Respect

[Newsdreams]

OK gang, let's come back to earth for a moment.

Winning in the NCAA means getting hot at the right time. It means putting together a string of really good games and playing like your life is on the line, because it is!

In 1977, we had the worst record of any team that ever won a national championship up to that point. We snuck into the tournament and rolled some pretty good teams on our way to the championship.

In 2003, we were good but hardly the best team in the NCAA. We barely beat Holy Cross and snuck by Missouri because Steve Novak got blazing hot in overtime. We beat Pitt and then absolutely demolished Kentucky before our coach turned back to a pumpkin.

We got our ass kicked today. Big deal. It's one game and they looked really good. We didn't. We're better than we showed today and they're probably not going to play as well as they did today every game until April. You never know. UConn may run into a contemporary version of Florida Atlantic, Loyola of Chicago or Butler. A couple of years back, number 1 Virginia was upset by 16 Maryland-Baltimore County. Going back even further, a defending national champion was upset by a nobody from Ohio.

Morale of the story, learn from what happened, kick DePaul's ass and put a whopping on UConn when they show up in Milwaukee. Play like you mean it, know what you have to do to win and go out and execute. I get we're all thinking the world just ended, but dammit, it's one game. The score is 0-0 Thursday night!

Lord Vero Beach is boring!!!

[Newsdreams]

I wonder why Shaka played the starters at all.....should have given them the night off all together.

Rest for DePaul

[1SE]

OK gang, let's come back to earth for a moment.

Winning in the NCAA means getting hot at the right time. It means putting together a string of really good games and playing like your life is on the line, because it is!

In 1977, we had the worst record of any team that ever won a national championship up to that point. We snuck into the tournament and rolled some pretty good teams on our way to the championship.

In 2003, we were good but hardly the best team in the NCAA. We barely beat Holy Cross and snuck by Missouri because Steve Novak got blazing hot in overtime. We beat Pitt and then absolutely demolished Kentucky before our coach turned back to a pumpkin.

We got our ass kicked today. Big deal. It's one game and they looked really good. We didn't. We're better than we showed today and they're probably not going to play as well as they did today every game until April. You never know. UConn may run into a contemporary version of Florida Atlantic, Loyola of Chicago or Butler. A couple of years back, number 1 Virginia was upset by 16 Maryland-Baltimore County. Going back even further, a defending national champion was upset by a nobody from Ohio.

Morale of the story, learn from what happened, kick DePaul's ass and put a whopping on UConn when they show up in Milwaukee. Play like you mean it, know what you have to do to win and go out and execute. I get we're all thinking the world just ended, but dammit, it's one game. The score is 0-0 Thursday night!

Yep, I was in Minneapolis, and New Orleans. I'd much rather lose by 30 in what was ultimately kind of a meaningless conference game than lose by 30 with a ticket to the title game on the line. Since the Bytler loss, our NCAAT success - for better or worse - is all anyone will remember from this season. This game will be a footnote that will only matter as contributing yo the length of the steak of games we'll owe in CT before Shaka break through there.

[We R Final Four]

Rest for DePaul

Take the L.......shouldn't have even boarded the plane.

[warriorfred]

I predict MU won't lose by 30 next time Marquette plays UConn.

Thinking 40 or 50?

[ATL MU Warrior]

Thinking 40 or 50?

I'm hoping they keep it under 20

[TedBaxter]

Cannot disagree with almost all of this, but the Warriors played colossally poor today.  For an experienced, senior led team, it should not happen.  And yet is has, repeatedly this season.

Not enjoying the ride at the moment.

Tyler and Oso are the only 2 seniors and Tyler played in his 114th career game yesterday and Oso played in his 98th yesterday.  Newton has over 140 career games, Diarra has 120 career games under his belt and Spencer 118.  Newton and Spencer are both 5th year seniors.

Marquette would be considered an experienced team in the pre-Covid years with Joplin (93), Kam (91) and Stevie (89) games, but in this Covid 5 year situation, Marquette has typically been on the short end of experience.  Not an excuse, but it is what it is.  Marquette is one of a hand full of P6 teams without a 5th year player and that's what Shaka has decided on.  Next year is the last year of the Covid kids eligibility. 

Armando Bacot from North Carolina has played in 158 career games so far and will approach 170 at years end.  The Marquette career record is 138 by Lazar Hayward.  Tyler Wahl played in game 152 for Wisconsin yesterday.

On to DePaul

[tower912]

Sun came up.    Next.

[brewcity77]

A few thoughts on yesterday...

• It's easy to forget we did hang with them for 10 minutes. It was hideous after that, but when we're on, we can play with them.
  
• UConn had every answer. When they made their first run, we answered with back to back threes and were within 29-24. Then we forced them into a long possession, allowed an offensive rebound on a missed three, and Newton hit the three to push it back to 8 and key another run. In the second half, we got that Kam three to cut it to 16 and played them down in the shot clock and Diarra hit that ridiculous bank three. Every time the door cracked, they managed to shut it.
  
• UConn's offensive plan seemed to be whoever Tyler was guarding was going to be constantly active on offense. His man was sprinting relentlessly, no matter who it was, and it took energy out of him that he didn't have when we got back on the offensive end. Shaka tried taking him off the ball to help with that, but it didn't make enough difference. Very good move, and we'll need to figure out an answer to that next time we see them.
  
• We had a lot of missed threes that have been falling the past month. 5/21, but the Zaide miss was the exact same spot he made on back to back possessions against Nova. Gold had good looks. We left a good 15 points at the arc.
  
• We had a lot of layups that bounced back iron, front rim, and fell out instead of falling in. I think we were pushing a bit too hard and it led to misses we often make, but the number of balls that went across the cylinder and out was a killer. Probably another 15 points there.
  
• Bottom line, everything went right for them, everything went wrong for us, and as a result, we got our asses kicked. Like Hurley said in the postgame, we're going to see each other again and it's not going to look like that. I feel both humbled by the result but confident we have the pieces to beat that team.

[tower912]

Indeed.

[The Sultan]

Yeah they ran their offense well early and had a TON of open looks. But if they don't hit those, its hard.

Defensively they just don't have enough physicality on defense against a team like UConn. Unfortunately they are going to be hard to beat unless MU plays a great game and UConn slips.

[brewcity77]

I was actually more bothered by the lack of physicality on offense when Clingan was in. If you want to get after UConn's rim protection, you need to attack Clingan. I get that Kam does everything he can to avoid contact, but guys like Tyler, Chase, and Stevie need to be driving into Clingan to force contact. You likely aren't going to get the charge call unless you're totally reckless and while the shot might get blocked, you also might draw the fouls that limit his ability to be in the game. We fouled Johnson out but didn't draw a single foul on Clingan.

UConn had a great plan to limit our biggest difference maker in Tyler, but we didn't seem to have a similar approach to their biggest difference maker in Clingan.

[Dr. Blackheart]

Listen, this was the 2nd statistically worst defensive game in Shaka's MU tenor. The worst was last season's UConn away game, maybe because the scrubs were put in earlier this year.   

Worse than that UNC NCAA debacle. MU went from best BE conference defense to 4th. Butt ugly for a team who has been defensively consistent this season.

However, after last year's game, MU went on a 10 game win streak, won the Big East and BET, earned a two seed. I wasn't surprised by the loss as I said but by the defensive effort and game plan. It's big boy time and we all expect that this was the one defensive clunker to the season. And MU needs the bench to step up big time.

[muwarrior69]

Yeah, it was clunker, a brutal clunker; but its not the end of the world it is just a game.

[79Warrior]

Yeah they ran their offense well early and had a TON of open looks. But if they don't hit those, its hard.

Defensively they just don't have enough physicality on defense against a team like UConn. Unfortunately they are going to be hard to beat unless MU plays a great game and UConn slips.

UConn is a well coached, complete team. You do not win 14 straight in the modern era of CBB unless you are elite. Hats off to them. Very impressive performance by the Huskies.

We will learn a lot about how MU deals with this on the homestand. I believe Shaka and the team will bounce back from this game and sweep the next 3. Sometimes a real ass beating
is a significant wake up call. I hope the fans are found and proud this week to support the fellas.

[Scoop Snoop]

While Brew's comments are often rooted in numbers, I appreciate his very thorough, rational and analytic takes this morning. It was not the loss but the way we lost that really bothered me. The postmortems help make some sort of sense out of yesterday's humiliation. 

[Viper]

A few thoughts on yesterday...

• It's easy to forget we did hang with them for 10 minutes. It was hideous after that, but when we're on, we can play with them.
  
• UConn had every answer. When they made their first run, we answered with back to back threes and were within 29-24. Then we forced them into a long possession, allowed an offensive rebound on a missed three, and Newton hit the three to push it back to 8 and key another run. In the second half, we got that Kam three to cut it to 16 and played them down in the shot clock and Diarra hit that ridiculous bank three. Every time the door cracked, they managed to shut it.
  
• UConn's offensive plan seemed to be whoever Tyler was guarding was going to be constantly active on offense. His man was sprinting relentlessly, no matter who it was, and it took energy out of him that he didn't have when we got back on the offensive end. Shaka tried taking him off the ball to help with that, but it didn't make enough difference. Very good move, and we'll need to figure out an answer to that next time we see them.
  
• We had a lot of missed threes that have been falling the past month. 5/21, but the Zaide miss was the exact same spot he made on back to back possessions against Nova. Gold had good looks. We left a good 15 points at the arc.
  
• We had a lot of layups that bounced back iron, front rim, and fell out instead of falling in. I think we were pushing a bit too hard and it led to misses we often make, but the number of balls that went across the cylinder and out was a killer. Probably another 15 points there.
  
• Bottom line, everything went right for them, everything went wrong for us, and as a result, we got our asses kicked. Like Hurley said in the postgame, we're going to see each other again and it's not going to look like that. I feel both humbled by the result but confident we have the pieces to beat that team.

...but to get rolled by 28. Lose by 15, ok. But absolutely rocked. It's like the tourney game vs UNC in '22. Lose by 8, maybe 9? Nope. Vaporized by 30. Just ridiculous. Oh well. Good to have 3 at home coming up. We need to hammer DeP. No mercy. Up 20...push it to 30. Up 30...pedal to the metal.

[Newsdreams]

Tyler and Oso are the only 2 seniors and Tyler played in his 114th career game yesterday and Oso played in his 98th yesterday.  Newton has over 140 career games, Diarra has 120 career games under his belt and Spencer 118.  Newton and Spencer are both 5th year seniors.

Marquette would be considered an experienced team in the pre-Covid years with Joplin (93), Kam (91) and Stevie (89) games, but in this Covid 5 year situation, Marquette has typically been on the short end of experience.  Not an excuse, but it is what it is.  Marquette is one of a hand full of P6 teams without a 5th year player and that's what Shaka has decided on.  Next year is the last year of the Covid kids eligibility. 

Armando Bacot from North Carolina has played in 158 career games so far and will approach 170 at years end.  The Marquette career record is 138 by Lazar Hayward.  Tyler Wahl played in game 152 for Wisconsin yesterday.

On to DePaul

MU is young...

[brewcity77]

...but to get rolled by 28. Lose by 15, ok. But absolutely rocked. It's like the tourney game vs UNC in '22. Lose by 8, maybe 9? Nope. Vaporized by 30. Just ridiculous. Oh well. Good to have 3 at home coming up. We need to hammer DeP. No mercy. Up 20...push it to 30. Up 30...pedal to the metal.

I'm not saying it didn't suck. It was a tough watch. I'm just glad it came after 8 wins in a row and not after the Butler game, or we might be hearing about a Scoop Summit on the roof of Straz.

[Elonsmusk]

I was actually more bothered by the lack of physicality on offense when Clingan was in. If you want to get after UConn's rim protection, you need to attack Clingan. I get that Kam does everything he can to avoid contact, but guys like Tyler, Chase, and Stevie need to be driving into Clingan to force contact. You likely aren't going to get the charge call unless you're totally reckless and while the shot might get blocked, you also might draw the fouls that limit his ability to be in the game. We fouled Johnson out but didn't draw a single foul on Clingan.

UConn had a great plan to limit our biggest difference maker in Tyler, but we didn't seem to have a similar approach to their biggest difference maker in Clingan.

Except we did try to challenge Clingan several times and weren't able to draw any fouls.  Clingan is great at positioning himself vertically and he's a massive human being, to where when a smaller player bangs into his body, they just collapse.  I particularly recall one baseline drive by Chase where he challenged him, and Chase looked like an 8th grader playing against an NBA player - and Chase is probably our most physical specimen.

It's hard for MU to eliminate Clingan as the only way to really do it is to pull him away from the basket, and Gold is the best bet there, but then you'd have to have Oso off the court (as Clingan would guard Oso), which isn't a good solution either.

The biggest frustration for me was our defense.  The amount of backdoor baskets UCONN got was problematic, as was their ability to score off of set plays in their inbounding plays from under the basket.  I thought Shaka had a good assessment of the game in his post game press conference.

Hats off to UCONN though, they were really good.

[Scoop Snoop]

MU is young...

.......and has tired legs....

[Newsdreams]

.......and has tired legs....

Nah, there is a TO every 4 minutes...

[Goose]

Elon

It looked like they gave up on defense. That was my biggest disappointment from yesterday. The defense was horrible.

[brewcity77]

The biggest frustration for me was our defense.  The amount of backdoor baskets UCONN got was problematic, as was their ability to score off of set plays in their inbounding plays from under the basket.  I thought Shaka had a good assessment of the game in his post game press conference.

We lost them a number of times with our doubles. Generally, we've been really good at timing double-teams this year, but UConn was ready and repeatedly found that back door guy open under the hoop.

Ultimately, I think they had a really, really good scout on us. On both ends. If The Boneyard did SOTG, my vote yesterday would go to Dan Hurley, no doubt.

[Uncle Rico]

We lost them a number of times with our doubles. Generally, we've been really good at timing double-teams this year, but UConn was ready and repeatedly found that back door guy open under the hoop.

Ultimately, I think they had a really, really good scout on us. On both ends. If The Boneyard did SOTG, my vote yesterday would go to Dan Hurley, no doubt.

Wouldn't happen to a Brian Wardle coached team