Markus Howard Injury - What it shows about the team

[MikeDeanesDarkGlasses]

He didn't break his nose and he will be playing.  It's his senior season and nothing is going to stop him unless he does take another chicken wing to the nose.

[Stretchdeltsig]

Marquette crushed X with Markus on the floor and everyone else involved at home. Did you miss that game??

In this game Marquette was playing off Markus in the first half and letting others do their thing. Fortunately, when X made a run, Markus was there to answer and took they team into halftime with a six point lead.

How quickly people forget.

Right on. Howard was playing extremely well in this game until the injury. He showed leadership and great team play. He took over the game when we needed him to. 

[MikeDeanesDarkGlasses]

I'd imagine it's not as simple as a mask.  Part may depend on inflammation. 

Maybe this will be one of those magical flukes where he'll gain a special power as a result of the injury...better defense or an ability to create for others?  Or maybe not.

It might make himself look in the mirror and think again about  dribbling into a double team.

[WhoaJoe2020]

It might make himself look in the mirror and think again about  dribbling into a double team.

I wonder what it would take to get you to look at yourself in the mirror.

I'm guessing you might need a mask as well.

[MikeDeanesDarkGlasses]

I wonder what it would take to get you to look at yourself in the mirror.

I'm guessing you might need a mask as well.

[WhoaJoe2020]

Yikes , that's creepy AF!!!

[Shooter McGavin]

Good grief.

Gang, just enjoy last night. Warts and all.

It was a win.

It was an important win.

We're improving bit by bit.

Enjoy it and worry about the end of the season at the end of the season.

This

[Lighthouse 84]

Like who?

*whom

[Newsdreams]

This is entirely correct.  There was one stretch against Georgetown where Markus sat for a four minute stretch or so due to foul trouble and we moved the ball well and got layups and open threes and scored on all but one possession.  Not last night.  Our offense was pretty stagnant with and without Markus, but our defense was stellar and we made some big, tough shots when it counted.  Hardly an offensive clinic.  That was what gutting out a win looks like.

Unfortunately our defense was terrible, MU allowed Xavier eFG of over 50%.

[mu03eng]

Unfortunately our defense was terrible, MU allowed Xavier eFG of over 50%.

Our defense was just fine, eFG doesn't tell the whole story of the game. X has a season average 2pt% of 49.8%, MU held them to 43.2%....that's good defense. The eFG number is driven by X going off from 3 where on the season they are 30.5% but in this game shot 47.8% almost exclusively because a season long 25% 3pt shooter in Goodin went off (5 of 8 from 3). The strategy was to let Goodin shoot and pack the paint....he responded with a good shooting night, it happens. Doesn't mean the defense was bad, in fact I thought they were quite good.

[CTWarrior]

Unfortunately our defense was terrible, MU allowed Xavier eFG of over 50%.

Point well taken, but we held them to 12 points in the last 12 minutes of regulation.  That defense is what allowed us to force OT.

[MU82]

Our defense was just fine, eFG doesn't tell the whole story of the game. X has a season average 2pt% of 49.8%, MU held them to 43.2%....that's good defense. The eFG number is driven by X going off from 3 where on the season they are 30.5% but in this game shot 47.8% almost exclusively because a season long 25% 3pt shooter in Goodin went off (5 of 8 from 3). The strategy was to let Goodin shoot and pack the paint....he responded with a good shooting night, it happens. Doesn't mean the defense was bad, in fact I thought they were quite good.

Agreed. I was afraid they might get Theo in foul trouble and dominate the paint. Thank goodness my fears were unrealized.

No defense can stop everything. You have to pick your poison. X was extremely fortunate that a guy who had missed 20 straight 3s suddenly turned into Ray Allen, and that another sub-30% guy threw in the tying hoop from 30 feet at the buzzer after Symir played pittypat instead of fouling as instructed.

Unbelievable how lucky X was almost from start to finish in this game, playing at home before a capacity crowd, against a team that lost the nation's leading scorer ... and yet we still found a way to beat 'em.

Going back to the subject line, it showed a lot about the heart of Wojo's team.

[Lennys Tap]

Our defense was just fine, eFG doesn't tell the whole story of the game. X has a season average 2pt% of 49.8%, MU held them to 43.2%....that's good defense. The eFG number is driven by X going off from 3 where on the season they are 30.5% but in this game shot 47.8% almost exclusively because a season long 25% 3pt shooter in Goodin went off (5 of 8 from 3). The strategy was to let Goodin shoot and pack the paint....he responded with a good shooting night, it happens. Doesn't mean the defense was bad, in fact I thought they were quite good.

So if a team is held 6.2% below its 2pt% average that is  good defense.And if they shoot 17.3 % better than their 3pt% average that is also good defense.

We decided to clog the middle and give them the outside shot. Sound strategy given past performance. Sometimes sound strategies don’t work - a 50.5 efg% says it didn’t.

[mu03eng]

So if a team is held 6.2% below its 2pt% average that is  good defense.And if they shoot 17.3 % better than their 3pt% average that is also good defense.

We decided to clog the middle and give them the outside shot. Sound strategy given past performance. Sometimes sound strategies don’t work - a 50.5 efg% says it didn’t.

Never said the 17.3% above the average 3pt% was a sign of good defense....it was a sign of a team playing way outside their norm. On the season, MU has been solid at defending the 3 and X has been bad at shooting 3s, which is more likely that MU forgot how to defend the 3 or X had an outlier night?

As far as strategies not working.....did we win the game or not? did we win the game against Georgetown when we had our worst eFG% defense of the season? I get what the stats say but I would absolutely not change the approach we had against X if we play them in the BEast tournament.

[Markusquette]

Why would you pull some random guy's obituary photo?

[bilsu]

So if a team is held 6.2% below its 2pt% average that is  good defense.And if they shoot 17.3 % better than their 3pt% average that is also good defense.

We decided to clog the middle and give them the outside shot. Sound strategy given past performance. Sometimes sound strategies don’t work - a 50.5 efg% says it didn’t.

Three point shooting is a crapshoot. Watching the Iowa/Wisconsin game Iowa, a good three point shooting team, kept missing wide open threes. Statistically it looked like Wisconsin was playing good defense, but if you watched the game defense had very little to do with Iowa missing threes.

Watching Markus you can see great defense does not result in him missing threes and there are times when he is wide open and he misses.

A good offense will get open threes but the players still have to make them.

A good defense does not give the good shooters open threes. That does not mean the bad shooters will not make them.

[Dr. Blackheart]

Goodin hadn't hit a trey in over five weeks.  For a chucker like that, of course you don't guard him him much.

[Mr. Sand-Knit]

Agreed. I was afraid they might get Theo in foul trouble and dominate the paint. Thank goodness my fears were unrealized.

No defense can stop everything. You have to pick your poison. X was extremely fortunate that a guy who had missed 20 straight 3s suddenly turned into Ray Allen, and that another sub-30% guy threw in the tying hoop from 30 feet at the buzzer after Symir played pittypat instead of fouling as instructed.

Unbelievable how lucky X was almost from start to finish in this game, playing at home before a capacity crowd, against a team that lost the nation's leading scorer ... and yet we still found a way to beat 'em.

Going back to the subject line, it showed a lot about the heart of Wojo's team.

They did dominate the paint.  Theo 4 rebs while Jones had 15.  I like Theo but he is a horrible rebounder, compared to Jayce.

[tower912]

Goodin hadn't hit a trey in over five weeks.  For a chucker like that, of course you don't guard him him much.

Yup.   The last time he hit a 3 in a game, he was still wondering what he would get for Christmas.    Wojo played the percentages.   Clearly the reason MU lost this game.

[Its DJOver]

They did dominate the paint.  Theo 4 rebs while Jones had 15.  I like Theo but he is a horrible rebounder, compared to Jayce.

Eh, statistically speaking Jayce is one of the best rebounders in the country, a lot of players are going to look inferior to him.  Boards should also be viewed as a team stat rather than individual.  We out-rebounded them 42-40, and I doubt that Jamal would have gotten 9, or BB 8, if Theo wasn't boxing out.  Reminder that Otule was the 4th leading rebounder on the E8 team.

[MU82]

Eh, statistically speaking Jayce is one of the best rebounders in the country, a lot of players are going to look inferior to him.  Boards should also be viewed as a team stat rather than individual.  We out-rebounded them 42-40, and I doubt that Jamal would have gotten 9, or BB 8, if Theo wasn't boxing out.  Reminder that Otule was the 4th leading rebounder on the E8 team.

Excellent points. Theo is a presence in the paint, even if he doesn't get all that many rebounds himself. Quite often, he is taken out of rebounding position because he has so much responsibility as a help defender; sometimes he does take himself out of position by jumping when faked.