I’m not calling for his head

[WayOfTheWarrior]

We do seem to have big swings lately. Why is that? How can this team beat Creighton on the road and then play some badly against Depaul? Weird team to root for. Lots of ups and downs.

Would be nice to have prolonged "up" for about the next month, but I'll take the next 2-3 games. Baffles me too.

[Mods, Delete me please. 8/26/2020]

I'm not sure if the zone would've been the difference but Rowsey was getting abused in the lane by Cyrus.   An adjustment needed to be made there.   Having said that, name a time this team has shot this poorly.   And the rebounding was atrocious.    Hard for any coach to overcome that.   

[willie warrior]

I'm in the middle camp.

Today his coaching/adjustments were terrible.

Have thought other days he's been great.

Next year he will have a squad. Gonna have to prove the haters or the backers wrongs

Hopefully it's the haters

Yup, next year we will be really good. And the year after too.Aint no thang to lose to DePaul

[T-Bone]

I agree 1000%' I take all the credit I gave to Wojo for being adaptable.  We won 2 games playing zone, we have an injured guard, Rowsey gets 2 fouls in 2 minutes, and he keeps playing M2M.  This is all on him.

Huh?
Yes Rowsey got 2 early fouls, and he played Marcus.  What would you do? Camaction?

[tower912]

Played zone.  Didn't work.  Shot like crap. Lost.

[4everwarriors]

No he's not a poor coach.  That would have been evident by now.  Maybe not good enough though.  Time will tell.

Well, if he's not a poor coach, then the talent he brought in is piss poor, hey?

[GGGG]

Well, if he's not a poor coach, then the talent he brought in is piss poor, hey?

Nah.  It's inexperienced and incomplete.  You've got guys you can definitely build around.  Joey and Ed will make a big difference next year.

[1SE]

Small signs of life followed by laying a big egg has been a trademark of the Wojo era. Very similar to Kidd's tenure with the Bucks.

This.

[4everwarriors]

Concerned that other coaches are beating Wojo in the rematch game, save for SH and St. Johns. Talent hasn't changed. Therefore, others make adjustments while Wojo stands there and grasps his johnson.

[GooooMarquette]

Concerned that other coaches are beating Wojo in the rematch game, save for SH and St. Johns. Talent hasn't changed. Therefore, others make adjustments while Wojo stands there and grasps his johnson.

Ummm...in rematches where we split, Wojo is 1-2 (beat SJU, lost to PC and DP). Nova, X, Butler and SHU were sweeps, and GTown and Creighton are tbd.

If we lose both of those, you might be on to something.....

[1SE]

Why did Cain, Frolling and John get a combined 17 minutes? Might not have been the answer, but certainly playing a nowhere near 100% Markus for 31 wasn't either.

Try some different lineups. Make some adjustments. Feed the post. Again, that still might not have worked, but a good coach should at least try his hand with all the options he has in the toolbox.

What, exactly, did Wojo do that earned him his $33,333 tonight?

[connie]

Well, he gave us hope for next year.  That's worth something, right?

[79Warrior]

Nah.  It's inexperienced and incomplete.  You've got guys you can definitely build around.  Joey and Ed will make a big difference next year.

Ed will help rebounding. Joey is an unknown.

[willie warrior]

Well, he gave us hope for next year.  That's worth something, right?

Yup. the top mantra here is there is always next year, as each season flames out.

[Dr. Blackheart]

I'm on the Blue & Gold Shuttle, not a lot of blue & gold colored glasses here.

This. Those who say Wojo is on the hot seat are wrong.  Those who say it is ice cold are also wrong.

There was a very small MU Alumni Pre-game...say 50ish. Nice gig but tepid. Post game in the bars:  Apathetic to resigned.

This may be known as the game Wojo lost the alumni.

[Aughnanure]

Would be nice to have prolonged "up" for about the next month, but I'll take the next 2-3 games. Baffles me too.

I heard on the Real Chilly Podcast that Wojo has never won 3 Big East games in a row.

[denverMU]

Played zone.  Didn't work.  Shot like crap. Lost.
[/

I believe you meant.....Played M2M (fucking terrible as usual) Didn't work (SUPRISE! SUPRISE! SUPRISE! Jethro) Lost!

[wadesworld]

Played zone.  Didn't work.  Shot like crap. Lost.
[/

I believe you meant.....Played M2M (unnatural carnal knowledgeing terrible as usual) Didn't work (SUPRISE! SUPRISE! SUPRISE! Jethro) Lost!

We gave up 70 points, of which at least 10% came while we were intentionally sending them to the line to extend the game, and allowed them to shoot a whopping 37% from the floor. I'd say our defense worked very well, unless you were expecting to hold them under about 55 points and about 25% shooting. Then yeah, I guess our defense didn't work.

[Floorslapper]

We gave up 70 points, of which at least 10% came while we were intentionally sending them to the line to extend the game, and allowed them to shoot a whopping 37% from the floor. I'd say our defense worked very well, unless you were expecting to hold them under about 55 points and about 25% shooting. Then yeah, I guess our defense didn't work.

You can shoot 37% from the floor when you get 19 offensive rebounds, and send the opposition to the FT line 32 times.  And yea, I'm aware about 8 of the FT trips were due to intentionally fouling.  We got abused physically in this game.  M2M D with an undersized lineup is not the answer.

We used zone about 7 possessions today.  Major mistake.

[wadesworld]

You can shoot 37% from the floor when you get 19 offensive rebounds, and send the opposition to the FT line 32 times.  And yea, I'm aware about 8 of the FT trips were due to intentionally fouling.  We got abused physically in this game.  M2M D with an undersized lineup is not the answer.

We used zone about 7 possessions today.  Major mistake.

We gave up many more PPP in the zone than we did in man. Even with all the offensive rebounds, we would've given up maybe 65? Points if we didn't have to foul to extend the game. The defense was never the problem. Turnovers and missed shots lost this game.

[TAMU, Knower of Ball]

Woof. Think that was the toughest game of the year to watch. Other than that one crazy 50 50 ball that led to a Rowdy three, I thought we got out toughed on almost every rebound and loose ball. Hate seeing that. Bad loss,  no way around that.

I saw more issues with players than coaching today. Howard clearly wasnt 100%, Rowdy had zero success getting into the teeth od the defense and distributing.  Heldt and every guard was consistently out muscled on rebounds. Hauser and the frosh weren't hitting shots that they were the past few games.

M2M defense forced a lot of TOs but we did nothing with a lot of them. Felt like we played down to DePauls sloppiness.

I don't have the numbers yet but my eye test tells me that the zone was not effective today while the M2M was. I'll post numbers when they become available.

The rebounding was so frustrating. Conventional basketball wisdom says that zones are harder to rebound in than M2M. But those pointing out that we've been great rebounding in the zone aren't wrong. Is there something with our team that makes it easier to rebound in zone? Or did we just have really good rebounding games the last two?  Not sure.

Those screaming about Wojo playing the midgets together...We started the second half with just Rowdy on the court....the "lineup that won us the last two games." That's when DePaul went on its biggest run of the game. Wojo tried it and it didn't work this game. He tried a bunch of lineups after it that all had similar issues. It was a 2 midget lineup that finally broke our offensive slump and cut it to 5. We had a wife open three that would have cut it to 2 bur it didn't fall. Game fell out of reach after that.

I missed the first minute. We're Rowdy's fouls defending in the M2M?  Thought I saw someone say they were on a rebound and a daybreak.

Definitely room to criticize the coaching staff. Took too long to figure out how to attack DePauls second half defense.  Thought we could have used more Cain and Froling with all the rebounding woes. But this honestly seems more like a case of too many players having really bad games at the same time. Not one of the big three were locked in today

[Floorslapper]

We gave up many more PPP in the zone than we did in man. Even with all the offensive rebounds, we would've given up maybe 65? Points if we didn't have to foul to extend the game. The defense was never the problem. Turnovers and missed shots lost this game.

It was a combination of poor shooting on our part, and awful defensive rebounding.  19 Offensive Boards yielded was a major component to our losing.  I consider securing the defensive rebound part of defense.

What is your breakdown for this game on PPP zone vs man?  IMO, playing ~7 possessions of zone isn't enough.  We played it exclusively in 2nd half of Creighton game, with a lot of Cain in the zone, and they were .94ppp.  Cain had quick fouls in the game today, but he played 7 minutes.  His length is supremely helpful to the team defensively and on the glass.

I simply do not understand why Wojo would insist on playing M2M with both Howard and Rowsey on the floor together for a vast majority of the 2nd half.  Can you honestly say that makes any sense after what we observed the 60 minutes of game time against Creighton and St. John's?

[TAMU, Knower of Ball]

I simply do not understand why Wojo would insist on playing M2M with both Howard and Rowsey on the floor together for a vast majority of the 2nd half.  Can you honestly say that makes any sense after what we observed the 60 minutes of game time against Creighton and St. John's?

Those screaming about Wojo playing the midgets together...We started the second half with just Rowdy on the court....the "lineup that won us the last two games." That's when DePaul went on its biggest run of the game. Wojo tried it and it didn't work this game. He tried a bunch of lineups after it that all had similar issues. It was a 2 midget lineup that finally broke our offensive slump and cut it to 5. We had a wife open three that would have cut it to 2 bur it didn't fall. Game fell out of reach after that.

[Floorslapper]

We started the second half in M2M.  The formula is simple:  One of Markus or Rowsey on the floor, and the team plays zone...with a lot of Jamal Cain. Period.  End of story.  Cain played 7 minutes.

Wojo totally abandoned the zone today.  As chronicled multiple times, we are a train wreck rebounding out of M2M, have a much higher propensity to foul, and between the 19 O-Rebounds yielded, and 33 FTs given - you can't win a basketball game like that when your A-game offense isn't there.

[skianth16]

I heard on the Real Chilly Podcast that Wojo has never won 3 Big East games in a row.

And yet, according to some, he's the third best coach in the conference. Wonder how that works...