Coaching

[drbob]

St John's just came back from 14 point deficit to beat Connecticut. Poor coaching by Hurley or great effort by St John's ?  Knowing this board if we had lost Saturday Wojo would have been crucified!! Just wondering

[tower912]

Rohrschach test.    But what Creighton/Butler and this game has shown that big comebacks are part of the Big East DNA this season and not just a Marquette thing.

[BCHoopster]

St. John's plays really hard, do not have great ballers, but are very athletic. Anderson gets his kids to play D, 94 feet.  Good victory, MU has more talent which helped them win the game. Can not take them lightly which UConn might of. No lead in BE is big enough.

[Shooter McGavin]

MU winning at St. John's was big for MU.  That frenetic style of play offered MU a good test and they passed.  They looked much more comfortable in that game against that style of play which they normally look terrible against.   They are getting better and the new talent is taking over and the best basketball is ahead.

[Silent Verbal]

UCONN's undisputed best player was hurt.  End of story.

[The Sultan]

UCONN's undisputed best player was hurt.  End of story.

Ah...

[MU82]

UCONN's undisputed best player was hurt.  End of story.

Was he there when UConn was building its 14-point lead?

Are "excuses" only allowed for coaches not at MU?

[Uncle Rico]

I sometimes wonder if people have ever watched college basketball.  Great teams, mediocre teams and bad teams build leads, blow leads of double digits a lot.  This isn't unique or strange

[tower912]

Thank you, Rico.   That is one of my pet peeves.   So many angry posters act as if MU exists in a vacuum.   

[Uncle Rico]

Thank you, Rico.   That is one of my pet peeves.   So many angry posters act as if MU exists in a vacuum.

I'm not absolving the staff of blame in some of those instances but I saw people on social media early in the St. Mary's-Gonzaga game start acting like the Zags didn't have 30 minutes to right the ship

[drbob]

My point exactly Tower !!

[ATL MU Warrior]

UCONN's undisputed best player was hurt.  End of story.

Sure

[MU82]

I sometimes wonder if people have ever watched college basketball.  Great teams, mediocre teams and bad teams build leads, blow leads of double digits a lot.  This isn't unique or strange

Basketball is a game of runs. One of the biggest cliches in sports, but it's true.

And not just college hoops. NBA teams build and lose big leads all the time, sometimes multiple times in a game. Happens in high school, too.

For me, the question is always, "How did my team respond?"

Blowing a lead but still having the fortitude to win says a lot about a team IMHO.

[Viper]

UCONN's undisputed best player was hurt.  End of story.

Agreed. Credit to UConn for getting that lead without their go-to, BUT...without their top 'dog', they couldn't hold it. Contrarians here act like it shouldn't matter that the stud is out. Do you forget how MU did with Dominic James on a bum wheel in the ncaa's?

[fjm]

Agreed. Credit to UConn for getting that lead without their go-to, BUT...without their top 'dog', they couldn't hold it. Contrarians here act like it shouldn't matter that the stud is out. Do you forget how MU did with Dominic James on a bum wheel in the ncaa's?

Contrarian your Webster dictionary word of the day or what?

Also if you can build a lead without a player, shouldn't you be able to keep that lead without that player?

[Newsdreams]

UCONN's undisputed best player was hurt.  End of story.

EXCUSES!!!!

[MU82]

Agreed. Credit to UConn for getting that lead without their go-to, BUT...without their top 'dog', they couldn't hold it. Contrarians here act like it shouldn't matter that the stud is out. Do you forget how MU did with Dominic James on a bum wheel in the ncaa's?

There is no question Markus was hurting at the end of the 2018-19 season, and many who say they know stuff also were convinced Sam wasn't near 100% either. And Joey had slammed hard into the freshman wall. But any mention of any if that was considered "an excuse."

So this reaction is just a natural pushback, and much of it (at least from some) is tongue in cheek.

Obviously, missing your best player matters.

And yet, UConn was a big favorite even though everybody knew he was out, they were at home, they were good enough to build a 14-point lead ... and, mostly, St. John's must really, really suck because they couldn't even beat the worst coach in the history of mankind.

[TAMU, Knower of Ball]

The once great Tyler Polley went 1-7 from deep against St. John's, with most of those being unguarded.

Prior to today's game, Posh Alexander and Marcellus Earlington combined to go 15-51 (~29%) from three on the season. Against UConn, they went 6-8 (75%).

College basketball is weird. Strange sh*t happens sometimes. This is why coaches get evaluated based on an overall season, not on individual games.

[1SE]

Right, weird stuff happens which is why you evaluate the body of work. And Wojos,  after 6.5 sessons, is still meh.

I'm glad we won, but having a 2 game winning "streak" against middling BE teams that has us on the outside of the bubble looking in isnt exactly what I thought I'd b getting excited about in the middle of year 7.

If we get to 4 or 5 in a row, then we can start to talk of cabbages and kings.

[willie warrior]

St John's just came back from 14 point deficit to beat Connecticut. Poor coaching by Hurley or great effort by St John's ?  Knowing this board if we had lost Saturday Wojo would have been crucified!! Just wondering

On a related note Bradley is 9-4 this year. Just sayin.

[wadesworld]

On a related note Bradley is 9-4 this year. Just sayin.

YOU want Brian Wardle?! lol!

[Uncle Rico]

On a related note Bradley is 9-4 this year. Just sayin.

The Drake is 13-0.  Just sayin

[The Sultan]

Contrarian your Webster dictionary word of the day or what?

He's called me that a couple of times, which leads me to believe he has no idea what the word means.

[tower912]

Well, if he called YOU that, he might actually by on to something.   

[Dr. Blackheart]

On a related note Bradley is 9-4 this year. Just sayin.

So you called Crean "The Used Car Salesman", Buzz "The Lonesome Cowboy", and Wojo "The Golden PowerPoint Boy" and you wanted them all fired. Fine, but your choice to set us straight is "Pied Piper" Wardle?