Optimistic About Wojo

[cheebs09]

Tonight was super frustrating, but I'm very optimistic about Wojo. This game showed how limited our options are on offense. However, our defense has gone from very bad at the start of the year to a very tough defense. This is while our offense has not been very good this year, and being an undersized team. I think as the talent improves with his recruiting (yes, even after some letdowns lately, I still am excited by star ratings), the offense will improve. Also, we are getting some good looks, but just can't finish. Defense is mostly about positioning and hustle, and I feel like Wojo is doing a very nice job of coaching these guys up.

[Newsdreams]

Tonight was super frustrating, but I'm very optimistic about Wojo. This game showed how limited our options are on offense. However, our defense has gone from very bad at the start of the year to a very tough defense. This is while our offense has not been very good this year, and being an undersized team. I think as the talent improves with his recruiting (yes, even after some letdowns lately, I still am excited by star ratings), the offense will improve. Also, we are getting some good looks, but just can't finish. Defense is mostly about positioning and hustle, and I feel like Wojo is doing a very nice job of coaching these guys up.

Some here are going to jump all over you.......

[LAZER]

Nowhere to go, but up, right?

[Groin_pull]

Hard to know how good of a coach Wojo is. He has nothing to work with. This team is practically talentless. Would any MU players start for a ranked team? Heck, would any of them get off the bench for a ranked team? No and maybe.

Hard to get too upset over a team I expected nothing from. Just glad MU is one game closer to ending its season. The players appear to be trying hard...but that only gets you so far. Still need to have talent.

[MerrittsMustache]

It's much easier to coach up defense than to coach up offense (mind you, neither would be considered "easy"). Like you mentioned, defense is primarily positioning and hustle. Wojo recognized that early, obviously stressed that in practice and this team has become very good defensively. The only way they're going to stay in a lot of these contests is to ugly it up.

Offensively, they are what they are. Carlino is far and away the team's best offensive player but he can be inefficient and is ideally suited to be a 3rd option. Derrick's scoring ability is inept. Juan and Steve are not capable of creating their own shots. JJJ is an inefficient/volume scorer (so it's difficult to play him alongside Carlino). Duane and Luke are learning on the job. Sandy is a spot-up shooter who seems to be hitting the "freshman wall." That's it. There's only so much you can do with that.

I really think that Duane, Luke and Sandy will raise their offensive games significantly next season and I'm hopeful than JJJ can become more efficient. Regardless, those players have raised their games defensively already which will no doubt benefit the team going forward.

[NersEllenson]

It's much easier to coach up defense than to coach up offense (mind you, neither would be considered "easy"). Like you mentioned, defense is primarily positions and hustle. Wojo recognized that early, obviously stressed that in practice and this team has become very good defensively. The only way they're going to stay in a lot of these contests is to ugly it up.

Offensively, they are what they are. Carlino is far and away the team's best offensive player but he can be inefficient and is ideally suited to be a 3rd option. Derrick's scoring ability is inept. Juan and Steve are not capable of creating their own shots. JJJ is an inefficient/volume scorer (so it's difficult to play him alongside Carlino). Duane and Luke are learning on the job. Sandy is a spot-up shooter who seems to be hitting the "freshman wall." That's it. There's only so much you can do with that.

I really think that Duane, Luke and Sandy will raise their offensive games significantly next season and I'm hopeful than JJJ can become more efficient. Regardless, those players have raised their games defensively already which will no doubt benefit the team going forward.

That's a pretty good summary of things.  I can agree with.  Though I will say I see JJJ as having the most potential of anyone on the roster currently.  Duane possibly.  Cohen is about 2 years away.  Can't create his own shot to save his life.  Needs to add A LOT of strength.  Has a really nice stroke though, but needs to improve his get off time.  Slow release.

[MerrittsMustache]

That's a pretty good summary of things.  I can agree with.  Though I will say I see JJJ as having the most potential of anyone on the roster currently.  Duane possibly.  Cohen is about 2 years away.  Can't create his own shot to save his life.  Needs to add A LOT of strength.  Has a really nice stroke though, but needs to improve his get off time.  Slow release.

Why don't you make more posts like this one, Ners? You stayed on topic, stated your opinion without taking blatant shots at any current players or fellow posters. You mentioned that you like JJJ's potential without ranting and you made a solid observation about Cohen.

That wasn't that hard, was it?  

[NersEllenson]

Why don't you make more posts like this one, Ners? You stayed on topic, stated your opinion without taking blatant shots at any current players or fellow posters. You mentioned that you like JJJ's potential without ranting and you made a solid observation about Cohen.

That wasn't that hard, was it?  

Well you helped out a little in that you gave a fair and critical view of the team's limitations.  In my view, and to your point you made - we struggle offensively.  Without question.  I'd like to see us get a third scoring option on the floor to help take the burden off of Carlino.  Though JJJ is not as efficient as you or I would like, he is capable of getting shots/creating shots, and I believe as he plays more and develops a little more strength and confidence a lot more of his shots will fall. 

[Celtic Truth]

My simple theory for judging coaches: If a good coach has good/great talent, they will win games. If a good coach has bad players they will not win many games.

I think Wojo is absolutely the right guy for the job and he will have a lot of success at MU. But this year he simply doesn't have a lot of talent and that is not his fault.

[mu_hilltopper]

On the contrary .. besides performing (far) above expectations signing new recruits .. every other aspect of the program is below expectations.     While no one expected big things this year, the expectations were to be around 6th place .. few thought we'd be fighting to stay out of last place.

It's hard to see this team has improved much from Game 1 to game 24, and you'd just naturally expect that we'd get better as the season wore on.

Then there's player development.  Of returning players, zero of them are performing any better than last season.  We might be a tick better on defense than last year, but 8 notches worse on offense.

It's always hard to diagnose the problem that varies between lack of player talent vs. coaching talent, but .. I did not think we were this bad on paper before the season began.  

[NersEllenson]

On the contrary .. besides performing (far) above expectations signing new recruits .. every other aspect of the program is below expectations.     While no one expected big things this year, the expectations were to be around 6th place .. few thought we'd be fighting to stay out of last place.

It's hard to see this team has improved much from Game 1 to game 24, and you'd just naturally expect that we'd get better as the season wore on.

Then there's player development.  Of returning players, zero of them are performing any better than last season.  We might be a tick better on defense than last year, but 8 notches worse on offense.

It's always hard to diagnose the problem that varies between lack of player talent vs. coaching talent, but .. I did not think we were this bad on paper before the season began.  

Good post.

Wojo gets major credit for landing Henry, and then the rest of the guys in his first recruiting class  But, other than that - I've been pretty disappointed with what I've seen with regard to managing the available talent on his roster.  I believe Wojo knows his X's and O's and has show some good coaching chops in that regard.  Will be shocked if he wins 100 games in his first 5 years on the job as Crean and Buzz did.

[Warrior Code]

I'm still buying. This season may end up being the best thing for Wojo in the long run. He gets to learn on the job with basically no expectations from fans - are rare opportunity, as close to a Mulligan as he's likely to have in his career. He is learning how to manage all aspects of a program and has already shown an ability to recruit. Years from now, I hope I'm toasting to this season as Wojo's trial by fire which lead to great success later on (at Marquette, of course).

[PGsHeroes32]

Here is why I am optimistic. He has this team under manned and under sized playing very formidable defense.

We are going to be adding on a lot of size next year and that is before the possibility of another scholarship on a JUCO big.

Just need the offensive talent to catch up. It will soon.

[onepost]

I am optimistic about Wojo.  But I guess it's gotten to the point where the biggest thing for me is how long Henry will stay.
I've always thought he would be here for 2 years (stay as long as Wally is here/stay for the 2016-2017 season that many think could be something special), but my biggest fear is that we waste the golden opportunity of him coming here - in that next year, while CERTAINLY better than this BS, could still be a bit of a rebuild (after games like tonight it's hard to envision otherwise).

If you keep Henry for 2 years then we more than likely make 2 tourneys and could make one heck of a run in 16/17.  But have him here as a one-and-done while going through a lot of growing pains and it would feel like we couldn't capitalize on the most promising prospect Marquette has ever had.  That's unfair and is a ton of pressure on a HS senior, but that's been my thought process ever since it become clear this season was a wash.  Consistent, solid recruiting and the perception of the program would be much easier and much better having a guy like Henry in the program for 2 years.  Again, that's my main focus at this point in time - as unfair and narrow-minded as that sounds.

But for next year, it's very clear that Wojo needs to bring in some more experienced talent yet - guys that could really complement our core 3 (Duane, Luke, Henry).  Sandy, Jajuan could be ok off the bench in spurts, Wally is definitely a wildcard but his athletic upside is so great that he could certainly find a good role, and I'm awfully bullish on Cheatham too.  As many have said, I think a "proven" wing scorer (a guy like Ty Outlaw) and experienced PG (Nic Moore has become the pipe dream, but I'm sure there will be a number of grad transfer PGs available) would do wonders for next year's team.

[Shark]

This was the first game I got to go to where I was sitting within 20 rows of the floor. The way Xavier punished MU for having Derrick out there was so obvious. They sagged off him at every opportunity both on and off the ball. They didn't do that at the start and you saw Luke and others benefit with some good looks. Once they sagged off, everyone else was playing 2 on 1 ball. I know Derricks a good kid but man....it was impossible to miss what they did. They didn't respect Derrick and he sure didn't make them change their minds.

[TAMU, Knower of Ball]

On the contrary .. besides performing (far) above expectations signing new recruits .. every other aspect of the program is below expectations.     While no one expected big things this year, the expectations were to be around 6th place .. few thought we'd be fighting to stay out of last place.

It's hard to see this team has improved much from Game 1 to game 24, and you'd just naturally expect that we'd get better as the season wore on.

Then there's player development.  Of returning players, zero of them are performing any better than last season.  We might be a tick better on defense than last year, but 8 notches worse on offense.

It's always hard to diagnose the problem that varies between lack of player talent vs. coaching talent, but .. I did not think we were this bad on paper before the season began.  

I expected 9th, hoped for 7th. Of course I thought Depaul and Creighton would be switched.

I think the team has gotten better, unfortunately we are playing much tougher competition during this stretch. We are naturally going to look a lot worse.

Yikes, I didn't know it was possible to be 8 notches worse on offense than last season.

Honestly, we were worse on paper to start the season. We had no business beating Tennessee, Georgia Tech, Providence, or Seton Hall. We should have beaten Omaha and Depaul. That's 4 unexpected wins and 2 unexpected losses. We've also hung in with much better teams. As painful as this season is, we are overperforming compared to what this team should have been on paper.

[willie warrior]

Tonight was super frustrating, but I'm very optimistic about Wojo. This game showed how limited our options are on offense. However, our defense has gone from very bad at the start of the year to a very tough defense. This is while our offense has not been very good this year, and being an undersized team. I think as the talent improves with his recruiting (yes, even after some letdowns lately, I still am excited by star ratings), the offense will improve. Also, we are getting some good looks, but just can't finish. Defense is mostly about positioning and hustle, and I feel like Wojo is doing a very nice job of coaching these guys up.

OK, none of this year is on Wojo. The team has not progressed this year--That is surely Mr. Wojo. The rest we can thank Burt for.
But we all can look forward to next year.

[willie warrior]

This was the first game I got to go to where I was sitting within 20 rows of the floor. The way Xavier punished MU for having Derrick out there was so obvious. They sagged off him at every opportunity both on and off the ball. They didn't do that at the start and you saw Luke and others benefit with some good looks. Once they sagged off, everyone else was playing 2 on 1 ball. I know Derricks a good kid but man....it was impossible to miss what they did. They didn't respect Derrick and he sure didn't make them change their minds.

Yep. And Fischer rarely ever kicks it back out when the lane is clogged. Of course, who out there can make a 3? Not Duane, Derrick or JJJ!

[Anti-Dentite]

We suck and coach doesn't get a free pass on our suckitude. I hope and think he will get better at his job but this is no boy genius here. We are terrible and it's not all on the kids.

[Frenns Liquor Depot]

I am optimistic -- one thing nags however -- the Xavier freshmen were stronger, faster and appeared to be playing within the pace of high major College Basketball. 

Could have been a bad game/showing on our part or their freshman could just be really good recruits (I have not idea of their rankings) -- but I did not get the same comfort from our Sophs and Sandy last night (besides Duane in spurts).  You see the potential I just wish the advancement up the curve would continue and each game looked a little better -- and that Sandy looked a little stronger.

Could be the fact that there is just no JR/SR experience on this team that can be relied upon to shoulder the burden -- so they are being asked to do everything.

[mu_hilltopper]

I believe Wojo knows his X's and O's and has shown some good coaching chops in that regard.

He has?  I'm asking.  

Games where we've come out strong follow a trend:  We do pretty well for the first 8-12 minutes, the other team adjusts, and catch up by half time, then crush us in the 2H as it appears we're unable to counter.  

I suppose that leaves out games we're immediately being crushed, then are crushed less because of "good coaching."

Yadda yadda.  One positive thing about Wojo is for the first time in years, we'll have zero worries about someone poaching our coach in April.

[Juan Anderson's Mixtape]

I think it's fair to be both optimistic yet skeptical at this point.  Wojo has to ultimately win to prove himself.  But imagine if Carlino was an inch behind the line against GTown, MU holds on against Butler, and MU finds a way to win either of the Xavier or DePaul road games.  I think people would be a lot more optimistic if Wojo had us at 6-6 in the BE instead of 3-9.

But there is still plenty of reason for optimism.  The biggest being HE.  Think about this.  As much success as MU had with Crean and Buzz, neither landed a McD's AA.  MU had pretty much no chance at HE despite having 3 consecutive Sweet 16's, one being an Elite 8, and a BE co-title following a BE runner up.  Then we miss the tourney and hire a new coach, who takes us from having pretty much no shot at HE to signing him in less than 9 months.  That tells me Wojo can connect with recruits and land elite prospects.

Now our struggles this year will be an obstacle Wojo will have to overcome on the recruiting trail.  I still think landing HE opens the door for him to change perception among the 5 star recruits.  For a longtime MU wasn't a place where 5 star recruits went but with HE coming, and if HE has success in college, gets drafted in the lottery after a year or two, and has a nice NBA career, then Wojo can use that success on the recruiting trail to raise MU to a new level down the line.

Ultimately Wojo's success will be determined by 1) how he develops Luke, Duane, Sandy, JJJ, and Wally over the next 2 years, 2) his first, highly rated recruiting class panning out, 3) who he lands with the three open scholarships, and 4) his 2016 recruiting class.  After year 3 we'll have a much better idea where the program is trending.  Like I said, right now it's fair to be both optimistic and remain skeptical.  Wojo hasn't won enough to quiet the skeptics yet his first recruiting class is pretty impressive for a first time head coach taking over a team that missed the NCAA's the previous year.  Let's see where it goes.

[GGGG]

Then there's player development.  Of returning players, zero of them are performing any better than last season.  We might be a tick better on defense than last year, but 8 notches worse on offense.

I don't think this is true.

Derrick, Juan and STJ are better than last year, but they had a pretty low floor from which to improve.

JJJ IMO has improved in that he can play minutes against quality competition.  Not a marked improvement, but an improvement nevertheless.

Duane and Sandy are performing like freshmen.  Luke is hitting a wall.

Carlino in many respects is having his best year.

[hairy worthen]

We suck and coach doesn't get a free pass on our suckitude. I hope and think he will get better at his job but this is no boy genius here. We are terrible and it's not all on the kids.

Buzz succeeded because he had talented upper classmen, step up every year. Who are the upper classmen this year? Juan Anderson, Derrick Wilson, and Carlino. No disrespect to any of those, but not much to work with there.

The problem this year is simple. The key players are freshman or sophomores with very little experience. Wojo said he considers JJJ a freshman in terms of game experience, same for Fischer.  Remember how other young guys weren't that great but improved with experience, JFB, Matthews, Lazar, and on and on.  Young guys are going to make mistakes that cost us games.

Have some patience. The future is bright. The young guys will improve considerably and reinforcements are coming. Let Wojo bring in his guys to play his system. Does anyone seriously think Buzzard could have done any better with this group?  He couldn't win with a more talented team last season. Plus we have a coach now who is not a whack job.

It sucks to lose, but look at the big picture. I watch the games to see how guys play and improve and how they can fit in for next season.  The wins and losses really don't matter this year. Yes, Wojo is a good coach and he gets a pass this year.

[MUfan12]

I was able to sit pretty close last night, and paid special attention to Wojo. Convinced more than ever there's not much we can conclude about his coaching based on this group. There are a lot of bad habits ingrained. Several times last night he was getting on them to pick up their pace in the halfcourt offense. Everything is slow. Jogging on cuts, jogging to set screens, aimless dribbling, passes that are too late to set anything up. Unfortunately, with 8 scholarship guys, it's not like he can bench three of them to prove a point.

He needs a point guard next year. Someone who gets into the offense quickly, and doesn't let the ball stick to him. Derrick is doing what he can, but he's so limited. Carlino and Duane are shooting guards.