Season Low

[JamilJaeJamailJrJuan]

The current iteration of his team could very easily lose to St. John’s and to Georgetown.  At this point, unless something drastic changes, I wouldn’t be surprised by either.

Georgetown is really, really bad. 

[79Warrior]

Bring back the balloons for our turnover issues!

Kidding, I’m not worried. We’ll win on Saturday and I still think we’re a 2nd weekend team. I have faith we’ll figure it out when it matters most

I think SJU wins.

[dgies9156]

Hello Bubble, Meet Marquette.

[GoldenEagles03]

I think SJU wins.

I think St. John's wins easily.  Marquette should be safe regardless of outcomes the rest of the way, but Dayton isn't out of the question if they lose to Georgetown.

I would suggest not finding out.

[BobWildLoyalist]

Bring back the balloons for our turnover issues!

N2O?

[NotAnAlum]

I think its pretty clear that we are in the midst of a pretty serious slump.  I’m still hopeful that we make the tournament and based on pre-season expectations I think we’d still have to consider that success.  The bigger concern for me is does this foreshadow the way Shaka teams will trend.  I think most would agree “we’ve seen this movie” and we sure didn’t endure the pain of a coaching change just to see it again.  So I’m going to concentrate on WHY is this likely happening and is it likely to repeat in future years.
Going into this season there were a ton of questions with this team but the most serious one for me was “Who will play the point”.  Once DJ left there really wasn’t an experience PG on the roster.  Kolek came out of nowhere to fill this position and for the first 2/3 of the season he wasn’t just ok, he was awesome.  Besides Lewis there really isn’t much high end offensive talent on this team.  But Kolek made these otherwise limited players like Kur, Oso, OMax look like world beaters.  And all that success opened up easy looks for Kam, Darryl and Kam which they made mostly when they were hot.  And when all of this is working the defense works better (because opponents have to inbound the ball) etc.  But in the final 1/3 of the season teams have figured out Kolek.  They sellout on the pass so Kolek has to try to score to make them respect that part of his game.  But doesn’t have a big east body and isn’t strong enough to finish at the rim, he has no midrange game and his 3 pt shot have been very poor.  Furthermore Kolek’s personality has caused him to play increasingly tighter which makes him even more mistake prone which causes him to play tighter still and things just get worse.  His outburst at the ref last night (when Lewis had to restrain him) is exhibit A.  Kolek is a mess right now.  The problem is there isn’t another big east caliber PG on the roster.  Morsell and Kam don’t have the handle and Kam is always going to be shoot first anyway.  Stevie and Ellis maybe in the future but they are certainly not at the PG talent level of a guy who can be the starting PG as a freshman (like Dominic James for example).
The other thing this team sorely lacks is consistent knock down 3 point shooters.  By this I mean a guy who can be counted on to hit open 3s game in and game out like Sam Hauser or Markus or Diener or any number of guys that have played here.  The problem is there is no one currently on this team that has that talent.  Kam is ultra streaky, Morsell was never a great shooter etc
Bottom line I think there is only so much Shaka can do with this roster in their current situation.  I think the question is less “what is Shaka doing wrong to cause this slump” and instead  “how on earth did he get this talent level and experience level to play as well as they did in January”.  My knock on Shaka is that there better talent coming in the door in future years particularly at PG and/or the current young guys better develop a ton over the next 2 years if we want to play all season like we did in January.             

[MU82]

I just hope Shaka can pass his first test.

[swoopem]

N2O?

The tanks seem low. We need more gas

[wisblue]

Georgetown is really, really bad.

And yet they showed a lot more life last night against SH than MU did against DePaul. They also played DePaul to the wire at home last week.

Throw in how hard it is to beat a team 3 times in a season and MU could be in big trouble if they have to play Georgetown again.

[wisblue]

I’ll gladly take an 8/9 seed if that means we can play a 1 seed Badger team

That isn’t possible.

For one, the Badgers aren’t getting a 1 seed.

Also, MU can’t play its NCAA games at FF where the Badgers will be placed.

[GoldenEagles03]

That isn’t possible.

For one, the Badgers aren’t getting a 1 seed.

Also, MU can’t play its NCAA games at FF where the Badgers will be placed.

It's likely but not guaranteed that the Badgers play at FF.  Higher seeded teams get to choose 1st.

[ATL MU Warrior]

Georgetown is really, really bad.

I know.  And likely desperate to win a game to avoid a 20 game losing streak.  They gave Seton Hall all they could handle at Seton Hall last night. 

We are not exactly playing well in any way at the present time, and don't seem to have any sense of urgency to right the ship. 

[Newsdreams]

The tanks seem low. We need more gas

4ever uses it all