Two observations

[MU Avenue]

(1) I would rather see Dwight Burke in the game than Ousmane Barro. While not the most-skilled guy on the court, Burke seems to deliver more often and in more ways than Barro.

(2) We commit a lot of fouls in every game. Why? Is it that referees have it in for us or do we really break the rules much more often than our opponents?

[mviale]

two more:
1) we won
2) big men dont matter

[Final Four or Bust]

two more:
1) we won
2) big men dont matter

Remind me of no. 2 when we play gtown- or heck when we played uconn

[mviale]

It must suck to be highlighting the negatives all the time.

[ChicosBailBonds]

I thought Barro played fairly well.

[Eye]

I agree Chicos. Thought Barro played one of his better games of the season tonight.

[MU Avenue]

(1) I said Dwight Burke is a stronger player than Ousmane Barro. That's all. Barro has his moments, sure, but Burke brings more to the floor.

(2) Hard to argue with, "Big men don't matter." That's that, apparently. None of us should have concerns about our bigs. Who needs 'em?

(3) How is it "highlighting the negatives" to acknowledge that some of our upcoming games are against teams with outstanding big men? I thought Marquette taught us to face reality, not ignore or run from it.

[NYWarrior]

I agree Chicos. Thought Barro played one of his better games of the season tonight.

yes he did.  nice energy, was assertive as soon as he hit the floor.  needs more touches

[mviale]

sorry MU just taught me how to have a good time.

[EmJ5]

Another observation...
Did anyone notice Fitz's black eye? What was up with that?!

[Pago Warrior]

Other observations:
* James deserves the "Stud of the Game" but Matthews had a very solid game throughout.  Brought his game and a bunch of energy to the court
* Cubi and Acker handled backcourt duties well, allowing for guys like Matthews and Lazar to play more in position as wings
* Ooze and Burke stepped up fairly well tonight, particular Ooze in the early going
* Fitz - kind of more of the same, wish he would have been a bit more assertive with his shot but he was more in the offense this game than in past
* Only major sore spot is McNeal's poor shooting percentage early on, but then again, they all weren't bad shots (save a couple of those 3s).

[79Warrior]

Another observation...
Did anyone notice Fitz's black eye? What was up with that?!

Got slugged for not scoring again.

[Marquette84]

(2) Hard to argue with, "Big men don't matter." That's that, apparently. None of us should have concerns about our bigs. Who needs 'em?

(3) How is it "highlighting the negatives" to acknowledge that some of our upcoming games are against teams with outstanding big men? I thought Marquette taught us to face reality, not ignore or run from it.

Perhaps the comment was a reflection of the fact that this is the topic that never ends, even though a) there is nothing that we can do about the roster this year and b) we have beaten opponents who have much better front lines.

If you don't think we can beat a team with a good big man, then you should be pleased as punch with our performance this year.  We have FAR overacheived, beating no fewer than FOUR opponents who clearly should have beaten us based on the better quality of their front lines.

My guess is that you thought we had zero chance against Providence with their front line of McDermott and Hanke.  There is no way we could have taken WIsconsin, with three top 50 players on their starting front line.  I'm sure you had Notre Dame pencilled in as a loss, since we have nobody up front who could match up with Harangody, Kurz and Zeller.   You would have had to think that DePaul, with Kowlsahw and Green, would have taken us easily.

[mviale]

its all about who wants the game more and injuries.  Djames has been hurting since the Seton Hall game and we needed this one bad

[MR.HAYWARD]

mcneal was absolutely brutal in the first half turnovers and missed bunnies galore.  OMG! was that a bad half.  Singlehandedly kept Depaul in it.  Alos the two centers are what they are but we win by 30 with a competent big.  Koshwal just a freshman absoltuley wore those two out!

[NavinRJohnson]

Koshwal: Really, really good.

[Oldgym]

Koshwal: Really, really good.

Yup.  He will be no fun to deal with the next couple years.

As for Ooze...didn't get a lot of touches, but he made the most of his minutes.  Flew around the court, disrupted DePaul's rebounding a couple times, and played with attitude.  I felt better with Ooze in vs. Burke.

[mustever]

Koshwal: Really, really good.

Yup.  He will be no fun to deal with the next couple years.

As for Ooze...didn't get a lot of touches, but he made the most of his minutes.  Flew around the court, disrupted DePaul's rebounding a couple times, and played with attitude.  I felt better with Ooze in vs. Burke.

Koshwal maybe gone after this year,for sure after next season.He has NBA wriitten all over him.

[mviale]

The guy gets 6 boards in 13 min of play.  Is he really playing that poorly to not get the 27 min he averaged LY?

[robmufan]

another observation...

when did depaul basketball become the and1 mixtape tour?

[Thomas' Danish Delight]

another observation...

when did depaul basketball become the and1 mixtape tour?

besides that botched alley-oop at the beginning (hilarious btw), we were like a glass of milk and DePaul was Oreo's (esp Tucker) the way they dunked on us

[SGWarrior]

My Observations:

Oooze needs more minutes.  Brought some energy tonight, especially in the first half when we needed it. 

Cubes seemed to stabilize the O.  For some unknown reason Daveed was not getting hardly any minutes in the loses v. Ville and UConn.  Tonight he was real solid.  Cubes becomes extremely valuable, as in the first half tonight, when Jerel commits multiple TOs and can't hit a shot.  Cubes comes in, plays great D and some solid O.

James felt better tonight.  Still some lingering effects from the wrist injury, but played with much more aggressiveness tonight.

Looking forward to another big W Tuesday night.

[mu_hilltopper]

Funny this thread started with Burke being better than Ooze ... tonight was Ooze's best game .. since .. UProv, 7 games ago.  He did some nice things here and there, and minimal ball handling mistakes .. DePaul abandoned the zone shortly after Ooze's short stint of productivity ..

I was surprised Trend didn't get in, though. 

[Final Four or Bust]

my comment was simply absurd to state "big men don't matter" - maybe its my recollection of all our our undersized players getting their shots smacked away during some games. I didnt say we can't win- particularly against unathletic bigs, I said the comment was far too broad.  Don't read more into it- and heck the fact that some people have an issue with my reaction suggests they didnt see the x number of threads about lack of size after the last few games ( none started by me)

[mviale]

Bust - big men dont matter for our success. we beat some teams with formidable front courts and the lack of a stud big man didnt hurt us in these games.
1) Wisconsin
2) Providence
3) Notre Dame
4) Depaul

Our losses to Uconn, WVU, Duke, & Louisville were due to road game situations where the big 3 couldnt get their game together and one could argue Duke could have gone either way. At home, these losses may have converted into wins.

So "big men dont matter" to us, its more about game preparation and relearning how to win on the road.  I refuse to excuse our deficiencies by saying if we had a big man we would be undefeated.