OCD overcomes social experiment

[mileskishnish72]

At one point, one of the commentators indicated that WSU was bigger and stronger at every position.. Does that say it all?

Good work by 0 and 30. Sam's 3rd (sorry, dumb) foul was the turning point.
Theo gets calls for illegal screens without justification.
Nothing inside. Every time you give up a layup drill and are not fantastic on the 3's, you lose.
Whadda they call it ...FG%?

[Herman Cain]

I am still very confident in our team . We played a tough team and hung in there despite having one of the Big 3 in early foul trouble. Once our team learns that they need to be patient and methodical when behind and that they don’t have to make it up all at once they will win against the better teams .

I still am projecting 3rd in Big East and make it to the second weekend of tournament.

[willie warrior]

Agree. There is always next year. And then Wojo has 5 years of his guys.

[Dr. Blackheart]

Thoughts from the games...

1.  MU the third best team here.  The other two are ranked for a reason.

2.  Gar Forman and other NBA scouts were at our game. They weren’t at our game to watch MU players primarily.

3. MU has the most fans here. This tournament adds $16 million to the Maui economy. MU maybe 30-40% of that.

4.  Saw Mrs. Marshall post-game. Was escorting an elderly lady on walker out of game.

5.  Impressions at game different than in person. Andrew and Markus were double and tripled teamed.

5. If the rest of the upperclassmen don’t want to get it done then bring in the Frosh.

6.  Wojo not at all pleased.  First Maui loss in his lifetime.   

[chapman]

Needing all 3 of our Big 3 to perform to have a chance against good teams is troubling.  Need a defensive presence and an offensive presence to emerge between Anim, Cain, Elliott.  They're all "hold their own" decent defensively, but not imposing.  Further behind offensively. 

[MU82]

Thanks for doing your duty, tower. As usual, nicely done! I'll add a few of my own:

1. Wichita State is a Final Four-caliber team. Very impressed with then. Their role players play their roles perfectly, and they mesh together really well. I really like the PG. When they get their injured player back - wow. Hate to admit it, but very well-coached, too.

2. We died by the 3. And that'll happen sometimes when you're a perimeter team. I agree with Bilas that we beat VCU primarily because of our offensive rebounding - and that wasn't gonna happen against Wichita State. 22 second-chance pts Mon vs. 4 on Tue. We needed to shoot lights out, and we didn't.

3. Can't Anim dunk the ball? I maybe can see why he didn't the first time ... but the second time? That was a tone-setting exchange. Also, holding his follow-through for 5 seconds after shooting an airball FT - yikes!!

4. Refs called a few questionable offensive fouls, including the second on both Sam and Markus, but they also made a few bad calls against WSU. And Sam is too smart a player to commit the third foul he did. He can shake his head at the refs all he wants as he walks off the court; he has to get out of the way there.

5. I think we are gonna really like Theo John. The other 2 freshmen have potential, too; gotta put some meat on their bones, though!

6. I hope the Scoopers who were rooting for WSU to beat Cal learned their lesson. After all, if they had rooted for Cal, then Cal surely would have won. Because, you know, Scoopers totally control that stuff!

[Benny B]

Thoughts from the games...

1.  MU the third best team here.  The other two are ranked for a reason.

2.  Gar Forman and other NBA scouts were at our game. They weren’t at our game to watch MU players primarily.

3. MU has the most fans here. This tournament adds $16 million to the Maui economy. MU maybe 30-40% of that.

4.  Saw Mrs. Marshall post-game. Was escorting an elderly lady on walker out of game.

5.  Impressions at game different than in person. Andrew and Markus were double and tripled teamed.

5. If the rest of the upperclassmen don’t want to get it done then bring in the Frosh.

6.  Wojo not at all pleased.  First Maui loss in his lifetime.

I said it before, and I’ll say it again: this is why we get to go to Maui and Orlando every five years (NCAA minimum time between appearances at a given tourney, IIRC).  Just need to get the B4A into the rotation.

7. WSU fans are what we thought they were.  I sh/t you not, the mouth breather two rows back of me kept calling out for Rhonda Rowsey when Andrew had the ball... for starters, Rhonda could probably have taken out anyone on WSU’s team, and even my wife said to me, “do people still think calling someone a woman is an insult in this day and age?”  But that was pretty tame compared to the couple Shocker fans that sat right behind me... both of them LITERALLY called all of the white guys on their team by their first name and all of the black guys on their team by number, and that’s not hyperbole. 

But the sun is now setting behind Lanai, so it’s hard to stay critical.  Hopefully the good guys can send the Domers to a fourth place finish tomorrow.

[Newsdreams]

How are you guys handling the Herro decommit?

Softly...

[The Lens]

This is my favorite Wojo-era team

That’s not saying much.

[rocket surgeon]

I said it before, and I’ll say it again: this is why we get to go to Maui and Orlando every five years (NCAA minimum time between appearances at a given tourney, IIRC).  Just need to get the B4A into the rotation.

7. WSU fans are what we thought they were.  I sh/t you not, the mouth breather two rows back of me kept calling out for Rhonda Rowsey when Andrew had the ball... for starters, Rhonda could probably have taken out anyone on WSU’s team, and even my wife said to me, “do people still think calling someone a woman is an insult in this day and age?”  But that was pretty tame compared to the couple Shocker fans that sat right behind me... both of them LITERALLY called all of the white guys on their team by their first name and all of the black guys on their team by number, and that’s not hyperbole. 

But the sun is now setting behind Lanai, so it’s hard to stay critical.  Hopefully the good guys can send the Domers to a fourth place finish tomorrow.

You weren’t in Kansas anymore...calling guys by girls names gets old.  At least they may have had an excuse-alcohol.  Others, not so fortunate-head injuries and/bad gene pool.  Combine those last 2 with alcohol or some other mind altering ingredient and ya got yourselves a serial killer at best

[cheebs09]

That’s not saying much.

I thought last year's team was fun. Although frustrating at times, the Henry team was fun to watch as well.

[Lennys Tap]

I thought last year's team was fun. Although frustrating at times, the Henry team was fun to watch as well.

I thought every MU team from '67-78, KO's '96, Crean's '03, Buzz's midgets and the 2011 and 12 teams that went 28-8 in BEast play and won 5 NCAA tourney games were fun to watch. Last year there were equal parts fun and frustration. This year I'm expecting more of the same.

[g0lden3agle]

Can someone explain the thread title? 

[MU82]

Can someone explain the thread title?

In a different thread yesterday, tower said: "I will give someone else the opportunity to start the omnibus post game thread today."

When I and a couple others said we like his post-game threads, he responded: "Honestly, I want to see how one goes that I don't start.  Think of it as a social experiment."

But when push came to shove, tower couldn't resist doing his post-game duty! In other words, his OCD took over. As I hope it does again tonight.

[Juan Anderson's Mixtape]

In a different thread yesterday, tower said: "I will give someone else the opportunity to start the omnibus post game thread today."

When I and a couple others said we like his post-game threads, he responded: "Honestly, I want to see how one goes that I don't start.  Think of it as a social experiment."

But when push came to shove, tower couldn't resist doing his post-game duty! In other words, his OCD took over. As I hope it does again tonight.

Dang, here I thought he was referencing the serial killers.

[frozena pizza]

I thought last year's team was fun. Although frustrating at times, the Henry team was fun to watch as well.

Yes, I like both of those teams better than this team.  I miss Jajuan taking it to the hoop, Luke's post presence and Reinhardt's clutch shooting.  This year we look very one dimensional and seem content to let Rowsey or Howard take a contested 3 from 5 feet behind the line rather than making the extra pass.  Super frustrating how lazy we got on offense in the second half when we were still in it.  Also, based on what I've seen I'm not expecting much of anything from the freshmen in conference play as they all seem pretty raw.

[Jay Bee]

New scribbling in Markus’ start to the season:

http://latenighthoops.com/markus-howard-off-to-a-strong-but-different-start/#.WhWpC6JMGEc

[barfolomew]

4.  Saw Mrs. Marshall post-game. Was escorting an elderly lady on walker out of game.

Are you sure the elderly lady was not escorting her out?

[79Warrior]

You weren’t in Kansas anymore...calling guys by girls names gets old.  At least they may have had an excuse-alcohol.  Others, not so fortunate-head injuries and/bad gene pool.  Combine those last 2 with alcohol or some other mind altering ingredient and ya got yourselves a serial killer at best

[79Warrior]

Thoughts from the games...

1.  MU the third best team here.  The other two are ranked for a reason.

2.  Gar Forman and other NBA scouts were at our game. They weren’t at our game to watch MU players primarily.

3. MU has the most fans here. This tournament adds $16 million to the Maui economy. MU maybe 30-40% of that.

4.  Saw Mrs. Marshall post-game. Was escorting an elderly lady on walker out of game.

5.  Impressions at game different than in person. Andrew and Markus were double and tripled teamed.

5. If the rest of the upperclassmen don’t want to get it done then bring in the Frosh.

6.  Wojo not at all pleased.  First Maui loss in his lifetime.

I think it is great how well MU travels. Speaks volumes to how strong our fan base is. Dan Shulman mentioned it several times during the broadcast.

[RJax55]

New scribbling in Markus’ start to the season:

http://latenighthoops.com/markus-howard-off-to-a-strong-but-different-start/#.WhWpC6JMGEc

Nice write-up.

[MUMountin]

Yesterday's game reminded me some of our early season woes last year--we know we are a good shooting team, and so tried to shoot our way back into the game in the second half.  We missed a couple of really good looks (sometimes from our support staff, sometimes from the big 3) that would've kept us right in it.  But then we got into a hero-ball mindset and stopped moving the ball, and just settled for contested and rushed shots instead of open looks or easy drives.

[Silkk the Shaka]

New scribbling in Markus’ start to the season:

http://latenighthoops.com/markus-howard-off-to-a-strong-but-different-start/#.WhWpC6JMGEc

This is awesome stuff. There should probably be an RSS feed to scoop of your LNH #mubb posts similar to paint touches, JS beat writers, etc.

Moving along, his 2P% counter weapon and reduced TO rate has been awesome to see. I think he'll work very well with Froling in the PnR, and once his treys start dropping he'll be nearly unstoppable.

Long story short, Markus continues to impress. Can't wait to watch him in conference season.

[Marcus92]

New scribbling in Markus’ start to the season:

http://latenighthoops.com/markus-howard-off-to-a-strong-but-different-start/#.WhWpC6JMGEc

Great article. Markus is probably the lowest on my list of concerns for the season. I'm encouraged by his defense so far, as well. Seems to be doing a better job of staying in front of his man, good positioning and effort, not getting blown by as much.

[TSmith34, Inc.]

New scribbling in Markus’ start to the season:

http://latenighthoops.com/markus-howard-off-to-a-strong-but-different-start/#.WhWpC6JMGEc

Good stuff Jay Bee, but you had a bit of a covfefe in this parpagraph:

Per Synergy, the 5-foot-11 Howard oHoHoward hFDFJFJFJFJFhas scored 28 points in 18 possessions as the P&R ball handler. That mark of 1.56 ppp puts him in the 99% percentile nationally and is one of the contributors to his strong 2FG% thus far.