Solutions before Mon?

[MuggsyB]

Give it to me straight, where do we go from here?  I know it's a process but:

1) What rotation or 5 at crunch-time would you like to see?

2) WIth no Cockburn should we go small ball ( no pun intended) more?

3) It sounds like our h-c offense was a lot of launching, can we play more inside-out or in the high-post?

4) We definitely need to rebound better, am I missing something or is this a pure fundamental issue?  Do our guards need to crash the glass more?

5) What's our best defensive strategy vs the Illini?  Who do we try to eliminate with with two of their weapons not playing?

6) Can we control tempo in this one and what is our best option here?

*  Having slept on it, despite our issues, I think early in the season anything can happen.  I expect us to be no more than four point dogs.  I also believe you will see an entirely different focus and tenacity from our guys.  Obviously, we're going to have to shoot better but hopefully the crowd is electric and we can play from ahead in the first half.

[MUfan12]

I don't have a big issue with the amount of attempts from deep, but the quick ones drive me a little bonkers. Those are shots they can get at any time in the possession.

They switched a lot more which I think led to some of those defensive rebounding issues. The guards need to start chipping in as well, as you said. They emphasize getting out in transition, and I think that takes the guards away from the boards.

I think their best lineup is Mitchell, Morsell, Lewis, Prosper, and Oso. Kolek looked banged up last night and spent most of the second half on the exercise bike. Grabbed at the hamstring while doing it.

[The Hippie Satan of Hyperbole]

Tighten the rotation. Less Joplin and EE. - this might be tough if Kolek is injured. Start Osa.

[Uncle Rico]

Have a covid breakout

[MuggsyB]

Have a covid breakout

Huh? Keep your head up Uncle R.

[MuggsyB]

I don't have a big issue with the amount of attempts from deep, but the quick ones drive me a little bonkers. Those are shots they can get at any time in the possession.

They switched a lot more which I think led to some of those defensive rebounding issues. The guards need to start chipping in as well, as you said. They emphasize getting out in transition, and I think that takes the guards away from the boards.

I think their best lineup is Mitchell, Morsell, Lewis, Prosper, and Oso. Kolek looked banged up last night and spent most of the second half on the exercise bike. Grabbed at the hamstring while doing it.

My concern with this line-up is I'm not sure O-Max can be effective on the perimeter at the 3.  I heard Oso played well yesterday.  Maybe he can get a few more rim runs?  If Kolek is okay we can essentially play 5 out with JLew at the 5.  I'm just throwing stuff out there but I do think O-Max is a key player for us on both ends. 

[tower912]

Accept it as a learning experience for a young team.  Embrace the process and not worry about the result.   The worst thing that can happen is injuries that affect the rest of the season.   A loss is irrelevant.   What can be taken from it and what can be built from it?

A win would be cool as hell.

[brewcity77]

Learn how to shoot. We're getting looks, but not making them. Shoot 35% from three and maybe we'll have a chance.

With no Cockburn, we should have an edge inside, but I think playing small would be playing into what they want us to do. Though so far Coleman Hawkins has been pretty good, so their gameplan may not change much.

As far as rebounding, it's worth remembering UNH is a very good rebounding team. Guadarrama and Rodriguez are both experienced, proven rebounders. I was a little surprised by their early offensive boards last night, but we adjusted to that and they are regularly among the most elite defensive rebounding teams in the country.

[ChitownSpaceForRent]

I know we’re two games into a season but a noticeable difference between Shaka and Wojos teams thus far is how the team responds to runs.

The last few years if we went cold a 6-0 run turned into a 15-2 run in a hurry. Last night we always seemed to have an answer and didn’t let mistakes compound. It’s a positive sign.

[BCHoopster]

Accept it as a learning experience for a young team.  Embrace the process and not worry about the result.   The worst thing that can happen is injuries that affect the rest of the season.   A loss is irrelevant.   What can be taken from it and what can be built from it?

A win would be cool as hell.

Yes, this is a young team, but the future with Shaka should be interesting.  With Morsell leaving, next years team will be much younger with no seniors on the team.
The bigs for next year are not impressive so far.  Have to recruit a center as Oso is physically not big enough to handle the bigs in the Big East.  I have one question that intrigues me, how come Shaka did not sign 1 Texas kid last year?  Secondly, this had to be a bad recruiting class that  Shaka was bringing into Texas.  Not sold on the 3 kids he was recruiting to Texas now at MU.   Now Beard has Texas in the Top 3 in the country already.  The 2 recruits for next year are 3 star kids, he only has 2
scholarships available the next 2 years, better bring in 1 4 or 5 star.  Next year might be worse.  Thirdly, if you have a bad 3 point shooting team, maybe in the first half
you should run some plays to get easier shots.  Its going to be a long 2 years, hope I am wrong.

[muwarrior69]

Yes, this is a young team, but the future with Shaka should be interesting.  With Morsell leaving, next years team will be much younger with no seniors on the team.
The bigs for next year are not impressive so far.  Have to recruit a center as Oso is physically not big enough to handle the bigs in the Big East.  I have one question that intrigues me, how come Shaka did not sign 1 Texas kid last year?  Secondly, this had to be a bad recruiting class that  Shaka was bringing into Texas.  Not sold on the 3 kids he was recruiting to Texas now at MU.   Now Beard has Texas in the Top 3 in the country already.  The 2 recruits for next year are 3 star kids, he only has 2
scholarships available the next 2 years, better bring in 1 4 or 5 star.  Next year might be worse.  Thirdly, if you have a bad 3 point shooting team, maybe in the first half
you should run some plays to get easier shots.  Its going to be a long 2 years, hope I am wrong.

That is assuming Elliott does not return and no senior transfers.

[PointWarrior]

Young players need about 20-30 games to understand the defense and not have so many stupid fouls. 

And they need to shoot 15% better on open three’s

By Tuesday be a stretch to achieve this.


However, tightening up the rotation against a quality opponent may help.

[Dickthedribbler]

Making some shots will cure a lot of problems. They'll fall sooner or later. There are some good jump shooters on this roster, I think.

Also need to toughen up the rebounding game. Too many of them getting pushed around.

[ATL MU Warrior]

Can we quickly clone Morsell and play him at all 5 positions?

[Dickthedribbler]

Can we quickly clone Morsell and play him at all 5 positions?

If a genie could grant me one wish, it would be that Morrsell was a soph. How'd you like to build a lineup around this kid for the next couple of years?? Really a sold player (and I think leader).

[brewcity77]

If a genie could grant me one wish, it would be that Morrsell was a soph. How'd you like to build a lineup around this kid for the next couple of years?? Really a sold player (and I think leader).

I think the hope is that we have a freshman Morsell on this team already. Maybe even 2 or 3. And by seeing senior Morsell this year that's the foundation we'll have for the next couple years.

[MuggsyB]

I think the hope is that we have a freshman Morsell on this team already. Maybe even 2 or 3. And by seeing senior Morsell this year that's the foundation we'll have for the next couple years.

I think we need a big moving forward B-City.  Ideally a switchable with the toughness to defend and rebound.  It's early but O-Max needs to play with a harnessed agression. I believe both Kuath and O-Max can step it up, the question is how best to utilize their skills.

[jfp61]

Give it to me straight, where do we go from here?  I know it's a process but:

1) What rotation or 5 at crunch-time would you like to see?

2) WIth no Cockburn should we go small ball ( no pun intended) more?

3) It sounds like our h-c offense was a lot of launching, can we play more inside-out or in the high-post?

4) We definitely need to rebound better, am I missing something or is this a pure fundamental issue?  Do our guards need to crash the glass more?

5) What's our best defensive strategy vs the Illini?  Who do we try to eliminate with with two of their weapons not playing?

6) Can we control tempo in this one and what is our best option here?

*  Having slept on it, despite our issues, I think early in the season anything can happen.  I expect us to be no more than four point dogs.  I also believe you will see an entirely different focus and tenacity from our guys.  Obviously, we're going to have to shoot better but hopefully the crowd is electric and we can play from ahead in the first half.

1) 8 man rotation, cut out Joplin and EE just for this game. (idk shaka might still play Jop) The lineups should be fine otherwise.

2) No need to go much smaller than we have been. IU still has two  6'10" bigs that are relatively mobile.

3) Lewis got going on high post late, but other than that the few times we get slowed down into hc sets, i dont expect this team to do that.

4) We havent rebounded as poorly as i thought, the rate his higher than last year, but the ranking is better this year thus far. I dont think rebounding a top 5 problem with last years team. Though the problem might be the guards not pulling their weight in this category. Morsell has 8.4% DR% next highest guard is mitchell at 4.7%.

5) Their first game was a TO rate of 29 percent, I would press the crap out of them.

6) Statistically we should play slower to reduce possession and have a better chance to win. But for the long term health of the team I would try to play fast with the offensive struggles. Granted the team has been playing "fast" which is slightly part of the offensive problem (13.4 seconds per offensive possesion).But vs IU, theyll need quick buckets unless they look alive from 3 sometime soon.

I expect to lose by 8-12. You'll get the best version of this team on monday my guess is. Had MU have more average shooting games through the first two and lets say end up shooting 32% from three, worse than last year, it would translate to MU having an 86th ranked offensive efficiency and they would be 85th in KP instead of 96

[tower912]

I think we need a big moving forward B-City.  Ideally a switchable with the toughness to defend and rebound.  It's early but O-Max needs to play with a harnessed agression. I believe both Kuath and O-Max can step it up, the question is how best to utilize their skills.

Probably more than one.  But he won't be here before Monday.

[Dr. Blackheart]

MU will still go deep as they will push the activity on D. We will hit threes like we did against BC and the exhibition. The crowd will be pumped. Wouldn’t be surprised with an upset W.

Remember, Morsell has played against the Illini. A few starters have something to prove yet with their inauspicious start. Getting into a half court game is not to MU’s benefit as this is a tough D. Race them. Illini by 4 but that’s upset territory.

[MU82]

It sounds counterintuitive, but I agree with both Dr. B's optimism and with tower's colder, realistic view.

3, 5, 10 years from now, if Shaka turns out to have been a successful coach at Marquette, I have a feeling we'll look back at this season as mostly a culture-building season in which guys learned what it takes to succeed at this level and in Shaka's system. We'll say, "We might not have won as much as we wanted that first year, but the program took a major step forward ... and led us to where we are now as a perennial NCAA tourney team with a legit chance to advance to the second weekend every year." Improvement -- within games, game-to-game, week-to-week, month-to-month -- will have been the important measuring stick for this Shaka 1.0 team.

So in that vein, I agree with tower.

But I do hear what Dr. B (and others who are somewhat more hopeful about this season's results) are saying. If we can shoot better and clean up some things, we can win some games that, today, might look like probable losses. We have some talent, we have some length, we have a 5th-year senior leader, we have a proven coach, we have a good home court. A few teams on our schedule might be unbeatable for us, but only a few; and, short-handed, Illinois wouldn't appear to be one of the few.

Many of us have lots of friends/acquaintances who went to Illinois, so this sure would be a nice win.

We Are Marquette!

[rocky_warrior]

3) It sounds like our h-c offense was a lot of launching, can we play more inside-out or in the high-post?

"Sounds like"?  Have you really not watched either game thus far?

[MuggsyB]

It sounds counterintuitive, but I agree with both Dr. B's optimism and with tower's colder, realistic view.

3, 5, 10 years from now, if Shaka turns out to have been a successful coach at Marquette, I have a feeling we'll look back at this season as mostly a culture-building season in which guys learned what it takes to succeed at this level and in Shaka's system. We'll say, "We might not have won as much as we wanted that first year, but the program took a major step forward ... and led us to where we are now as a perennial NCAA tourney team with a legit chance to advance to the second weekend every year." Improvement -- within games, game-to-game, week-to-week, month-to-month -- will have been the important measuring stick for this Shaka 1.0 team.

So in that vein, I agree with tower.

But I do hear what Dr. B (and others who are somewhat more hopeful about this season's results) are saying. If we can shoot better and clean up some things, we can win some games that, today, might look like probable losses. We have some talent, we have some length, we have a 5th-year senior leader, we have a proven coach, we have a good home court. A few teams on our schedule might be unbeatable for us, but only a few; and, short-handed, Illinois wouldn't appear to be one of the few.

Many of us have lots of friends/acquaintances who went to Illinois, so this sure would be a nice win.

We Are Marquette!

I think that's probably right.  We will likely lose to some teams we shouldn't but also beat teams we shouldn't.  I see no reason why a win vs a depleted Illinois team is out of the question.  Remember, things can change drastically game to game.  Clearly we do need to hit some shots though.

[rocky_warrior]

I see no reason why a win vs a depleted Illinois team is out of the question.

They are far from "depleted".  They've been drubbing their cupcakes, MU has been trying to find encouraging signs against their cupcakes.  Stranger things than an MU win have happened, so it's not "out of the question".  But I think we get smacked by about 15, based on what I've seen so far.

[MU82]

They are far from "depleted".  They've been drubbing their cupcakes, MU has been trying to find encouraging signs against their cupcakes.  Stranger things than an MU win have happened, so it's not "out of the question".  But I think we get smacked by about 15, based on what I've seen so far.

Wouldn't surprise me at all, rock. I hope you're wrong, of course. Hell, you hope you're wrong!