Lowest lows follow the highest highs

[Lennys Tap]

I have no problem with people making an incorrect prediction. I do chuckle when someone who made no prediction (Lenny) comes on here calling out people for their incorrect prediction. I was wondering if Lenny did that for all incorrect predictions, or just for certain posters. (Actually, I wasn't wondering at all. I knew for 100% certain the answer to that.)

You said something dumb that turned out out to be wrong by an almost unimaginable amount. That's a fact. Nobody held a gun to your head and made you say something so absurd. You WANTED to show everyone haw smart you are. And you did. Congratulations.

I used to be in the prediction business. Did it every day on a trading floor and most nights through my bookie. Won some, lost some. Even missed some by a lot, though none in my recollection as badly as you missed MU v Baylor.

I don't bet games anymore - not interested in doing the work/research it takes to do it well. But I'm still OK at spotting trends. It was obvious to me early that Buzz could coach and that Wojo couldn't. It's also obvious to me that Shaka has began a turnaround at Marquette. You disagree. We'll see.

[tower912]

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5eLPnizE3xw

Shaka says.....

[wadesworld]

You said something dumb that turned out out to be wrong by an almost unimaginable amount. That's a fact. Nobody held a gun to your head and made you say something so absurd. You WANTED to show everyone haw smart you are. And you did. Congratulations.

I used to be in the prediction business. Did it every day on a trading floor and most nights through my bookie. Won some, lost some. Even missed some by a lot, though none in my recollection as badly as you missed MU v Baylor.

I don't bet games anymore - not interested in doing the work/research it takes to do it well. But I'm still OK at spotting trends. It was obvious to me early that Buzz could coach and that Wojo couldn't. It's also obvious to me that Shaka has began a turnaround at Marquette. You disagree. We'll see.

I actually don't disagree. You're confusing thinking THIS YEAR'S TEAM doesn't have enough talent with Shaka Smart sucks. Those are two wildly different things.

[GoldenEagles03]

I think Shaka is a good coach. I don't think this year's talent is good enough. And I didn't think Shaka's game plan was good today. I don't think there was any kind of out of control rant. But thanks for the advice!

Does your bookie give you credit for being close when you lose a bet? If so, can I get his or her contact please?

I thought we played well offensively. 51% from the field, 45% from 3.  The offense looked good again, in totality.

The defense was horrible and the ability to find a late game answer offensively is what lacked.  I keep seeing 'closer' but this isn't the NBA, we aren't going to have a closer on this roster. We just won't.

We have to collectively knock down shots late to win, not going to be one guy.

I expected a loss so I was overall happy with the fight.  UW was clearly the better team and we gave them everything we had.

Onto NCCU.

[Johnny B]

this loss hurts. lets get drunk. peace boys

[Newsdreams]

this loss hurts. lets get drunk. peace boys

No wonder MU lost....

[NolongerWarriors]

at least theres one scooper enjoying this loss lol.

Not enjoying it at all but Shaka was inept today. P

[MU82]

I don't care if the Badgers shot 100% in the first, this is the game we should win. Zero silver lining to me, but I  not looking for silver linings.

Except, about a half-hour later, you actually offered a silver lining ...

I am far less disappointed about this loss than I am high over the Baylor win. We saw the upside of the team on Tuesday and if today is the low, we are going the right direction.

I actually agree with that silver lining, Goose, and I still think we're gonna have a good season, including an NCAAT invitation.

And again, it's OK to point out when a coach we both think is good has a far-from-good game.

In addition to late adjustments to Madison's offense and some questionable personnel decisions, those final two plays were unbecoming of a good coach. We had almost 4 seconds left; we could have gotten a make-able shot just by hitting Kam or O-Max on the run in the backcourt. I watched the game with a group of MU fans, and we were all stunned that Shaka's team failed not just once but twice to get off a shot.

Oh well. Onward and upward.

[Markusquette]

I get we were all riding the high of destroying Baylor. MU was going to fall back to Earth pretty quickly. The Badgers, as usual, are still a very good team. Should have beaten Kansas. All three of MU's losses were so close which in some ways is more difficult to accept. I really like Shaka and this group of guys. This thread is full of a ton of overreactions.

[MuMark]

Has he hit a three from the top of the key this season?  Under 4 mins I think DJop amd Ross should have been on the floor offensive/defense.

Yes......against Baylor......in our last game.

[PointWarrior]

Terrible loss - both can be true -  not enough talent and shaka not good enough.   Maybe next year?

I actually don't disagree. You're confusing thinking THIS YEAR'S TEAM doesn't have enough talent with Shaka Smart sucks. Those are two wildly different things.

[Silent Verbal]

In addition to late adjustments to Madison's offense and some questionable personnel decisions, those final two plays were unbecoming of a good coach. We had almost 4 seconds left; we could have gotten a make-able shot just by hitting Kam or O-Max on the run in the backcourt. I watched the game with a group of MU fans, and we were all stunned that Shaka's team failed not just once but twice to get off a shot.

When asked about this during the post game show, Shaka put that squarely on himself and said the team simply hadn't worked on those types of plays much in practice.  That much was obvious — the team seemed completely clueless and neither of Kolek's passes came within five feet of a Marquette player.

I like Shaka and think he has us headed in a better direction than Wojo, but that lack of preparation isn't something you'd expect from a guy who's been a D1 head coach for over ten years.  Bit of a head scratcher.

[Hards Alumni]

When asked about this during the post game show, Shaka put that squarely on himself and said the team simply hadn't worked on those types of plays much in practice.  That much was obvious — the team seemed completely clueless and neither of Kolek's passes came within five feet of a Marquette player.

I like Shaka and think he has us headed in a better direction than Wojo, but that lack of preparation isn't something you'd expect from a guy who's been a D1 head coach for over ten years.  Bit of a head scratcher.

I don't get it.  Then inbound the ball to Joplin and let him take 3 dribbles and a heave.  I surely didn't expect a Christian Laettner style one timer.

[MUfan12]

Screen the guy guarding the inbound. Have Oso screen for a runner at midcourt then throw it to him. Timeout. Now you have 2.5 in a SLOB situation to get a shot. Much more manageable.

It's easy to get caught up on that tactic not working twice, but the bigger issue to me was continuing to double as much as they did.

If this young team is gonna learn how to close out games it shouldn't have to overcome the coaching staff too.

[MuggsyB]

When asked about this during the post game show, Shaka put that squarely on himself and said the team simply hadn't worked on those types of plays much in practice.  That much was obvious — the team seemed completely clueless and neither of Kolek's passes came within five feet of a Marquette player.

I like Shaka and think he has us headed in a better direction than Wojo, but that lack of preparation isn't something you'd expect from a guy who's been a D1 head coach for over ten years.  Bit of a head scratcher.

Really surprised they hadn't worked much on this potential scenario. 

[TAMU, Knower of Ball]

First "bad" loss of the season but honestly won't hurt us much come selection Sunday. The Badgers aren't falling out of the top 75 so at worst it is a Q2 loss.

I'm fine doubling bigs in the post but it clearly wasn't working and we didn't adjust quick enough. 15 minutes into the game Klesmit, Crowl, Wahl, and Hepburn were something like 15/16 from the floor. Some of that is luck but it also doesn't happen unless the defense is poor.

That being said, some of the shots Hepburn hit were just unfookingbelievable. He finally missed one at that end but at least 3 of his 5 threes had no business going in. Nothing you can do about those.

Additionally, Wahl got his second three pointer after missing his last seven and 10 of his last 11. Magee also got his first three of the season. In both cases they were open so it's on the defense but there's also some luck too.

While the slow defensive adjustments were bad, I think Shaka not trusting his bench was the real killer tonight. 4 starters logged 35+ minutes and no sub got more than 16 minutes in a 45 minute game. We were the better team in the second half by a lot, but our guys were gassed. A lot of them had shots come up short in the closing minutes. Now Wisconsin played 4 starters 34+ minutes as well, not that much different, but their style of ball takes less energy than ours and their subs were more spread out over the course the game. I don't think we saw any of Sean, Ross, or Gold over the last 15 minutes of play and Joplin only had a few minutes. I get wanting to keep your starters out there but they definitely needed a breather.

Speaking of trusting the bench, I think we needed Sean Jones out there on the two inbounds plays. I think if Kolek could have either hit Sean in stride moving up the court or hit a big at quartercourt with sean running fullspeed ready to take a hand off or pass...with his speed I think he could have either gotten a shot at the rim or found an open shooter. Or at very least gotten us to halfcourt for another timeout so we can run a SOB play. I know that's a lot of pressure to put on a true freshmen but I think his afterburners would have gotten us a much better look than the baseball passes we drew up.

Oso shot 74% from the free throw line last season.  Something in his head is messing with him

I swear Tyler leads the league in layups that look perfect off the release that somehow rim out.

I know it's easier said then done, but when an opponent picks up a 4th foul, I wish we would make a more conscious effort to attack him when he's on defense. At worst, you are going to get a guy who is nervous to defend for fear of fouling out. At best, you remove a key opponent from the equation. Both Essegian and Crowl were able to successfully play for at least 8 minutes each with 4 fouls. Either of them foul out and you have either Gilmore or Magee having to play key minutes.

I think it's safe to say that we struggle against low tempo teams. Radford and Chicago State are both in the bottom half for tempo and Purdue, Mississippi State, and Wisconsin are in the bottom 60 teams for tempo.  Good news is that there is only 1 really ultra slow team in the Big East (Villanova). Bad news is that are last significant non-conference game is the slowest one yet.

Tough loss, should have won this one. Beat the Domers and we are in very good position heading into Big East play. Lose and we will need to win a lot in Big East play (though I think this is a strong possibility).

[MuggsyB]

First "bad" loss of the season but honestly won't hurt us much come selection Sunday. The Badgers aren't falling out of the top 75 so at worst it is a Q2 loss.

I'm fine doubling bigs in the post but it clearly wasn't working and we didn't adjust quick enough. 15 minutes into the game Klesmit, Crowl, Wahl, and Hepburn were something like 15/16 from the floor. Some of that is luck but it also doesn't happen unless the defense is poor.

That being said, some of the shots Hepburn hit were just unfookingbelievable. He finally missed one at that end but at least 3 of his 5 threes had no business going in. Nothing you can do about those.

Additionally, Wahl got his second three pointer after missing his last seven and 10 of his last 11. Magee also got his first three of the season. In both cases they were open so it's on the defense but there's also some luck too.

While the slow defensive adjustments were bad, I think Shaka not trusting his bench was the real killer tonight. 4 starters logged 35+ minutes and no sub got more than 16 minutes in a 45 minute game. We were the better team in the second half by a lot, but our guys were gassed. A lot of them had shots come up short in the closing minutes. Now Wisconsin played 4 starters 34+ minutes as well, not that much different, but their style of ball takes less energy than ours and their subs were more spread out over the course the game. I don't think we saw any of Sean, Ross, or Gold over the last 15 minutes of play and Joplin only had a few minutes. I get wanting to keep your starters out there but they definitely needed a breather.

Speaking of trusting the bench, I think we needed Sean Jones out there on the two inbounds plays. I think if Kolek could have either hit Sean in stride moving up the court or hit a big at quartercourt with sean running fullspeed ready to take a hand off or pass...with his speed I think he could have either gotten a shot at the rim or found an open shooter. Or at very least gotten us to halfcourt for another timeout so we can run a SOB play. I know that's a lot of pressure to put on a true freshmen but I think his afterburners would have gotten us a much better look than the baseball passes we drew up.

Oso shot 74% from the free throw line last season.  Something in his head is messing with him

I swear Tyler leads the league in layups that look perfect off the release that somehow rim out.

I think it's safe to say that we struggle against low tempo teams. Radford and Chicago State are both in the bottom half for tempo and Purdue, Mississippi State, and Wisconsin are in the bottom 60 teams for tempo.  Good news is that there is only 1 really ultra slow team in the Big East (Villanova). Bad news is that are last significant non-conference game is the slowest one yet.

Tough loss, should have won this one. Beat the Domers and we are in very good position heading into Big East play. Lose and we will need to win a lot in Big East play (though I think this is a strong possibility).

Excellent analysis.  I made the same point about having Sean in the final 3.5 secs.  I'm not sure he gets a quality shot off but he certainly could have gotten up the floor to call another time-out. 

[TAMU, Knower of Ball]

I'll add that we've lost 3 games by a combined 11 points, all against likely NCAAT teams. These losses are frustrating but just a season ago, we blown out by NIT-bound St. Bonaventure, and had double digit losses to UCLA and Bucky. Our big win was a 1 point victory over a Cockburnless (usually a good thing but not in this case) Illinois. That's nowhere near as impressive as our 26 shellacking of a full strength Baylor.

We are seeing season to season improvement so far. We need to see how the rest of the season plays out, but so far this team is performing much better than last year's.

[GoldenEagles03]

I'll add that we've lost 3 games by a combined 11 points, all against likely NCAAT teams. These losses are frustrating but just a season ago, we blown out by NIT-bound St. Bonaventure, and had double digit losses to UCLA and Bucky. Our big win was a 1 point victory over a Cockburnless (usually a good thing but not in this case) Illinois. That's nowhere near as impressive as our 26 shellacking of a full strength Baylor.

We are seeing season to season improvement so far. We need to see how the rest of the season plays out, but so far this team is performing much better than last year's.

Gotta win these last 2.  Absolute must wins.

8-3 is a SIGNIFICANT difference compared to 7-4 when looking at March hopes.

Might be a reach, but if we can go 10-10 in Big East play the difference between 18-13 and 17-14 could mean NCCA vs. NIT.

According to KenPom our 33rd ranked offense is significantly improved from last years 64th ranked offense.  Our defense is nearly identical at 55 last year and 56 this year.

[TAMU, Knower of Ball]

Gotta win these last 2.  Absolute must wins.

8-3 is a SIGNIFICANT difference compared to 7-4 when looking at March hopes.

Might be a reach, but if we can go 10-10 in Big East play the difference between 18-13 and 17-14 could mean NCCA vs. NIT.

According to KenPom our 33rd ranked offense is significantly improved from last years 64th ranked offense.  Our defense is nearly identical at 55 last year and 56 this year.

Must wins for what? Because I promise you that if we lose our next two and go 20-0 in Big East play, we will be dancing with a very high seed.

If you are saying they are must wins for us to make the dance with a 10-10 Big East record than I would agree. I will be very disappointed if we finish with a 10-10 Big East record.

[GoldenEagles03]

Must wins for what? Because I promise you that if we lose our next two and go 20-0 in Big East play, we will be dancing with a very high seed.

If you are saying they are must wins for us to make the dance with a 10-10 Big East record than I would agree. I will be very disappointed if we finish with a 10-10 Big East record.

We were 11-9 last season.  This season there are less freebie wins in the Big East.

I see the talent. I truly do, I just can't get on board with them being a surefire tournament team that a lot of people are starting to talk on.  An 8-3 NonCon is the 1st step in getting me there.  Gotta show you can win on the road and beat capable teams in close games which that ND game is almost sure to be.

[WarriorFan]

After this week I feel like Shaka spent 3 years preparing for Baylor and 3 days preparing for Bucky.   

Wisconsin is a system team.   They do the same thing over and over.   This year they lack their usual level of talent.   I'm not saying Wisconsin is an easy scout or an easy win, but they are much more repetitious than Nova or Creighton or X.

My point:  as long as Gard is there, this game gets won with the scout and with the prep.  Didn't see that this time.

[tower912]

Screen the guy guarding the inbound. Have Oso screen for a runner at midcourt then throw it to him. Timeout. Now you have 2.5 in a SLOB situation to get a shot. Much more manageable.

It's easy to get caught up on that tactic not working twice, but the bigger issue to me was continuing to double as much as they did.

If this young team is gonna learn how to close out games it shouldn't have to overcome the coaching staff too.

That is very similar to what happened on the first one.  A screen for Kam who cut cross court.   His defender slipped and was 10 feet away when the ball sailed over his head.  Alas.

[Stretchdeltsig]

One of Shaka's worst coached games. On to the next one.

Agree. Shaka seemed out of it and just not in sync. Our of bound plays were awful.

[MU Fan in Connecticut]

I am far less disappointed about this loss than I am high over the Baylor win. We saw the upside of the team on Tuesday and if today is the low, we are going the right direction.

Goose,
2nd season in a row your helping me keep my optimism.