Positives

[downtown85]

There is no such thing as a good loss but the team looked better than the first two or three games even in a losing effort. 

+ James's shot selection.  Especially in the first half the took good shots.  They didn't fall in enough but they were ones he usually makes.

+ team 3 point shooting.  I'll take 47% from 3pt land any day.

+ turnovers.  with 11, I think it is probably the low for the year.

+ Ooze seems to be back.  He could have grabbed more boards and converted a couple of layups but he seems to have gotten out of his funk. 

+ Defense.  I think even given the foul situation, MU's defensive intensity was giving Duke fits.  I think if MU was allowed to play more phisically it would have rattled them and we would have won. 


On the other hand there are some obvious negatives but I think the positives outweighed the negatives:

- interior defense is still suspect.  It seemed to me like there were to many close in baskets or second chance points. 

- close-in offense from our bigs.  Barro and Burke were 3-9 collectively form an average of about 2 ft away.   Should be at about 60%.

- Fitz seems too tenative and not involved enough in the offense.  Teams that collapse their defense to take away the drive from our guards should be made to pay with a Fitz 3.  He was 2-2 from beyond the arc.  He should have had at least 4-5 more attempts. 

- failure to pass particularly by McNeal and James.  There were a number of times where they either didn't have the vision or desire to pass it to the open man.  Frustrating.  That being said we had some good passes and we had more assists than Duke in the box with James and McNeal leading the way.  Nevertheless that was my impression.

[passion of da coach]

James had a rough shooting night, but most of them were good looks that were in and out, his defense on Nelson, especially in the 2nd half allowed MU to stay in the game and even take the lead.  McNeal's shot selection (launching threes) when MU made their first comeback was disappointing.  If a couple of James shots would have fallen, and if a few of those loose balls stay in MU's hands that would have lead to fastbreaks MU wins.  All in all, I'm not as mad as I thought I'd be.

[HarveysWallbangers]

James reminds me of Rex Grossman. When he's good, he plays at an extremely high level and is fun to watch. When he's bad, he's about as frustrating as it gets.

I thought last night he was "Good DJ" in the first half and "Bad DJ" in the second half. Those shots that went "in and out" went in and out for a reason -- the one off the backboard was too hard and the jumpers early in the game had no rotation on them. He had three assists all night.

In the second half, the team played much better with Acker out there -- I thought Maurice played, by far, his best game in a MU uniform.

Duke is much improved. Paulus was way better than he was last year.

[MarquetteDano]

In terms of the positives of the loss... the game proved to me that we ARE a better team than last year, as individuals and as a team:

Individuals
- Hayward is much improved and will play a larger role

- Burke is improved and will play a larger role

- Cubillan is not just a spot up shooter on offense any more;  he is also breaking down the defenses off the dribble

- Acker gives us another option we didn't have last year when James goes to the bench

Team
- We are putting more pressure on the ball in our half court defense;  it is causing more turnovers and giving the offense less looks

- Our zone offense is better;  we get to the free throw line via passing or penetration and then sliding underneath the forwards of the zone for easy looks;  we have done that a bunch this year and, with that and good outside shooting, will cause teams to come out of the zone

[77ncaachamps]

James reminds me of Rex Grossman. When he's good, he plays at an extremely high level and is fun to watch. When he's bad, he's about as frustrating as it gets.

I thought last night he was "Good DJ" in the first half and "Bad DJ" in the second half. Those shots that went "in and out" went in and out for a reason -- the one off the backboard was too hard and the jumpers early in the game had no rotation on them. He had three assists all night. .

Oh hell yeah.

He'll launch or take it to the hoop because...well...he can.

I do bash on DJ because he has, in my mind, regressed since his freshman year. Novak was there which really buoyed him, but since then he's been "the man" which has gotten to his head (a la Grossman). But the talent has not been trained...his jumpers haven't improved (and the OSU game was a fluke...they're really not that good - they lost to North Texas).

[CWSKeith]

For all the talk about James on the offensive end, not a lot of people have mentioned James on defense (obviously the original poster mentioned it) -- I think he's been fantastic on the defensive end.  Last night we had no answer for Nelson in the first half but when James was on him, he had a helluva time getting to the hoop.  I also completely disagree that James was bad in the second half.

I'd say the positives far outweigh the negatives from last night.  Maybe I'm overexaggerating a bit here, but I come away from this tourney thinking Marquette can play with any team in the country.  That's not to say we could come out victorious or are better than the UNC's and UCLA's of the world, but I'm comfortable we could stick with them for a good 35 minutes.

[Warrior]

Rex Grossman always has sucked and always will suck.

[chefrad]

It wasn't a disgraceful game in any way. Lots of good stuff. TM would have helped. All obvious.

Three years ago a caucus of ACC refs forced an examination of reffing of Duje games, It may be time for another. Roy Williams wouldn't have taken it sitting down.