Buffalo #25........Marquette #24. AP top 25

[vogue65]

The pre-game of the season.

[alexius23]

Underwhelmed so far. Long periods of scoring drought. Sometimes it looks as if the players are in sync yet... (not a Boy Band reference)

[geps]

Dammit kiss of death for IU game.

[leever]

Toughest non-conference schedule ever?

[PGsHeroes32]

Underwhelmed so far. Long periods of scoring drought. Sometimes it looks as if the players are in sync yet... (not a Boy Band reference)

Granted the opponents have been weak(not absolute bottom of the barrel tho) but I'm a fan of underwhelming being complete cruise control that sees us averaging just shy of 80 ppg and allowing just barely over 50 ppg in 2 games.

Things definitely need to be improved on or Indiana could smack us up. But I like that we have a team where underwhelming is still a blow out and not a down to the wire cupcake

[tower912]

I ages with alexius.  Offense is not in sync.  The defensive effort, however, is to be commended.   Offensively, a lot of new players figuring out their roles and each other.   The ceiling is very high.

[THRILLHO]

I ages with alexius.  Offense is not in sync.  The defensive effort, however, is to be commended.   Offensively, a lot of new players figuring out their roles and each other.   The ceiling is very high.

If someone told me they've so far exclusively worked on defense in practice and for offense Wojo just told Markus to "go get buckets" it would explain a lot. With the weapons we have and the last few years, I feel confident the offense will come together. But if we hadn't seen good signs from the D to this point there would be serious concern. So I think we're in a good place now where if the offense clicks even a little bit better this could be a top 15 team. Cutting turnovers down alone would make a massive difference in how it looks.

[79Warrior]

I ages with alexius.  Offense is not in sync.  The defensive effort, however, is to be commended.   Offensively, a lot of new players figuring out their roles and each other.   The ceiling is very high.

IU game will be a interesting early early test.

[jesmu84]

IU. Buffalo. Kstate. Tennessee/Louisville. Wisconsin. Kansas.

Is this the hardest non-con schedule ever? Gotta be up there, I would think.

[Marcus92]

Based on the three open practices, the team has focused on both sides of the ball.

Certain drills emphasize fighting through screens, defensive rotations or switching. Others are designed to teach transition offense, pick and roll or ball movement. There's also some individual instruction for perimeter players (like running to a point on the three-point line for a catch-and-shoot) and big men (establishing position/receiving entry passes/making post moves).

During the scrimmages, the staff has tried out every possible combination of players -- while monitoring things like turnovers and uncontested shot attempts.

I'm not worried about the offense in the least. After finishing #8 and #12 in the country in offensive efficiency during the past 2 seasons (per KenPom), Wojo has proven he knows how to get plenty of scoring from the roster. What we haven't seen yet is better defense against real competition.

[tower912]

I'm not worried about the offense long term, either.   

[Floorslapper]

I'd say the season is playing out as we can expect:

Better defensively, not as elite offensively.  It's the Rowsey effect (on both sides of that equation.)

I suspect you'll see this pattern play out over the course of the year.  I do feel our offense isn't going to look much better than it has thus far, as we get into playing better teams. 

[tower912]

I disagree.  As Joey and Bailey adjust, some of those turnovers become assists.  Chartouny will adjust.   MU shot well Saturday.  The glitch was 22 turnovers.  Those will drop as everybody gets comfortable.

[D'Lo Brown]

I disagree.  As Joey and Bailey adjust, some of those turnovers become assists.  Chartouny will adjust.   MU shot well Saturday.  The glitch was 22 turnovers.  Those will drop as everybody gets comfortable.

Yep. I don't see the game quite as well as many of you but my humble opinion is that they are still learning to compete with each other. It's one thing to practice together, do homework together, party together, or whatever. That forms bonds, which is great. But competing in actual games at full speed presents plenty of unique challenges. Including being on the bench for long stretches, either by your not starting off well or your teammate starting off well.

How things will shake out in terms of the rotation, is clearly still up in the air. I think they will eventually settle in more and get comfortable once their roles are more clear. And I'm 100% in favor of Wojo continuing with the plan of basically having a wide open competition for those roles, even over the next month or so. Give everyone a shot to define what their role is going to be and then start to whittle things down as the season goes along.

[Dish]

I won't pretend it's apples/apples, but this non-con schedule reminds me a bit of the 93/94 teams. I loved that MU team, that season sealed the deal for my college decision.

I had to look up some of these as I couldn't remember all of them, but that year MU played (and lost to) a pretty good Washington State team, MU lost in the title game of the Blue/Gold Classic to Green Bay. MU played ranked teams in Illinois (home), Wisconsin (road), and Arizona (road). MU beat a lousy Ohio State team and average WVU team at home. They lost at home to the Irish, won at an average Va Tech team, and closed it out with a win over UWM at home. There were some other non-con games in there as well, but Wisky/Illini/Zona were all roughly top 15 teams that season.

[skianth16]

I ages with alexius.  Offense is not in sync.  The defensive effort, however, is to be commended.   Offensively, a lot of new players figuring out their roles and each other.   The ceiling is very high.

The ceiling is definitely high, but until roles are formed and guys know where they fit in, we might still see some groan-worthy stumbles (ie- 20+ turnovers to a sub-200 RPI team). From what we've seen so far, and from the way Wojo talks about the team-first mentality of this group, it looks like everyone is willing to play the role that is needed for the team to win. As long as that mentality remains consistent, there is a lot of upside for this group.

In addition to the players finding their roles, Wojo needs to be able to help with this process and understand what lineups work best in certain scenarios. He's probably adjusting on the fly just as much as the players and will likely need some time to feel confident about which pieces need to go where and when. There's still a lot of time to figure it out before conference play, but with our upcoming schedule, the learning curve could be steep.

[fjm]

The ceiling is definitely high, but until roles are formed and guys know where they fit in, we might still see some groan-worthy stumbles (ie- 20+ turnovers to a sub-200 RPI team). From what we've seen so far, and from the way Wojo talks about the team-first mentality of this group, it looks like everyone is willing to play the role that is needed for the team to win. As long as that mentality remains consistent, there is a lot of upside for this group.

In addition to the players finding their roles, Wojo needs to be able to help with this process and understand what lineups work best in certain scenarios. He's probably adjusting on the fly just as much as the players and will likely need some time to feel confident about which pieces need to go where and when. There's still a lot of time to figure it out before conference play, but with our upcoming schedule, the learning curve could be steep.

Yep agreed. If we can bring down the amount of TO's that would be huge. Too bad we don't have a few more cupcakes up front with this crew. But they'll be fine I think.