UCLA thoughts

[jesmu84]

1. Ball movement on offense? Lots of watching whoever is dribbling. Little movement/passing
2. Dawson needs to figure out quickly this isn't high school ball
3. Did wojo forget about Lewis?
4. The lack of getting the ball inside is troubling
5. Even more troubling is the continuing trend of TOs under Wojo teams
6. DJ had a solid game. He was the offense for most of the game
7. The refs did NOT have a solid game
8. We don't have much outside shooting talent
9. Listening to Bill Walton is something

[MUfan12]

Elite shooting, no defense.

Defense improves, no shooting.

Forever two years away from being really good.

[Ellenson Guerrero]

Credit to the Bruins and Mick. They stepped up their D down the stretch. Dexter needs to pretend he's playing pickup. Garcia needs to realize he no longer has a 7 inch height advantage. Game came down to getting in foul trouble and giving away too many possessions.

[DoctorV]

10. Entertaining game, with a Greek tragedy ending.

11. Markus isn't walking back through that door. 3P shooting will struggle tremendously compared to the past.

12. Due to #11, please start practicing offense Wojo. 6 total shots for Lewis and Theo in a game like tonight is criminal (I know they had fouls in the first but still) Go inside and often, go to Theo more, Lewis more, Dawson more.

13. 4 made threes in Omoha will lead to a 20+ point loss. Make more on Monday.

14. The return leg in 2021 at the FiServ should be fun, hopefully with fans

[nyg]

4 for 20 on threes, 0 for 11 in second?
18 turnovers
Carton with four second half points
Garcia needs to get way stronger with his putback shots, another one blocked tonight and missed a few others.
Theo had zero points

Does MU lead the nation in shot clock violations yet?

Maybe would have put Lewis back in over Theo in last four minutes, but who knows....

Jaquez is pretty nice player for UCLA.  He was the one who really hurt MU. 

[Norm]

Not a good omen for the next 4 games. Could be a pretty brutal stretch for MU coming up.

[jesmu84]

4 for 20 on threes, 0 for 11 in second?
18 turnovers
Carton with four second half points
Garcia needs to get way stronger with his putback shots, another one blocked tonight and missed a few others.
Theo had zero points

Does MU lead the nation in shot clock violations yet?

Maybe would have put Lewis back in over Theo in last four minutes, but who knows....

Jaquez is pretty nice player for UCLA.  He was the one who really hurt MU.

You must have missed Tyger

[nyg]

You must have missed Tyger

Just posted in game thread after a Brew post about him.  He was terrific, but that Jaquez was real good. 

[Lennys Tap]

1. Ball movement on offense? Lots of watching whoever is dribbling. Little movement/passing
2. Dawson needs to figure out quickly this isn't high school ball
3. Did wojo forget about Lewis?
4. The lack of getting the ball inside is troubling
5. Even more troubling is the continuing trend of TOs under Wojo teams
6. DJ had a solid game. He was the offense for most of the game
7. The refs did NOT have a solid game
8. We don't have much outside shooting talent
9. Listening to Bill Walton is something

Good summary, jesmu.

[5DollarPitcher]

Why did Lewis sit so much? Let him foul out of the game if that's what's going to happen rather than wither away on the bench.

Also - Markus Howard would be just what the doctor ordered on this team if you could convince him to (1) not be the primary ball handler and (2) take half as many shots as he did last year.

[jesmu84]

10. Oso impressed

[Silent Verbal]

Also - Markus Howard would be just what the doctor ordered on this team if you could convince him to (1) not be the primary ball handler and (2) take half as many shots as he did last year.

If Markus ever played a game for Marquette where he wasn't the primary ball handler and didn't get as many shots as he wanted, his parents would be so mad they'd have an entire section of fans kicked out of Fiserv Forum.

[BM1090]

Not a good omen for the next 4 games. Could be a pretty brutal stretch for MU coming up.

I'd bet we go 2-2 in the next 4, but Monday will be ugly.

[Carl]

14. Young team with a ton of potential has two "good" losses on their resume. All is not lost

[brewcity77]

Just posted in game thread after a Brew post about him.  He was terrific, but that Jaquez was real good.

Tyger managed the game great & defended Carton well down the stretch, but it felt like from the first time he came in, Jacquez made all the big plays for UCLA & scored the back-breakers. They had a number of quality contributions, but on UCLAScoop my SOTG vote would go to Jacquez.

[TAMU, Knower of Ball]

Honestly, was very pleased with the game until the under 8 timeout. That was a very good offense going against a very good defense and more often than not our defense was winning the battle. With Big East refs calling this game, we enter the last stretch up 10.

People will point to the turnovers and they aren't wrong...but they're not why we lost. They kept us from building a bigger lead before the end of the game...but in the critical stretch where UCLA won it, we committed 0 turnovers. The last turnover was the shot clock violation after UCLA had just hit 2 FTs to break a 56-56 tie. From that point on, we played turnover free basketball....but couldn't score.

I don't know this for sure, but I suspect during the under 8 timeout, Wojo instructed his players to attack UCLA's defense and try to win the game at the foul line. Not a bad strategy considering the way the game had been called. First offensive play after the timeout got Dawson to the line and a 4th foul on Jaquez. The next one was the shot clock violation. After that, 4 of the next 6 offensive possessions culminated in an attempted layup. Those 4 attempted layups resulted in 2 points (Koby's pocket pass to Cain) and 3 blocked shots. Credit to UCLA, 2 of the blocks were clearly clean and 1 may have been a foul but if it was, not an obvious one. Great defensive effort by UCLA to challenge those shots without fouling.

While I don't fault Wojo for the decision to try to win at the free throw line, I do fault the decision to keep Lewis out of the game. I think Garcia earned his time by playing stellar D on Chris Smith most of the night, but we needed offense and Lewis was causing Bruins trouble every time he touched the ball. Should have put him in for the last 5 minutes.

Love aggressive Carton. Get that dude for 32 minutes a game and we won't have many problems on offense.

Oso, way to step up when your number is called. Dexter, nice assist?

We are not a great three point shooting team, but we are better than 4/20. Cain had 2 wide open looks that wouldn't fall. Greg missed a pair of open looks he usually hits. Carton started with 2 makes and missed some clean looks after that. All 4 of Dawson's misses were in rhythm, one was 75% down before popping back up. We shoot even 35% from range tonight and we win the game.

Don't have to go too deep into the weeds to analyze this one. Foul trouble, turnovers, and ice cold three point shooting was the story. Great defense and rebounding can make up for two of those but not all three.

[wadesworld]

If Markus ever played a game for Marquette where he wasn't the primary ball handler and didn't get as many shots as he wanted, his parents would be so mad they'd have an entire section of fans kicked out of Fiserv Forum.

Wait. Did you just out yourself as someone who got into an a pissing match with Markus's family? Very cool. Very, very cool.

B!tch about Wojo all you want. But anybody who sits behind the MU family section and vocally bashes the players is a POS.

[Afroman]

Is it true that Wojo thought that Lewis had fouled out?

[jesmu84]

If Markus ever played a game for Marquette where he wasn't the primary ball handler and didn't get as many shots as he wanted, his parents would be so mad they'd have an entire section of fans kicked out of Fiserv Forum.

Those fans deserved to get tossed

[Silent Verbal]

Wait. Did you just out yourself as someone who got into an a pissing match with Markus's family? Very cool. Very, very cool.

B!tch about Wojo all you want. But anybody who sits behind the MU section and vocally bashes the players is a POS.

Haha, no.  I was just referencing the incident from last year that became a big brouhaha on here.  I have never, and would never, boo amateur athletes.  Except for the Badgers.

[5DollarPitcher]

Is it true that Wojo thought that Lewis had fouled out?

Is it true that Wojo didn't know OSU was in a 2-3 zone?

The world may never know.

[MarquetteMike1977]

UCLA thoughts, you do not beat average teams much less UCLA when as said earlier 18 TO and 0-11 3s 2nd Half. But credit UCLA Defense. A peculiarity of this game was Marquette shot like the first 12 Free Throws of the 2nd Half and went up and UCLA shot about the last 13 Free Throws of the Game. Beat Creighton Go Marquette!

[brewcity77]

UCLA thoughts, you do not beat average teams much less UCLA when as said earlier 18 TO and 0-11 3s 2nd Half. But credit UCLA Defense. A peculiarity of this game was Marquette shot like the first 12 Free Throws of the 2nd Half and went up and UCLA shot about the last 13 Free Throws of the Game. Beat Creighton Go Marquette!

Not really a peculiarity, but MU kept getting their shots blocked inside and missing their jumpers outside. As I believe TAMU said, the strategy was to go inside and win it at the line, but that doesn't work when you're getting stuffed clean.

[Shooter McGavin]

Honestly, was very pleased with the game until the under 8 timeout. That was a very good offense going against a very good defense and more often than not our defense was winning the battle. With Big East refs calling this game, we enter the last stretch up 10.

Agreed
People will point to the turnovers and they aren't wrong...but they're not why we lost. They kept us from building a bigger lead before the end of the game...but in the critical stretch where UCLA won it, we committed 0 turnovers. The last turnover was the shot clock violation after UCLA had just hit 2 FTs to break a 56-56 tie. From that point on, we played turnover free basketball....but couldn't score.

I don't know this for sure, but I suspect during the under 8 timeout, Wojo instructed his players to attack UCLA's defense and try to win the game at the foul line. Not a bad strategy considering the way the game had been called. First offensive play after the timeout got Dawson to the line and a 4th foul on Jaquez. The next one was the shot clock violation. After that, 4 of the next 6 offensive possessions culminated in an attempted layup. Those 4 attempted layups resulted in 2 points (Koby's pocket pass to Cain) and 3 blocked shots. Credit to UCLA, 2 of the blocks were clearly clean and 1 may have been a foul but if it was, not an obvious one. Great defensive effort by UCLA to challenge those shots without fouling.

While I don't fault Wojo for the decision to try to win at the free throw line, I do fault the decision to keep Lewis out of the game. I think Garcia earned his time by playing stellar D on Chris Smith most of the night, but we needed offense and Lewis was causing Bruins trouble every time he touched the ball. Should have put him in for the last 5 minutes.

Love aggressive Carton. Get that dude for 32 minutes a game and we won't have many problems on offense.

Oso, way to step up when your number is called. Dexter, nice assist?

We are not a great three point shooting team, but we are better than 4/20. Cain had 2 wide open looks that wouldn't fall. Greg missed a pair of open looks he usually hits. Carton started with 2 makes and missed some clean looks after that. All 4 of Dawson's misses were in rhythm, one was 75% down before popping back up. We shoot even 35% from range tonight and we win the game.

Don't have to go too deep into the weeds to analyze this one. Foul trouble, turnovers, and ice cold three point shooting was the story. Great defense and rebounding can make up for two of those but not all three.

Agreed

[The Sultan]

1. McEwen is no point guard.
2. I love Garcia, but he's not as strong as he needs to be and he's going to struggle with physicality because of it.
3. We will lose a number of games in a similar fashion - we will struggle to score while the opponent clamps down on D down the stretch.