Believe

[Big Papi]

RELAX

Sh!t happens.

Its a long season.

Some of you have unrealistic expectations of perfection or near perfection.

Teams and players do hit rough patches from time to time.

Its hard to win or look good when your field goal percentage is 32.1% and 20% from threes.  That is brutal.  The worst percentage by far by a team in any of our games.  It is also an outlier.

This team works hard and will figure it out and get better.  They just do.

I expect some more losses along the way but we will win a lot more than we lose. 

[panda]

I think teams have figured out that the way to beat Marquette is to take away the paint as much as possible, force them to make threes, and adjust if they do. 

With Joplin and last year’s freshmen not making the progress I hoped for so far, the 3 point shooting is spotty at best, and downright horrible at times if Kam Jones and Kolek aren’t making them.

I believe that MU can beat anyone on their schedule, but they can lose to anyone too, and I am not excluding DePaul and Georgetown. I forced myself to write off the Wisconsin game as “one of those days” (which would have been easier against a different opponent) and shrugged off the St. Thomas game as an expected uninspired performance during exam week.

But throwing last night’s game into the mix is setting off some alarms. The refereeing may have been horrible, but if MU thinks they are going to get officiating that is perfect and consistent, and allows just the amount of contact that they want, it’s going to be a long season.

One of the alarms involves the tendency to fall behind by double digits in the first half. They got away with that (barely) against UCLA but it isn’t a recipe for success against any competent team. I shudder to think of how the season would look if they hadn’t pulled out that UCLA game.

I had no expectation that this team would repeat a 17-3 conference record. But, unless they find some answers to some real issues, even my expectations (which were lower than those on the board who think Final Four or Bust) are going to prove to be too optimistic.

We only take shots around the hoop and behind the 3 point line. I understand the analytics and the complex math of 3 more than 2. This strategy works well in the nba when there are four or five players on the floor who can hit from deep, but it’s very easy to guard when there are only two, maybe three guys who are threats from deep.

[wisblue]

Yeah, someone correct me if I'm wrong but I think I remember reading a three is still the better option as long we hit at least 1/3 so if that's true then Ben's fine and Chase is just slightly below fine but... the rest is glaringly terrible

33% from 3 is OK (probably just slightly worse than NCAA average) but it has to be combined with a high percentage on 2 point shots to create an acceptable effective FG%.

The problem is that as teams clog the lane to prevent the high percentage layups and inside shots, they are allowing relatively open three point shots that have to be hit at a higher percentage to force teams to adjust their defense to open things up. Unless MU can get layups in transition or off their set offense they're going to have trouble scoring and we're going to see more games like last night, the Wisconsin game, and last year's MSU game.

Last night's 4 for 20 from three was bad, and just 14 for 36 (39%) on other shots didn't help.

The formula for slowing down MU's highly efficient offense started to reveal itself late last year and now teams are going to exploit it unless and until MU shows they can make them pay for allowing open threes.

[GoldenEagles03]

This fascinates me.  Why does anyone think that a lineup of 6'2, 6'3, 6'4, and 6'5 is desirable in the Big East?  What makes you think Ross brings more on offense than Joplin?   The last two game with Ross starting can hardly be called artistic successes.  So how can going smaller with a worse 3 pt shooter make things better?   On a team that rebounds poorly and isn't currently making 3's.    The logic doesn't work for me.

Who said Ross brings more on offense than Joplin? I think what I was saying was quite the opposite.

[panda]

We only take shots around the hoop and behind the 3 point line. I understand the analytics and the complex math of 3 more than 2. This strategy works well in the nba when there are four or five players on the floor who can hit from deep, but it’s very easy to guard when there are only two, maybe three guys who are threats from deep.

Some interesting thoughts from well respected podcaster -

https://x.com/thegoldenbreak/status/1737818185062084994?s=46&t=el-XnIMOEDcxAw3lmg3L5A

[wisblue]

Some interesting thoughts from well respected podcaster -

https://x.com/thegoldenbreak/status/1737818185062084994?s=46&t=el-XnIMOEDcxAw3lmg3L5A

I think that to be effective in that 8-15 foot mid range a player has to either be tall enough or have a jump shot with a high enough release to get it over the interior defense. MU doesn’t have shooters like that. Joplin might be able to do it, but he doesn’t seem to be too effective getting into the lane and dropping that 10 foot shot.

[tower912]

As far as they are sagging off Sean, the pull up/floater/tear drop might actually be a useful tool.

[dgies9156]

OK gang, time to relax.

Here's the reality -- not only did we lose this week, so did UConn. Creighton at times has looked very, middling this year.

When we won our Natty, we lost a then horrific seven games. Several toward the end of the season. We looked crappy at times until we "found ourselves" in the NCAAs.

Keep this in mind -- It's a long season and teams go through cycles. We've had exams, a really tough stretch of games and now the Big East.

We'll be fine. 

[tower912]

Not worried at all.   MU got punched in the mouth. Conference road games are tough. Now it is time make the adjustments and punch back.

[Shooter McGavin]

Agreed dgies. 

[WarriorFan]

This is a great time of year to have a slump.

[Dr. Blackheart]

This is a great time of year to have a slump.

Good thing we have a slumpbuster tonight

[Newsdreams]

Good thing we have a slumpbuster tonight

Don't jinx!

[wisblue]

Hopefully MU learned from the St. Thomas game that they aren’t entitled to an easy win just by showing up. They will be facing a coach who should know what their weak spots are.

[nyg]

Don't jinx!

Yup, if MU shoots 32% from field, 4 for 20 from three and has 14 turnovers and fouls shooters from three on three separate occasions, like the PU game.  Just ugh......


Don't see it, but who knows with this team. Shaka probably let them have a new one after last game.  MU is 17.5 point favorite tonight.