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 Sultan]

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.