Super Nova

[TAMU, Knower of Ball]

• Can we put to bed the idea this defense is better? Our strategy early on was basically luck. Our first 6 opponents all shot below 30% from three despite having plenty of good looks. Safe to say that has normalized, and it's ugly.

Finally...some Conference-only rankings:

• Adjusted Defensive Efficiency: 10th
  
• eFG% Defense: 10th
  
• Defensive Turnover%: 10th
  
• FTA/FGA Ratio: 10th
  
• 3PFG% Defense: 10th
  
• 3PFGA/FGA Ratio: 10th
  
• Defensive Assist Ratio: 10th

What does all that mean? We are the worst defensive team, the worst at defending shots, the worst at sending teams to the line, the worst at turning teams over, the worst at limiting three point attempts, the worst at allowing teams to pass around until they find an open shooter. This defense is not good. This is just another Wojo defense. All it took was conference play to expose it.

Nope. Not ready to concede until we play some conference games not against the top 4 offenses in the conference. I have a suspicion that our defensive numbers will improve dramatically

[TAMU, Knower of Ball]

where do u find the  optimism?

Because we've played 5 out of 7 of our toughest games this season and went 2-3 in those 5 games. Maybe that's fool's gold and we end up losing bigly. But that is where the optimism is coming from for me.

[cheese ball chaser]

Nope. Not ready to concede until we play some conference games not against the top 4 offenses in the conference. I have a suspicion that our defensive numbers will improve dramatically

KenPom's numbers adjust for the strength of the opponent.[/list]

[brewcity77]

Nope. Not ready to concede until we play some conference games not against the top 4 offenses in the conference. I have a suspicion that our defensive numbers will improve dramatically

Considering we're last in almost every important category, they really can't get much worse.

What's really worrying to me is the turnover numbers on both ends. We are last in conference play in both offensive and defensive turnover rate. You can't give the opponents extra possessions every single night and expect to win. And while it's easy to say these are correctable errors, our offensive turnovers are created from too much dribbling (Carton seems to be getting that from Howard) and guys not coming to isolated ball-handlers that picked up their dribble (been going on for years) while our defensive turnovers seem to be deliberately limited by Wojo players seeing their defensive steal percentages drop virtually every year and players that excel at stealing the ball spending more time on the bench if they allow pursuit of a steal to take them out of defensive position.[/list]

[Frenns Liquor Depot]

We played good for 16-17 minutes of the first half but still trailed. This was a game where experience won out. Our young guys could not sustain their level of play because they've not had to. Nova is good. After half we realized we were finished. I thought this game was good for our guys. I'm actually not even discouraged after this one.

We start three seniors and have one coming off the bench.

[Johnny B]

We start three seniors and have one coming off the bench.

gregs a jr.

[brewcity77]

Because we've played 5 out of 7 of our toughest games this season and went 2-3 in those 5 games. Maybe that's fool's gold and we end up losing bigly. But that is where the optimism is coming from for me.

Nova, Creighton, Wisconsin, UCLA, and who? Xavier? Is that any tougher than at UConn, Seton Hall, or Providence?

I don't think Xavier's offense is all that great. They were a sub-50 offense before getting red hot against Oklahoma and us. It just seemed more real because they had 10 days between games that made it look like they were a legit top-25 offense.

[Viper]

He does just enough to not get fired, unfortunately.

the Clay Helton of college basketball

[TAMU, Knower of Ball]

Nova, Creighton, Wisconsin, UCLA, and who? Xavier? Is that any tougher than at UConn, Seton Hall, or Providence?

I don't think Xavier's offense is all that great. They were a sub-50 offense before getting red hot against Oklahoma and us. It just seemed more real because they had 10 days between games that made it look like they were a legit top-25 offense.

I thought Xavier was the third best team in the conference before Stanley got his waiver.

[Viper]

If MU had Jay Wright as HC for the past 15 yrs or so, would MU enjoy the success that 'Nova currently has? I mean, is it just coaching?, or is there more? What's 'Nova have that current BE schools with strong basketball bloodlines, for ex., StJ, GT, UConn, MU...don't have? Maybe it is JWright. Year in, year out the dude gets it.

[Dr. Blackheart]

MU wins three of the four factors but gets hammered on turnover rate: 25.7 to 6.0.  Rinse and repeat. It's pretty obvious why this team keeps losing. To win three out of the four factors and getting blown out is pretty unusual.

[WarriorPride68]

Knowing Lovell he gave Woj another extension after we beat Wisconsin

On the bright side; just what the doctor ordered in Georgetown up next. Lose that one and scoop will burn to ground lol

[Silent Verbal]

I wonder if they pipe in boos for Wojo during intros to make the atmosphere as realistic as possible.

[DoctorV]

If MU had Jay Wright as HC for the past 15 yrs or so, would MU enjoy the success that 'Nova currently has? I mean, is it just coaching?, or is there more? What's 'Nova have that current BE schools with strong basketball bloodlines, for ex., StJ, GT, UConn, MU...don't have? Maybe it is JWright. Year in, year out the dude gets it.

Lets just take this years squad and compare it to MU-

Jay Wrights most recent recruiting classes included top30 Jahvon Quinerly and Bryon Antoine as non factors (transfer and injury).

This current squad has (247 rankings)
Robinson-Earl ranked 16
Jermain Samuels 46
Justin Moore 57
Caleb Daniels transfer from Tulane
Collin Gillespie ranked 200
2 seniors, 1 junior, 2 sophomores

Bench includes swider 44, slater 53, Dixon 77.

Wojo has
DJ Carton 34 (from OSU)
Dawson Garcia 36
Koby McEwan transfer from Utah state
Cain 145
Theo 204
3 seniors, 1 sophomore and one frosh

Bench includes Torrence 75, Lewis 100, Oso 129, Elliott 224, Akanno, Perez

So, it's becomes obvious that Jay Wright is stronger top to bottom in his recruiting, and would've been way stronger with Quiney and Antoine, but wojo woulda been stronger with Joey and Bailey (Sam would have graduated).

That said, I'm not quite sure the difference should be as wide as a top 5 team versus a .500 team. On paper, the gap seems like it should be much more narrow.
The game isn't played on paper however.

[MU82]

Between the turnovers and the wide-open Nova shooters, that was a disappointing, frustrating game. That it came on the heels of the Xavier and Seton Hall flame-outs just magnifies it.

There are many explanations for our situation, and bad coaching is at or very near the top of the list.

I mean, just for shytes and giggles, don't you tell your guys, "For the next 4 minutes, until the next TV timeout, we're not leaving our man open on the perimeter. We might give up some layups, but I don't want to see another wide-open 3"?

Anyhoo, I sure as heck hope TAMU and a few others are right about the schedule getting easier and our heroes turning the season around ... but even though I am one of this board's optimists, I have extreme doubts.

[Silent Verbal]

I think a big turning point came in the second half when we fell down by about 15 and Wojo subbed our entire lineup out and replaced them with Symir, Dex, Elliott, and...I can't remember who the other two guys were.  Anyway, we were down 15 at that point and there were about 15 minutes to go in the half.  We were a couple stops and a couple buckets away from making a run and cutting the lead down.  There was still plenty of time left to swing the momentum of the game.  Instead, Wojo had to show everybody how pissed he was by putting Symir, Dex, and Elliott into a game that hadn't been completely decided.  What happened?  A few more minutes ticked off the clock, and by the time the starters came back in, we were down 18 instead of 15 and the game was completely over from there.

[willie warrior]

He does just enough to not get fired, unfortunately.

Yeah and I am sure that performance against Nova was "just enough", eh. As all settle for more mediocrity, or even worse. Time to change.

[Frenns Liquor Depot]

gregs a jr.

Sorry RS Junior.  Point stands that we have plenty of experience. 

[willie warrior]

Team needs a mental break.

....because they are tired.

[willie warrior]

Not giving up on the season yet with so many games on the schedule, but if they miss the tournament then it's time to pull the plug and restart. With instant eligible transfers, it won't take as long for a new coach to get a team together.

But wait, no school fires the coach during a pandemic. (As we see football coaches getting the axe)

[muwarrior69]

Between the turnovers and the wide-open Nova shooters, that was a disappointing, frustrating game. That it came on the heels of the Xavier and Seton Hall flame-outs just magnifies it.

There are many explanations for our situation, and bad coaching is at or very near the top of the list.

I mean, just for shytes and giggles, don't you tell your guys, "For the next 4 minutes, until the next TV timeout, we're not leaving our man open on the perimeter. We might give up some layups, but I don't want to see another wide-open 3"?

Anyhoo, I sure as heck hope TAMU and a few others are right about the schedule getting easier and our heroes turning the season around ... but even though I am one of this board's optimists, I have extreme doubts.

I'm in your camp '82. What I don't understand is that Wojo gets talented guys (Dawson, Carton) yet fails to have them compete at a level we know they can. As many here have said at least Buzz coached his guys up whereas Wojo seems to coach his guys down. There is no team chemistry; were up then were down.

...but even in the this dark age of MU basketball I will always follow and support the team. I'm 74 and God willing I may just live long enough to see MU success again.

[shoothoops]

Considering we're last in almost every important category, they really can't get much worse.

What's really worrying to me is the turnover numbers on both ends. We are last in conference play in both offensive and defensive turnover rate. You can't give the opponents extra possessions every single night and expect to win. And while it's easy to say these are correctable errors, our offensive turnovers are created from too much dribbling (Carton seems to be getting that from Howard) and guys not coming to isolated ball-handlers that picked up their dribble (been going on for years) while our defensive turnovers seem to be deliberately limited by Wojo players seeing their defensive steal percentages drop virtually every year and players that excel at stealing the ball spending more time on the bench if they allow pursuit of a steal to take them out of defensive position.[/list]

Many of MU's offensive turnovers are passing while moving towards the basket. These have been feeding a big, off of a pick and roll, transition, feeding the post, drive and dish, etc...especially feeding in tight spaces with pace. The pass is top often poor, and so is the catch.

MU's fundamentals are too often sloppy. Nova's are often consistently crisp.

MU had a good offensive first ten minutes, with better spacing, moving with and without the ball, making the extra pass, shooting distance in rythm, isolating post. Example, the in rythm corner three for Cain is the former Sacar play. This needs to be the norm, crisp, not flashes.

That later became Sy and DJ pounding the dribble. Nova better defending the lane and post. Chucking ill advised 3's instead of in rythm, missing FT's...etc...and it affects the the other end of the floor.

Nova immediately exposed Sy with CG. Burned Theo on switches top of key. Took advantage of Greg's injury footwork.

Too often we have to use words such as sloppy, or we'll clean that up a bit etc...that's for practice and off season.

Theo clearly has improved his offensive post play and FT's. Significantly so. And that's great, wish it was sooner, but it's great. He however has struggled with anticipating a smaller defender's desire to draw contact and flop. We could take a little thing for many MU players.

I wish Greg could run like the wind because he consistently understand offense better than anyone on the team.

It too often feels as though MU is piecing things together here and there, and not just this season.

[tower912]

The sun came up.   Well, it might have.   Lake effect snow squalls are making even that uncertain. 

1.  Running the OOB lob to Dexter when he was in for Cain.   He went up in a crowd, got it, twisting, made the shot.   Later, he made a hell of a baseline drive off of pump fake, laying it in.     Two months ago he dunks that.   In February, he dunks it again.   
2.   Team did what it was supposed to do for 18 minutes.   
3.   Villanova has the lowest turnover rate around.   
4.   Lewis and Garcia do look tired.   And it is showing up in lack of attention to detail and jacking up 3's because they are less work than getting a better shot.    And Lewis hasn't made a 3 in a while.   
5.  10 games in 28 days.    To start a season.    Going into last night's game, MU and Villanova had the same number of wins.   Villanova had played 3 fewer games.   
6.   Symir actually driving hard to the basket.   Only to get ingloriously stuffed.   But still, he attacked.   

[MU82]

I think a big turning point came in the second half when we fell down by about 15 and Wojo subbed our entire lineup out and replaced them with Symir, Dex, Elliott, and...I can't remember who the other two guys were.  Anyway, we were down 15 at that point and there were about 15 minutes to go in the half.  We were a couple stops and a couple buckets away from making a run and cutting the lead down.  There was still plenty of time left to swing the momentum of the game.  Instead, Wojo had to show everybody how pissed he was by putting Symir, Dex, and Elliott into a game that hadn't been completely decided.  What happened?  A few more minutes ticked off the clock, and by the time the starters came back in, we were down 18 instead of 15 and the game was completely over from there.

Turning point was long before that. It was 28-28 late in the first half, and although we weren't playing all that well and were missing FTs, we were matching Nova hoop for hoop. Then they scored the next 8 points. And then they opened the second half by blitzing us to take a 15-point lead.

I was glad Wojo did the hockey substitution. It sent the message (or at least it should have): "You're not working hard enough, you're not doing winning things."

Either way, we weren't gonna win that game.

It's funny, a couple games ago, a few Scoopers blasted Wojo for not holding players accountable. Now he does, and you blast him for that.

There's a long list of Wojo's failings from last night; for me, what you mentioned wasn't even on the list. Others might disagree.

[Silent Verbal]

Turning point was long before that. It was 28-28 late in the first half, and although we weren't playing all that well and were missing FTs, we were matching Nova hoop for hoop. Then they scored the next 8 points. And then they opened the second half by blitzing us to take a 15-point lead.

I was glad Wojo did the hockey substitution. It sent the message (or at least it should have): "You're not working hard enough, you're not doing winning things."

Either way, we weren't gonna win that game.

It's funny, a couple games ago, a few Scoopers blasted Wojo for not holding players accountable. Now he does, and you blast him for that.

There's a long list of Wojo's failings from last night; for me, what you mentioned wasn't even on the list. Others might disagree.

While I could be wrong about this, the only time I've griped about Wojo not holding a player accountable is when it came to his treatment of Markus.  His favoritism when it came to Markus set the program back, IMO.  However, that's neither here nor there in this thread.

You bring up an interesting point when you say we were blitzed to start the second half.  How many times has that happened to us, especially at home?  I feel like more often than not, the opposing team will come out guns blazing and erase any lead we had or build on their own.  Would be interesting to look up how Wojo's teams have performed in the first four minutes of the second half over the years.  I'm guessing the results wouldn't be pretty.