Nothing but ❤️

[The Sultan]

Never posted that he would. But he doesn't even seem to be the answer for spot minutes at that position

He has held his own fine with the usual freshman growing pains. I believe in Shaka's player development. 

[HutchwasClutch]

Never posted that he would. But he doesn't even seem to be the answer for spot minutes at that position

Agree.

[wadesworld]

Wish the game had been 35 minutes long. Even had we lost, the guys out there deserved to have the final margin be 5. That was a great effort. Jop looked like he took some notes from Stevie in deciding not to be denied getting to the rim. Shaka was running plays to get Ashworth switched onto him and letting Jop back him down. He made a few nice passes out of it, but also over dribbled a few times. The Gold move to end the half was unreal. Put Kalk in the spin cycle. And Zaide didn't back down from Kalk down low defensively and hit some big threes. Kam and Stevie were awesome.

Thought we'd need to make every open 3 we got and have Creighton shoot poorly to not get run out of the gym. Got neither and still had them on the ropes.

Still think we will need a portal PG for next year. Much like QBs in football, if you're doing it by committee, you don't really have a PG. Not sure matchup hunting and iso ball would work for a full season, but they did well at it today.

[Shooter McGavin]

Gold needed to hit a couple of his open three shots. He was wide open and they left open. He could have turned things our way a couple of times.

Agreed Goose.  Ben was in position to change the game.  He had some really open looks from three.   He looks so comfortable out there now.  I almost wished he drove it to the hoop more as well. It was like he was holding back and deferring still.  Shaka will get every ounce of potential out of him eventually.  He played great though.  Just needed to make an "adjustment" to hit those wide open threes. 

[Shooter McGavin]

I am more optimistic about this team than I have been since beating Kansas.

Agree completely with this sentiment.  This team has a big run in them coming.  Hope they get healthy and come out guns blazing.

[rocket surgeon]

  one of those games that became more disappointing as it got to about the 5 minute mark...hopes were escalating as the game wore on with our valiant efforts all around

would have been a great reverse floor rush by the Creighton fans seeing the door hitting a lot of arses on their way out

[MU82]

Here's a great quote from Joplin:

"We don't have our two oldest guys, our seniors. Our best players, some may say. So we just got to battle with whoever's with us. We're going to go out there and fight. Warriors."

[tower912]

The day after, now it is time to point out issues.
   7 assists.   Understandable, as Kam, Stevie, and Jop have not had extended run as facilitators.   Lots of one on one.
  I laughed watching Ben handle the ball in traffic.   The next step is making it mean something.   His straight line drives were impressive.  His between the legs dribble and spin move were also impressive, but accomplished little.    Stuff to work on.
   
But these are the tiniest of nits to pick.  They all cowboyed up in a tough situation and I have nothing but respect, admiration, and appreciation for their effort.

[We R Final Four]

I think BG was assisted on each if his 3 attempts......Maybe Tre as well.
They were 1-12 from deep. 5 more assists if some of those fall....12 total....would be a non issue.

[rocky_warrior]

I was encouraged that "next years team" kept up @ Creighton for most of the game.

I was disappointed that what I thought would have been a better defensive team gave up almost 90 to Creighton.

That's all.

[mugrad_89]

I was encouraged that "next years team" kept up @ Creighton for most of the game.

I was disappointed that what I thought would have been a better defensive team gave up almost 90 to Creighton.

That's all.

Shorter bench led to tired defending the last 4 minutes.

[Warrior2008]

Was lucky enough to see how hard the guys played yesterday in person. Sure the outcome sucked, but the effort put forth was truly special. There's no such thing in moral victories, but managing and responding to adversity is a lesson in itself.  They took every punch Creighton had for 37 minutes and never flinched, while same team two weeks ago flinched at UConn. The growth is there, just heal up and get healthy.

[CountryRoads]

I was encouraged that "next years team" kept up @ Creighton for most of the game.

I was disappointed that what I thought would have been a better defensive team gave up almost 90 to Creighton.

That's all.

Fatigue was the primary factor. Not really in this team's DNA but would have liked to see us take the air out of the ball a little more yesterday. Easier said than done as Creighton was trying to play as fast as possible.

[Scoop Snoop]

I was encouraged that "next years team" kept up @ Creighton for most of the game.

I was disappointed that what I thought would have been a better defensive team gave up almost 90 to Creighton.

That's all.

Fair point, but Creighton was able to run up the score only after Marquette was gassed, so your "almost 90", I think, needs context. Too many wide open 3's though.

Edit-not trying to pile on. A couple of other posts got in ahead of me.

[rocky_warrior]

Shorter bench led to tired defending the last 4 minutes.

Sure, but still had 7 guys going.  Same as Creighton.  Worst defensive performance of the year.

Edit-not trying to pile on. A couple of other posts got in ahead of me.

Pile on!  But I'm not wrong. 

[DoctorV]

Fatigue was the primary factor. Not really in this team's DNA but would have liked to see us take the air out of the ball a little more yesterday. Easier said than done as Creighton was trying to play as fast as possible.

Yup. It was 69-67 when Ben scored at the 4:30 mark.

Creighton scored 89...

That game went from a "very good" defensive performance, both in my mind and in the metrics, for 36 mins.
Had Marquette bogged it down and lost 76-73 or something along those lines it would stand as an acceptable defensive performance on the road given the circumstances.

The last 4 greatly skewed all things metrics wise.
Fortunately for us we watch all the games and we see beyond that and know that the fellas played pretty darn well, defense included

[DoctorV]

Sure, but still had 7 guys going.  Same as Creighton.  Worst defensive performance of the year.

Pile on!  But I'm not wrong. 

Sure, but Creighton always goes 6 deep with heavy-ish minutes and is used to it. Additionally, they had their best 6 and Marquette was missing its best, or at worst second best, defensive player and its best offensive player and floor general.

You know all that though.

My main point is that I realize only the final result matters to the computers, but Marquette played pretty darn good defense for a long stretch of the game.
Creighton had 67 pts at the under 8 and then 69 with 430 left.
As good as that pivotal 4 minute stretch was, the final 430 was exactly the opposite.

[Scoop Snoop]

Sure, but still had 7 guys going.  Same as Creighton.  Worst defensive performance of the year.

Pile on!  But I'm not wrong. 

Sez you.

[rocky_warrior]

The last 4 greatly skewed all things metrics wise.

I'd guess in every game most teams have some 4 minute stretch that greatly skews the metrics.  We've seen that in both Marquette's offense and defense (mostly on the good side).  Fortunately / Unfortunately metrics don't discount those 4 minute stretches.

[tower912]

Uh oh.  Full Dodds ban hammer coming.

[Goose]

If you are only looking at the final score to grade the defense you either did not watch the game or are looking for a negative. The D outperformed for 36 minutes and looked awfully good to me.

Comparing Creighton playing 7 guys to MU playing 7 guys actually made me laugh. It really does not even deserve to be discussed.

To pile on that post would be like piling on to the Don Kojis post yesterday. It is best just to move on and reread tower's posts to get back to reality.

[Scoop Snoop]

Uh oh.  Full Dodds ban hammer coming.

Not for me. When I went after Scoop's bloodthirsty nutcase, he wrote it off as possibly being caused by "some bad kombucha". I'm not worried.

[tower912]

I probably should have put it in teal.   That is not how rocky rolls.

[rocky_warrior]

Not for me. When I went after Scoop's bloodthirsty nutcase, he wrote it off as possibly being caused by "some bad kombucha". I'm not worried.

I've come to realize you never drink good kombucha.

[Scoop Snoop]

I've come to realize you never drink good kombucha.

True. I don't drink that stuff at all. So you're not wrong Rocky.