P U thoughts

[Spaniel with a Short Tail]

This sums up my thought:

[GoldenDieners32]

-Felt like Purdue was getting every tipped ball or loose ball
- I dont care how good or big a center is Matt shouldn't be getting bullied like tonight in the paint
- thought rowsey and howard played solid defense
- Sacar would get the ball in side the free throw line and would look to pass instead of take a little floater

overall i am fine with the outcome purdue was the better team even though we hung around for a while. Going to be a fun season

[JakeBarnes]

Feel fine. We missed Froling this game. I wish Rowsey slowed down occassionally. It felt like every rally was cut short by a Rowsey out of control play tonight.

[Newsdreams]

+1      Dictated by foul trouble, fatigue, and Purdue's patience and efficiency.

Yes Wojo had to double to try to prevent Heldt and Theo from fouling out, didn’t work but not much else he could do.

[ChuckyChip]

2. We held Purdue to 0 3’s into the second half. Did not have an answer for Haas. Theo and Matt pretty much came up to Haas’s chin, I think.

Actually zero 3's in the FIRST half.

[PGsHeroes32]

I still don't know why people are talking like Purdue is really good. They are experienced and pretty sound making plays but nothing special.

I am not then saying we suck because they beat us by 15.

Just a really poor match up for us. The little mistakes really hurt us.

I said it on the game thread. As gopher supporter on the side, I'm loving what I saw from Purdue.

Just not a good match up for our team. Hopefully we go out and play really well vs VCU.

[GoldenDieners32]

Wonder if jamal will see some minutes his way soon

[jutaw22mu]

I think we played at our best with Sam at center. Matt couldn't really stop Haas and on offense it was like playing 4 on 5.  Haas could be a plug in the lane bc Matt posed no offensive threat at all and couldn't even be relied on for a pick and roll, so I think that's largely why our offense was stagnant.  If Haas would have been marking Sam the whole game, it would have opened up the lane or forced them into a zone, which also should have helped our offense. 

I think Froling will be a huge asset come Big East play. 

[MUEng92]

Actually zero 3's in the FIRST half.

I mean this in the most polite way possible, but that is actually what she said “0 3’s into the 2nd half”

[Newsdreams]

I still don't know why people are talking like Purdue is really good. They are experienced and pretty sound making plays but nothing special.

I am not then saying we suck because they beat us by 15.

Just a really poor match up for us. The little mistakes really hurt us.

I said it on the game thread. As gopher supporter on the side, I'm loving what I saw from Purdue.

Just not a good match up for our team. Hopefully we go out and play really well vs VCU.

Purdue will be a top 10-15 team all year, they are not one dimensional, very balanced on offense. They will be the team no one looks forward to play in March.

[chapman]

Wonder if jamal will see some minutes his way soon

He's certainly not blocked.  There's a wide open spot with a lot of minutes for Sacar or Jamal if they can lay claim to it.

[bilsu]

61 of our 71 points were scored by three players. We had two players outscore Haas. The reason we lost is that we only have 3 high division 1 players.

[21rooster]

1.  Purdue is the better team, so no shame inning the loss.

2.  Wojo needs to embrace small ball until Frolling is eligible.  Sam was our best 5 tonight, as MU didn’t require a double when he defended their 5.  Taking out the final five minutes of garbage time, I’d love to see the breakdown of points with Heldt/John versus without.  I feel like all of our runs came without a true center.

[brewcity77]

Actual thoughts:

• We were fortunate to be as close as we were at halftime. They bullied us but we made the run late to make it look closer than it was.
• Haas destroyed us. No one was big enough to challenge his shot so he scored whenever he was singled, and kicked it around to the open man when he was double. That's as dominant a big man performance as we'll see this year. Looked like he was taking candy from babies when he put his shot up.
• That second half defense was terrible. I think at one point we made threes on four straight trips and only made up 2 points of deficit because we could not stop them.
• This was a terrible matchup. We may play better teams this year, but this is the only team I don't feel we ever had a chance against.
• Henry in the house tonight. Hope Froling can add some of what we got from him.
• Markus' shot looked good. Love that he's added that driving floater.
• Some idiot behind me said Rowsey sucked and he hated him every time the kid touched the ball. At times, he was the only one doing anything. What a moron. The guy behind me, not Rowsey.
• Sam needs to be more assertive. Sam NEEDS to be more assertive. For us to be a tourney team he has to be part of a three headed offensive monster.

[muguru]

1. I'm not discouraged after this game. If Froling can score, we will win a lot of games.

2. Freshmen clearly are not ready to contribute yet - hopefully some experience against the bunnies will help.

3. Haani continues to disappoint. Was at his worst tonite. We were dying for another guy to step up and score and he had nothing. I don't know if he had any boards either. Was running away from the ball in half court offense.

4.  Rowsey and Howard need to average 20 ppg or the offense will really be in trouble.

The problem with #1 is...how many will they lose before they get Harry?? If they don't pick off 1 or two of the remaining big games on their schedule(VCU, possibly Wichita, Georgia, Wisconsin, Vermont), get none of those and they are already in big trouble before BE even starts, make the championship of maui and all is well.

[brewcity77]

The problem with #1 is...how many will they lose before they get Harry?? If they don't pick off 1 or two of the remaining big games on their schedule(VCU, possibly Wichita, Georgia, Wisconsin, Vermont), get none of those and they are already in big trouble before BE even starts, make the championship of maui and all is well.

Tonight sucked but I think Purdue beats us 100 times out of 100. Conversely, I think we are better than VCU, Georgia, Wisconsin, and Vermont. I still think we go 4-0 in those games.

[dgies9156]

1) Heldt aint it. There's a reason Wojo recruited both Froeling and Morrow. He knows what we know after tonight. Matt Heldt is a Craig Butrym in a Jerome Whitehead world.

2) Purdue is what I think we will be a year from now. Tough, well-rounded but not quite strong enough to be an elite team. They were well coached and played within their game. They knew our weaknesses and pummeled us right at the weak spots every time.

3) Hanni got stuffed because someone watched the films. They knew he was going in on his left hand. Purdue was too well positioned when Hanni went down the lane.

We're a pretty good team. I'm hoping Froeling will help because if he can't, I'm not sure about this year!

[MU82]

I'm more confident about our team now than I was before the game.

That's what I said to my wife, too.

I think Purdue is a very good team with a lot of experience and intelligence, and quite a bit of skill, too. People forget they won the conference last season. It was a terrible match-up for us, yet we hung in there, made a couple nice runs, and really battled.

The guys on the court tonight will get better, and Froling will bring a lot. I'm high on Theo - once he figures a few things out, he will really help this team. And Elliott had nice steals on consecutive plays during the run that got us back in the game.

[MUfan12]

I'm more confident about our team now than I was before the game.

I'm not there yet. They relied way too much on Markus and Rowsey making difficult shots. I know Purdue is a good team, but the offense ground to a halt for a good chunk of that game. The lack of depth is really glaring.

[4th and State]

I'm not there yet. They relied way too much on Markus and Rowsey making difficult shots. I know Purdue is a good team, but the offense ground to a halt for a good chunk of that game. The lack of depth is really glaring.

We are really missing a PG that drive/dish and an interior scoring threat.  You're 100% right our whole offense was passing the ball around the perimeter and hope either Rowsey or Howard make a contested/fadeaway 3 pointer....need to have another option or two on offense.

Defense looked much better overall compared to last year, but we were overmatched inside, which was ultimately the difference.

[hdog1017]

Glad everyone is feeling good about this team after a 15 point loss at home to a team that is barely ranked. 

[Daniel]

I am not there yet either - defense, rebounding and having only three guys (basically) score lost the game.  Will Frohling help. Who knows.  Will our defense improve ( was good for a half) who knows.   Will we rebound better?  Who knows.   

We saw what we looked like against a pretty good team with muscle and size.   Big East is loaded.  We have a lot of work to do.  Only second game, so..... let’s see.   Go Marquette

[RJax55]

The Good:
Knowing what Rowsey, Howard and Hauser are going to give MU on the offensive-end. I know people are complaining about them scoring almost all the points, but I rather have that than wondering where the offense will come from. Much easier for the other guys to fill a role and build on that. Just compare that to last year, when it took until conference play for that to sort itself out. Puts MU in a much better position to win games in Maui and the rest of non-conference play.

The Bad:
Our defensive rotations were terrible and communication was poor. Wasn't as big of a problem in the first half as MU avoided breakdowns, but the minute we started doubling the post, it was very evident. I feel this has been an issue for all of Wojo's tenure, so I'm not very hopeful that we will be seeing a great deal of improvement.

[Jockey]

3) Hanni got stuffed because someone watched the films. They knew he was going in on his left hand. Purdue was too well positioned when Hanni went down the lane.

Haani got stuffed because everyone knows he can only go left.

Our offense was dead when Matt & Haani were on the floor together. Defense is easy when only 3 guys can score.

[cheese ball chaser]

Marquette really Haas a tough time defending bigs, hey?