I place this all on the coaching staff.

[Mr. Sand-Knit]

Grammer... says the grammar police 😂😂

[brewcity77]

The grammer makes me want to gouge my eyes out.

Agreed. Between the grammer and speling it's near unbearable.

[rocket surgeon]

calipari has lost three straight-he could bring his buddy tyler on over with him, enn'a so?

[connie]

Luke was not very good.  I would take Theo over Luke.

Theo may develop into a great player, but to compare his brief moments and one good game to Luke's three years is a pretty ungrateful disservice.

[GGGG]

Luke was not very good.  I would take Theo over Luke.

Luke was a competent interior scorer who would have been a nice option to counter the defenses that are pushed way out on our guards.  We don't have that now.

John may have the higher ceiling.

[1SE]

If you read this board you come away with the impression that MU has never lost a game in its 101-year history.

When the "lose" a game, it has nothing to do with the other team playing well, it has nothing to do with our guys not playing well, it is always the coaching staff.  So in 101 years, we have had two outcomes to every game ... win or our coaches don't know what they are doing.

Look what we are arguing here .. Ponds single-handily beat Duke and Nova (in Philly!).  In the last week, he has looked like the national player of the year.

Then he drops 44 on MU, a new home record for St. Johns.  Can we tip our hat and just say "wow" he played great and deserved to win.  No, on MUscoop the other team is irrelevant.  MU has the ability to beat the  Golden State Warriors if Wojo knew how to coach defense.  The other team, and what they did, never counts.

Hey Sand-knit, when Howard dropped 52 on Providence, did you think that was an average performance against an embarrassingly bad defense that caused that many points?  Did Howard just get lucky that Providence was the keystone cops on defense?  Or maybe, just maybe, Howard was simply awesome and no one was going to stop him.  So, why can't we say the same about Ponds today?

Here is my take-away from this thread ... Sant-Knit is an idiot.

But here's the problem, after Howard dropped 52, other teams sat up and said "wow, how do we let that not happen" and have made adjustments.

Ponds in no way sneaked up on anyone. In fact it was like he was flashing neon and blaring an air horn. And he still drops 44. We didn't have any real answer. No creativity. Just some hackneyed schemes any middle school coach could have thrown out.

Will we be a bit better next year? I sure hope so. But will Wojo exceed expectations with that team? Will Wojo exceed expectations with any team?

I think there are any number of coaches that could recruit as well as Wojo given the resources MU puts behind him. I also think there are better development/game coaches.

Barring a turnaround of epic proportions we are out of the NCAA this year. NEXT YEAR should be Wojo's hot seat year. And just limping into the NCAA next year shouldn't be been as "progress" because we missed this year. I'd rather roll the dice again than be mired in mediocrity.

 

[swoopem]

I keep seeing people talk about Ponds scoring vs Duke and Nova and say we shouldn't be upset that he put up 44 vs us, because he did it vs them. My critique against this is that, we saw what he did vs Duke and Nova, so we should have been more aware and been even more prepared because he had just done that in their past two games.  It's a game of adjustments.  Remember when teams weren't chasing our two guards off of the 3 point line and now everyone focuses their defense to not allow Howard and Rowsey get good looks at 3, that's what Wojo's focus should have been in this game, not allow Ponds to get going and throw everything he had at trying to stop him.  Oh, he's a good player, let's not try to adjust to having two game tapes the in the last week and see that this man is a one man wrecking crew, and just let him kill us as well.

I'm convinced we don't watch film

[GGGG]

When Ponds is hitting shots from the outside, he is nowhere near like Howard.  He can score from all sorts of places, which makes him tougher to guard.

It's much easier to make adjustments to Howard - you run him off the 3 point and you take your chances.  Sometimes he makes you pay like he did at Seton Hall earlier this week where he had more 2PAs (7) than 3PAs (6), a bunch of FTAs (10) and a bunch of points (32).  But more often than not he becomes completely inefficient because he is largely a one trick pony.

Ponds has much more well rounded offensive game.  Much harder to make adjustments.  I mean, this is the same Scoop that goes ape-sh*t when post defenders are hedging screens (you know...double teaming to get the ball out of a player's hands or at least slow them down) but then when we don't, and that player goes off, Scoop goes ape-sh*t over that.

[4everwarriors]

Hold Ponds ta 35 pts. And MU wins. Duzant seam sew hard. Scorin' mattas, aina?

[vogue65]

Hold Ponds ta 35 pts. And MU wins. Duzant seam sew hard. Scorin' mattas, aina?

It's impossible when you play him one on one. Why even try?

[bilsu]

I keep seeing people talk about Ponds scoring vs Duke and Nova and say we shouldn't be upset that he put up 44 vs us, because he did it vs them. My critique against this is that, we saw what he did vs Duke and Nova, so we should have been more aware and been even more prepared because he had just done that in their past two games.  It's a game of adjustments.  Remember when teams weren't chasing our two guards off of the 3 point line and now everyone focuses their defense to not allow Howard and Rowsey get good looks at 3, that's what Wojo's focus should have been in this game, not allow Ponds to get going and throw everything he had at trying to stop him.  Oh, he's a good player, let's not try to adjust to having two game tapes the in the last week and see that this man is a one man wrecking crew, and just let him kill us as well.

We do not have the personnel to cover a player like Ponds. He is quicker than every player we have. We start two guards under 6', Heldt and especially Froling are slow rotators, and Elliott and Cain have no muscle. I do not think other coaches in the Big East would be doing any better coaching our team. The team suffers from youth and lack of talent. Wojo's problem is team building. I hate to think how bad this team would be, if Rowsey did not transfer and Howard did not decomit from Arizona St.

[Stretchdeltsig]

We need to have a strong, intimidating rim protector.

[GGGG]

We need to have a strong, intimidating rim protector.

And ours was sick.  I mean, that's what Theo is and what he is even going to be better at with more experience.

[manny31]

Coaching definitely needs to improve, MU is not the most talented, but IMO defense is equal parts toughness and talent. We are lacking in both in both departments, I think toughness can be taught, ingrained?? I am not a Wojo hot seat guy but the way this season is going the seat is at least room temp going in to next year. Disappointed , March can be so fun.

[Goose]

Can Wojo Coach is still open to debate. Bottom line to me, they need better players. Talent level is no where close to the upper level teams. Talent overcomes coaching more often than not. We will see if the optimists are right a year from now. IMO, this team has zero business in the NCAA this season. Since we hit the “easy” part of our BE schedule they are 1-3.

[muwarrior69]

Mainly missing a post presence that can score.

..and guards that can defend.

[1SE]

If the problem this year is talent rather coaching then I don't understand why even more aren't on the Wojo hotseat wagon.

The roster dynamics have been discussed ad nauseum elsewhere. But the bottom line is Wojo should, at worst, have a team that is balanced across three classes. If what's keeping us down is being young, inexperienced and with a short bench, that's inexcusable. Especially with the resources we have available to recruit.

I've always been skeptical of Wojo's coaching, but if it's team construction that's even more blatantly on him.

What excuses are people going to roll out when we get some "unexpected" transfer next year, or one of our top 100 recruits not living up to potential, etc....

[tower912]

Probably become apoplectic and rage against the heavens some more.   

[Goose]

1SE

My point is that talent can overcome weak caching to some degree. I have my doubts on his ability to coach at this point, but lack of talent does not help the situation.

[Daniel]

Here’s my take-away:  we are 14-11 in the 4th year of the new regime.  I think 55-46 overall.  Is this where we all thought we would be?  Discuss.

[swoopem]

Here’s my take-away:  we are 14-11 in the 4th year of the new regime.  I think 55-46 overall.  Is this where we all thought we would be?  Discuss.

Phuck no. I was at MU 2006-2010 so I never missed a tournament. Granted I never made it to the second weekend but we were always solidly in (worst seed might have been an 8 against MSU my freshman year). I knew there was a rebuild to go through but I at least thought we'd be making the dance pretty easily by now.

I'm in Wojo's corner but my patience is running thin. It's been discussed many times on here that we should hire an old timer X's and O's guy as an assistant and I completely agree. The problem that I'm seeing is that we can all see the problems/solutions so vividly but the people actually calling the shots don't see the same and it's right in front of their face. It's just like watching an actual game. Everyone here probably saw those telegraphed passes yesterday or that Ponds was pulling up in front of Sam but no one did sh!t about it.

It's tough when your on your couch and can see what's going to happen or how to fix something but the powers that be don't do anything.

I do think we win the big east next year though

[brewcity77]

Here’s my take-away:  we are 14-11 in the 4th year of the new regime.  I think 55-46 overall.  Is this where we all thought we would be?  Discuss.

Of course not, but that's because we feel Marquette should be a contender every year. Going into 2013-14, I thought we could be a Final Four team before Vander left, and still thought we were a solid NCAA team that should compete for the conference title after he left. I think most of us thought we were better than we were because we're fans and focus on our team specifically. I imagine most of us felt the same way with Wojo coming in.

I felt this year should have been our first NCAA year. 2014-15 was a throwaway because of the coaching change. 2015-16 was supposed to show progress with Wojo's first true recruits. 2016-17 get to NIT. 2017-18 get to NCAAs. 2018-19 and beyond, be competitive again.

We were ahead of schedule last year, we look like we might have slipped behind this year, but we lost four significant contributors and are still in the mix for the NIT and a dark horse for the NCAAs, so I think we're about on par with what we should have expected, though I'm sure most would say they expected better (because as fans, we always do).

Next year was always going to be the rubber-meets-the-road year. Wojo will not only have his full team, but they will be experienced, he won't be forced to play two sub-6'0" guards, and everything seems to line up for a big season. If we are having this type of discussion in February 2019, it will be a serious concern. At this point, however, I think we are indeed about on track with where we should be and the jury is still out, but not for much longer.

[connie]

Phuck no. I was at MU 2006-2010 so I never missed a tournament. Granted I never made it to the second weekend but we were always solidly in (worst seed might have been an 8 against MSU my freshman year). I knew there was a rebuild to go through but I at least thought we'd be making the dance pretty easily by now.

I'm in Wojo's corner but my patience is running thin. It's been discussed many times on here that we should hire an old timer X's and O's guy as an assistant and I completely agree. The problem that I'm seeing is that we can all see the problems/solutions so vividly but the people actually calling the shots don't see the same and it's right in front of their face. It's just like watching an actual game. Everyone here probably saw those telegraphed passes yesterday or that Ponds was pulling up in front of Sam but no one did sh!t about it.

It's tough when your on your couch and can see what's going to happen or how to fix something but the powers that be don't do anything.

I do think we win the big east next year though

Apparently we have players that are so poor they can't stop telegraphing all their passes and a coaching staff that is so inept that they can't figure that out, much less put together x's and o's, but next year we are winning the conference! I hope you are right, but that's a hell of a lot of improvement that doesn't seem to follow.

[dbwarriors]

Completely agree that this team is soft. Surest bet in Vegas, any 50/50 ball, Marquette is not getting it. Can’t move feet on defense, can’t box out...the fundamentals taught in grade school. Have a real hard time valuing possessions and protecting the ball. Again, simple fundamentals. Can’t stand to watch anymore.

[WarriorDad]

Here’s my take-away:  we are 14-11 in the 4th year of the new regime.  I think 55-46 overall.  Is this where we all thought we would be?  Discuss.

I did not think this league would be as great as it is a few years ago, but it is great and continues to be so.  Coach Williams did not do very well his one year in the new league.  Wojo has had ups and downs, but having one senior and mostly sophomores and freshmen playing leads me to believe we will be fine.  I did not expect to be this young in year four, but I like who we have and love who is coming in next year with Morrow, Hauser, Bailey.  PG is the missing piece.