Dolphin chum

[tower912]

1.  Koby, slow down and calm down.  You hurt your team tonight.
2.  So much sloppiness and carelessness.
3.  This would have been the night to go to the zone.
4.  I loved seeing MU playing physically.  I wish they would be smarter with it.
5.  Because stupid fouls kept us from seeing what Symir could have done in 20 minutes.  The ball moved really well when he was on the court.  He looks very comfortable with the ball.
6.  I found myself wondering who would be on the floor at the end due to attrition.
7.  I guess Greg is in good enough shape to play big minutes.   Phew.
8.  Cain played well in extended minutes.  Good to see him and Bailey together.
9.  Bigs all had nice moments against a smaller team.
10.  Thank goodness it was a cupcake.
11.  Markus looks like he will be ready Saturday.   He was missed.
12.  No flow to this game.  Tough to watch at times

[ChitownSpaceForRent]

13. Turn on the DePaul game instead.

[tower912]

Eastern Time Zone.  Up for work in 6 hours.  I don't stay up for DePaul.

[dgies9156]

We tried to do a lot of different things tonight. Much of that led to sloppy play and turnovers. Probably not as concerned about many of them because they were testing things out.

Glad to see the team working the ball inside. Doing that will take the pressure off shooters and provide a more balanced attack.

Finally, I really wonder how hurt Markus was and whether Coach Wojo was using tonight to try to see, "what if..." Big risk if it didn't work but everyone stepped up nicely.

On to Manhattan and let's win there!

[nyg]

Koby ended up 1 for 8, 3 turnovers and 5 fouls.

Last five games he is 7 for 37 (18%).  That includes Robert Morris and Jacksonville games, not good.  Something better start clicking with him soon, like before Saturday. 

[brewcity77]

Games like this hurt your seeding in March. Not in isolation, but when combined with blowout losses, any wins by less than the projected margin hurt you. We should've won that by 30+. That second half was as bad as any half this season. Every possession matters in the NET.

[GoldenDieners32]

Love how we moved the ball majority of the game. Not complaining but only 3 assists in the 2nd half

[Markusquette]

Symir is a nice passer. He's behind defensively but he had at least two or three perfect kicks for wide open threes that were missed. I think the more opportunities he gets to shoot he will be a nice scorer too.

[mileskishnish72]

Liked the look of Symir. Our bigs will not have many such moments vs. higher-caliber teams.

[MU82]

I would have liked to have seen more of Symir. Too bad he got a couple of fouls when he couldn't stay in front of his man.

Koby is obviously pressing and frustrated. Getting the guy who torched Purdue back -- or at least a reasonable facsimile thereof -- is one of the most important things to accomplish in the remaining non-con games.

Otherwise, I'm mostly positive about what I saw from a group that played without a first-team All-American, played much of the second half without a PG at all, and ground out a win. Especially liked Cain, Sacar, Theo, Jayce, some Elliott and the confidence Symir showed offensively when he was out there.

[Mr. Nielsen]

Wojo said in the postgame. 2nd half was terrible.

[TAMU, Knower of Ball]

Games like this hurt your seeding in March. Not in isolation, but when combined with blowout losses, any wins by less than the projected margin hurt you. We should've won that by 30+. That second half was as bad as any half this season. Every possession matters in the NET.

We were projected to win by 19.5 before Markus got hurt. We won by 19 after Markus got hurt. I don't think this is going to move the needle that much come March.

[Uncle Rico]

We were projected to win by 19.5 before Markus got hurt. We won by 19 after Markus got hurt. I don't think this is going to move the needle that much come March.

KenPom had it as a 20 point win.  77-57 🙃

[CountryRoads]

Games like this hurt your seeding in March. Not in isolation, but when combined with blowout losses, any wins by less than the projected margin hurt you. We should've won that by 30+. That second half was as bad as any half this season. Every possession matters in the NET.

If we have to worry about whether we beat a cupcake by 19 or 20, then we are a loser program.

[brewcity77]

We were projected to win by 19.5 before Markus got hurt. We won by 19 after Markus got hurt. I don't think this is going to move the needle that much come March.

And that's the point. It should be able to move the needle.

Alone? No. But we have had some awful halves that have hurt our kenpom ranking. Since Purdue, the second half against Wisconsin, all of Robert Morris, first against Maryland, and second tonight have hurt us in the metrics. Despite big wins against USC and Davidson, we have fallen 15 spots.

And what metric does the NET most closely mimic? Kenpom? What metric did last year's seeds most closely mimic? The NET. Margins matter. Every possession matters. Big losses & narrow wins hurt our resume last year. This is a bad recipe for a team that should be hoping for a path to the second weekend.

[wadesworld]

Games like this hurt your seeding in March. Not in isolation, but when combined with blowout losses, any wins by less than the projected margin hurt you. We should've won that by 30+. That second half was as bad as any half this season. Every possession matters in the NET.

We'll be fine.

[Mr. Sand-Knit]

Win 20 games total an 10 in the BE and margins dont mean 💩

[Loose Cannon]

Koby ended up 1 for 8, 3 turnovers and 5 fouls.

Last five games he is 7 for 37 (18%).  That includes Robert Morris and Jacksonville games, not good.  Something better start clicking with him soon, like before Saturday.

Always better to be better.

[WarriorFan]

2 PG's with 4 assists each.  I'd like to see 3 with 5 each... but this is still good.

[The Sultan]

And that's the point. It should be able to move the needle.

Alone? No. But we have had some awful halves that have hurt our kenpom ranking. Since Purdue, the second half against Wisconsin, all of Robert Morris, first against Maryland, and second tonight have hurt us in the metrics. Despite big wins against USC and Davidson, we have fallen 15 spots.

And what metric does the NET most closely mimic? Kenpom? What metric did last year's seeds most closely mimic? The NET. Margins matter. Every possession matters. Big losses & narrow wins hurt our resume last year. This is a bad recipe for a team that should be hoping for a path to the second weekend.

It's fine. You worry too much about the small stuff. The problem is the continued sloppiness. Not the small impact on NET.

[brewcity77]

It's fine. You worry too much about the small stuff. The problem is the continued sloppiness. Not the small impact on NET.

The small stuff becomes big when you do it repeatedly. And the continued sloppiness is what has led directly to that impact.

[CTWarrior]

Love how we moved the ball majority of the game. Not complaining but only 3 assists in the 2nd half

Thought we moved the ball pretty well in the first half.  The second half it seemed like we decided it was time to either drive into traffic or chuck up a three.

[tower912]

The foul trouble took the two point guards off the floor for an extended period.   Well, Koby took Koby off the floor for extended periods.   Greg and Sacar had to initiate offense, something neither has done much of.   And then some just silly, careless turnovers.   Of course the assists were down in the second half.

[jsglow]

Goodness, some of you doomsayers must think we didn't win convincingly.   

Koby had a poor night.  And I'm not talking about his shooting.  He's an upperclassman.  Act like it son.

Jamal, Brendan, Sy, and Jayce all played well in expanded roles.  Sacar was solid playing multiple positions as the alpha dog.  The second half was a foul prone slop fest where guys were playing out of position because of foul trouble.  We've consistently seen too many whistles this season.  I hope it settles down.

[MU82]

Goodness, some of you doomsayers must think we didn't win convincingly.   

Koby had a poor night.  And I'm not talking about his shooting.  He's an upperclassman.  Act like it son.

Jamal, Brendan, Sy, and Jayce all played well in expanded roles.  Sacar was solid playing multiple positions as the alpha dog.  The second half was a foul prone slop fest where guys were playing out of position because of foul trouble.  We've consistently seen too many whistles this season.  I hope it settles down.

In 3 paragraphs, you summarized the situations nicely.

Need Koby to be better and smarter. Need Markus back. Go Marquette!