X thoughts

[tower912]

You say this every other game, and then every other game he goes off.  It's not that "the scouting report is out on him."  It's that he's a freshman who sometimes plays like a freshman.

I've said it over and over and over, we won't see the same team twice in a row this entire season from Marquette.

Fair enough.   Xavier took away his left handed drive and when he did finally make the drive anticipated his move at the hoop.   He will probably do better next game against a team not as big, strong, experienced. 

[Earl Tatum]

Where do teams like Butler find their players. KELLEN DUNHAM

[JamilJaeJamailJrJuan]

What I saw of the game is Wally and JJJ played great. Mentioned before--Fischer real soft, Henry
plays bad defense and is not the quickest, better return as a soph if he intends to play in the NBA>
His Three pt shooting is atrocious, just like Wilson. Cheathanm had a bad game. Cohen has no reason
to be out there. We have no one. So we have Sam Hauser coming in and Rowsey.We let Trev
Anderson go to UWGB, Lose Jordan Poole and Kobe King to other schools. Not sure of academics.
We better get Terrence Lewis of Riverside. Lost Diamond Stone and Jameel McKay. Like afore-
mentioned PLEASE GET SOME 6-8 230 LBS BANGERS that separate opponents and can board
because its the same ole, same ole mistakes and soft play.Wish we had Maurice Lucas and Bob Lackey
Jim Chones and Larry McNeill. I don't care if we no schalorships. I think Louisville, Kentucky and
others just force lesser players off the team. Got to be a hard ass if you want to win. Crowd sounds chicken to yell and get into the game. 21-0 run STINKS.

This post made me laugh. What a blowhard.

Tough day today. Davis' two late 3s were killers. The boys, as usual, fought hard. This wasn't a game MU needed to win, but they'll need to rattle off several in a row here. The talent on this team is evident - just so many stupid mistakes. I chalk it up to being young. X is a great squad that can go deep in March. I'll be pulling for them.

[wadesworld]

Fair enough.   Xavier took away his left handed drive and when he did finally make the drive anticipated his move at the hoop.   He will probably do better next game against a team not as big, strong, experienced.

http://espn.go.com/mens-college-basketball/player/gamelog/_/id/3906521/haanif-cheatham

Providence and Nova are plenty big, strong, and experienced.  They also had plenty of film to get the scouting report on Cheatham.  He did just fine against those teams.  He'll have a couple great games and then a clunker.  It's what happens with freshman.  He'll bounce back, regardless of the opponent's size, strength, and experience.

[brandx]

Cohen, Cheatham, Carter 2/15...Duane 2/15

Cohen, Carter, Wilson, Cheatham....  4/30.... 2/18 from three.

Teams want our guys to shoot from three. Just clog up the middle.

[MomofMUltiples]

This team will be amazing with a year under their belts, even without Henry. There were some really beautiful plays today (like the Duane pass to Henry, who dished it to Cheatham inside) that they just need to learn how to do consistently.

Would like to see Wally get more minutes. His impact on the energy out there is immediate and huge. He's always active and he seems to lift the team. 

Would also like to see more work on offensive rebounds. I understand that Wojo is pushing the defense back to prevent transition buckets, but maybe we could keep one guy under our basket to see how the ball bounces?  Seems like second chance points could be pretty important for a team that misses a lot of their first attempts.

In the meantime, Seton Hall is thrashing Providence at home. This is a crazy good league.

[Earl Tatum]

I know they're freshmen, but the missing bunnies and 3-pt shooting is horrendous. A few games
we showed up with good shooting. Consistency is still lacking, by now they should be getting the
jest of playing high level D-1 basketball, more often than not.

[Earl Tatum]

Go MU, but I still like Iverson, Thomas and Illikainen from UW. A couple of aggressive players with
Thomas' build with attitude, would go a long ways.

[GGGG]

Earl you spend a lot of your posts wishing for players that are on other teams and Marquette never recruited.

[El Duderino]

So hard to be a good team in college ball or the NBA if you can't shoot from the perimeter and especially if you can't make threes. It's just to important in today's basketball for points and spacing.

In fact, Marquette kinda reminds me of the Bucks.

Both teams are turnover prone and with an ability to score in the paint, but because neither team can shoot from the perimeter and make threes, defenses can just clog the paint and dare both teams to hit open jumpers.

It's so frustrating to see one wide open Marquette player after another behind the three point arc nearly every game, but it's a brickfest if they take the shot.

Even more frustrating is how often you watch a good college game and a few made threes can completely change the momentum of a game, especially at home, but Marquette rarely ever has that happen for them because they have no reliable shooters.

[wadesworld]

Go MU, but I still like Iverson, Thomas and Illikainen from UW. A couple of aggressive players with
Thomas' build with attitude, would go a long ways.

You must've missed our win at UW this year.

UW is really bad, and the only 2 guys I'm certain will be really good college players for them are juniors.

[NotAnAlum]

We started pretty well with X looking a little flat and very beatable.  Then came our patented FG drought.  10 minutes and no baskets later X is up by ten and totally into the game while all the life is totally out of the crowd.  Just like at Nova at that point the game was effectively lost.  We simply cannot have 8-10 minute stretches where we don't score.  It is killing us.  Wojo has got to come up with a couple plays he can go to in these situation.  Then call a TO and run them.  I know its easier said than done but we are losing any opportunity play with these better teams with these droughts.  Its also not like X's defense was overwhelming.  Its really just a complete failure to execute.
To bad.  A chance missed.  I don't really expect to win these games but it sure would be nice to be close enough to feel we had a chance down the stretch.  Never felt that in the second half.

[PuertoRicanNightmare]

Wally is a helluva bench player...almost perfect. He brings a ton to the table.

[JamilJaeJamailJrJuan]

Go MU, but I still like Iverson, Thomas and Illikainen from UW. A couple of aggressive players with
Thomas' build with attitude, would go a long ways.

Go to the badger board. They're gonna need all the fans they can get the next 5 years. We won't miss ya.

[CountryRoads]

Go MU, but I still like Iverson, Thomas and Illikainen from UW. A couple of aggressive players with
Thomas' build with attitude, would go a long ways.

You should maybe stop posting in this thread. You are embarrassing yourself right now.

[Dr. Blackheart]

1.  Paint touches matter
2.  Recruit Chicago bigs.  X has two of them and Farr had 19 rebounds. Ridiculous.
3.  Great defensive effort.  Every one harping on MU trey shooting (as they should), but X was 5-22.
4.  Only 10 turnovers.
5.  Two runs killed us.  First half with 21-0, and start of 2nd (like Hall).  Wojo only used one time out in first run. He needs to burn more with a young team. Not the best game by the coaching staff.
6.  Post game, Wojo stumbling for words. Said his guards really haven't seen the zone trap and didn't react well. Not a great response.
7.  Duane is one hot mess out there.
8.  Ellensons were the bright spot. JJJ a bit off kilter in first after sitting out with the concussion, but had a nice run in 2nd.
9.  Statistically, this is the worst MU conference offense this century. Brutal. Time to change things up, finally?  Or does staff continue on?
10. Wojo pissed upper student section empty when they flashed him pre-gaming glancing up to the only empty section.  Students mixed with 25% parents, and unbelievably, the whole section sat during MU fight song with 2:00 minutes to go. Dance Around Guy and the lower bowlers were up.  Lame.
11.  Highlight:  Seven year old girl who sung national anthem.  Future superstar.  No slaps of five for her by MU, though.

[PGsHeroes32]

If Sandy isn't going to have the sack to shoot open 3s much less make them


There is zero reason to play him over JJJ right now.

JJJ is just a better player and isn't going sit and let an offense stall.

Sandy has 3pt shooting and defense.

But if he's missing/not taking shots and fouling constantly it means little.

[The Lens]

IMO, we're winning in spite of Wojo, not bc of him. 

We may be the dumbest offensive team I have ever seen.

[bilsu]

I did not like losing, but I did enjoy watching Xavier play. They somewhat reminded me of the 1975-76 MU team that went 27-2. Not so much the style, because that team pressed more and played more man to man. What what similar was the level of quickness at all five positions.

[forgetful]

Shooting is our problem.  When we shoot bad, the energy in these guys goes away.  They get defeated.

Today, Xavier went to the 1-3-1 zone.  You beat this zone by passing, except one problem.

Xavier didn't guard the shooters, they guarded the pass.  They had zero respect (for good reason) of us hitting the 3s.  Guarding the passes led to really poor movement and a very easy team to defend.

Duane tried to open things up (and Cheatham did too) by driving, but they didn't make the buckets or get fouled...they just got blocked.  Which led to people standing around doing nothing.

Wally's hustle and JJJ's bigger size/strength allowed them to have some impact, but if Duane/Cheatham/Sandy can't make a jump shot, we'll get beaten every night against teams like Xavier and Villanova.

Watching Findlay Prep right now, Howard would be a great asset for this team.  Go get 'em Wojo.

[bilsu]

The tournament MU will be playing in is the NIT.

Will the posters here still want us to turn down a bid to the CBI?

[brewcity77]

Will the posters here still want us to turn down a bid to the CBI?

I'd be happy with any postseason tournament for this team, even the CBI. Of course the NIT or NCAAs would obviously be preferable, but I think getting postseason experience for a young team could have long term benefits.

[wadesworld]

Agree on the girl who sang the National Anthem.  Insane that a 7 year old can have that strong of a voice.

Side note, Reynolds is a punk, but Farr is a really, really nice guy.  Almost two years ago to the day (some here may remember) Greg Von Rueden, a freshman from Marquette High, passed away from osteosarcoma at 15 years old.  My sister had gone to Xavier (and brother currently goes there) and the weekend before he passed away Xavier played at DePaul, so she went to the game and there was a pregame mass somewhere that Farr spoke at about losing a family member (can't remember if it was a parent or aunt/uncle) to cancer.  My sister approached him after the mass and told him about Greg's battle and he asked if he could send Greg a message, having her take a video of him saying he heard about Greg's battle and that he was praying for him and supporting him and telling him to keep fighting.  Pretty cool of him.

I remember someone here saying he was soft a year ago, and arguing that he was just sitting behind a very good front line but his per 40 rebounding numbers were through the roof.  Evidently he's not so soft.

[naginiF]

IMO, we're winning in spite of Wojo, not bc of him. 

We may be the dumbest offensive team I have ever seen.

Specifically what would you do differently in recruiting, practice, s&c, and game play as it relates to our wins to come to the conclusion that Wojo has done a poor job in those wins?

[murara1994]

9.  Statistically, this is the worst MU conference offense this century. Brutal. Time to change things up, finally?  Or does staff continue on?

Change things up, how?