Joplin at Wintrust.

[tower912]

1.  An odd trait I have noticed about MU over the years.  Which coach no matta, as it goes back to at least Crean.  When MU hits 3's early, they inevitably get lazy on offense and become 3 happy.  It flared up tonight.
2.  MU is playing well, Shaka goes to the bench, and everything shifted.   Even when the defense was solid and the shot choices the right ones, it just didn't matter.  Nothing to do but keep working.  Can't play the starters 40. 
3.  Kam is in a shooting slump.  NPOYs take and make that lay up with 3 minutes left rather than dishing out.  And are smarter with the ball at crunch time.   
4.  It is time to contemplate an adjustment to switching 1-5. Opponents are working really hard to force switches, isolating Ben in space defending guards and MU guards defending the post.   
5.  A flaw of MU tonight was that they did not seek out contact when they got the ball in the paint. 
6.  The corollary is that MU stood still too much against the zone.  Again.  Have to move the ball and bodies. 
7.  When Rivera threw in the prayer, I thought that was it. In overtime, FFS.   
8.  DePaul just didn't care who was guarding them.   Kudos.   
9.  Clean block by Ben at the end of regulation. And then another clean block at the end of OT.  Too close to overturn either.
10.  Dodging bullets like Neo. 



       

[MU82]

Never a doubt.

[PointWarrior]

Depaul sucks...

[Jay Bee]

We were persecuted but prevailed

[wadesworld]

Maybe "packing" their arena isn't a good thing. They seemed to feed off the crowd. Maybe their typical empty gym is worse than a semi road game.

[warriors141]

Worst win in the Shaka era? Normally I'm a "wins a win" guy but wow that was alarmingly bad. The bench has gone from not great to a complete liability and Kam is a shadow of his earlier season self and has bad 2 brutal games in a row

[Johnny B]

One the "weirdest" games in some time. I thought of the matrix as well, MU seemingly coming out unscathed every dangerous encounter. Credit to chase for the crazy 3. This board would be in melt down mode if that missed.

[jesmu84]

6. How have our seemingly outstanding offensive minds on this coaching staff not figured out better zone schemes?

[MUEng92]

One the "weirdest" games in some time. I thought of the matrix as well, MU seemingly coming out unscathed every dangerous encounter. Credit to chase for the crazy 3. This board would be in melt down mode if that missed.

Not sure a win will prevent a meltdown.  And I'm talking about me, not the board

[MU82]

I told my buddies in our text chain that I didn't really mind that the goaltending call stood - because that meant DePaul wouldn't get the chance to throw in a wild 3 to beat us at the buzzer.

After watching Rivera at the end of OT, that feeling was justified.

[tower912]

The board was already in meltdown mode.


They can scheme all they want, but the players have to execute.

[MUEng92]

After watching Rivera at the end of OT, that feeling was justified.

At least with the 3's in OT he was looking at the rim before hitting the them.  I don't think that was the case on all his made shots

[CountryRoads]

I told my buddies in our text chain that I didn't really mind that the goaltending call stood - because that meant DePaul wouldn't get the chance to throw in a wild 3 to beat us at the buzzer.

After watching Rivera at the end of OT, that feeling was justified.

Felt the exact same. What a wild game. Would have been a fun one to watch for a casual fan.

[Dish]

Lappas wondering why Mitchell wasn't in the game with 20 seconds left in OT was humorous.

[The Sultan]

The lack of rim protection on defense is a problem as well.

[Uncle Rico]

We suck

[muwarrior69]

Do we have any more weeks in the schedule where were off 7 days? We squeaked through the rust on this one.

[mug644]

Fair, blunt observations, Tower.

2. Totally agree...MU goes up 11 early, starters out (with confidence/arrogance) and subs in. Things go to hell, and energy can't easily be regained.

3. Yes, but...if Kam makes that 3 at the end of regulation to win the game, he's right back up there with Flagg for POY.

Phew.

[The Sultan]

Oh and the bench has basically disappeared. No bench points tonight. Some rebounds from Tre but by and large they were awful.

[MU Fan in Connecticut]

Worst win in the Shaka era? Normally I'm a "wins a win" guy but wow that was alarmingly bad. The bench has gone from not great to a complete liability and Kam is a shadow of his earlier season self and has bad 2 brutal games in a row

St. Thomas

[MUEng92]

It kinda felt like DePaul was fully DePauling in OT until Rivera decided to go all Steph

[swoopem]

I told my buddies in our text chain that I didn't really mind that the goaltending call stood - because that meant DePaul wouldn't get the chance to throw in a wild 3 to beat us at the buzzer.

After watching Rivera at the end of OT, that feeling was justified.

I was thinking the exact same thing

[PointWarrior]

Lappas wondering why Mitchell wasn't in the game with 20 seconds left in OT was humorous.

Not just that, he was questioning why they sub'ed him out as if he was in the game...

[jesmu84]

The board was already in meltdown mode.


They can scheme all they want, but the players have to execute.

Is your implication that there is scheme/strategy that the coaches are trying to implement but the players can't or won't execute?

[Vander Blue Man Group]

Kam needs to find his jumper badly.

Wish Ben was comfortable flashing at the free throw line against a zone due to his size but he clearly is not.

Hopefully Shaka can find some better rotations to get the bench some minutes without completely disrupting the flow of the game because that unit has regressed and then he's forced to play starters most of the 2nd half.

That shooting display from Rivera made me nauseous.

Hopefully this is a bit of a wake-up call. Can't lose any games to DePaul, Butler or Seton Hall.