Pirate thoughts

[Lennys Tap]

1.  Lots of bias affirmation today.   
2.  JJJ got lots of minutes, played well.   Still too many out of control turnovers.
3.  Derrick played elite defense on Gibbs.
4.  Steve with a stellar game
5.  Derrick with more turnovers than usual, including a near unforgivable one.
6.  Wojo took the air out of the ball too soon again. 
7.  Can't blame Carlino for dribbling around and chucking today.   
8.  Defensive effort was superb all day.
9.  Bad free throw shooting is contagious.
10.  Seton Hall played worse than MU did.   Grab it, embace it, run home. 

11. Thank God for Isaiah Whitehead.

[Sharpie]

It's hard to win on the road in league play. It's even harder without your leading scorer and only 7 guys scholarship guys. Great effort all around. Take it and run.

I thought everyone stepped up and were better at attacking without having carling in there as a crutch to bail anyone out. Effort was great today.

[connie]

12.  MU played hard again.  Nice to see effort rewarded, no matter how it came about.

[NersEllenson]

What are you going to do when the season is over and you can no longer complain about our senior point guard? It's only a game and there are far more important things in life.

I'll be glad we've finally turned the page and start winning games on a regular basis again.

I had very few comments on Derrick today btw.  We didn't have any choice but to have him out there today.  He is what he is - and when him playing max minutes isn't taking away time from far more talented underclassmen  - it doesn't really bother me - even if he is awful and we win.  When a guy like JJJ rides the bench for 25+ minutes per game, that's when I have issues with Derrick and his minutes getting maxed.  Duane and Carlino can both play PG as needed.  Period.

[Class71]

What are you going to do when the season is over and you can no longer complain about our senior point guard? It's only a game and there are far more important things in life.

Don't worry complainers complain they just change the target. Sometimes its a player, sometimes it is a coach, sometimes it's a blogger or maybe it is anything else but it is always the negative view of life.

Incidentally the age lifespan of chronic complainers is shorter than those with an optimistic positive attitude. Maybe we all need to look more on the positive side but then again some just can not help themselves or change. When you think about it, it is just sad.

[MUSF]

If it ain't Wojo, then it sure as hell must be his extension on the court--the elite one.

It's Wojo, and it's something he picked up from his mentor. The one consistent criticism you will hear about Coach K is that he takes the air out of the ball too soon when they get leads.

[Sharpie]

Don't worry complainers complain they just change the target. Sometimes its a player, sometimes it is a coach, sometimes it's a blogger or maybe it is anything else but it is always the negative view of life.

Incidentally the age lifespan of chronic complainers is shorter than those with an optimistic positive attitude. Maybe we all need to look more on the positive side but then again some just can not help themselves or change. When you think about it, it is just sad.

+10000000

I can't even imagine hating everything about everything all the time. Sure would bog quality of life down a bit.

[Wojo'sMojo]

Don't worry complainers complain they just change the target. Sometimes its a player, sometimes it is a coach, sometimes it's a blogger or maybe it is anything else but it is always the negative view of life.

Incidentally the age lifespan of chronic complainers is shorter than those with an optimistic positive attitude. Maybe we all need to look more on the positive side but then again some just can not help themselves or change. When you think about it, it is just sad.

Speaking for myself, I am not a constant complainer. I have greatly despised our point guard play for the last two seasons. I find it miserable to watch an offensively challenged point guard play over 30 minutes a game and am glad it is coming to an end very soon. Then my complaining will be done.

[BallBoy]

I'll be glad we've finally turned the page and start winning games on a regular basis again.

I had very few comments on Derrick today btw.  We didn't have any choice but to have him out there today.  He is what he is - and when him playing max minutes isn't taking away time from far more talented underclassmen  - it doesn't really bother me - even if he is awful and we win.  When a guy like JJJ rides the bench for 25+ minutes per game, that's when I have issues with Derrick and his minutes getting maxed.  Duane and Carlino can both play PG as needed.  Period.

Having a burger boy on the team won't have anything to do with it. A more experience Duane either. Had we just gotten ride of Derrick last year we would have two national championships.

[WarriorInNYC]

1.  Lots of bias affirmation today.   
2.  JJJ got lots of minutes, played well.   Still too many out of control turnovers.
3.  Derrick played elite defense on Gibbs.
4.  Steve with a stellar game
5.  Derrick with more turnovers than usual, including a near unforgivable one.
6.  Wojo took the air out of the ball too soon again. 
7.  Can't blame Carlino for dribbling around and chucking today.   
8.  Defensive effort was superb all day.
9.  Bad free throw shooting is contagious.
10.  Seton Hall played worse than MU did.   Grab it, embace it, run home. 

Skipped through a lot of the thread, so haven't read a lot of the commentary up to this point.

My thoughts:

JjJ played very well today.  Did a great job driving and was doing great distributing the ball.  He was really trying to feed Luke and was doing a great job at it.  Late in the second half he started to get into trouble again with driving into nearly impossible situations.

Derrick played fantastic defense and I thought really helped drive the offense in the first half.  He had a LOT of uncharacteristic turnovers, some really really bad ones.

Teve played very well.

Duane and Cohen looked like freshman.

I thought Wojo nearly cost us this one, really should have pushed it harder when they pressed us and took too long to get Luke back into the game after his 4th foul.

[NersEllenson]

Having a burger boy on the team won't have anything to do with it. A more experience Duane either. Had we just gotten ride of Derrick last year we would have two national championships. more NCAA appearances

Fixed it for you.

[Class71]

Speaking for myself, I am not a constant complainer. I have greatly despised our point guard play for the last two seasons. I find it miserable to watch an offensively challenged point guard play over 30 minutes a game and am glad it is coming to an end very soon. Then my complaining will be done.

Good luck to you my friend. Life is far too short.

[NersEllenson]

Speaking for myself, I am not a constant complainer. I have greatly despised our point guard play for the last two seasons. I find it miserable to watch an offensively challenged point guard play over 30 minutes a game and am glad it is coming to an end very soon. Then my complaining will be done.

+1

I had a four year history of being VERY supportive and optimistic about all things MU basketball here, prior to late November of last year.  Ironically, by many who criticize me today for being so critical of Derrick/Wojo - they used to tell me to take off the Blue and Gold glasses and stop being so supportive of the team/Buzz.  Seriously.  No joke.

However, these last two years have been so bad, and when some here choose to completely polish consistent turd performance - that isn't optimism.  It's actually delusion.

[D'Lo Brown]

Not to mention we make even 60% of our free throws and the game would never have been close.

This was what I was getting at. We shot 55% from the free throw line, 10% from 3, gave up a lot of offensive rebounds, and saw an 8-0 or 10-0 run with minutes left in the game. I love MU basketball and if anyone deserved this win, they certainly did given how hard they have continuously fought.

However to the point that we played better without Matt, I think the game itself did not bear that out at all. If purely looking at the final score and the fact that he didn't play, yes maybe it would be better that he stays on the bench. But IMO we would have been in much better shape, especially at the end of the game, had he played.

[Stretchdeltsig]

We won period.  Wojo's late game coaching is questionable.  Hopefully he will get better with more experience.

[NersEllenson]

http://marquette.scout.com/story/1511296-signature-win-in-wojo-era-mu-57-shall-54?s=415

Wojo's postgame quotes.  Challenged Steve to be more physical, JJJ had a good week of practice.   

Of course JJJ had a good week of practice.  Has to have a reason for why he's been burying him on the bench for 25+ minutes most nights.  JJJ must have been converting on his drives and in transition in practice at a much higher level this past week.  LOL.  The kid is a slasher, scorer and playmaker.  Fed Luke better and more frequently today than any of our other guards have all year. Take the shackles off of JJJ, and he'll give you 14+ per 30 minutes played.  And he's only going to get better with more game experience.

[Class71]

+1

I had a four year history of being VERY supportive and optimistic about all things MU basketball here, prior to late November of last year.  Ironically, by many who criticize me today for being so critical of Derrick/Wojo - they used to tell me to take off the Blue and Gold glasses and stop being so supportive of the team/Buzz.  Seriously.  No joke.

However, these last two years have been so bad, and when some here choose to completely polish consistent turd performance - that isn't optimism.  It's actually delusion.

No one is dillusional, the record speaks for itself, but some are obsessive. We all have our eyes open but the horse has been dead for a very long time. You my friend can simply not accept the reality and let go. Unfortunately I, nor anyone else, will reach you because you simply can not understand. Just try to see life from another perspective, we are not challenging the reality of MU basketball. There is simply a better way than getting so excited about what you can not change. You can not change MU basketball, just how we deal with where they are this year. Seriously give it some thought. We are all disappointed and since we can not change it we look for the positives and encourage the whole team. Like it or not, they are our team and that is the reality we need to accept. They all play hard, they all try, yes they mostly fail but when they win it is so sweet for them and that in itself is special.

[RubyWiscy]

Any team is going to play different with a regular player out. Wojo came up with a gameplan, the players executed and it worked. Good job all around today. A little luck at the end for a change was greatly appreciated as well.

Is Carlino overall a plus or a minus on this team? Well, you can ask that of every player. One of the exciting aspects of college ball is every year the lineup changes. If you're not happy with Carlino, wait a year. If you like him, enjoy his huge 3s while they last.

[wadesworld]

Do the Lakers play better without Kobe?  Is Kobe a great player?   Interesting questions.

Haha!  You're kidding, right?  Interesting questions?  Well, if you find questions that have a 100% clear, obvious, no question about it answer to be "interesting" then I guess those questions are interesting.

Between last season and so far this season when Kobe has been out a majority of the Lakers' games they are 40-92.  When Kobe has been healthy over the past about 15 years their worst record has been 42-40 almost 10 years ago (34-48 in 2005 but he was out for a month that season).  Since the 2002-2003 the Lakers have had 6 seasons in which they have won less than 50 games, and 2 seasons in which they were under .500.  1 of those 6 seasons was a 61 game season in which they won 41 games, so that would've dropped that number to 5 seasons if it were a full 82 game season.  Of those other 5 seasons, Kobe missed a month or more in 3 of them (including both seasons they were under .500).  And these numbers started immediately following a Lakers 3-peat.  Yeah, that's so interesting!  In fact, I think the Lakers are better off without Kobe!  Just like Marquette without Carlino, when they put up their 4th lowest point total of the season and scored 13 points less against the same opponent than they did when they played them with Carlino!

Interesting.

Or just plain stupid.

I'm guessing you think the Bulls were better off without Jordan, too.

[bilsu]

Still cant decide if the team plays better with or without carlino. I wanna say they dont..?

MU has been losing games, because Carlino and Duane try to take them over at the end of the game and end up taking impossible shots.

[bilsu]

The loss would of been on Derrick, if we lost today. However, we got screwed when he got called for offensive basket interference in the first half. That was a bad call that could of cost us this game.

[ATL MU Warrior]

MU has been losing games, because nobody other thanCarlino and Duane are either able or willing totry to take them over at the end of the game and end up taking impossible shots.

FIFY

[willie warrior]

Skipped through a lot of the thread, so haven't read a lot of the commentary up to this point.

My thoughts:

JjJ played very well today.  Did a great job driving and was doing great distributing the ball.  He was really trying to feed Luke and was doing a great job at it.  Late in the second half he started to get into trouble again with driving into nearly impossible situations.

Derrick played fantastic defense and I thought really helped drive the offense in the first half.  He had a LOT of uncharacteristic turnovers, some really really bad ones.

Teve played very well.

Duane and Cohen looked like freshman.

I thought Wojo nearly cost us this one, really should have pushed it harder when they pressed us and took too long to get Luke back into the game after his 4th foul.

Duane looked like a freshman today? Really? He is one of two players on this team that can create his own shot? The rest cannot!!!
He looked like a freshman today? Really? As he drained his 2 clutch FT's at the end of the game. And Derrick--how did he do as he clanged his FT's and shots. The guy that is getting 33+ minutes per game. Did he play like a Senior captain?
The love of Derrick by some knows no bounds. He is a good kid, but he got 40 minutes today with less than his usual anemic production.
Oh, I forgot, he had a dunk this year. But nobody guards him on the perimeter.
But Duane looked like a Freshman today!!!

[We R Final Four]

The loss would of been on Derrick, if we lost today. However, we got screwed when he got called for offensive basket interference in the first half. That was a bad call that could of cost us this game.

What was that call? Unreal. It looked as if the red on the far side who made the call was signaling an arm bar. That wasn't even close.

[BCHoopster]

Duane looked like a freshman today? Really? He is one of two players on this team that can create his own shot? The rest cannot!!!
He looked like a freshman today? Really? As he drained his 2 clutch FT's at the end of the game. And Derrick--how did he do as he clanged his FT's and shots. The guy that is getting 33+ minutes per game. Did he play like a Senior captain?
The love of Derrick by some knows no bounds. He is a good kid, but he got 40 minutes today with less than his usual anemic production.
Oh, I forgot, he had a dunk this year. But nobody guards him on the perimeter.
But Duane looked like a Freshman today!!!

Derrick scored one, normal offensive game. But had 4 turnovers, not normal and 20 shots he did not take