So..... Butler..... any thoughts?

[TSmith34, Inc.]

On defense, Luke should never be more than 10 feet from the basket, unless it is to track down an errant rebound.  We saw the effect of him defending the rim at DePaul rather than picking up a foul hedging 20 feet from the basket or allowing the middle to be unprotected.

Put Haanif on Savage, switch him to someone else if they get hot.

JJJ, please please please play smart tough defense.

Drown them in treys

[barfolomew]

Let's try a new defense tonight.

All 5 guys form a semi-circle just outside the restricted area.
No layups, let them take all the 2pt jumpers they want.
Trade 2s for 3s all night long.
Rinse, lather, repeat.

[fjm]

Let's try a new defense tonight.

All 5 guys form a semi-circle just outside the restricted area.
No layups, let them take all the 2pt jumpers they want.
Trade 2s for 3s all night long.
Rinse, lather, repeat.

Ok... I don't hate that idea. About 4 feet from the restricted area would leave small 3 foot gaps we can close quickly.

I want to see this.

[KampusFoods]

Let's try a new defense tonight.

All 5 guys form a semi-circle just outside the restricted area.
No layups, let them take all the 2pt jumpers they want.
Trade 2s for 3s all night long.
Rinse, lather, repeat.

This is kind of what teams did to us 2 years ago. Minus the shadow on Carlino

[brewcity77]

Let's try a new defense tonight.

All 5 guys form a semi-circle just outside the restricted area.
No layups, let them take all the 2pt jumpers they want.
Trade 2s for 3s all night long.
Rinse, lather, repeat.

If it worked that way, it might be worth trying. However, I'm expecting that Butler will figure out our devious plan and start shooting threes too. Something tells me they'll do okay if they are shooting unguarded threes.

[MUDPT]

One posession game, this one I say we lose. Butler 82-80.

[wadesworld]

On defense, Luke should never be more than 10 feet from the basket, unless it is to track down an errant rebound.  We saw the effect of him defending the rim at DePaul rather than picking up a foul hedging 20 feet from the basket or allowing the middle to be unprotected.

Put Haanif on Savage, switch him to someone else if they get hot.

JJJ, please please please play smart tough defense.

Drown them in treys

So how do you propose we defend a pick and roll with Luke's man being the picker if you don't want Luke to be more than 10 feet from the basket?

Giving a guard (or a roller) a full head of steam before getting to the rim is never a good idea, nor is leaving the ball handler a wide open mid range pull up or pull up 3 pointer if the man guarding the ball gets stuck on the pick.

[Herman Cain]

Butler's three pointing shooting in conference play has been abysmal. Only Depaul has been worse. I don't like zone but will have to be prepared to break it out if they are driving to the hoop at will.

Key to the game might be stopping Kethan Savage. He has scored double digits in every Big East game but three this season. Butler is 0-3 in those games. He torched us for 17.

Make them shoot, put down the Savage, win. MU 87-BU 84

Your bullish on Savage now. In the pre season you were not high on him. Either way a good insight.

[mu03eng]

So how do you propose we defend a pick and roll with Luke's man being the picker if you don't want Luke to be more than 10 feet from the basket?

Giving a guard (or a roller) a full head of steam before getting to the rim is never a good idea, nor is leaving the ball handler a wide open mid range pull up or pull up 3 pointer if the man guarding the ball gets stuck on the pick.

This is the inherent flaw with our defense.....guards aren't quick to get to the edge on a screen and Luke isn't quick enough to hedge with the guard.

Where I disagree with you is if you are going against a team that can't shoot 3s like Butler's struggled with. Guards go under screens instead of over, Luke sags off to protect against the roll and the rim on the guard drive and we hope we can survive if the guard shoots or the screener pops.

[mileskishnish72]

I think we'd better win tonight or our chances to get to 10 look very iffy.

[Class71]

Will our team play D Tonight? I'd so we win, if not we lose. The game is not that complicated.

[TAMU, Knower of Ball]

Your bullish on Savage now. In the pre season you were not high on him. Either way a good insight.

I had him in my top 30 players in the Big East. Somewhere in the 25-30 range IIRC. Don't think he's actually lived up to that, but he's been better in conference play. Do you know, was Savage fighting an injury or something? He was terrible in non-conference play.

[MU82]

On defense, Luke should never be more than 10 feet from the basket, unless it is to track down an errant rebound.  We saw the effect of him defending the rim at DePaul rather than picking up a foul hedging 20 feet from the basket or allowing the middle to be unprotected.

Luke spent plenty of time hedging 20-25 feet from the hoop in the DePaul game. I know, because I yelled myself hoarse screaming at him to get back under the basket. DePaul simply wasn't good enough or quick enough to take advantage of it. I'm not a big fan of 7-footers hedging, period, and I really don't like it when the 7-footer is not very good at it. I like Luke; I just don't like him 25 feet from the hoop on D.

[fjm]

Going white jerseys tonight.

Was hoping they would go gold.

[Marcus92]

Luke spent plenty of time hedging 20-25 feet from the hoop in the DePaul game. I know, because I yelled myself hoarse screaming at him to get back under the basket. DePaul simply wasn't good enough or quick enough to take advantage of it. I'm not a big fan of 7-footers hedging, period, and I really don't like it when the 7-footer is not very good at it. I like Luke; I just don't like him 25 feet from the hoop on D.

I don't like it, either. But I do think he's getting a little better at it — and the primary defender is getting a little better at recovering quicker.

What I love is Luke's recent aggressiveness when it comes to blocking shots. He can be a true difference maker when opposing players get into the lane area.

[MUBigDance]

Game getting closer...looking for stops...steals...taking the charge...blocks...suffocating the 3 line.

By MU of course.

[wadesworld]

I think we'd better win tonight or our chances to get to 10 look very iffy.

Why?  Butler is the best team left on the schedule.

[Herman Cain]

I had him in my top 30 players in the Big East. Somewhere in the 25-30 range IIRC. Don't think he's actually lived up to that, but he's been better in conference play. Do you know, was Savage fighting an injury or something? He was terrible in non-conference play.

He had the same shoulder issue surgery Luke had.Although fully recovered when season started,  From experience , it takes a player almost a year to get back to top form.

[muwarrior69]

Well it looks like the Umass/RI game will run over 2 hours and we will miss the tip off and early minutes of the MU/Butler game. It is now 7:55 ET and they are just a little over a minute to the half in a close game.

[JamilJaeJamailJrJuan]

Well it looks like the Umass/RI game will run over 2 hours and we will miss the tip off and early minutes of the MU/Butler game. It is now 7:55 ET and they are just a little over a minute to the half in a close game.

Hopefully they push it 15 mins like FS1 does

[muwarrior69]

Hopefully they push it 15 mins like FS1 does

Then they have to delay the west coast game after ours as well.

[TSmith34, Inc.]

So how do you propose we defend a pick and roll with Luke's man being the picker if you don't want Luke to be more than 10 feet from the basket?

Giving a guard (or a roller) a full head of steam before getting to the rim is never a good idea, nor is leaving the ball handler a wide open mid range pull up or pull up 3 pointer if the man guarding the ball gets stuck on the pick.

I won't pretend to know.  All I know is that when Luke is out in space 20+ feet from the basket Bad Things Happen.