Beyond Painful

[Uncle Rico]

Why play the regular season?

[Goose]

nyg

Yes, I attended MU in early ‘80’s, but had had a family connect dating back to my grade school days. That connection is what made me really love MU basketball.

[ChitownSpaceForRent]

Why play the regular season?

To put yourself in the best possible position to make a run in March.

Marquette did that, two seed, their region was in shambles after day one, everything was set up for a run to the Final 4.

[MuggsyB]

Opponents have nothing to do with advancing in the tournament….

Of course they do but you're acting  like this is one of Mich St's better teams, they're not.  There are situations where teams shoot lights or totally outplay their opponent.  That's not what happened today.  Now, you can live in la-la-land if you want and say this was some genius coaching job by Izzo but we beat ourselves.  These were unforced mistakes, our best player being unfortunately really bad, and a a stretch  where we crapped the bed when the gane was there for the taking.   Izzo is an all-time great coach but that has basically nothing to do with this game.

[TSmith34, Inc.]

Kolek was the difference today. He was a disaster. So weird. Nothing to do with his hand. Amazing player. Amazing kid. Amazingly awful game at the worst possible time

Yeah, I don't know about that. If not his hand, then suddenly the stage was too big for him and he put so much pressure on himself that he shat the bed.

Personally, I kind of doubt that the guy that dominated during the pressure of the BET suddenly was so high-strung that he basically sucked against Vermont of all teams. I suspect the thumb injury is a lot worse than MU wanted to let on, though I do think once TK couldn't perform as well as he normally does he got pissed off and pressed way too much and compounded the problem.

[Uncle Rico]

To put yourself in the best possible position to make a run in March.

Marquette did that, two seed, their region was in shambles after day one, everything was set up for a run to the Final 4.

That’s why I’ll remember this season.  Reminds me of what Villanova started doing in 2014 & 2015.

[nyg]

nyg

Yes, I attended MU in early ‘80’s, but had had a family connect dating back to my grade school days. That connection is what made me really love MU basketball.

That's what I thought. Awesome for a young fella and family. 

[goldeneagle91114]

To put yourself in the best possible position to make a run in March.

Marquette did that, two seed, their region was in shambles after day one, everything was set up for a run to the Final 4.

This is the part that stings the most. I get we’re excited for the future, but you also have to take full advantage of the present. Our region was up for grabs and because of uncharacteristic and unforced TO’s we failed.

Now, I’d curious to learn more about Tyler’s thumb. Is it a torn ligament? Did the team know of the severity of the injury? Is this why everyone played so tight.. they knew there was 0 Marvin of error. OR we’re the lights just too bright for a young team

[Goose]

nyg

And I was joking about the +25 win against Ohio St., but probably believed it as a second grader.

[MuggsyB]

Yeah, I don't know about that. If not his hand, then suddenly the stage was too big for him and he put so much pressure on himself that he shat the bed.

Personally, I kind of doubt that the guy that dominated during the pressure of the BET suddenly was so high-strung that he basically sucked against Vermont of all teams. I suspect the thumb injury is a lot worse than MU wanted to let on, though I do think once TK couldn't perform as well as he normally does he got pissed off and pressed way too much and compounded the problem.

Well, this is just speculation but his early fouls imo had a significant impact on his performance.  I definitely agree that he pressed at times.

[Goose]

Muggsy

Kolek sucked today and I am sure he knows better than we do. He is captain of this ship and had a bad day. To be concerned about Kolek’s big game ability I think is beyond crazy. He looks like a guy that lives for the big game.

That said, he is going to have a big target on his back next season and he needs guard help. A guard that can play lockdown D and can score. Maybe, there is a guy coming in that can do just that.

[tower912]

We have guards like that.   

[MarquetteVol]

This is the first time in my nearly 30 years of watching MU hoops I feel worse for the kids than I do for myself. Super bummed to not see this team play again until November. And optimistic we return essentially the same squad. But this group played their heart out all year and I just feel for them that today wasn’t indicative of the consistent outstanding play they brought all year long.

That said, we’re ahead of schedule. If a BE Championship and 2 seed is what the 9th place preseason team can accomplish under Coach Smart’s leadership then I think it’s fair to be exceptionally optimistic about the future.

[Goose]

tower

Agree to disagree.

[tower912]

OK.   But one of our other guards was the leading scorer.    The other always guarded the opponent's best guard.  Both have an offseason to improve. 

[MuggsyB]

Muggsy

Kolek sucked today and I am sure he knows better than we do. He is captain of this ship and had a bad day. To be concerned about Kolek’s big game ability I think is beyond crazy. He looks like a guy that lives for the big game.

That said, he is going to have a big target on his back next season and he needs guard help. A guard that can play lockdown D and can score. Maybe, there is a guy coming in that can do just that.

I'm not "concerned" about it and I'm positive he'll be fine moving forward.  I'm just pissed we threw away a golden opportunity. 

[HutchwasClutch]

That’s why I’ll remember this season.  Reminds me of what Villanova started doing in 2014 & 2015.

Good point.  They had heartbreakers before breaking through.  Hopefully the same is in our future. 

[ATL MU Warrior]

We have guards like that.

In combination sure, but let’s not pretend that our current guards don’t have shortcomings. Stevie great on D, marginal (at best) on O.  Kam great on O, but marginal on D. Chase has a chance to be good at both, not sold on Sean at all. 

Hoping at least one of the newcomers is a little bit more solid on both ends, but will be a frosh so who knows.

[MarquetteVol]

Of course they do but you're acting  like this is one of Mich St's better teams, they're not.  There are situations where teams shoot lights or totally outplay their opponent.  That's not what happened today.  Now, you can live in la-la-land if you want and say this was some genius coaching job by Izzo but we beat ourselves.  These were unforced mistakes, our best player being unfortunately really bad, and a a stretch  where we crapped the bed when the gane was there for the taking.   Izzo is an all-time great coach but that has basically nothing to do with this game.

I don’t disagree. But I have an awful hard time dwelling too much on this loss. This was the most overachieving Marquette team I can ever remember. Hard to feel too bad that they underachieved in one game against a Hall of Fame coach and a pretty decent team. Was Matean Cleaves or Draymond Green on the floor today? No. But it’s not like MSU is a low major. They scouted us like an NBA team would and we just didn’t have it. Totally sucks. But so proud of this season and this team.

[HutchwasClutch]

This is the first time in my nearly 30 years of watching MU hoops I feel worse for the kids than I do for myself. Super bummed to not see this team play again until November. And optimistic we return essentially the same squad. But this group played their heart out all year and I just feel for them that today wasn’t indicative of the consistent outstanding play they brought all year long.

That said, we’re ahead of schedule. If a BE Championship and 2 seed is what the 9th place preseason team can accomplish under Coach Smart’s leadership then I think it’s fair to be exceptionally optimistic about the future.

To play devils advocate, we’re going to be the hunted next year.  We’ll probably be favored to win BE.  A whole different feel they’ll have to learn to play with next year.  Lots of pressure and expectations. 

[Uncle Rico]

To play devils advocate, we’re going to be the hunted next year.  We’ll probably be favored to win BE.  A whole different feel they’ll have to learn to play with next year.  Lots of pressure and expectations.

It’ll be awesome to be hunted.  Expect a lot of churn in the league, especially if Pitino gets one of the gigs.  Pretty excited for it all

[MarquetteVol]

To play devils advocate, we’re going to be the hunted next year.  We’ll probably be favored to win BE.  A whole different feel they’ll have to learn to play with next year.  Lots of pressure and expectations.

To be the more devilish advocate, look at the bulletin board material on Twitter for Kolek and the team. The whole country thinks we’re a fraud based on one game. And if these guys improve 1/2 as much this off-season then expectations be dammed. We’re going to roll

[HutchwasClutch]

It’ll be awesome to be hunted.  Expect a lot of churn in the league, especially if Pitino gets one of the gigs.  Pretty excited for it all

I will be too and goal is to be the hunted.  Will be interesting how they respond to the expectations.  It’s not an easy weight to carry.  Look at this year’s North Carolina team. 

[IrwinFletcher]

OK.   But one of our other guards was the leading scorer.    The other always guarded the opponent's best guard.  Both have an offseason to improve.

We give up too much penetration and allow opponents to get to the rim. Won’t change a lot next year as personnel will be the same, but hoping perimeter defense improves.

[Goose]

Muggsy

I am equally disappointed, I was the fxxk head that said we would win by 10+, but realistic. Winning in March is hard, harder for team with no March success in a decade.

I told my wife after the win on Friday, we had two kids graduate college, two kids kids get married, three grandkids welcomed to our family and our kids bought four houses since the last time MU won in NCAA. That puts things in perspective for me.

Building a program is not a straight line. Today is a step backwards and time to get better.