Things on Wojo

[1SE]

1) Markus not playing within himself/within the team.

This was apparent as early as the offseason. A few of us mentioned then how Markus' tendency to "hero ball" would lose us some games. When he's in video-game mode, let him go off. When he's struggling, he needed to learn how to get others involved. Wojo needed to impress that mentally and have schemes for Markus "off nights".

2) Theo's foul trouble

So many of his fouls are coachable. You don't leave your feet young man unless ball is out of the hand and you're SURE you have a block. You don't over-contest easy layups when you have 3 fouls and are playing early in the 2nd half. Etc. Problems which contributed to...


3) Short bench.

Also pointed out early in the season that running our "big four" max minutes might catch up with us. Based on the last 5 minutes of the last 4 games it has. More about the reserves below, but getting in a few more sneaky bench minutes for Markus/Sam etc might have been possible if...

4) Running Cain/Bailey more

Jamal went from 17.2 minutes last year to 9.3 this year. Sure maybe he got passed on the depth chart, but the kid still has talent. I'd say a lot of his "mind game" has to do with the fact that he knew Wojo would pull him if he made one wrong move so he was walking on eggshells and tight as hell. But if he Wojo knew he wasn't going to get minutes and also saw JC was turning out to be a bust, maybe he should have...

5) Pulled the Elliot redshirt

I'm less certain about this 1) because I'm not sure Elliot showed anything last year that proved he would have been a savior and 2) I don't know that he was 100%. BUT, if he is going 100% in practice then given the short bench Elliot should have been back for BE play. That also might have helped alleviate...

6) Lack of creativity/in game adjustments Offense.

This one I think is one of the bigger shortcomings. Ok, so people have us figured out as a Markus first, Markus only team. Let's run some other looks - despite what some have said there IS a lot of talent on this team. How about a "big" lineup? Ed came here to play the 4 didn't he? Have we seen a line up of Sacar/Sam/Joey/Ed/Theo all season? If Sacar and Sam can get the ball up, what a nightmare match up. But even outside that, I think there were many times we could have exploited an inside game (Sam/Joey favorable matchup, feed Ed/Theo), especially when Markus was having an "off night". And there were times where we did that for a possession or two, but then even if it was successful, we'd go away from it. Not to mention the...

7) Lack of creativity/in game adjustments Defense. This kills me. Other teams have "figured us out" and can "disrupt us" but have we been able to do the same? It seems we haven't done much updating of our approach, we play half-court, no-switch, man, with Sacar defending their "star", irregardless of what's happening. But when someone goes off (especially an unexpected hero) we see no changes. Maybe some trap/double team? Maybe some full court press? Maybe even some zone? Have to be ready to execute some other D looks at a high level when the primary D isn't working

The tail end of this season is beyond disappointing. Yes we stole a few earlier we shouldn't have, but that's what has to happen for a "magical" season - this was shaping up to be that if we just could have taken care of business. Losing @V, fine. Even losing @SH I get. But losing two games to unranked teams AT HOME is awful. After that 12-2 start no way this team should have been anything less than 25-6, 14-4, BE Champ and a 4 seed. Even  AT WORSE shouldn't have been less than 24-7, co-BE Champ and a 5. We are now starting at a 6/7 seed. If we exit in the first round, Wojo's seat needs to get warm again. You don't get hardware for having had a nice regular-season stretch.

[muguru]

1) Markus not playing within himself/within the team.

This was apparent as early as the offseason. A few of us mentioned then how Markus' tendency to "hero ball" would lose us some games. When he's in video-game mode, let him go off. When he's struggling, he needed to learn how to get others involved. Wojo needed to impress that mentally and have schemes for Markus "off nights".

2) Theo's foul trouble

So many of his fouls are coachable. You don't leave your feet young man unless ball is out of the hand and you're SURE you have a block. You don't over-contest easy layups when you have 3 fouls and are playing early in the 2nd half. Etc. Problems which contributed to...


3) Short bench.

Also pointed out early in the season that running our "big four" max minutes might catch up with us. Based on the last 5 minutes of the last 4 games it has. More about the reserves below, but getting in a few more sneaky bench minutes for Markus/Sam etc might have been possible if...

4) Running Cain/Bailey more

Jamal went from 17.2 minutes last year to 9.3 this year. Sure maybe he got passed on the depth chart, but the kid still has talent. I'd say a lot of his "mind game" has to do with the fact that he knew Wojo would pull him if he made one wrong move so he was walking on eggshells and tight as hell. But if he Wojo knew he wasn't going to get minutes and also saw JC was turning out to be a bust, maybe he should have...

5) Pulled the Elliot redshirt

I'm less certain about this 1) because I'm not sure Elliot showed anything last year that proved he would have been a savior and 2) I don't know that he was 100%. BUT, if he is going 100% in practice then given the short bench Elliot should have been back for BE play. That also might have helped alleviate...

6) Lack of creativity/in game adjustments Offense.

This one I think is one of the bigger shortcomings. Ok, so people have us figured out as a Markus first, Markus only team. Let's run some other looks - despite what some have said there IS a lot of talent on this team. How about a "big" lineup? Ed came here to play the 4 didn't he? Have we seen a line up of Sacar/Sam/Joey/Ed/Theo all season? If Sacar and Sam can get the ball up, what a nightmare match up. But even outside that, I think there were many times we could have exploited an inside game (Sam/Joey favorable matchup, feed Ed/Theo), especially when Markus was having an "off night". And there were times where we did that for a possession or two, but then even if it was successful, we'd go away from it. Not to mention the...

7) Lack of creativity/in game adjustments Defense. This kills me. Other teams have "figured us out" and can "disrupt us" but have we been able to do the same? It seems we haven't done much updating of our approach, we play half-court, no-switch, man, with Sacar defending their "star", irregardless of what's happening. But when someone goes off (especially an unexpected hero) we see no changes. Maybe some trap/double team? Maybe some full court press? Maybe even some zone? Have to be ready to execute some other D looks at a high level when the primary D isn't working

The tail end of this season is beyond disappointing. Yes we stole a few earlier we shouldn't have, but that's what has to happen for a "magical" season - this was shaping up to be that if we just could have taken care of business. Losing @V, fine. Even losing @SH I get. But losing two games to unranked teams AT HOME is awful. After that 12-2 start no way this team should have been anything less than 25-6, 14-4, BE Champ and a 4 seed. Even  AT WORSE shouldn't have been less than 24-7, co-BE Champ and a 5. We are now starting at a 6/7 seed. If we exit in the first round, Wojo's seat needs to get warm again. You don't get hardware for having had a nice regular-season stretch.

You are spot on with all of this...I have beamoaned for the last couple years at least Wojo's lack of creativity..No imagination...if GT's Guards are going off like they were today, why not try something different?? How bout some full court pressure to make them get into their sets later and throw their offense off..How about a zone, to try to stop the penetration?? How about some traps...something...anything. Wojo has and seemingly always will "do what we do" with no back up plan if "do what we do" doesn't work. His post game show was very brief today...but he mentioned how they needed to play better defense, and that two Freshman Guards shouldn't walk into your house and go for almost 50..he's right...he's exactly right..but..what exactly did YOU do(Wojo), to try to help stop them from going off?? Sometimes "we need to play better defense" just isn;t going to cut it...how about you help them out by trying to do something different? Pisses me off so bad..

[skianth16]

Long story, short.... A good team has choked away the last 4 games. We have been exposed. On a national scale.

Any good will Wojo earned in the first 20 games has now been pissed away. He's in way over his head now. This is embarrassing

[Mike Deane's Seat Belt]

Long story, short.... A good team has choked away the last 4 games. We have been exposed. On a national scale.

Any good will Wojo earned in the first 20 games has now been pissed away. He's in way over his head now. This is embarrassing

Yes exactly.   The wojo apologists seem to have fallen off the map today ...... the whole u cant make players shoot well etc is not an excuse.  Exactly when CAN you put the blame on the coaching staff!???? Now.   Now is exactly when you can do that.   Complete gutless way to end the regular season.  Erase everything we did earlier ( which is looking more and more like plain luck) and the mu fanbase looking for blood now

[1SE]

You are spot on with all of this...I have beamoaned for the last couple years at least Wojo's lack of creativity..No imagination...if GT's Guards are going off like they were today, why not try something different?? How bout some full court pressure to make them get into their sets later and throw their offense off..How about a zone, to try to stop the penetration?? How about some traps...something...anything. Wojo has and seemingly always will "do what we do" with no back up plan if "do what we do" doesn't work. His post game show was very brief today...but he mentioned how they needed to play better defense, and that two Freshman Guards shouldn't walk into your house and go for almost 50..he's right...he's exactly right..but..what exactly did YOU do(Wojo), to try to help stop them from going off?? Sometimes "we need to play better defense" just isn;t going to cut it...how about you help them out by trying to do something different? Pisses me off so bad..

Yes, we should have well-practiced "change up" plans B and C on O and D that we can roll out if plan A isn't working. We never really have.

I'm in a weird time zone right now so haven't been able to watch any of the last 3, but I can't fathom the 18-0 run that lost the SH game... 

[warriors141]

If these pathetic performances continue into the postseason, then I think this year is the time to show Wojo the door. Markus, Sacar, Ed, and Sam ain't leaving their senior year. Koby ain't gonna transfer again. It's not like we are going to lose any "talent." Would be a perfect time to start fresh with a new coach. Maybe that coach can unleash one of our guys like Buzz did with Wes Mathews

[1SE]

Long story, short.... A good team has choked away the last 4 games. We have been exposed. On a national scale.

Any good will Wojo earned in the first 20 games has now been pissed away. He's in way over his head now. This is embarrassing

I'm not completely off the wagon. This can be redeemed in the post-season. If it will be redeemed remains to be seen.

If we only play two more games this year then I'm ready to admit I had the glasses on too early and the Dec-Feb stretch was the exception to Wojo's 5 years at the helm.

[4everwarriors]

Someone kneedid ta kick the GU guards in da MU82s tadey, hey?

[skianth16]

Wojo has had big opportunities this year. And he couldn't do anything with them. We dropped 4 in a row in a bad league. That's inexcusable. The end to this season is a disaster.

[RushmoreAcademy]

You all realize he’s not getting fired no matter how many angry interweb posts there are, right?  I mean, we all understand that. Are there people who really don’t recognize that or are you just blowing off steam?

[1SE]

If these pathetic performances continue into the postseason, then I think this year is the time to show Wojo the door. Markus, Sacar, Ed, and Sam ain't leaving their senior year. Koby ain't gonna transfer again. It's not like we are going to lose any "talent." Would be a perfect time to start fresh with a new coach. Maybe that coach can unleash one of our guys like Buzz did with Wes Mathews

I think Markus could graduate?

[warriors141]

I think Markus could graduate?

and go where????

try and average 30 a game in the G league????

[skianth16]

You all realize he’s not getting fired no matter how many angry interweb posts there are, right?  I mean, we all understand that. Are there people who really don’t recognize that or are you just blowing off steam?

He won't get fired. And he probably shouldn't. But he should be embarrassed about the end of this season. He got exposed. He has a long way to go. he needs to adapt and improve. The last 4 games have been terrible.

[1SE]

You all realize he’s not getting fired no matter how many angry interweb posts there are, right?  I mean, we all understand that. Are there people who really don’t recognize that or are you just blowing off steam?

I don't think anyone thinks he is going to get fired. Everyone is just pointing out that this is shaping up to be yet another "B-" season of Wojo... and that's the Peter Gibbons trap...

[1SE]

and go where????

try and average 30 a game in the G league????

Graduates with remaining eligibility can transfer... I'm sure Duke wouldn't mind picking up a sharp-shooter to come off the bench and Markus can pick up a Fuqua MBA and a national title...

[Mike Deane's Seat Belt]

If these pathetic performances continue into the postseason, then I think this year is the time to show Wojo the door. Markus, Sacar, Ed, and Sam ain't leaving their senior year. Koby ain't gonna transfer again. It's not like we are going to lose any "talent." Would be a perfect time to start fresh with a new coach. Maybe that coach can unleash one of our guys like Buzz did with Wes Mathews

That actually does make a lot of sense.  We would likely maintain the talent for next year and the recruits can be had with a good new coach.  I have no idea who they could get but i think two more losses in a row there should be a real long talk about possibly canning wojo.   

Biggest issue is the lack of quality candidates.  No clue who they could grab. 

At this point something crazy like d wade coming back might be the kick we need.  Hey at this point id try the experiment . 
(Above should be in blue ) but barely.   

[BM1090]

I won't respond to most of this, but by the time Greg was healthy HE made the choice to redshirt. You don't force him to play. That's a terrible idea.

I think 1, 3 and 6 are all fair.

[injuryBug]

Wojo needs to change up the offense to keep the ball moving more.  Down the stretch the ball has not moved much at all due to the hard traps.

Just before this bad stretch a badger fan texted me during a game and said how fun MU was to watch.  That was when MU played at PC and Howard had the groin issue and was playing more of a true PG and letting the game come to him.  He has forced things the past 4 games and has not gotten guys the ball in good positionto score.

Also I think Sam is bothered by the hip he has not looked healthy the past month

[muhoops1]

1) Markus not playing within himself/within the team.

This was apparent as early as the offseason. A few of us mentioned then how Markus' tendency to "hero ball" would lose us some games. When he's in video-game mode, let him go off. When he's struggling, he needed to learn how to get others involved. Wojo needed to impress that mentally and have schemes for Markus "off nights".

2) Theo's foul trouble

So many of his fouls are coachable. You don't leave your feet young man unless ball is out of the hand and you're SURE you have a block. You don't over-contest easy layups when you have 3 fouls and are playing early in the 2nd half. Etc. Problems which contributed to...


3) Short bench.

Also pointed out early in the season that running our "big four" max minutes might catch up with us. Based on the last 5 minutes of the last 4 games it has. More about the reserves below, but getting in a few more sneaky bench minutes for Markus/Sam etc might have been possible if...

4) Running Cain/Bailey more

Jamal went from 17.2 minutes last year to 9.3 this year. Sure maybe he got passed on the depth chart, but the kid still has talent. I'd say a lot of his "mind game" has to do with the fact that he knew Wojo would pull him if he made one wrong move so he was walking on eggshells and tight as hell. But if he Wojo knew he wasn't going to get minutes and also saw JC was turning out to be a bust, maybe he should have...

5) Pulled the Elliot redshirt

I'm less certain about this 1) because I'm not sure Elliot showed anything last year that proved he would have been a savior and 2) I don't know that he was 100%. BUT, if he is going 100% in practice then given the short bench Elliot should have been back for BE play. That also might have helped alleviate...

6) Lack of creativity/in game adjustments Offense.

This one I think is one of the bigger shortcomings. Ok, so people have us figured out as a Markus first, Markus only team. Let's run some other looks - despite what some have said there IS a lot of talent on this team. How about a "big" lineup? Ed came here to play the 4 didn't he? Have we seen a line up of Sacar/Sam/Joey/Ed/Theo all season? If Sacar and Sam can get the ball up, what a nightmare match up. But even outside that, I think there were many times we could have exploited an inside game (Sam/Joey favorable matchup, feed Ed/Theo), especially when Markus was having an "off night". And there were times where we did that for a possession or two, but then even if it was successful, we'd go away from it. Not to mention the...

7) Lack of creativity/in game adjustments Defense. This kills me. Other teams have "figured us out" and can "disrupt us" but have we been able to do the same? It seems we haven't done much updating of our approach, we play half-court, no-switch, man, with Sacar defending their "star", irregardless of what's happening. But when someone goes off (especially an unexpected hero) we see no changes. Maybe some trap/double team? Maybe some full court press? Maybe even some zone? Have to be ready to execute some other D looks at a high level when the primary D isn't working

The tail end of this season is beyond disappointing. Yes we stole a few earlier we shouldn't have, but that's what has to happen for a "magical" season - this was shaping up to be that if we just could have taken care of business. Losing @V, fine. Even losing @SH I get. But losing two games to unranked teams AT HOME is awful. After that 12-2 start no way this team should have been anything less than 25-6, 14-4, BE Champ and a 4 seed. Even  AT WORSE shouldn't have been less than 24-7, co-BE Champ and a 5. We are now starting at a 6/7 seed. If we exit in the first round, Wojo's seat needs to get warm again. You don't get hardware for having had a nice regular-season stretch.

What are the reprocussions for Markus?  Does he have a short leash or an irregularly long leash?  How about his performance in the clutch?  This year he’s 0-4 at the buzzer with the ball in his hands.

[1SE]

I won't respond to most of this, but by the time Greg was healthy HE made the choice to redshirt. You don't force him to play. That's a terrible idea.

I think 1, 3 and 6 are all fair.

Yeah, I think pulling the GE RS is the least convincing point - and who knows if he's really healthy/what conversations he had with Wojo. But if Wojo would have said "I'm gonna need you for 15 min/g to take this team to the next level and compete for a deep March run" I'd be surprised if GE turned that down.

[1SE]

What are the reprocussions for Markus?  Does he have a short leash or an irregularly long leash?  How about his performance in the clutch?  This year he’s 0-4 at the buzzer with the ball in his hands.

Markus is great, but every time the ball is in his hands you know he's going to try to score. Especially at clutch time. That makes us one-dimensional and is something he could be coached up on.

[BCHoopster]

Offense is stale, same plays all the time, Defense you need a second D besides man, trap, zone, full court press, something.

now the last point, do the other players getting sick playing with Marcus, very little movement, lot of standing around?

[Its DJOver]

If these pathetic performances continue into the postseason, then I think this year is the time to show Wojo the door. Markus, Sacar, Ed, and Sam ain't leaving their senior year. Koby ain't gonna transfer again. It's not like we are going to lose any "talent." Would be a perfect time to start fresh with a new coach. Maybe that coach can unleash one of our guys like Buzz did with Wes Mathews

Well both Sacar and Ed would be eligable to be a grad transfer so they'd likely be gone.  Unless you promoted a current assistant (I,e, Stan) I think Markus and possibly Sam as well would rather take their chances going pro, even if it just means D league or Europe, rather than start under a different coach.  A core of Koby, Greg, Brendan, Joey, and Theo would probably not be a NIT team.

The fact that when Crean left Buzz was a current assistant that had previous head coaching experience, and none of the amigos could transfer and play immediately was a perfect storm.  As bad as he's been these last 4 games, dismissal of Wojo now, would mean another 3 years (minimum) of rebuilding.

[TAMU, Knower of Ball]

Y'all can all fantasize about firing Wojo after this season all you want, it's not happening.

I'd also imagine that even if it were possible that he was fired after this season, the decision makers would wait to see how the postseason goes eh?

[BM1090]

As stated elsewhere, if you fire a guy who has shown a consistent upward trajectory over 5 years and had his best year in year 5, you aren't going to find many willing takers for the job.