Regular season thoughts

[wadesworld]

Just saying....Shaka would have had this team in the NCAA's. That's how one thing can change an entire program. This conference has been no help either. I said at the time, it would be the death knell for this program. They have done worse in a lessor conference than they did in the old Big East. Many of you will say "coaching change". Okay, but WHY did we lose Buzz?? Because of the conference. he said it himself. There has been no team in this current Big east more hurt by this conference change than has MU. Two sweet 16's, an Elite 8, 7 consecutive post season bids, and a switch to a conference that will now become year three of no post season at all(likely), and no NCAA's. Has ANY major program fallen so fast, so hard as has MU?? From being THIS close to breaking through into elite status, to being irrelevant in College hoops?? It's really and truly sad.

Of all the stupid on this board this might take the cake.

Shaka wouldn't have had Hank, Haanif, or Carter at MU.  Imagine this team without those 3.  YIKES!

Bazz had a season in the new BE...and was worse than we were this year.

Four BE wins last year, eight this (should have nine with Depaul).  Getting swept though by Nova, Creighton, SH and Xavier not good. 

Henry exceeded expectations of his high school career and will probably be second/third in  national freshman of the year behind Ingram or Jaylen Brown.  (Simmons ineligible).  Thank you Henry for coming to MU.

Cheatham will be very good.  With JJJ, it was as though someone flicked a switch and has played tremendous down the stretch. Something going on with Duane, he doesn't seem the same, but he does have an aggressive mode.  Just limit those silly turnovers and up his free throw percentage.  Fischer, well the foul issue, but could the staff please have him shoot a straight shot as opposed to a hook shot every time.  Don't understand it.

Carter played as a freshman does, is much better when he slows things down abit.  Calm, Traci, calm.
Cohen had his BE issues, prior to to today his minutes were minimal and don't have any clue about what his role will be next year.

For next year, Henry will probably be gone, can't turn down 10 million plus. He was fun to watch his ability as a 6ft 11 kid with that talent.  Rowsey, if what Wojo said of him, may see a lot of playing time and lets see how that effects Duane.  Cheatham should be #2 guard with Duane backing. If Howard does commit to MU, how does that effect Carter's mindset about basically being recruited over.  If Howard does come, it will be quite the fight over the PG position, which is a good thing. Cheatham, Duane, Rowsey, Carter and Howard would be nice competition in practice.

For next year, the problem will be with a PF or at least a well built SF.  If Fischer gets in foul trouble, that leaves Heldt, who also has had issues with fouls and skinny JJJ and Cohen.  Been brought up numerous times, so everyone knows that is in all likelihood a staff priority.  Lets see how it works out.

Next year the "young, inexperienced, etc" excuses cannot be used.  SH basically started five true sophomores and had a great year.
MU will have:

Fischer as senior, five years out of high school.
JJJ as a senior
Duane as a junior, four years out of high school
Rowsey as a junior, four years out of high school
Cohen as a junior
Cheatham, Carter, Heldt and Sacar with 30 plus Div I games.

Anytime you doubled your BE wins and should have been even in BE play, its a big step forward.  Couple of tough home losses, but exceeded expectations in my view.  Now go and beat St. Johns and get that #20 win. Henry should be pumped up, but a loss would be depressing to say the least.

This is Luke's 3rd year in college.  Next year will be his fourth.

And it's a lot, lot easier to defend a face up shot than it is a hook shot from a 7 footer.

[mu_hilltopper]

Difficult to project RPI when you don't know the schedule, a''inal? WHO you play and especially their win-loss record excluding games against you, plays an enormous part.

We know 19 of the ~31 opponents for next year.   The other dozen .. same random cupcakes, maybe 20% better because it can't get worse.

(hmm .. are we doing a preseason tournament?)

[Lennys Tap]

if you told me:

1.Henry would be much better than advertised, the second or third best freshman in the country and a likely top 5 pick in the 2016 NBA draft
2.JJJ would shoot 48% from 3 and improve the rest of his game immensely and
3.Cheatham would play 28 mpg and shine on both ends

I would have predicted 25 wins and a top 4 seed.

But:

1.The league was tougher than expected
2,Duane and Sandy were major disappointments and
3.Luke was a minor one

A reminder to the "seashell and balloons" crowd who tout our youth as a reason to think we'll be great next year - Henry (our best player by miles and miles) is, for all intents and purposes, a senior this year. He won't be back.

[ChicosBailBonds]

Just saying....Shaka would have had this team in the NCAA's. That's how one thing can change an entire program. This conference has been no help either. I said at the time, it would be the death knell for this program. They have done worse in a lessor conference than they did in the old Big East. Many of you will say "coaching change". Okay, but WHY did we lose Buzz?? Because of the conference. he said it himself. There has been no team in this current Big east more hurt by this conference change than has MU. Two sweet 16's, an Elite 8, 7 consecutive post season bids, and a switch to a conference that will now become year three of no post season at all(likely), and no NCAA's. Has ANY major program fallen so fast, so hard as has MU?? From being THIS close to breaking through into elite status, to being irrelevant in College hoops?? It's really and truly sad.

LOL.

My God....yeah, the conference has prevented great recruiting classes from coming in.  WRONG.
The conference is ranked 4th in the country.

Buzz left a team devoid of key parts and some not so great players.  He was not a very good high school recruiter for MU, with a few rare exceptions.  MU is progressing fine, put down the cocktails.  MU is in the best conference they could POSSIBLY be in.

Buzz left for a lot of reasons and MU was not the least bit sad to see him go for a VARIETY of reasons.  He can do what he wants to do without anyone giving a rip now....good for him.

[ChicosBailBonds]

I pray to God this was the bottle speaking

I pray as well.  People here are so fickle and ride like a roller coaster, it's amazing to watch.

[naginiF]

I pray as well.  People here are so fickle and ride like a roller coaster, it's amazing to watch.

+2

and big props to Tower for really bringing his A game in March.  good work and insight.

[dgies9156]

OK, at the risk of taking a dark position even darker, here's a question I would pose:

If you subbed out the Gramblings, Maines and other cupcakes with 50 to 150 RPI teams, would our record be any better than last year's? I don't know but I have some serious doubts. Yet, those are the teams we have to play to boost our RPI and have a shot at the tournament next year.

Those of you who think there's multiple bottles involved, God love you, I wish there were. But what I saw today just simply is a head scratcher. We talk about inexperience and having a youthful team. We see one half of absolutely brilliant basketball this past week against Georgetown. Then we go to Indianapolis and play a game that looked and feels like our early season game against Iowa.

And we lost to DePaul. DePaul, for heaven's sake. At home, no less!

Unlike an earlier poster, I didn't enjoy this year as much as I would have liked. I know the guys played hard, but I don't think we played smart as often as we should have. Our center was routinely in foul trouble, forcing our all-world power forward to often play out of position.  It was so obvious that I was about to begin taking bets on when our center would go to the bench with two fouls. We couldn't shoot and still too often thought we could hit 3s to get ourselves back in games. We'll "get it" at some point but I think that "some point" will be next year sometime.

Conclusion: The core of a winner is here. We're better off than we were a year ago because the core of the future is here. But, particularly if Henry ends up leaving -- as most Scoopers think he will -- we've got a long way to go. The Hillbilly really messed us up.

[4everwarriors]

What if we pee down our collective legs vs St. John's, hey?

[wadesworld]

OK, at the risk of taking a dark position even darker, here's a question I would pose:

If you subbed out the Gramblings, Maines and other cupcakes with 50 to 150 RPI teams, would our record be any better than last year's? I don't know but I have some serious doubts. Yet, those are the teams we have to play to boost our RPI and have a shot at the tournament next year.

Those of you who think there's multiple bottles involved, God love you, I wish there were. But what I saw today just simply is a head scratcher. We talk about inexperience and having a youthful team. We see one half of absolutely brilliant basketball this past week against Georgetown. Then we go to Indianapolis and play a game that looked and feels like our early season game against Iowa.

And we lost to DePaul. DePaul, for heaven's sake. At home, no less!

Unlike an earlier poster, I didn't enjoy this year as much as I would have liked. I know the guys played hard, but I don't think we played smart as often as we should have. Our center was routinely in foul trouble, forcing our all-world power forward to often play out of position.  It was so obvious that I was about to begin taking bets on when our center would go to the bench with two fouls. We couldn't shoot and still too often thought we could hit 3s to get ourselves back in games. We'll "get it" at some point but I think that "some point" will be next year sometime.

Conclusion: The core of a winner is here. We're better off than we were a year ago because the core of the future is here. But, particularly if Henry ends up leaving -- as most Scoopers think he will -- we've got a long way to go. The Hillbilly really messed us up.

We won 8 games in a tougher BE this year than the one we won 4 games in last year.

[ChicosBailBonds]

OK, at the risk of taking a dark position even darker, here's a question I would pose:

If you subbed out the Gramblings, Maines and other cupcakes with 50 to 150 RPI teams, would our record be any better than last year's? I don't know but I have some serious doubts. Yet, those are the teams we have to play to boost our RPI and have a shot at the tournament next year.

Those of you who think there's multiple bottles involved, God love you, I wish there were. But what I saw today just simply is a head scratcher. We talk about inexperience and having a youthful team. We see one half of absolutely brilliant basketball this past week against Georgetown. Then we go to Indianapolis and play a game that looked and feels like our early season game against Iowa.

And we lost to DePaul. DePaul, for heaven's sake. At home, no less!

Unlike an earlier poster, I didn't enjoy this year as much as I would have liked. I know the guys played hard, but I don't think we played smart as often as we should have. Our center was routinely in foul trouble, forcing our all-world power forward to often play out of position.  It was so obvious that I was about to begin taking bets on when our center would go to the bench with two fouls. We couldn't shoot and still too often thought we could hit 3s to get ourselves back in games. We'll "get it" at some point but I think that "some point" will be next year sometime.

Conclusion: The core of a winner is here. We're better off than we were a year ago because the core of the future is here. But, particularly if Henry ends up leaving -- as most Scoopers think he will -- we've got a long way to go. The Hillbilly really messed us up.

Yes, the record would still be better.   The Big East top to bottom was roughly the same as last year, and we won more games in the Big East.  We won at Wisconsin.  Etc, etc.  This team is better than last year, and I honestly don't know how anyone can debate this.

Last year we had to rely on Matt friggin Carlino to have great games.  Think about it.   Yes, we rely a lot of Henry this year, but at least we're talking about a future NBA player not a guy that has been at 50 schools the last 10 years.

[TAMU, Knower of Ball]

OK, at the risk of taking a dark position even darker, here's a question I would pose:

If you subbed out the Gramblings, Maines and other cupcakes with 50 to 150 RPI teams, would our record be any better than last year's? I don't know but I have some serious doubts. Yet, those are the teams we have to play to boost our RPI and have a shot at the tournament next year.

Let's see:

2014-15
vs. RPI 1-50: 1-15
vs. RPI 51-100: 3-1 (3 wins were #93 Seton Hall x2 and #99 Tennessee)
vs. RPI 101-150: 2-1
vs. RPI 150+: 7-2

2015-2016
vs. RPI 1-50: 4-8
vs. RPI 51-100: 2-1
vs. RPI 101-150: 2-2
vs. RPI 150+: 11-1

So to answer your question. Yes. We did much better this season minus the cupcakes. Its one loss, try to see beyond the small picture.

[JamilJaeJamailJrJuan]

OK, at the risk of taking a dark position even darker, here's a question I would pose:

If you subbed out the Gramblings, Maines and other cupcakes with 50 to 150 RPI teams, would our record be any better than last year's? I don't know but I have some serious doubts. Yet, those are the teams we have to play to boost our RPI and have a shot at the tournament next year.

Those of you who think there's multiple bottles involved, God love you, I wish there were. But what I saw today just simply is a head scratcher. We talk about inexperience and having a youthful team. We see one half of absolutely brilliant basketball this past week against Georgetown. Then we go to Indianapolis and play a game that looked and feels like our early season game against Iowa.

And we lost to DePaul. DePaul, for heaven's sake. At home, no less!

Unlike an earlier poster, I didn't enjoy this year as much as I would have liked. I know the guys played hard, but I don't think we played smart as often as we should have. Our center was routinely in foul trouble, forcing our all-world power forward to often play out of position.  It was so obvious that I was about to begin taking bets on when our center would go to the bench with two fouls. We couldn't shoot and still too often thought we could hit 3s to get ourselves back in games. We'll "get it" at some point but I think that "some point" will be next year sometime.

Conclusion: The core of a winner is here. We're better off than we were a year ago because the core of the future is here. But, particularly if Henry ends up leaving -- as most Scoopers think he will -- we've got a long way to go. The Hillbilly really messed us up.

This post is wrong on so many levels it is funny. At least get your facts right.

[Jay Bee]

We know 19 of the ~31 opponents for next year.   The other dozen .. same random cupcakes, maybe 20% better because it can't get worse.

(hmm .. are we doing a preseason tournament?)

This year the issue was the horrid non-conference opponents. We don't know them for next year. You're right in that it can't get much worse -- but I don't know that you factored that in.

At any rate, speaking re: next year on March 5th, RPI is a poor measurement tool.

[1SE]

Season is right on the margin, win one in the BET, 20 wins, probable(?) NIT - has been a marginally good season.

Lose to SJU(!) in BET, miss NIT, marginally disappointing season.

Big date in NYC.

[Dawson Rental]

OK, at the risk of taking a dark position even darker, here's a question I would pose:

If you subbed out the Gramblings, Maines and other cupcakes with 50 to 150 RPI teams, would our record be any better than last year's? I don't know but I have some serious doubts. Yet, those are the teams we have to play to boost our RPI and have a shot at the tournament next year.

If you subbed out the cupcakes for 50 to 150 RPI teams MU would lose mucho revenue by reducing the number of home games due to the need to go to home and away series to schedule such teams.  Buy games mean less travel early in the season, and the extra revenue allows MU basketball to go first class, both of which are important recruiting tools.

[UticaBusBarn]

All this sums up the "cup is half full" and the "cup is half empty" points of view. Punctuated, as always, by those rock heads who would never let facts intrude on their preconceived notions.

It strikes me that this talent laden team suffered from "weak team psych syndrome." That is, when the flow of game really went against them (such as the string of calls last night), they seem to lose confidence and stop playing as a team. This could be a factor of youth. It could be a factor of team chemistry, or individual player character. It might also be that they are coached in too structured a manner (over coached).

Regardless of the cup being half full, or empty, rock head comments, youth, or team character, I believe next year will be the proverbial proof in the pudding on the true trend of the Warriors. A trend, by the way, that I believe is clearly in ascendency.

[GGGG]

LOL.

My God....yeah, the conference has prevented great recruiting classes from coming in.  WRONG.
The conference is ranked 4th in the country.

Buzz left a team devoid of key parts and some not so great players.  He was not a very good high school recruiter for MU, with a few rare exceptions.  MU is progressing fine, put down the cocktails.  MU is in the best conference they could POSSIBLY be in.

Buzz left for a lot of reasons and MU was not the least bit sad to see him go for a VARIETY of reasons.  He can do what he wants to do without anyone giving a rip now....good for him.

Guru has been bad mouthing the conference since it started.

The problem is the old BE is gone and the new BE is the best possible conference that Marquette can be a member of. Really nothing Marquette can do but get better.

[jsglow]

Here's something to ponder.  Last year at this time Wojo was attempting to find any HS senior he could get to plug in to an essentially empty roster.  Sure he has lots more info than we do but he really has to base those decisions off HS performance.  This year he knows so very much more.

- pretty darn good idea if he needs a #4 and what that skill set must be.
- SG spot is totally covered for the long haul
- 3 guard covered for next year. Expecting tons from JjJ.
- PG maturing probably at faster pace but signing another stud allows HC to remain  exclusively art #2.
- much better handle on true shooting/slashing/scoring ability of each
- Luke to the weight roor
- Sandy to become a defensive specialist if he wants minutes
- etc.

Assuming stability the offseason decision become easier each year.  This is no different than building an NFL roster.  It takes time.

[hdog1017]

With the talent on this team, they should have been at least fighting for a NCAA Tournament birth. 

[muguru]

With the talent on this team, they should have been at least fighting for a NCAA Tournament birth.

A freaking men. That's where my disappointment comes in...Should they have been a stone cold lock to start the year like they were in most of Buzz's years?? Absolutely not, but they should have, at worst been heavy in the discussion right now. You had a Freshman who was one of the best in the country, a top 10 recruit, you should, at the very least be in the discussion for the NCAA's this time of year, NOT losing as many home games(over 2 years) that you have, not losing to DuhPaul(ever), Creighton at home, Belmont at home etc. Youth or not, this team underachieved. They werent that young by the end of the year. The "youth" excuse is so weak...did Youth affect Kentucky a couple years ago?? or Duke last year?? Save the "they are blue bloods" that's different argument. Youth is youth..There was enough talent on this team, the fact that they aren't even in the NCAA discussion...that rests in the Head Coach's lap. He can recruit, no doubt about it, but I have seen NOTHING from him that shows me he can Coach yet. He shows no creativity at all...no "wrinkles" in any game plans etc. Pretty stale really. TC and Buzz got creative from game to game depending on the opponent etc. I have seen nothing of that from Wojo.

[GGGG]

You cannot simply say "youth is youth."  More talented youth is more talented.  Kentucky and Duke had multiple players that were extremely talented and simply better than the youth Marquette had.  And Calipari and K are better coaches than Wojo. 

Now I do agree with you that the jury is still out on Wojo.  Inexperience can extend to the coach too.  So the hope is that the coach, the staff and the team grows.  I can see multiple reasons why they will.  I can see a few why they may not.

[mu_eyeballs]

With the talent on this team, they should have been at least fighting for a NCAA Tournament birth.

I would say they were fighting...two home losses in the last few seconds and last min...to Depaul and Creighton...the team was fighting in those games.  Turn those into wins and we very well be knocking on the door of an NCAA birth.

[ChicosBailBonds]

With the talent on this team, they should have been at least fighting for a NCAA Tournament birth.

They are fighting for a birth <sic>


Normally .500 in a conference like this would be right there.  Unfortunately the DePaul loss meant no .500.  The non-conference schedule stunk, if it hadn't we would be fighting for it. 

Season isn't over yet, they are still fighting for a berth

[ChicosBailBonds]

A freaking men. That's where my disappointment comes in...Should they have been a stone cold lock to start the year like they were in most of Buzz's years?? Absolutely not, but they should have, at worst been heavy in the discussion right now. You had a Freshman who was one of the best in the country, a top 10 recruit, you should, at the very least be in the discussion for the NCAA's this time of year, NOT losing as many home games(over 2 years) that you have, not losing to DuhPaul(ever), Creighton at home, Belmont at home etc. Youth or not, this team underachieved. They werent that young by the end of the year. The "youth" excuse is so weak...did Youth affect Kentucky a couple years ago?? or Duke last year?? Save the "they are blue bloods" that's different argument. Youth is youth..There was enough talent on this team, the fact that they aren't even in the NCAA discussion...that rests in the Head Coach's lap. He can recruit, no doubt about it, but I have seen NOTHING from him that shows me he can Coach yet. He shows no creativity at all...no "wrinkles" in any game plans etc. Pretty stale really. TC and Buzz got creative from game to game depending on the opponent etc. I have seen nothing of that from Wojo.

So you talk about Buzz and TC being creative, but then say we should never lose to Depaul.  You realize Buzz lost to Duhpal with 5 NBA players on his team, 4 of them starters? 

Youth is youth...talk about a blanket statement.   As for the Henry talk, should the team with the clear best freshman in the country be a slam dunk for the NCAAs...Ben Simmons?  They aren't going either.  Duke has been down this year, and they have the 2nd best freshman.  Do you pay attention to college basketball?

[willie warrior]

With the talent on this team, they should have been at least fighting for a NCAA Tournament birth.

Absolutely. No excuse to be blown out by butler with their talent compared to ours. And please, stop with the frosh excuses. These players have a whole season and an overseas trip experience by now.