2023 Team Outlook

[panda]

With the obvious one being if he was good enough for significant minutes, he would've played. Especially on a team with a losing record that didn't have another center to spell Theo John.

What's odd to say is a guy going from virtually not playing to nearly 20 mpg not being an indicator of improvement.

I just wouldn't qualify his growth as "great improvement" between years one and two.  He does have the skill set and showed flashes last year that he can be one of the big time growth guys next season.

[MU82]

Oso went from not being good enough in practice to garner any PT for a lousy team in Year 1 to being a 20 mpg contributor for an NCAA tournament team in Year 2.

No improvement at all.

As for what he might or might not do in Year 3 ... those were Shaka's words, not some Scooper's. I'm looking forward to seeing even more improvement from Oso in Year 3!

[brewcity77]

The "Oso didn't have great improvement because he didn't play enough minutes despite not redshirting as a freshman" hill is certainly one of the strangest I've seen a Scooper get up on.

[Shooter McGavin]

The X factor is Wojo was a poor coach.  Maybe he should have played his freshman year and we would have gotten similar production to this past year his freshman year and an even better year from him last year.

I have no stake in this game.  Just throwing it out there for argument sake.

[panda]

The "Oso didn't have great improvement because he didn't play enough minutes despite not redshirting as a freshman" hill is certainly one of the strangest I've seen a Scooper get up on.

I'm fully aware this is a lame June level scoop semantics battle, but I just don't think I would qualify his growth between years one and two as "great improvement." Improvement sure, that's a given, but great improvement seems quite generous.

[MU82]

I'm fully aware this is a lame June level scoop semantics battle

And yet ...

[swoopem]

I saw a couple brief clips of that Shaka press conference but does anyone have a link to the full thing?

[Elonsmusk]

Sounds like Oso had an incredible Spring and is going to be a focal point of the offense.

"He's going to handle the ball more than anyone that plays that position." Goes onto say "For bigs that want to have the ball in their hands, want to attack, want to make decisions, want to be playmakers, our style's great for that."

BIG things ahead for Oso!

https://twitter.com/DariusJoshuaTV/status/1537170281743233024?t=vSYH7zxgVma-Dskzc9jubg&s=19

Love that Shaka basically used a call to action in this interview:  "For bigs that want to attack, have the ball in your hands, be a playmaker, make decisions, our style is great for that."

Oso could prove to have a huge impact on the court for the team, and a huge impact off it from a recruiting perspective by way of being able to showcase his usage/role in Shaka's system.

The Osa/O-Max/Kolek/Kam/Stevie core has a lot of potential. 

[Vander Blue Man Group]

I just wouldn't qualify his growth as "great improvement" between years one and two.  He does have the skill set and showed flashes last year that he can be one of the big time growth guys next season.

This is a really strange hill to die on. 

[tower912]

Love that Shaka basically used a call to action in this interview:  "For bigs that want to attack, have the ball in your hands, be a playmaker, make decisions, our style is great for that."

Oso could prove to have a huge impact on the court for the team, and a huge impact off it from a recruiting perspective by way of being able to showcase his usage/role in Shaka's system.

The Osa/O-Max/Kolek/Kam/Stevie core has a lot of potential.

Oso showed that in flashes last season.    An ability to attack from the top of the key off of the dribble.   Wasn't quite strong enough to finish, but I expect that will change this season.   

[Shooter McGavin]

Love that Shaka basically used a call to action in this interview:  "For bigs that want to attack, have the ball in your hands, be a playmaker, make decisions, our style is great for that."

Oso could prove to have a huge impact on the court for the team, and a huge impact off it from a recruiting perspective by way of being able to showcase his usage/role in Shaka's system.

The Osa/O-Max/Kolek/Kam/Stevie core has a lot of potential.

I liked that as well Elon.  If the bigs perform well this year it would be a huge recruiting platform.  Add Sean Jones (just have a good feeling, nothing more) to your core and I agree with that as well.  Sincerely hope that is not wishful thinking on my part.   This season will tell us a ton as to how the Shaka tenure will go.  I'm genuinely excited to find out.   

[brewcity77]

This is a really strange hill to die on.

Even by Scoop standards, it's pretty wild.

As a freshman, Oso couldn't get on the court for a team that had only the second losing season at Marquette in the 21st Century. He only got minutes in 5 games, and 68% of his minutes came in 3 games against sub-100 teams. His career high in scoring was 4 points and he had just 6 total for the entire season. Then as a sophomore, he played in all 32 games, exceeding his previous high in minutes 27 times, matching or exceeding his previous career high in scoring 20 times, and matching or exceeding his freshman season scoring total in 12 single games. And he did all that for a NCAA Tournament team. And was 2nd in the conference in 2PFG% (behind only Kuath) and 4th in Big East Offensive Rating.

As a freshman, the minutes were there to be had. When Theo John came out, Dawson had to rotate to the 5 because we didn't have any other backup centers that could get on the court. And he clearly wasn't redshirting since he did play 38 minutes, so if he was good enough, there was no reason not to play him.

[panda]

Even by Scoop standards, it's pretty wild.

As a freshman, Oso couldn't get on the court for a team that had only the second losing season at Marquette in the 21st Century. He only got minutes in 5 games, and 68% of his minutes came in 3 games against sub-100 teams. His career high in scoring was 4 points and he had just 6 total for the entire season. Then as a sophomore, he played in all 32 games, exceeding his previous high in minutes 27 times, matching or exceeding his previous career high in scoring 20 times, and matching or exceeding his freshman season scoring total in 12 single games. And he did all that for a NCAA Tournament team. And was 2nd in the conference in 2PFG% (behind only Kuath) and 4th in Big East Offensive Rating.

As a freshman, the minutes were there to be had. When Theo John came out, Dawson had to rotate to the 5 because we didn't have any other backup centers that could get on the court. And he clearly wasn't redshirting since he did play 38 minutes, so if he was good enough, there was no reason not to play him.

How do you know if he improved if he never played? He was dealing with injuries for a chunk of his first year. Maybe his overall performance this year wouldn't have been much different than his freshman year if he played similar minutes ?

[Herman Cain]

Love that Shaka basically used a call to action in this interview:  "For bigs that want to attack, have the ball in your hands, be a playmaker, make decisions, our style is great for that."

Oso could prove to have a huge impact on the court for the team, and a huge impact off it from a recruiting perspective by way of being able to showcase his usage/role in Shaka's system.

The Osa/O-Max/Kolek/Kam/Stevie core has a lot of potential.

I agree with this analysis

[MU82]

How do you know if he improved if he never played? He was dealing with injuries for a chunk of his first year. Maybe his overall performance this year wouldn't have been much different than his freshman year if he played similar minutes ?

[brewcity77]

How do you know if he improved if he never played? He was dealing with injuries for a chunk of his first year. Maybe his overall performance this year wouldn't have been much different than his freshman year if he played similar minutes ?

Because if he was good enough to play, he would have. That was a bad team with little depth at his position. Not only that, but along with his minutes going up, his tempo-free numbers like offensive rating, usage, offensive and defensive rebounding percentages, block rate, and free throw rate all went up too.

All the numbers strongly point to significant improvement being the reason he was able to played far more minutes for a better team. If you have some evidence that proves Oso was just as good but misused by Wojo, I'm happy to see it, but without evidence to support your unsupported claim, I just don't see why you have picked this very strange hill to fight and die on.

[MU82]

Because if he was good enough to play, he would have. That was a bad team with little depth at his position. Not only that, but along with his minutes going up, his tempo-free numbers like offensive rating, usage, offensive and defensive rebounding percentages, block rate, and free throw rate all went up too.

All the numbers strongly point to significant improvement being the reason he was able to played far more minutes for a better team. If you have some evidence that proves Oso was just as good but misused by Wojo, I'm happy to see it, but without evidence to support your unsupported claim, I just don't see why you have picked this very strange hill to fight and die on.

panda often has decent takes, but he is one of the handful of Scoopers who will never, ever, ever, ever back down, even when he has a bad take. It's just who he is.

[panda]

Because if he was good enough to play, he would have. That was a bad team with little depth at his position. Not only that, but along with his minutes going up, his tempo-free numbers like offensive rating, usage, offensive and defensive rebounding percentages, block rate, and free throw rate all went up too.

All the numbers strongly point to significant improvement being the reason he was able to played far more minutes for a better team. If you have some evidence that proves Oso was just as good but misused by Wojo, I'm happy to see it, but without evidence to support your unsupported claim, I just don't see why you have picked this very strange hill to fight and die on.

Or Wojo sold the farm to get Carton and Garcia, promised them lead roles and prominent minutes so that in essence shortens his bench and limits the potential rotation combos he can utilize.

They also shelved him after his injury so he didn't play a minute for half the conference season.

[brewcity77]

Or Wojo sold the farm to get Carton and Garcia, promised them lead roles and prominent minutes so that in essence shortens his bench and limits the potential rotation combos he can utilize.

They also shelved him after his injury so he didn't play a minute for half the conference season.

By which time he had played just 38 of 725 available minutes. 5.2% of the available minutes. Fewer than Dexter Akanno, he of the 44.5 ORtg, had played to that point. Even Jose Perez, who was clearly outclassed and not remotely a Big East player, carved out a far bigger role on that awful team. And both of those bad players got those minutes while Carton and Garcia were both playing, so your argument doesn't hold water.

Again, provide the EVIDENCE as to Oso's lack of improvement. The numbers say he improved. The minutes say he improved. Performing better on a better team says he improved. If you have proof to the contrary, have at it. Otherwise, it's just a...how did you say it..."lame June level Scoop semantics battle" that you clearly have no ability to wage.

[The Sultan]

How do you know if he improved if he never played? He was dealing with injuries for a chunk of his first year. Maybe his overall performance this year wouldn't have been much different than his freshman year if he played similar minutes ?

This has strong "we should play the back-up more" vibes.

[tower912]

Oso did miss time with a foot injury.

[bilsu]

It's not a knock on Oso. Just thought it was odd to say he greatly improved between years one and two when we saw nothing from him year one for various reasons.

Not sure, but I thought Oso had some kind of injury problem that limited his playing time as a freshmen.
Lewis missed 7 games and was ineffective when he came back.

[The Sultan]

Not sure, but I thought Oso had some kind of injury problem that limited his playing time as a freshmen.

Huh.  I wonder where you heard that?

Oso did miss time with a foot injury.

They also shelved him after his injury so he didn't play a minute for half the conference season.

[bilsu]

Huh.  I wonder where you heard that?

I am pretty sure Wojo said something about it. Most likely read it on MUscoop.

[bilsu]

I am pretty sure Wojo said something about it. Most likely read it on MUscoop.

It was in an Athletic article taking about Shaka's team.

"Redshirt freshman Oso Ighodaro is a former top-150 recruit from Phoenix. He played limited minutes as a freshman at Marquette last season and missed the last nine games with a foot injury, but he has a ranging variety of skills that could expand his playing time as Kuath's backup. He's 6-foot-10 and 215 pounds, but is strong enough to play through contact".