Without Sanogo, there'd be no UConn off to the races today.

[tower912]

1.   Bigger stronger faster.     
2.   Bully ball on the boards.    Offensive rebounds got UConn their lead and broke MU's back in the end.
3.   Pushing the ball in transition in the first half.
4.   Almost no help from UConn on defense.    Certainly staying at home on Morsell and Lewis.    Took away the passing game.   Made Morsell miss some shots he has been hitting recently.   Really not afraid of MU down low.   
5.  Oso, 20 lbs from now, is going to be an absolute unicorn on offense.     So close but not quite strong enough on some of these finishes.    Better than Kuath tonight.   
6.  Sanogo went out in the second half and Oso in on defense,  MU started switching all 5.   Whaley got an offensive board and got fouled, but I don't remember switching 1-5.   Just for a second, just to see how it feels.   
7.   Nice work from OMP and Greg.     
8.   MU fought and fought and fought.   
9.  Free throws.   Well, you know....,.
10.   There are often lessons to be learned in losses.    There was nothing new tonight.    Just reinforcing what we know.    MU can be beat on the boards.   MU struggles with big, strong post players.    UConn worked hard tonight and earned the win.
11.    Take care of the games against the bottom dwellers.   


 

[CountryRoads]

Take care of business @Butler. It won’t be easy.

[#UnleashSean]

Tough, bad, cold game. Move on.

[wadesworld]

Thought we played pretty bad and still cut into the lead a few times. Horrible rebounding, missed some free throws, thought we let their defensive pressure make our offense rushed, Kolek and Morsell were nowhere near where they need to be. Didn’t think Lewis had a good first half, but he (along with Greg and OMax) tried to get us back into it.

Rebounding will end our season.

[JakeBarnes]

1.   Bigger stronger faster.     
2.   Bully ball on the boards.    Offensive rebounds got UConn their lead and broke MU's back in the end.
3.   Pushing the ball in transition in the first half.
4.   Almost no help from UConn on defense.    Certainly staying at home on Morsell and Lewis.    Took away the passing game.   Made Morsell miss some shots he has been hitting recently.   Really not afraid of MU down low.   
5.  Oso, 20 lbs from now, is going to be an absolute unicorn on offense.     So close but not quite strong enough on some of these finishes.    Better than Kuath tonight.   
6.  Sanogo went out in the second half and Oso in on defense,  MU started switching all 5.   Whaley got an offensive board and got fouled, but I don't remember switching 1-5.   Just for a second, just to see how it feels.   
7.   Nice work from OMP and Greg.     
8.   MU fought and fought and fought.   
9.  Free throws.   Well, you know....,.
10.   There are often lessons to be learned in losses.    There was nothing new tonight.    Just reinforcing what we know.    MU can be beat on the boards.   MU struggles with big, strong post players.    UConn worked hard tonight and earned the win.
11.    Take care of the games against the bottom dwellers.   


 

12. Donnie Marshall earned his Uconn Starter jacket

[nyg]

Kolek not good. 1 for 7 from field and he guarded Martin who went for 18/15
Morsell not good.  3 for 12 from field.

Rebounds. UConn 47. MU 25. Sanogo and Martin had 30, more than entire MU squad. 

Turnovers MU 6 and UConn had 14.  MU still loses. 

Loss at Providence was getting destroyed on boards
Loss at UConn was getting destroyed on boards.

Hope MU gets back on track. Don’t overlook Butler away game. Do not overlook.

[JakeBarnes]

Kolek not good. 1 for 7 from field and he guarded Martin who went for 18/15
Morsell not good.  3 for 12 from field.

Rebounds. UConn 47. MU 25. Sanogo and Martin had 30, more than entire MU squad. 

Turnovers MU 6 and UConn had 14.  MU still loses. 

Loss at Providence was getting destroyed on boards
Loss at UConn was getting destroyed on boards.

Hope MU gets back on track. Don’t overlook Butler away game. Do not overlook.

Hero ball from Justin, Kolek and Daryl killed us. Kam even had a ridiculous drive to nowhere.

No one was playing for their teammates for a bit

[tower912]

Agree with you both.   Bad night.  Loss.

[Dr. Blackheart]

Regression to the mean. These are the team match-ups that beat Shaka composed teams.

[Elonsmusk]

Kolek not good. 1 for 7 from field and he guarded Martin who went for 18/15
Morsell not good.  3 for 12 from field.

Rebounds. UConn 47. MU 25. Sanogo and Martin had 30, more than entire MU squad. 

Turnovers MU 6 and UConn had 14.  MU still loses. 

Loss at Providence was getting destroyed on boards
Loss at UConn was getting destroyed on boards.

Hope MU gets back on track. Don’t overlook Butler away game. Do not overlook.

Think it was Kolek's worst game at MU.  They happen.  He should work on a floater this summer.  Darryl wasn't great either as you said.

The offense devolved into a lot of one on one..which partially was a function of Kolek being off the floor a fair amount.  OMP was great on his one on ones.

[Elonsmusk]

Regression to the mean. These are the team match-ups that beat Shaka composed teams.

I'd say this is a pretty big over-generalization.  Ken Pom had this game between 4-6 point margin.  Marquette was supposed to lose. 

I mean it is Year 1 of Shaka.  He'll get a banger in the mix.  Hurley is in Year 4.  Let's not forget how incredible this team is performing.

[Boone]

Oso was better than Kur, but not by much. Still brutal

[NolongerWarriors]

Huge win for Gard and UW tonight at Mich St.

Great coaching adjustments by Gard in limiting Michigan State's fast break points (only 4 pts tonight vs 21 their last meeting), which destroyed the Badgers in Madison.

[Uncle Rico]

One of the more disjointed efforts of the season.  Forced turnovers but never felt like it got the offense grooving.  Teams are making it difficult for Kolek to be a creator and the offense stagnates. 

Rebounding was an issue and really killed them in the final 8.  Thought the defense was good enough overall but rebounding mattered tonight. 

[mugrad_89]

Huge win for Gard and UW tonight at Mich St.

Great coaching adjustments by Gard in limiting Michigan State's fast break points, which destroyed the Badgers in Madison.

So what?

[mug644]

I felt like Greg dribbled way too much tonight. He's much stronger as a catch and shoot player than as a creator or dribble-drive guy.

[Uncle Rico]

So what?

He likes his teams like he likes his people, white

[Shooter McGavin]

12. Donnie Marshall earned his Uconn Starter jacket

100% there was almost zero MU related analysis.  It was all from the UConn perspective.  Would have loved for MU to steal this game in the last seconds so Donnie would have been forced to talk about MU.  He was treating it like Marquette was “fools gold” and not legit.  Hopefully we beat them at MSG.

[PGsHeroes32]

Huge win for Gard and UW tonight at Mich St.

Great coaching adjustments by Gard in limiting Michigan State's fast break points (only 4 pts tonight vs 21 their last meeting), which destroyed the Badgers in Madison.

Douse yourself in kersosene. Grab a match. Light.

[tower912]

Trolly McTrollerson doing trolly things.

Despite tonight, still...

#nolongerworriers

[Elonsmusk]

Huge win for Gard and UW tonight at Mich St.

Great coaching adjustments by Gard in limiting Michigan State's fast break points (only 4 pts tonight vs 21 their last meeting), which destroyed the Badgers in Madison.

You better enjoy this run because once Johnny Davis leaves after this season, I don't see a whole lot of talent on that roster.  So, enjoy your Round of 32 exit, and then tune in to watch MU play in the Sweet 16. 

[The Hippie Satan of Hyperbole]

I felt like Greg dribbled way too much tonight. He's much stronger as a catch and shoot player than as a creator or dribble-drive guy.

Everybody dribbled too much tonight.

[Elonsmusk]

Everybody dribbled too much tonight.

Agree.  Sidenote:  Tyrese Martin had 15 rebounds.  That can't happen.  He's got a 15.8% Defensive Rebounding rate..the same as O-Max and Kur basically. 

[RubyWiscy]

MU 8-2 in the gauntlet. I'll take it. But still would prefer 10-0.

[DegenerateDish]

I thought MU’s passing was sloppy tonight too, not in a turnover sense, but where guys were catching the ball. Felt like a lot of times an MU player would catch a pass at a weird angle and have to re-set their feet.

[PointWarrior]

You mean we could have hired Gard instead of by passing Porter Moser?

What a turd of a poster...

So what?

[WarriorHal]

0-4 against UCONN since they rejoined the Big East

[Shooter McGavin]

0-4 against UCONN since they rejoined the Big East

6-7 overall now too.  Hate being under .500 against them.  JFB owned UConn.  At least it felt that way.

[NCMUFan]

If Osa and Kur put on 40 lbs apiece we would have been ok.

[MU82]

Not even worth talking about rebounding, as everybody's already done that ...

It just wasn't a good game for Kolek, and that happens sometimes, and it's why he got a lot of time on the bench even though he's Shaka's guy. Too many drives to nowhere and uncharacteristically poor decisions. But I'll be surprised if he doesn't bounce back strong Saturday.

Down the line, it will be interesting to see what Tyler works on during the offseason. If you want to be a very good PG in today's basketball, you must be able to stop and pop from 10-12 feet, you must be equally adroit at laying it in with either hand, and you must have a float game. Kolek has had a nice season for us, but we'd all sure love to see him take his game to another level, as would Shaka.

Beyond Kolek ...

Rough game for Kuath and Oso. I still believe this team can have a strong postseason, and part of the reason is there aren't too many bigs like Watson and Sanogo who can throw our 5s around like rag dolls.

O-Max was really active today and made some big hoops for us. My only nit with him is that the offense comes to a screeching halt when he dribbles in from 30 feet away into the lane, never even thinking about passing. It's great when he scores, but when he doesn't it's a problem. Obviously, he's not the reason we lost today, though. A fine, hard-working effort.

Greg played 24 minutes today, maybe a little too much, but he was instrumental in us even being in this game. It was unfortunate that he missed those two open 3s, either of which would have tied it, but he otherwise was so valuable tonight that Shaka didn't want to take him out of the game. He kept grabbing his left side; I hope he's OK.

I thought Joplin might get a little more run. He had a really nice blocked shot during his short stint in the game and I was hoping he'd spark us with a couple of 3s.

I'm really not discouraged at all. Our stretch between the Creighton loss and tonight's defeat was about as good a month as any team in college basketball enjoyed, and so much better than most of us envisioned. Now we expect victory, and that's good!

So now it's time to take care of business as the favorites for a few weeks. We'll be favored to win at least 5 of our last 6 regular-season games, and maybe all 6 (at Creighton?). I look forward to seeing if this team can put on a great finish and take some big-time momentum into the BET and especially NCAAT.

We Are Marquette!

[Dr. Blackheart]

I'd say this is a pretty big over-generalization.  Ken Pom had this game between 4-6 point margin.  Marquette was supposed to lose. 

I mean it is Year 1 of Shaka.  He'll get a banger in the mix.  Hurley is in Year 4.  Let's not forget how incredible this team is performing.

Two worst BE games of the year? Both against UCONN. Match-ups matter.

Rebounding and half court games have been problematic throughout Shaka's career. Let hope he adapts.

[Elonsmusk]

Two worst BE games of the year? Both against UCONN. Match-ups matter.

Rebounding and half court games have been problematic throughout Shaka's career. Let hope he adapts.

Sure.  So by the same measure, Jay Wright better adapt his coaching ways too, right?  I mean we were Nova's two worst BE games of the year.

Can't win them all, and to imply that this year's MU team is emblematic of Shaka's teams at VCU or Texas - when he had all of 3 months to cobble together a roster? 

Now it's entirely possible that the defensive scheme/principles lead to chronic problems on block outs, yet you can't argue with Shaka's defenses consistently ranking in the Top 40 now 10 years in a row. 

It's difficult to be superior/exceptional in every area.  End of the day we are a very solid, Top 25 team..in Year 1.  Of course we'd like to be much better in D-Rebounding but this team's personnel is somewhat limited in that only Justin would qualify as a banger/physical presence.  Shaka said as much, knows as much, and I think he'll address it. 

[NCMUFan]

Overall, we are not a big team.
Big teams if they can play to their strength will be difficult.
Have to play to our strength, i.e., create havoc, disrupt.

[Shooter McGavin]

Sure.  So by the same measure, Jay Wright better adapt his coaching ways too, right?  I mean we were Nova's two worst BE games of the year.

Can't win them all, and to imply that this year's MU team is emblematic of Shaka's teams at VCU or Texas - when he had all of 3 months to cobble together a roster? 

Now it's entirely possible that the defensive scheme/principles lead to chronic problems on block outs, yet you can't argue with Shaka's defenses consistently ranking in the Top 40 now 10 years in a row. 

It's difficult to be superior/exceptional in every area.  End of the day we are a very solid, Top 25 team..in Year 1.  Of course we'd like to be much better in O-Rebounding but this team's personnel is somewhat limited in that only Justin would qualify as a banger/physical presence.  Shaka said as much, knows as much, and I think he'll address it.

I’m in complete agreement with you.

[Dr. Blackheart]

Sure.  So by the same measure, Jay Wright better adapt his coaching ways too, right?  I mean we were Nova's two worst BE games of the year.

Can't win them all, and to imply that this year's MU team is emblematic of Shaka's teams at VCU or Texas - when he had all of 3 months to cobble together a roster? 

Now it's entirely possible that the defensive scheme/principles lead to chronic problems on block outs, yet you can't argue with Shaka's defenses consistently ranking in the Top 40 now 10 years in a row. 

It's difficult to be superior/exceptional in every area.  End of the day we are a very solid, Top 25 team..in Year 1.  Of course we'd like to be much better in O-Rebounding but this team's personnel is somewhat limited in that only Justin would qualify as a banger/physical presence.  Shaka said as much, knows as much, and I think he'll address it.

There is a lot here to uncoil, especially as we are talking a single game thread. The fact is, your greatest strength is your greatest weakness. A UCONN-like team has been Shaka's Achilles heel.

I thought he did great tonight, especially out of halftime, trying to hide his weakness. At the end, both bigs were sitting. The fact is, it was too much to overcome...and has followed him.

This is not to diminish his overall performance which has been outstanding and what I expected. But it is to lay out what holds him back from going from Point A to B (A) to Point C (incomplete). I expect he'll figure it out in future years. I want to win this year though, too.

[TSmith34, Inc.]

You mean we could have hired Gard instead of by passing Porter Moser?

What a turd of a poster...

The mods are incredibly tolerant with Scoopers, but I'm not sure I understand the point of keeping a guy who hates MU and everything the University stands for.

[JakeBarnes]

I felt like Greg dribbled way too much tonight. He's much stronger as a catch and shoot player than as a creator or dribble-drive guy.

Greg was the PG after the Kolek fiasco tonight. He had to dribble. Just too much dribbling overall by most players and not enough passing

[MU82]

Greg was the PG after the Kolek fiasco tonight. He had to dribble. Just too much dribbling overall by most players and not enough passing

Yeah, we had to use 3 guys who aren't PGs as PGs for a lot of the game and we had too damn much bouncy-ball.

When I opened the box score, I was surprised we only had 6 TOs (and only 1 by a guard), as it seemed like guys were driving into trouble and losing control of the ball often.

[PointWarrior]

On a positive note, when we face UConn in the BEast tourney, we have the karma of all the scoop posters that say it’s hard to beat a team 3 games in a row. 

Of course, hope we don’t have Villanova then. 

[The Thing]

I really love this team but the rebounding thing is maddening. Aside from all else rebounding was the number one factor for why we lost this game. Even on defense tonight I was almost surprised when MU actually got a rebound…and that’s when they were playing defense and should be in position. There was one play where two MU players were actually right there in prime position and somehow I think it was Sanogo who ended up with it. I know it’s not that simple but like someone else said earlier “rebounding will end our season” and I agree 100%.

[willie warrior]

1.   Bigger stronger faster.     
2.   Bully ball on the boards.    Offensive rebounds got UConn their lead and broke MU's back in the end.
3.   Pushing the ball in transition in the first half.
4.   Almost no help from UConn on defense.    Certainly staying at home on Morsell and Lewis.    Took away the passing game.   Made Morsell miss some shots he has been hitting recently.   Really not afraid of MU down low.   
5.  Oso, 20 lbs from now, is going to be an absolute unicorn on offense.     So close but not quite strong enough on some of these finishes.    Better than Kuath tonight.   
6.  Sanogo went out in the second half and Oso in on defense,  MU started switching all 5.   Whaley got an offensive board and got fouled, but I don't remember switching 1-5.   Just for a second, just to see how it feels.   
7.   Nice work from OMP and Greg.     
8.   MU fought and fought and fought.   
9.  Free throws.   Well, you know....,.
10.   There are often lessons to be learned in losses.    There was nothing new tonight.    Just reinforcing what we know.    MU can be beat on the boards.   MU struggles with big, strong post players.    UConn worked hard tonight and earned the win.
11.    Take care of the games against the bottom dwellers.   


 

12. UConn game plan much better than MUs

[Goose]

Fortunately, I was only able to follow the game online. It does not sound like it was a great team performance and probably should have been expected. Now, time to regroup and put a bad performance in the rearview mirror.

[MUDPT]

Surprised with how fired up UConn was. Hurley blowing kisses to the crowd at the end. Guess little Marquette is back…

[MUfan12]

12. UConn game plan much better than MUs

I don't know about that. They got out to a lead on some abnormally hot outside shooting and rode their rebounding advantage. I don't know how you gameplan for giving up so much size.

[NCMUFan]

I guess still a place in college BB for a big dominating center.

[tower912]

The Big East, The Big 10....

[TSmith34, Inc.]

I guess still a place in college BB for a big dominating center.

Maybe, but Shaka's defensive plan is to switch all the time. His centers are frequently out on the perimeter pressuring until they scramble back to pick up the opposing big. Unless the big, dominating center is also quick and can defend in space, they don't fit Shaka's defensive system, which itself has been pretty good.

Seems like his options are:
1) Find a big, dominating, fast center that can defend in space-- don't think many of these exist
2) Change his defensive system-- hate to change a system that has transformed MU's defense
3) Change the mindset of the players to value/focus on rebounding-- Lewis is the only one that consistently rebounds well

It seems to me that option 3 is the best fix. Skinny guys still won't be great rebounders, but all they have to be to produce better results is to not be as terrible as they currently are.

[MU82]

Fortunately, I was only able to follow the game online. It does not sound like it was a great team performance and probably should have been expected. Now, time to regroup and put a bad performance in the rearview mirror.

It's a loss, so we're all nitpickin' a lot, but it really wasn't all that bad a team performance on the road against a ranked opponent. We were in the game the entire way, got excellent contributions from O-Max and Greg, and really battled. We lost because we couldn't get defensive boards -- in other words, the usual -- and it didn't help that Morsell and Lewis missed some real important FTs down the stretch.

At the end of the game, I said: "That sucked ... but we're not done making noise this season."

[Scoop Snoop]

Maybe, but Shaka's defensive plan is to switch all the time. His centers are frequently out on the perimeter pressuring until they scramble back to pick up the opposing big. Unless the big, dominating center is also quick and can defend in space, they don't fit Shaka's defensive system, which itself has been pretty good.

Seems like his options are:
1) Find a big, dominating, fast center that can defend in space-- don't think many of these exist
2) Change his defensive system-- hate to change a system that has transformed MU's defense
3) Change the mindset of the players to value/focus on rebounding-- Lewis is the only one that consistently rebounds well

It seems to me that option 3 is the best fix. Skinny guys still won't be great rebounders, but all they have to be to produce better results is to not be as terrible as they currently are.

I think this is the best summary I have seen in a nutshell. The combination of butterfingers and MU players being caught literally flat footed by a leaping opponent who grabs the rebound is maddening.

[Elonsmusk]

Maybe, but Shaka's defensive plan is to switch all the time. His centers are frequently out on the perimeter pressuring until they scramble back to pick up the opposing big. Unless the big, dominating center is also quick and can defend in space, they don't fit Shaka's defensive system, which itself has been pretty good.

Seems like his options are:
1) Find a big, dominating, fast center that can defend in space-- don't think many of these exist
2) Change his defensive system-- hate to change a system that has transformed MU's defense
3) Change the mindset of the players to value/focus on rebounding-- Lewis is the only one that consistently rebounds well

It seems to me that option 3 is the best fix. Skinny guys still won't be great rebounders, but all they have to be to produce better results is to not be as terrible as they currently are.

All of this post is 100% on target.  Dr. Blackheart has pointed out that D-Rebounding has been a weakness on Shaka teams, and I think you've diagnosed the exact reason bolded above.  Despite being really bad on the boards and giving up a lot of second chance points, Shaka teams still rank in the Top 40 defensively, 10 years in a row and imo you don't mess with that scheme. 

Morsell is the one guy I feel can/should and needs to pick it up rebounding.  His 10.3 D-Rebounding rate for a good sized/physical guard is not good.  He does seem to get caught ball watching, and frequently does not block out his man.

Jamal Cain on this team would have been extremely valuable as his knack/ability to D-Rebound is fantastic.

[NCMUFan]

Jamal did really come around his last year at MU in rebounding.

[brewcity77]

Honestly, yesterday gave me more optimism that we can make some noise in March. UConn is somewhat our kryptonite. Teams like them, Kentucky, Purdue, and Houston that clean up the glass are going to give us trouble. The good news is UConn is somewhat a rarity in that most of the teams like that will be on the top two seed lines and we shouldn't see them until the second weekend.

In addition, they did well keeping Kolek out of the lane and cutting off his passing angles when he did drive. That's because the Big East teams are studying us and taking away what we do best. In the long-term future, Kolek will hopefully develop his game so taking him out of what he wants to do is harder, but in the short term teams in the NCAA Tournament won't have the familiarity or the time to scout us the way our Big East brethren have done. I don't think too many double-digit seeds will be able to deny Kolek the way Big East teams do, and if we can advance it will be difficult to scout what he does and what our defense does on a 48-hour turnaround.

[NCMUFan]

UCONN strengths matched up perfectly with Marquette weaknesses.
Not enough of being to utilize Marquette's strengths.

[Galway Eagle]

6-7 overall now too.  Hate being under .500 against them.  JFB owned UConn.  At least it felt that way.

Because he hit the corner fade away jumper against an NIT UConn team that went 7-11 in BE play. He actually lost to the 2011 walker team that was tied with us at .500 in BE play, and lost to the 08-09 team in the D James goes down game.

JFB was 1-2 against UConn, 2 of which were extremely meh teams (till the tournament when Kemba discovered his inner Jordan)

[PGsHeroes32]

Because he hit the corner fade away jumper against an NIT UConn team that went 7-11 in BE play. He actually lost to the 2011 walker team that was tied with us at .500 in BE play, and lost to the 08-09 team in the D James goes down game.

JFB was 1-2 against UConn, 2 of which were extremely meh teams (till the tournament when Kemba discovered his inner Jordan)

I know this is incorrect.

Because I know for a stone cold fact that in the 2010-2011 Kemba season we won at Uconn in I believe OT. It was one of the key wins for the constantly up and down MU team that made the tourney. Also pretty sure that Uconn team was ranked top 20 at the time so hardly "meh".

So Jimmy was at the very least on 2 winning teams against Uconn(the game winner game as well) when he was one of our lead dogs.

[Galway Eagle]

I know this is incorrect.

Because I know for a stone cold fact that in the 2010-2011 Kemba season we won at Uconn in I believe OT. It was one of the key wins for the constantly up and down MU team that made the tourney. Also pretty sure that Uconn team was ranked top 20 at the time so hardly "meh".

So Jimmy was at the very least on 2 winning teams against Uconn(the game winner game as well) when he was one of our lead dogs.

You're right actually, mea culpa. So 2-2.

Come on a ranking is snapshot in time. That 2010 UConn team was ranked at the time and ended up 7-11 would you call them a good team because a bunch of voters were enthralled by the program name ? Same with MU in 2014, we were the no22 or 23 team in the country, we certainly were not worthy of that as it turned out. Teams that beat us shouldn't be claiming a big win in 20/20 hindsight

[PGsHeroes32]

You're right actually, mea culpa. So 2-2.

Come on a ranking is snapshot in time. That 2010 UConn team was ranked at the time and ended up 7-11 would you call them a good team because a bunch of voters were enthralled by the program name ? Same with MU in 2014, we were the no22 or 23 team in the country, we certainly were not worthy of that as it turned out. Teams that beat us shouldn't be claiming a big win in 20/20 hindsight

When we beat them in that game that dropped them to 8-7 in league plays and 20-7 overall. They did lose 2 of the last 3 to finish 21-9 and 9-9 in the loaded BE that got 11 teams in.

They were not ranked 14 in november. This was a late february game that we played them. Your 2014 example isnt remotely comparable.

Again, they were definitely better than "meh". They had non con wins over MSU and Kentucky.

You might be looking at the wrong season. This was 2010/2011. The game took place in 2011.

All their losses were in the loaded BE. Did they get really hot and win it all? Yes. But when we beat them they were a good team and it was a huge win(got us our damn bid).

[Scoop Snoop]

I know this is incorrect.

Because I know for a stone cold fact that in the 2010-2011 Kemba season we won at Uconn in I believe OT. It was one of the key wins for the constantly up and down MU team that made the tourney. Also pretty sure that Uconn team was ranked top 20 at the time so hardly "meh".

So Jimmy was at the very least on 2 winning teams against Uconn(the game winner game as well) when he was one of our lead dogs.

Yep! UCONN seemed to have that game in the bag until MU, hassling Kemba repeatedly rather than fouling, forced a TO and made a buzzer beater three to go into OT. Blaney was coaching as Calhoun was at a family funeral. I doubt that Calhoun would have sat there and simply watched MU execute its strategy.

Besides the win, the best part was that I was watching the game with my UCONN friend at his house. His jaw dropped and he stared at the TV in total disbelief. After backing out of his driveway and driving maybe 100 feet, I pulled over and laughed my ass off.

[JamilJaeJamailJrJuan]

UCONN is good.  That first half version of them is close to unbeatable.  Best I've seen a team look against MU since UCLA. 

But the boys hung in a tough environment.  Game could have gotten away from them in the 1H.  Definitely don't want to see UCONN again though - tough matchup with out personnel.

[BrewCity83]

Surprised with how fired up UConn was. Hurley blowing kisses to the crowd at the end. Guess little Marquette is back…

I was surprised at this too.  The whole student section was wearing "Beat Marquette" T-shirts.  Was this UCONN's Super Bowl?

[connie]

Looking at the numbers I am surprised the final was as close as it was.  This team does not quit.

A road loss to a top-25 team that we have match up problems with AND that played very well offensively and defensively-----meh.  Let's get back on track and not let games slip away that we should win.