - I'd ask him what's going on.  Open the dialogue.  This would be even more important to me if I'd just had two players essentially quit on me/transfer.

[GGGG]

Obviously the first type.  Yet, as are all relationships - the player/coach relationship is a two-way street.  If a player begins to sense things aren't fair as far as how the coach is allocating playing time - it breeds discontent. 

Furthermore, I wouldn't take a ridiculous measure to bench a kid for a whole game because "I didn't like the way he practiced."  I'd call the kid into my office after practice - and if it was clear he was half assing it, goofing off - I'd ask him what's going on.  Open the dialogue.  This would be even more important to me if I'd just had two players essentially quit on me/transfer.

Why are you assuming this didn't happen?

[NersEllenson]

Why would we want a player who repeatedly loses respect for coaches and checks out on the team?  Because of his high school ranking?

Maybe the better question is why do we want a coach who loses the respect of his players?  Buzz lost Jamil, Gardner, JJJ, Steve last year...and to a small extent Burton and Dawson.

This year, Wojo has lost Burton, Dawson, and is now engaging in a dicey area with JJJ.  We have 3 open scholarships.  If JJJ leaves, that's 4.  Trusting that process?

What you and the other usual suspects here continue to do is only see things from the coaches perspective - perhaps largely, because you've never been a player at gasp - even the high school level.

Texas Western has 2 kids that are D-1 Athletes - think he has a little bit more insight and understanding into the dynamics on the player side of the equation?

[brewcity77]

Stop being a clown. The mind games comment was made solely and only due to the benching against Xavier.  That's exactly what that tactic is - trying to send a player a message.  It will go one of two ways:  Message heard loud and clear and JJJ responds in the way Wojo wants - and in so doing JJJ gets more playing time.  Or, it alienates the kid, causes him to lose respect for his coach, and ultimately check out - much like JJJ did last year.

There's only one clown here, and you're the one wearing the bright red nose. You say to look at the data objectively, but you ignore that Jajuan has been poor against quality opponents. In conference play he's shooting 9/31 (0/10 from 3). He has 10 turnovers in 74 minutes.

You dismiss turnovers, but his numbers are bad. It's not just that he has multiple turnovers in 10/16 games he's played, he's also had multiple turnovers every time he played more than 20 minutes.

Jajuan could be a great player here, but the simple truth is he's not yet. His shooting is poor, his turnovers are high, and while his defense has definitely improved, he still has his struggles. And now from the coach's own mouth, he hasn't given everything he has in practice.

We all hope this is a turning point for him. We hope this is a motivation that gets him to play more like he did against ASU and less like he has since conference play started.

Of course...let's be honest. This isn't about Jajuan. This isn't about Jajuan at all. Just like last year it wasn't about Dawson and earlier this year it wasn't about Burton. It's all about your pathetic hatred of Derrick. You just can't let it go, and you can't enjoy Marquette basketball as long as he's here, so you whine and moan about everything else while really just looking for ways to discredit a kid who has come tremendously far this year and who, honestly, I would trust a HELL of a lot more shooting the ball from three with the game on the line than Jajuan, and considering his track record, that says a ton.

[MUfan12]

Texas Western has 2 kids that are D-1 Athletes - think he has a little bit more insight and understanding into the dynamics on the player side of the equation?

Unless one of them is on Marquette's men's basketball team, then no, not really.

[NersEllenson]

Why are you assuming this didn't happen?

If it did happen, sure as sh$t you can bet Wojo would have said as much in his presser when asked multiple times about it.  Answer would have gone:  "I told JuJuan that I didn't like his approach in practice the last two days, and as a result he wasn't going to play against Xavier."  

Furthermore, if a conversation did happen immediately after practice - a more mature approach by the coach would be to come to an understanding with the player, let them know that if they see it again, sense it again, it will result in a game benching.

[brewcity77]

If it did happen, sure as sh$t you can bet Wojo would have said as much in his presser when asked multiple times about it.  Answer would have gone:  "I told JuJuan that I didn't like his approach in practice the last two days, and as a result he wasn't going to play against Xavier."  

Furthermore, if a conversation did happen immediately after practice - a more mature approach by the coach would be to come to an understanding with the player, let them know that if they see it again, sense it again, it will result in a game benching.

You have no clue. Absolutely no clue what Wojo may or may not have said to Jajuan. You have no idea how long this issue that resulted in a suspension has gone on. You have no idea if the exact conversation hadn't already happened, or happened multiple times over the past few weeks.

Wojo was clear. Practice effort wasn't enough to convince him Jajuan was ready to play. Might there have been more to it? Yes. Probably was. But you are putting your words and assumptions into the coach's mouth. He was straight forward, yet for some reason you can't accept that in order to further your anti-Derrick agenda that you've been spewing for 2 years now.

[BM1090]

If it did happen, sure as sh$t you can bet Wojo would have said as much in his presser when asked multiple times about it.  Answer would have gone:  "I told JuJuan that I didn't like his approach in practice the last two days, and as a result he wasn't going to play against Xavier."  

Furthermore, if a conversation did happen immediately after practice - a more mature approach by the coach would be to come to an understanding with the player, let them know that if they see it again, sense it again, it will result in a game benching.

Maybe he talked to him multiple times and couldn't get through to him, so he benched him. You have no idea what happened, neither do the rest of us, but you're the only one stating your opinions as facts.

[NersEllenson]

There's only one clown here, and you're the one wearing the bright red nose. You say to look at the data objectively, but you ignore that Jajuan has been poor against quality opponents. In conference play he's shooting 9/31 (0/10 from 3). He has 10 turnovers in 74 minutes.

You dismiss turnovers, but his numbers are bad. It's not just that he has multiple turnovers in 10/16 games he's played, he's also had multiple turnovers every time he played more than 20 minutes.

Jajuan could be a great player here, but the simple truth is he's not yet. His shooting is poor, his turnovers are high, and while his defense has definitely improved, he still has his struggles. And now from the coach's own mouth, he hasn't given everything he has in practice.

We all hope this is a turning point for him. We hope this is a motivation that gets him to play more like he did against ASU and less like he has since conference play started.

Of course...let's be honest. This isn't about Jajuan. This isn't about Jajuan at all. Just like last year it wasn't about Dawson and earlier this year it wasn't about Burton. It's all about your pathetic hatred of Derrick. You just can't let it go, and you can't enjoy Marquette basketball as long as he's here, so you whine and moan about everything else while really just looking for ways to discredit a kid who has come tremendously far this year and who, honestly, I would trust a HELL of a lot more shooting the ball from three with the game on the line than Jajuan, and considering his track record, that says a ton.

LOL - Read my signature Brew if you want a refresher on "clown" takes.  No, this isn't about Derrick - it's about JJJ getting benched for a game.  It's about JJJ being a very talented player - very similar to a guy you loved - Vander Blue, once again perhaps becoming disenchanted with Marquette.  It's about having 3 open scholarships already, a dicey situation now with Nick N, and not wanting to lose another talented player as we did in Burton.

And comically, you cite numbers on JJJ this year that point toward him having no business playing much, yet in reality all of last season you championed the merits and value of Derrick?  Come on man. And btw - Derrick is of course better this year - as you simply aren't going to get any worse than last season.  However, he's averaging 1.8 Turnovers per game in conference play.  And let's keep in mind, Pomeroy classifies him as being a Limited Role player, based on usage - so again, he isn't going to have a high propensity to turn the ball over, because rarely is he used on the offensive end of the floor.

That isn't me hating on Derrick either - it's calling it as it is.  I can live with Derrick playing 20-25 minutes per game as he's been performing.  Derrick is averaging 34.8 minutes in conference play.  

[NersEllenson]

Maybe he talked to him multiple times and couldn't get through to him, so he benched him. You have no idea what happened, neither do the rest of us, but you're the only one stating your opinions as facts.

Fair point.  However, do you not think Wojo would have made mention of having had a talk/talks with JJJ about his practice habits - when asked why he didn't play - if in fact he did have multiple conversations?