List of concerns

[tower912]

MU82 touched on it elsewhere, so I decided to start a new thread and try to keep it organized here.
1.   Guard depth.
2.  Joey and the freshman wall
3.   Theo and his foul trouble
4.   Rebounding against physical teams.
5.  How MU handled the press against Butler. 

[wadesworld]

1) Providence

[Tha Hound]

My number one concern is any matchup with a highly athletic team.

[We R Final Four]

But we’re winning, so why bring up all of this negativity?

[PGsHeroes32]

1) Providence

This shtick actually made me giggle a bit for once.

[ChitownSpaceForRent]

I'm not too worried about the press Markus, Sam, Joey, Bailey, and JC/Sacar should be more than enough.

I just think sometimes when you know you've passed the point of no return where the other team can't (or shouldn't) catch up you kind of relax a little bit.

[Mike Deane's Seat Belt]

I hope that was the case because for a minute or so i was like wait a minute this game aint over yet.   Was pretty scary how effective their press / trap game was

[Cheeks]

MU82 touched on it elsewhere, so I decided to start a new thread and try to keep it organized here.
1.   Guard depth.
2.  Joey and the freshman wall
3.   Theo and his foul trouble
4.   Rebounding against physical teams.
5.  How MU handled the press against Butler.

No doubt we could get blown out by the right team.  As much as our defense has improved, we are still slow a foot in key areas, foul trouble a concern.

Next year is the year if this team stays in tact.  Better depth, especially at guard and Joey becomes a sophomore.

[Its DJOver]

We struggled with the press last night, but I'm not overly concerned about it for a couple of reasons.  As many have pointed out, Joey is a huge part of our press break.  I also think that last night, we were anticipating being fouled almost immediately, especially Sacar considering his ft struggles, combine that with the fact that I think the refs swallowed the whistle a little bit (a lot of non-calls would have been fouls in the first 38 minutes IMO), and the result will be TOs.  We now have more film on how teams may press us, and we can develop a new or different press break.

[Benny B]

6. Fly or drive to Minneapolis

[tower912]

6. Fly or drive to Minneapolis

Shut it down.

[GB Warrior]

Mr. Hauser, TEAR DOWN THIS WALL

[Dr. Blackheart]

6. Fly or drive to Minneapolis

Cha Ching

[TAMU, Knower of Ball]

Solid list. I'd add 6) Opponents with athletic guards and long wingspans

[Jockey]

MU82 touched on it elsewhere, so I decided to start a new thread and try to keep it organized here.
1.   Guard depth.
2.  Joey and the freshman wall
3.   Theo and his foul trouble
4.   Rebounding against physical teams.
5.  How MU handled the press against Butler.

You covered it very well.

The other concern I would add is tall, athletic teams.

[muwarrior69]

Joey's defense has been pretty good. It's his offense that has been lacking.

[TAMU, Knower of Ball]

Joey's defense offense has been pretty good. It's his offensedefense that has been lacking.

FIFY

Joey's defense has been dreadful all season. His offense was great and is now not so great. Though last night I thought he was fine, had some very nice assists and a few good post moves. Needs to find his shooting touch again.

[muwarrior69]

FIFY

Joey's defense has been dreadful all season. His offense was great and is now not so great. Though last night I thought he was fine, had some very nice assists and a few good post moves. Needs to find his shooting touch again.

You would know better than me. I guess his shooting his has been so poor that his defense has looked pretty good.

[Mr. Sand-Knit]

FIFY

Joey's defense has been dreadful all season. His offense was great and is now not so great. Though last night I thought he was fine, had some very nice assists and a few good post moves. Needs to find his shooting touch again.

Agree Joeys defense is really quite terrible.  With that said i expect it to improve, sam was a poor defender, as are a majority of Freshmen.

[The Hippie Satan of Hyperbole]

It has actually started to stand out more and more how poor Joey's defense is because every team is attacking him now.  I mentioned this in another thread, but I would consider starting Cain and bringing in Joey later. 

[SERocks]

7.  Slow starts.

[HammerScreen]

My number one concern is any matchup with a highly athletic team.

+1

[CountryRoads]

7.  Slow starts.

Especially in the second half. Wojo’s face was pretty funny last night. Just a pissed off look as he pointed to the ground in disgust. Thankfully, they turned it around and played excellent for the next 16 minutes.

[wadesworld]

Wojo's had to take a number of early timeouts in the second half to light into the team.  Maybe when the team comes to the bench as the halftime clock is winding down he should just go off on them and they'll start the half off on fire.

[BallBoy]

We struggled with the press last night, but I'm not overly concerned about it for a couple of reasons.  As many have pointed out, Joey is a huge part of our press break.  I also think that last night, we were anticipating being fouled almost immediately, especially Sacar considering his ft struggles, combine that with the fact that I think the refs swallowed the whistle a little bit (a lot of non-calls would have been fouls in the first 38 minutes IMO), and the result will be TOs.  We now have more film on how teams may press us, and we can develop a new or different press break.

I am not overly concerned on this either.  First in that 2 minute stretch MU only had 2 turnovers and after the initial wave of the press they started to break it down and Butler reverted to fouling.  MU made most of its free throws.  With a press like that I expect a period of adaptation.  Also in that stretch MU only only a net negative of 5 total points.  It would have been less except for some missed free throws.  MU gave up just as many points on offensive rebounds then they did on TOs which also accounted for the delta in points.

[TAMU, Knower of Ball]

Agree Joeys defense is really quite terrible.  With that said i expect it to improve, sam was a poor defender, as are a majority of Freshmen.

Agreed. There's no reason to think he won't improve on that end with time.

[brewcity77]

1) Providence

If we beat Providence, we lock up no worse than the 2-seed in the Big East Tournament.

[🏀]

1) Providence

God I hate you, but damn I respect your consistency.

[willie warrior]

FIFY

Joey's defense has been dreadful all season. His offense was great and is now not so great. Though last night I thought he was fine, had some very nice assists and a few good post moves. Needs to find his shooting touch again.

Agreed. His defense has been well below average this year. he has many areas that need improvement. Cain should be getting at least 10 of his minutes each game. Bailey cant shoot so he should not be getting those minutes.

[wadesworld]

If we beat Providence, we lock up no worse than the 2-seed in the Big East Tournament.

Biggest game of the season.  A win at Providence also makes Nova basically a gravy game.  Lose it and you still control your own destiny for at least a share of the BE title.  Win it and you basically wrap up the BE title.

[Bad_Reporter]

6. Sacar’s free throw shooting

[TAMU, Knower of Ball]

Agreed. His defense has been well below average this year. he has many areas that need improvement. Cain should be getting at least 10 of his minutes each game. Bailey cant shoot so he should not be getting those minutes.

I mean until recently Cain couldn't shoot either and wasn't playing much better defense than Joey. I'm loving the last two games of Cain but I'm not ready to crown him over Joey or Bailey.

[MULaw14]

Maybe a bit general, but being strong with the ball and dribble penetration would be tops for me. When we play the athletic physical teams like SJ, it’s pretty evident that only Markus and Sacar can get in the paint on their own off the dribble when the team isn’t hitting from outside. Joey (and Sam to a much smaller degree) have some room to improve in this aspect and help carry the load in these types of games...seeing Jamal bounce around these last 2 games could go a loooong way come March if he keeps this little streak of looking to attack consistently.

Hard to complain about much, but it’s refreshing to only nitpick...even more refreshing is that our overall defensive competency is nowhere to be found on this kind of thread as opposed to years past. Keep it going boys!

[Silkk the Shaka]

This thread is built on negativity

This has to be a top 5 scoop meltdown. Congrats!

[pbiflyer]

This thread is built on negativity

Let's face it. Absolutely everyone is ignoring the elephant in the room.

Biggest concern? The incredibly slow naming of the SOTG. I mean, will players even play hard anymore if they know that their spotlight may only be for a day or two? No SOTG yet for the Butler game. And this isn't the first time, even in obvious choices, the decision takes forever. If we don't win a national championship, it can all be blamed on that!

[🏀]

Let's face it. Absolutely everyone is ignoring the elephant in the room.

Biggest concern? The incredibly slow naming of the SOTG. I mean, will players even play hard anymore if they know that their spotlight may only be for a day or two? No SOTG yet for the Butler game. And this isn't the first time, even in obvious choices, the decision takes forever. If we don't win a national championship, it can all be blamed on that!

topper is picking up extra shifts at Arby's, lay off man.

[wadesworld]

This has to be a top 5 scoop meltdown. Congrats!

Top 5? Generous.

[TAMU, Knower of Ball]

This has to be a top 5 scoop meltdown. Congrats!

I turn off scoop for 5 seconds and I apparently miss some juicy drama

[MU82]

This has to be a top 5 scoop meltdown. Congrats!

Teal?

[mu_hilltopper]

Yeah .. see, um .. I'm a slacker on the SOTG thing, and the banner.  I do it maybe 5% of the time, rocky and Spiral (?) do it the other 95%.  It's an HTML pain in the butt to edit.

Mostly, I'm too busy reading and posting in the NM thread.

[wadesworld]

Yeah .. see, um .. I'm a slacker on the SOTG thing, and the banner.  I do it maybe 5% of the time, rocky and Spiral (?) do it the other 95%.  It's an HTML pain in the butt to edit.

Mostly, I'm too busy reading and posting in the NM thread.

Way to throw your teammates under the bus.

[mu_hilltopper]

Way to throw your teammates under the bus.

I KNOW!  That's why I'm eating this beef n cheddar right now.

[MU82]

I KNOW!  That's why I'm eating this beef n cheddar right now.

Wait ... beef AND cheddar on the same sammich?

Whoa ... gotta get to this place you talk about so often.

Arby's is it?

[MUDPT]

Seeing the hard hedge last night, makes me worry for some defensive strategy against Markus that they aren’t prepared for.

The transition defense is also lacking at times.

[WarriorFan]

List of things that offset the concerns:
1.  Markus in cheat mode
2.  Solid Sam
3.  Finding different ways to win every game
4.  Depth in the frontcourt
5.  An 8th man as good as Cain??????
6.  Team unity

[MU82]

List of things that offset the concerns:
1.  Markus in cheat mode
2.  Solid Sam
3.  Finding different ways to win every game
4.  Depth in the frontcourt
5.  An 8th man as good as Cain??????
6.  Team unity

I like it, WF! Plenty of others, too, including an outstanding coach, only a matter of time before Joey comes back around, a doggone good D anchored by a shotblocker, experience at every position and on the bench, etc etc, etc.

[Slim]

7. Will there ever be a game in which Sam has a dunk AND Joey has a block again?

[g0lden3agle]

Biggest game of the season.  A win at Providence also makes Nova basically a gravy game.  Lose it and you still control your own destiny for at least a share of the BE title.  Win it and you basically wrap up the BE title.

How dare you talk about Nova and controlling our own destiny! We're about to start the 27th one game season of the year and the only thing that matters is Providence

[wadesworld]

How dare you talk about Nova and controlling our own destiny! We're about to start the 27th one game season of the year and the only thing that matters is Providence

Right. Read the post. Providence game is the biggest game of the season.

[g0lden3agle]

Right. Read the post. Providence game is the biggest game of the season.

Should have just stopped there. No point in wasting any energy typing anything other than that the next game is the most important. Nothing else matters!!!

[wadesworld]

Should have just stopped there. No point in wasting any energy typing anything other than that the next game is the most important. Nothing else matters!!!

Agreed.  Nobody's ever won a National Championship without winning a first round game.

[warriorchick]

7.  We will make a deep tourney run, wildly exceeding expectations, and some Scoopers will kill my buzz by still find plenty of things to bitch about.

[mu_hilltopper]

7.  We will make a deep tourney run, wildly exceeding expectations, and some Scoopers will kill my buzz by still find plenty of things to bitch about.

Let me help you with that buzz kill right now:

8. The deep tourney run will make Wojo hot in many coaching job rumors, because of course.

9. We'll lose Wojo and Brian Wardle will be MU's next coach.

[TSmith34, Inc.]

After their recent poor run, I am now concerned Nova will be desperate for a win and play accordingly.

Also concerned with:
1) Brexit
2) That weird noise coming from the water heater
3) What the hell is this on my neck?

[Herman Cain]

The title of this thread reminds me of a something I would get from the Missus.

[MU82]

After their recent poor run, I am now concerned Nova will be desperate for a win and play accordingly.

The "desperate opponent" thing is usually overrated. After losing 2 of 3, wasn't Nova "desperate" to beat Georgetown? Butler was plenty "desperate" on Wednesday, no?  We should be just as "desperate" as Nova when we play them again, shouldn't we?

[warriorchick]

Let me help you with that buzz kill right now:

8. The deep tourney run will make Wojo hot in many coaching job rumors, because of course.

9. We'll lose Wojo and Brian Wardle will be MU's next coach.

You forgot one.

10.  Sure we had a deep tourney run, but we didn't win the National Championship, which means our team is a bunch of worthless losers.

[Mr. Sand-Knit]

Marquette, no different than other teams, has some warts.  I think the 3 pages of posts spells them out pretty well.
But the one thing that we do have that no one has does is Markus Howard.  He is like starting a game with an extra ten points.  All things equal we win by 10 points because of what Markus can do.  When we struggle or are having matchup issues Markus canjust go get buckets.  In collge basketball there are very very few guys that can just go get 20 every night, he can get 30 many nights.  That is such an incredible advantage.
Without Markus i think we are a top 40 team. We would have PG issues, 2g is mercurial, we are young at spots, under athletic, etc.  However, because we have a player such as Markus we have what no others have.  This huge difference vaults us into the Top 10-15.  We can go back and look at the Buffalo game, maybe KSU, @ creighton, Butler at home, villanova and im sure quite a few others where if we have even an all conference guard that averages say 16-18 a game we probably lose those games. 
At Georgetown is prolly a pretty good look of where this team is without Markus, yes we won but it was really really ugly and like i said prolly grades us out as a top 40 team but not much higher.
We have some concerns but we also have a massive trump card. Celebrate the contemporary!!

[MU82]

Marquette, no different than other teams, has some warts.  I think the 3 pages of posts spells them out pretty well.
But the one thing that we do have that no one has does is Markus Howard.  He is like starting a game with an extra ten points.  All things equal we win by 10 points because of what Markus can do.  When we struggle or are having matchup issues Markus canjust go get buckets.  In collge basketball there are very very few guys that can just go get 20 every night, he can get 30 many nights.  That is such an incredible advantage.
Without Markus i think we are a top 40 team. We would have PG issues, 2g is mercurial, we are young at spots, under athletic, etc.  However, because we have a player such as Markus we have what no others have.  This huge difference vaults us into the Top 10-15.  We can go back and look at the Buffalo game, maybe KSU, @ creighton, Butler at home, villanova and im sure quite a few others where if we have even an all conference guard that averages say 16-18 a game we probably lose those games. 
At Georgetown is prolly a pretty good look of where this team is without Markus, yes we won but it was really really ugly and like i said prolly grades us out as a top 40 team but not much higher.
We have some concerns but we also have a massive trump card. Celebrate the contemporary!!

I like the way you upgraded Sacar, even if the word doesn't really mean what you think it does.

Seriously, I'm not punking you. I appreciate your willingness to admit you were very, very wrong about him.

[SERocks]

But the one thing that we do have that no one has does is Markus Howard.  He is like starting a game with an extra ten points.

Markus = Kemba?

[Lennys Tap]

The "desperate opponent" thing is usually overrated. After losing 2 of 3, wasn't Nova "desperate" to beat Georgetown? Butler was plenty "desperate" on Wednesday, no?  We should be just as "desperate" as Nova when we play them again, shouldn't we?

Agree - I'd much rather play a team in a slump than one on a roll.

[UWW2MU]

You forgot one.

10.  Sure we had a deep tourney run, but we didn't win the National Championship, which means our team is a bunch of worthless losers.

Hey, some of us true fans just have high expectations.  If you find joy in mediocre results, such as a final four... that's your choice.

[Spaniel with a Short Tail]

[TSmith34, Inc.]

After their recent poor run, I am now concerned Nova will be desperate for a win and play accordingly.

Ahem