Please tell me it's all going to be allright...

[DonCornholeone]

Please?  I need to hear why.  Please tell me that we are going to beat UConn on Sunday?  Please tell me that not only will Tom Crean plan to never again be caught without a top-notch backup PG, that he will not be caught again in this brutal Big East schedule without several contributing players larger or as large as 6'7" 225 LBS?  Please tell me he has plans, please tell me he has ins on several top 75 guys who are large, thick, can move and rebound?  Please tell me all of these things will come true, because Team Shrimp, no matter how gifted, cannot do this in the Big East. Please, please, please... say it's all going to be allright?

[muhoosier260]

it will be alright. don't even try to turn this into a crean bashing, saying player size cost the game. the zone (AGAIN) threw them off, but 0-12 from downtown, 17-56 from the field, including missed layups, missed layups and missed layups is not TC's fault. MU just stunk tonight. 19 points @ halftime, we made the big ten look like a competent conference. MU wouldn't have beaten any of the 15 teams in the Big East tonight, its tough when you shoot 30% from the field. This had nothing to do with size

[DonCornholeone]

Nothing to do with size?  Please.  Take a look at every single team in this league this year that will be competitive.  4-5 guys 6'7 or larger who contribute.  Who stand, arms high, in the lane when our boys drive, jump, see that in front of them and it changes their shot.  How many times did we see that happen tonight?

Also, I was not bashing Crean.  I was merely stating he has been deficient in getting the big sized players that are required to be top 3 in this league.  That's just science right there.

[LastWarrior]

To quote Michael Scott... "It's alllll gooood!!"

[DonCornholeone]

Fact:  Louisville's 4 big men who contribute went 20 of 30 from the field tonight because THERE WAS NO ONE DOWN THERE TO STOP THEM.

[IAmMarquette]

Take a look at every single team in this league this year that will be competitive.  4-5 guys 6'7 or larger who contribute.

So now we won't be competitive in the conference...?

[MUFanInGreenBay]

Take a look at every single team in this league this year that will be competitive.  4-5 guys 6'7 or larger who contribute.

So now we won't be competitive in the conference...?

We'll be competitive, but could easily finish in 5th, 6th, or 7th place. Nothing wrong with that if you look at where our recruiting is rated against other Big East teams. Our recruitng is middle of the pack at best when you look at UCONN, Syracuse, Louisville, G-town, Pitt, and even Villanova and Notre Dame's recruiting. Those teams all have more highly ranked players than we do.

[mu_hilltopper]

MU wouldn't have beaten any of the 15 teams in the Big East tonight, its tough when you shoot 30% from the field. This had nothing to do with size

Exactly correct.  Enough with the "size" line.  If you can't shoot, you can't win.  MU's FG% was terrible tonight.  No amount of inches or pounds would have helped.

[4everwarriors]

ultimately it is his fault. Afterall, it is his program. He recruits the players, sets the schedule, prepares the game plan, and drives the bus. He wanted to control all aspects of MU hoops and he's got it for better or worse. He's the main dude, the Man.

[muhoosier260]

Hahah, agreed 4ever, Crean would have no problem driving back from Louisville tonight straight through considering all the D. Pepsi he was chugging and modeling on camera tonight.
But seriously, cornholeone, jumping ship b/c we're 13-3? There's 14 games left in the reg. season. Pleeeeeeeeenty of time

[MUVOL06]

MU will be fine, they will beat UCONN on Sunday.  As long as their guards shoot well, they are a tough team to beat (despite the lack of anyone that can play the post).  UCONN hasn't been good the last few years, and shouldn't be too tough this time around.

[MarquetteVol]

Another MUVol...very interesting.

The Big East isn't for the faint of heart. There are going to be great wins, good wins, bad wins, horrible losses and everything in between. Butler lost at Cleveland State tonight. Butler is ranked ahead of us. There's a lot of parity in college basketball and only about 5 teams that are heads and shoulders above everyone else. But, we're a hell of a lot closer to those teams than many people think. In fact, look at the BE standings. Villanova is #21 in the country but 9th in the BE. Can anyone explain it? DePaul is 7-9 overall but 3-2 in the BE. Huh?

This ain't C-USA, boys - although, I do realize that Louisville used to be in C-USA. We went to Louisville and shot horrible, played terribly and managed to be down 4 points at one point in the second half. Louisville was picked ahead of us in many pre-season polls. They're finally healthy and look good. It's actually a miracle we kept it to 20, the way we were shooting.

IMO, the key tonight was that Louisville matched our quickness. Their defensive rotations were fabulous. In fact, they were as good as you'll ever see in D1. I disagree with TC, though. We should have taken more shots in the middle of the zone. The free throw line was available, and Wes and Lazar should be able to make a living from those spots. But, if we attacked more maybe we shoot some free throws...I don't know. I do know that Louisville rotated incredibly well on our drive-and-kicks, closed off the baseline and didn't over collapse the zone and expose the outside. Their gameplan was excellent and the executed it.

There's no time for mourning in the BE, however. We need to bounce back fast and find a way to rebound like we did last years in Storrs. If I remember correctly, we went there last year in desperate need of a win and Burke and Barro came up huge for us. I hope that can happen again. I am concerned that Thabeet is going to block 20 of our shots if insist on going straight to the rack every time.

[MUWeb7]

POLEASE... It was not size tonight that beat us. What'd we do againt ND? Let their big man score 29 pts on us? Whatever...we shot lights out against ND and blew them out.
If we even shot half as well as we did against ND we win this game...We shot like a bunch of 12-year olds who've never played bbal before. C'mon 0-12 from a Div I team? Thats pathetic. A 12 year-old could make at least 1 shot out of 12 beyond the arc. We straight up did not come to play tonight and L-ville did. We got our asses kicked. Hopefully we can learn from this and move on. Its just sad that we needed TWO EYE-OPENERS (WVU) this season to crank up the intensity. If we lay an egg at UCONN then we're done. One and DONE AGAIN. We NEED to learn to shoot when we're not at the BC. (first post BTW)

[MarquetteVol]

Let me know when you find a 12 year old that can hit threes with Jerry Smith and Edgar Sosa in his grill, and I will suggest to the staff that we recruit him.

Thanks for pointing out it was a tough shooting night for MU. It's awfully hard to discern such information from the box score.

[MUWeb7]

There were PLENTY of open looks from three that we missed tonight, I wouldn't give sosa and smith that much credit...(although they played really well tonight).

[DonCornholeone]

We passed up multiple MULTIPLE decent looks from 3.  Being down that much in that game, chuck frickin 30 3s.  There was nothing else they were letting us do and nothing else we could find.  If you want to run a guard-oriented offense, you HAVE to be able to hit 3s.  We took 12.  We hit 0.  There were plenty of opportunities for us to take at least double that amount of 3s.  This wasn't about size?  It was about our lack of size and our pathetic outside shooting.  50% against ND, then 0% against UL.  THAT IS INEXCUSABLE!  ABSOLUTELY INEXCUSABLE!

[PuertoRicanNightmare]

Come on, we're going to be fine. We imploded on the road. Big deal. If I were a betting man, I'd take MU in the rematch with the line likely to be around a pick 'em.

I will say that, in watching that game, I just think Louisville is better than we are. Of the three Big East games where we played poorly (WV, SH and Louisville), it was the first time I thought our energy was equal to that of our  opponents, but we just weren't up to the task. Against WV and SH we were just lethargic. Against Louisville, we just couldn't get our heads on straight. It was like watching another team.

I also think that, with our first true national game, some of our guys let their personal goals get the best of them. Not that they did anything in particular, but their desire to be noticed added that little extra pressure resulting in some poor decisions and errant shooting.

We could also use some help down low.

I will still take my chances against Louisville in the Bradley Center.

[Daniel]

When we hit the 3s, our inside game opens up for our slashing guards.  teams will play zone a lot against us now, so we need to be working on picks and 3s so we can knock down our average - then we can beat most teams out there.

[only a warrior]

Tomorrow's game will be key to see what kind of heart this team actually has.  I know its tough to win on the road in the BEast, but lets see if they can make it competitive.  ???