Forgive us our Cintas.

[rocky_warrior]

If X shoots 70% from the FT line, they get 4.5 more points.

If we shoot 52% for our 2's, we make 2 more shots (I will let you pick any of the missed dunks/layups) and we get 4 more points.

Advantage, no one.

I mean, if we're trusting both of our numbers, Marquette had a 0.5pt advantage.  But I rounded to whole percentages, and guessing you did some rounding too.  My point being, we could have lost by a lot (a few?) more had they hit FTs.  That's all. X was pretty awful from the freebies today.

[willie warrior]

We will learn.

When?

[TrojanWarrior]

Smart doing the best he can with what he has.... Last year, many of these players were in high school gyms. Played X tough today, team had a couple good runs.  Vegas has us pegged.

I just worry about March after each Big East team has played us once, and watches more film. Lewis is a beast, key him, and everyone else is pretty green. No one knew us early in the year, so we won, but UCLA, St. B, and X scouted well on how to handle us.  Wright, McDermott, Ewing, Hurley, Willard and Cooley, they will be ready.

We will give some bloody noses for sure, but Smart is just getting started. I think he will coach our talent well.

[BCHoopster]

Shaka recruited these non shooters so who to blame but himself. If his new philosophy was run, fun and shoot 3's, he should have recruited to that situation.  Omax where does he fit? Did not play at Clemson so why at MU?  Ellis and Itegere not even playing, not a good class that came to MU to play this style.

[Jockey]

   
3.   Nice to see Kolek and Morsell be productive.    Not perfect.    But productive.    Hated TK's shot with 2 to go.
4.   Fouls!     Xavier was rewarded for being the aggressive team attacking the basket at home.   
   

These were the only things that mattered. The biggest play of the game was Kolek shooting an ill-advised 3 when we were down 2 with 2 minutes to go.

And of course we wouldn't have been in that position without the constant fouling (in a game that wasn't even called real tight). X was in the Double Bonus in the 2nd half with 11 minutes to go.


Both of these things can be attributed to youth.

[mileskishnish72]

It just looked at the ends of the halves that they could have used some direction and instruction.
They didn't get that, and the finish was what it was.  I like the way Shaka stresses relationships and seems to have the players' attention, but so far I wouldn't call him a great strategist or game coach.
Maybe he's trying to let them learn for themselves, but I think a lot of coaches would have been
offering more in the way of advice (i.e., what they wanted to see run) at those junctures.

On to UConn.

[Boston Warrior]

Greg has to be on the court for this team. He is the only consistent 3 point scorer right now.

This was nothing like the ucla game, we could have won and were competitive. Ucla wasn't a competitive game from the jump.

Too many mistakes, need to clean it up and the kids will learn. As long as they compete hard, learn from this game, keep their confidence and energy up. They can still make noise this year.

I am not writing this year off as a process year. No reason we can't win half in the big East.

[79Warrior]

" Process " is fine
But Shaka brought in guys that can't shoot ... which he knew.

The BE is BIG TIME ... they cut it to
One Point w / 3 mins to go.  Did not
finish

And ... sorry ... in 2021 w / " free agency " and NIL and transfers galore ..

Shaka does not get 3 or 4 years to build. 

I still hope 9/11 is possible, but they need a few good " resume " wins.

Shaka does not get 3 or 4 years to build? Not saying he needs 3 or 4, but do you think Marquette is going to fire another coach anytime soon? Highly unlikely. He will do fine and be given plenty of leeway by MU. Insane how many fans are unhappy already. Shaka had to start all over coming into this year. Anyone who was thinking NCAA this season is drinking way too much Milwaukee brew. We will finish a game or so under .500 in BE and I think that was/is to be expected. Super young team. So much impatience by some fans.

[tower912]

Muggsy, this game was decided when Xavier decided to attack the basket hard off the dribble with their upperclassmen against MU's young guys.   They won this game due to number of free throws.   Big, strong, experienced team at home.

You can Karen all you want.   Shaka's defensive trademark is pressure.    The only way  it stops, IMO, is if he doesn't have the bodies.

[Viper]

Shaka does not get 3 or 4 years to build? Not saying he needs 3 or 4, but do you think Marquette is going to fire another coach anytime soon? Highly unlikely. He will do fine and be given plenty of leeway by MU. Insane how many fans are unhappy already. Shaka had to start all over coming into this year. Anyone who was thinking NCAA this season is drinking way too much Milwaukee brew. We will finish a game or so under .500 in BE and I think that was/is to be expected. Super young team. So much impatience by some fans.

super young? Morsell, 2K, Elliott are 5th yr guys. Lewis played a lot last season. Kolek played a lot last season at GM. Since Shaka is pretty much at 7 guys, only Oso and Jones are 'young'. Mitchell, Joplin, Ellis, Omax really don't play.  I think folks are upset in the realization that MU, a true 'basketball' school, is closing in on a lost decade.

[bilsu]

It's interesting that in your comprehensive list you did not mention the points XU got in transition or versus our press.  Wide open bunnies and corner threes time and time again. That along with the free throw discrepancy gave us no margin for error despite a great stretch offensively for TK and GE.

Solid teams are going to take advantage of the press.

[TAMU, Knower of Ball]

super young? Morsell, 2K, Elliott are 5th yr guys. Lewis played a lot last season. Kolek played a lot last season at GM. Since Shaka is pretty much at 7 guys, only Oso and Jones are 'young'. Mitchell, Joplin, Ellis, Omax really don't play.  I think folks are upset in the realization that MU, a true 'basketball' school, is closing in on a lost decade.

351st/357 in experience. We are young. That is an inarguable fact

[mu.n8ball]

they also don't have a lot of time playing with each other that a squad of 3 or 4 year players coming up together have. imo, there's an intangible chemistry factor to teams like that.

[tower912]

I am loving some of these new posters.  Losses are entertaining.

[The Sultan]

I am loving some of these new posters.  Losses are entertaining.

Russian bots.

[rocky_warrior]

351st/357 in experience. We are young. That is an inarguable fact

Stuffing the bench with 5 (of 12) true frosh will do that.  We don't start a young team.  And Justin, Oso, Tyler, and Omax aren't Frosh. 

I'd like to know which schools reclassified their  Sophomores as Freshman (and does that count in your inarguable fact?).  Wisconsin didn't do it with Davis.

[The Sultan]

Stuffing the bench with 5 (of 12) true frosh will do that.  We don't start a young team.  And Justin, Oso, Tyler, and Omax aren't Frosh. 

I'd like to know which schools reclassified their  Sophomores as Freshman (and does that count in your inarguable fact?).  Wisconsin didn't do it with Davis.

Neither one of those things factor into Kenpoms experience rankings though.

[rocky_warrior]

Neither one of those things factor into Kenpoms experience rankings though.

Are you sure?  Best I can tell there are 10 BE teams with Sophomores, guess which school doesn't have a single one?

https://www.barttorvik.com/playerstat.php?link=y&sIndex=1&maxht=1000&yvalue=So&cvalue=BE&ocvalue=undefined&xvalue=undefined&year=2022&minmin=1&start=20211101&end=20220501

Also, 5 of 12 players as true frosh absolutely counts!

Edit: here's what I found: https://kenpom.com/blog/height-and-other-stuff-page/
Experience
– The experience value is in terms of years of college experience where a player's eligibility class is assumed to determine this. For the purposes of the calculation, a freshman has zero years of experience, a sophomore has one year of experience, etc.

So, he's counting 4 of our sophomores as frosh, with no experience.  Correct?

[THEbig0]

When I hear young I think more a combination of a role inexperience and chemistry as a team, not so much years in college. In that respect they are very very young and I expect to see a huge amount of development over the year. Not having three years playing together in a system is underrated on this board. Even Aaron Rodgers will struggle some when he has to learn a new offense.

[rocky_warrior]

When I hear young I think more a combination of a role inexperience and chemistry as a team, not so much years in college. In that respect they are very very young and I expect to see a huge amount of development over the year. Not having three years playing together in a system is underrated on this board.

I'm not debating that, in fact I generally agree.  I'm only debating that we're not actually "351st/357 " - that is a completely refutable number.

MU / Shaka has decided to play the numbers in ways that other schools haven't.  I don't know why, but that's a fact.

[The Sultan]

Are you sure?  Best I can tell there are 10 BE teams with Sophomores, guess which school doesn't have a single one?

https://www.barttorvik.com/playerstat.php?link=y&sIndex=1&maxht=1000&yvalue=So&cvalue=BE&ocvalue=undefined&xvalue=undefined&year=2022&minmin=1&start=20211101&end=20220501

Also, 5 of 12 players as true frosh absolutely counts!

Edit: here's what I found: https://kenpom.com/blog/height-and-other-stuff-page/
Experience
– The experience value is in terms of years of college experience where a player's eligibility class is assumed to determine this. For the purposes of the calculation, a freshman has zero years of experience, a sophomore has one year of experience, etc.

So, he's counting 4 of our sophomores as frosh, with no experience.  Correct?

Yes I'm sure.

[MuggsyB]

Muggsy, this game was decided when Xavier decided to attack the basket hard off the dribble with their upperclassmen against MU's young guys.   They won this game due to number of free throws.   Big, strong, experienced team at home.

You can Karen all you want.   Shaka's defensive trademark is pressure.    The only way  it stops, IMO, is if he doesn't have the bodies.

I disagree with your insinuation that we cannot adapt to our personnel.  You also fail to point out that their attacks to the rim were most effective when we pressed, Odom is the best example.  And calling me a "Karen" is weak and illustrates that you refuse to deal with nuances and facts within each game. 

[rocky_warrior]

Yes I'm sure.

No.  You're wrong.  Or show me where I'm  in error.

I've already proven that 5 freshman absolutely count against our experience (his blog).  So at least one of my two things absolutely does count (you said both don't).

I'm also pretty sure that because Marquette classified Sophs as Fosh (and other schools didn't) that they also get "zero" experience points.  Prove me wrong.  Otherwise you're zero for two.

[The Sultan]

I disagree with your insinuation that we cannot adapt to our personnel.  You also fail to point out that their attacks to the rim were most effective when we pressed, Odom is the best example.  And calling me a "Karen" is weak and illustrates that you refuse to deal with nuances and facts within each game. 

Man are you going to be like this every game?

Anyway this is how Shaka is playing. And I think it's fine.

[pbiflyer]

Our defense improved, our rebounding improved. Neither perfect, but better.
Nice to see a team improved as the year progresses. Would rather them be better at the end than the beginning. Eh na?