Storm thoughts.

[Mr. Sand-Knit]

Hausers foot was on the arc on the blocking call and we did zone most of the second half.  Our zone is even worse than our man , its just nova chose to jack 3s, everyone else has shredded it.

[MU82]

Those who are declaring the season over are cracking me up. I'm sure it's the same folks who were declaring us dead after the MSG tourney ... or after the Wisconsin loss ... or after the SH/Nova losses ... or after the Butler loss. Most of those same fine folks curiously disappeared from these parts after the Creighton and Nova wins. If we go 4-1 over our next 5 games, the same alleged MU fans will disappear again ... except after the loss.

We have the look of a .500 BE team. We can beat Nova but we can lose to St. John's. We can win at Creighton but we can lose at home to Providence. We have a fairly thin margin of error. So 9-9, give or take a win or two, seems about right. Hopefully it's enough for the NCAA.

While I thought we would beat Providence, this St. John's game loomed as very dangerous. Even Wojo talked about the danger of this post-Nova stretch.

Haani has seriously regressed this season. He's been having a crisis of confidence for some time as a shooter, and his ballhandling and decision-making were absolute disasters yesterday. I actually felt sorry for him because his incompetence had to be depressing for him.

Markus has been brought back to earth by the reality of BE hoops. We simply are not good enough to have our guards hand the ball to our opponent on a silver platter a half-dozen times in a game.

I'm really not sure what Wojo could have done to turn this one around. He tried benching Haani, Markus and JJJ for separate spells, but Duane did not have a good game and Katin was having trouble getting away from his defender. After a few good games, Luke was dominated pretty badly in this one.

Wojo went to the same 1-3-1 zone that helped us pull out the Nova game. St. John's, for the most part, handled it well. Credit to them.

Folks can blame the refs all they want, but these Warriors simply can't have live-ball, open-court turnovers like that and win.

Final thought: Sam showed a lot of balls tonight ... even after they were bruised!

[79Warrior]

SJU more athletic, quicker and fearless. Their young guys are going to be very good. Even JJJ, who is one of our more athletic players was getting his shots stuffed.

We are a one dimensional team, shooting behind the arc. 17 turnovers, brutal. that was a tough game to watch. MU is up against it now as the margin of error is razor thin from here on out. Would not surprise me to see DePaul beat us this weekend.

[dw3dw3dw3]

Reminded me of I think the Mayo game @ Wisconsin, where Buzz said they just out balled them. STJs just out balled MU. They were not the more disciplined, shooting, or coached team (I think), but they just balled out and brought it. Not sure what to think of HC anymore, O-rating stats or otherwise is he really a net positive over the next 3 guys on the bench? I guess it's debatable on any given night, but that was tough to watch.

Still optimistic, NCAA has been barometer for me, 7 seed to 11/12 seed doesn't matter to me. Probably a couple more of these clunkers a long the way. A 2 game winning streak would ease my fears come next Tuesday night.

[T-Bone]

Guards are too small. Need to recruit some taller athletic bigs. But remember Markus Howard is still 17 he can still grow

*Drink*

[GoldenDieners32]

Reminded me of I think the Mayo game @ Wisconsin, where Buzz said they just out balled them. STJs just out balled MU. They were not the more disciplined, shooting, or coached team (I think), but they just balled out and brought it. Not sure what to think of HC anymore, O-rating stats or otherwise is he really a net positive over the next 3 guys on the bench? I guess it's debatable on any given night, but that was tough to watch.

Still optimistic, NCAA has been barometer for me, 7 seed to 11/12 seed doesn't matter to me. Probably a couple more of these clunkers a long the way. A 2 game winning streak would ease my fears come next Tuesday night.

We need a win Saturday.

[WarriorFan]

2 or 3 times each year your freshmen are going to sh1t themselves.  The best thing about freshmen is they become sophomores.  Those that don't crap their pants go to the NBA.

[goldeneagle91114]

2 or 3 times each year your freshmen are going to sh1t themselves.  The best thing about freshmen is they become sophomores.  Those that don't crap their pants go to the NBA.

I wish this quote applied to Hanni. His regression has been one for the ages.

Freshman year looked solid, to start this year he looked alright . Then his shot stopped falling, then his  defense became suspect, and now the poor kid and even bring the ball up the court (5 TO?)

Get this kid in to see a sports psychologist. I still believe his issue is in his head.

[TAMU, Knower of Ball]

He did go 1-3-1 and it was b-a-d.  not sure what the answer would of been but they were getting into the middle at the line and creating easy buckets, just carving that zone up in the early part of the second half on top of having wide open looks from 3.  Look, they've got to win 5 more games in conference, which games basically doesn't matter, the season is not over after this one.

This isn't true. I went back and watched. At 14:59 we have a TV timeout. Score is 57-51. Marquette comes out in man. They stay in man until the TV timeout at 11:52. In those 3 minutes and 7 seconds of man defense, St. John's goes on 11-0 run.

Marquette comes back in a zone. Score is 68-51. Over the next 10 minutes of play, St. John's only manages to score 10 points (after scoring 11 in 3 minutes against the man). 5 of those 10 points, they beat the zone. One was an open three pointer to Mussini, the other was a gorgeous take by LoVett. MU played great defense by LoVett just willed it in. The other 5 points were a beyond NBA range three by LoVett and an offensive putback by Ahmed after they forced a bad shot and failed to get the board.

The zone was working but they ran out of time. Had the lead cut to 8 but had to get desperate on offense.

This game was decided by two St. John's runs. The 10-2 run in the last 2 minutes of the first half. And the  11-0 run in the second half. Both featured man defense.

I've been an opponent of the zone all season. I think it hampers our offense and rebounding. But against this opponent, it was the right call.

[Spotcheck Billy]

^ 1 of the announcers even mentioned he thought it was a bad idea switching to the man D at that 57-51 point because of that 10-2 run in the 1st half.

[MU82]

This isn't true. I went back and watched. At 14:59 we have a TV timeout. Score is 57-51. Marquette comes out in man. They stay in man until the TV timeout at 11:52. In those 3 minutes and 7 seconds of man defense, St. John's goes on 11-0 run.

Marquette comes back in a zone. Score is 68-51. Over the next 10 minutes of play, St. John's only manages to score 10 points (after scoring 11 in 3 minutes against the man). 5 of those 10 points, they beat the zone. One was an open three pointer to Mussini, the other was a gorgeous take by LoVett. MU played great defense by LoVett just willed it in. The other 5 points were a beyond NBA range three by LoVett and an offensive putback by Ahmed after they forced a bad shot and failed to get the board.

The zone was working but they ran out of time. Had the lead cut to 8 but had to get desperate on offense.

This game was decided by two St. John's runs. The 10-2 run in the last 2 minutes of the first half. And the  11-0 run in the second half. Both featured man defense.

I've been an opponent of the zone all season. I think it hampers our offense and rebounding. But against this opponent, it was the right call.

You are informed about this and I was not. Thanks for setting the record straight, TAMU. I sit corrected!