Loo (British for John) ies thoughts

[tower912]

There are too many people not finding joy in a conference road win.

[CrowdOf5]

Anyone else notice how much more demonstrative/vocal Wojo has been the past few games? Maybe it's recency bias?

[tower912]

I think he is working hard to keep the young guys focused.   He is in his defensive stance.   Against Providence, the announcers said he slapped the floor.

[CrowdOf5]

I think he is working hard to keep the young guys focused.   He is in his defensive stance.   Against Providence, the announcers said he slapped the floor.

Agree, I'm all for it. This team needs it.

[MU82]

There are too many people not finding joy in a conference road win.

Totally agree. But I guess it's more fun to poop on the coach.

[CrowdOf5]

Totally agree. But I guess it's more fun to poop on the coach.

Cancel culture at its finest.

[MU82]

Cancel culture at its finest.

Not canceling anything. You are free to post whatever you want, and you sure have plenty of company in your viewpoints.

And others are free to express disappointment that some Scoopers can't seem to enjoy an MU road win.

Right? Or are you trying to cancel me and tower?

[CrowdOf5]

Not canceling anything. You are free to post whatever you want, and you sure have plenty of company in your viewpoints.

And others are free to express disappointment that some Scoopers can't seem to enjoy an MU road win.

Right? Or are you trying to cancel me and tower?

No I meant others like to cancel woj, not a comment on you and tower

[TAMU, Knower of Ball]

My initial reaction to that last defensive play was "Why the hell is Theo guarding Dunn?" My second reaction was, "There's no way in hell SJU wants Dunn taking the last shot. That's why." Bold strategy, had the zebra effect, just confused the opposition and allowed Theo to drop back and play help defender. Well done, I certainly wouldn't have thought that would work but it did.

[MU82]

No I meant others like to cancel woj, not a comment on you and tower

My bad. Totally misread it.

[CrowdOf5]

My bad. Totally misread it.

All good!

[brewcity77]

• Unguarded threes kept St John's in the game in the first half, particularly the ones where they may have been shooting in an open gym.
  
• I thought we did pretty well against the pressure. Most of the TOs weren't a result of the pressure. DJ, Koby, & Dawson were the keys to breaking the press.
  
• When MU struggles early inside, I feel like they usually go away from it. Not today. We started making shots, which opened the middle, & were able to capitalize.
  
• Man, DJ can be electric. His dunks were fantastic. Could've had a much better line had a Theo offensive foul not nullified a DJ three and had near-assists not resulted in misses.
  
• Blowing a double-digit lead is always nerve-wracking, but at least they rallied to win. Whatever it takes to break that 4-game conference losing streak at SJU.
  
• Big stones for 1/7 Koby to dominate the last possession, take the shot, and make it. While he hasn't been as consistent as his season start, he's still looked like a Big East player this year.
  
• Take the win and run. We had lost that game five straight times, just needed a result.

[MU82]

Not an above the rim player despite his height.  No spring in his legs.  Doesn't mean he isn't good.  He brings a lot to the table but he is not overly athletic.

Dawson's best post moves, especially against defenders who can match his height, are when he posts deep, needs at most one dribble and can take his baby hook. He was very effective with that early in the season, and I wish MU would go back to that some.

Otherwise, I really like him at the FT line against a zone, and it would be nice to get him more pick-and-pop opportunities against MTM.

And regardless of whether it's Dawson, Theo or Justin posting, I wish we'd put either Jamal or Greg on that side outside the arc. If there's a double-down, it would set up an open 3. If the defender stays home, our big can take his man.

[Chili]

Could someone smarter than me explain what Garcia is doing wrong that he keeps getting blocked? I've never seen someone so tall get so many shots blocked down low.

This happened to Merritt a lot early on too.

[The Sultan]

This happened to Merritt a lot early on too.

Yep.  He just goes up weak a lot.  Just something that young players need to adjust to.

[WarriorInNYC]

I post this not necessarily to complain about officiating in whole (actually think all things considered, we probably had more calls go our way than against us), but I think this may be the worst out of bounds decision I've ever seen, and I don't think that's a hyperbole.

https://twitter.com/SoupInNYC27/status/1350491338098290690?s=20

The shot wasn't close to being blocked.  And then none of our players were ever close to the rebound, which was clearly knocked out of bounds by St John's.  I was really scratching my head at how this was possibly ruled out on MU.

[We R Final Four]

Yes—I went back and looked at that several times.
The only thing that throws me off is Dawson, who was closest to the play, doesn't react at all when the ref points STJ's direction.

EDIT—yeah, that is 100% MU ball. There is no possibility of any MU player even touching it.

[WarriorFan]

Very glad MU squeaked out a win.
IMHO the talent gap between MU and STJ is huge however STJ make up for it with a defensive system that creates lots of opportunities for them.
Carton, Garcia and Lewis are studs.  Koby was clutch.
It never should have gotten close.  Once again, the halftime "adjustment" by STJ was obvious, and MU was unprepared.
Extremely difficult game to officiate because of the intensity of STJ defense.  Reminded me a lot of the way Huggins' Cincy teams used to play.  Basically they foul everyone, continuously, often with multiple people fouling the guy with the ball.  Refs just cannot call all the fouls, so they don't.  Advantage to the aggressor. 
Such a close game against one of the bottom teams in the BEAST, however, does not bode well for the next round against Creighton, Nova, etc.

[Shooter McGavin]

Yep.  He just goes up weak a lot.  Just something that young players need to adjust to.

I love what Garcia gives the team but you either can jump out of the gym by this age or not.  Strength will help him get more shots up in a different non-athletic crafty way.  But he is getting blocked because he is a below the rim player at 6'11 and that is probably not going to change.

[MU82]

Very glad MU squeaked out a win.
IMHO the talent gap between MU and STJ is huge however STJ make up for it with a defensive system that creates lots of opportunities for them.
Carton, Garcia and Lewis are studs.  Koby was clutch.
It never should have gotten close.  Once again, the halftime "adjustment" by STJ was obvious, and MU was unprepared.
Extremely difficult game to officiate because of the intensity of STJ defense.  Reminded me a lot of the way Huggins' Cincy teams used to play.  Basically they foul everyone, continuously, often with multiple people fouling the guy with the ball.  Refs just cannot call all the fouls, so they don't.  Advantage to the aggressor. 
Such a close game against one of the bottom teams in the BEAST, however, does not bode well for the next round against Creighton, Nova, etc.

Agree with you about the aggressor stuff.

Your last line is an opinion, and that's cool. We all have them. But one could have said the exact same thing going into the first Creighton game after we lost to UCLA and weren't especially impressive against Green Bay. Or going into the Wisconsin game after we lost to Oklahoma State. Indeed, if one looks back at predictions here, most Scoopers gave us little chance to win either game.

Each game is its own entity. Look what's happening all around the country. We need to play better, sure, but I'll take any win. Lots of teams with seemingly huge talent advantages - including many coached by guys whom any of us would take over Wojo - are not only playing close games against seemingly inferior teams but losing to them.

[Shooter McGavin]

Agree with you about the aggressor stuff.

Your last line is an opinion, and that's cool. We all have them. But one could have said the exact same thing going into the first Creighton game after we lost to UCLA and weren't especially impressive against Green Bay. Or going into the Wisconsin game after we lost to Oklahoma State. Indeed, if one looks back at predictions here, most Scoopers gave us little chance to win either game.

Each game is its own entity. Look what's happening all around the country. We need to play better, sure, but I'll take any win. Lots of teams with seemingly huge talent advantages - including many coached by guys whom any of us would take over Wojo - are not only playing close games against seemingly inferior teams but losing to them.

Agreed 82.  I was actually impressed with how relaxed we were getting shots off during that foul fest.  I think that is a sign of significant improvement that bodes well the rest of the season.  MUs best basketball is ahead of them. 

[jesmu84]

Very glad MU squeaked out a win.
IMHO the talent gap between MU and STJ is huge however STJ make up for it with a defensive system that creates lots of opportunities for them.
Carton, Garcia and Lewis are studs.  Koby was clutch.
It never should have gotten close.  Once again, the halftime "adjustment" by STJ was obvious, and MU was unprepared.
Extremely difficult game to officiate because of the intensity of STJ defense.  Reminded me a lot of the way Huggins' Cincy teams used to play.  Basically they foul everyone, continuously, often with multiple people fouling the guy with the ball.  Refs just cannot call all the fouls, so they don't.  Advantage to the aggressor. 
Such a close game against one of the bottom teams in the BEAST, however, does not bode well for the next round against Creighton, Nova, etc.

Ya. Louisville under pitino was similar.

But I hate it. Refs could, and I believe should, call all the fouls like any other game. Not calling them only gives in to the idea that it's okay to foul. Players/teams/coaches aren't going to change unless you force them to follow the rules.

If a team started travelling every possession, would the refs stop calling them?

[tower912]

Watched any NBA lately?

[MU82]

Ya. Louisville under pitino was similar.

But I hate it. Refs could, and I believe should, call all the fouls like any other game. Not calling them only gives in to the idea that it's okay to foul. Players/teams/coaches aren't going to change unless you force them to follow the rules.

If a team started travelling every possession, would the refs stop calling them?

Agree. I don't know why the foul thing is different, but it simply is. Maybe refs don't want to be viewed as "deciding the game" -- though IMHO when they don't call fouls, they are deciding the game at least as much, perhaps even more.

I coach my middle school teams to press full-court and to be very aggressive. While I don't like silly or lazy fouls, I have no problem with aggressive fouls. I tell my players: "I'm not overly worried about you committing fouls because you're being aggressive. That's why we have 12 players."

I don't tell them the part about refs simply not wanting to call too many fouls, because I want them to respect the refs.

[WarriorFan]

If a team started travelling every possession, would the refs stop calling them?

REF:  James Harden

The answer is yes.