X-acto knife

[wisblue]

Have you watched the other teams? Assuming not. Because Michigan just lost to Minnesota. Tennessee is about to lose their 2nd game in 3 to Vanderbilt. Auburn just beat Georgia, a team we beat, by 2 at home. UConn lost at home today to a team we beat. Houston got their first quad 1 win today.

The only conclusion i can draw is you don't have much frame of reference.

I do watch them (but obviously not as closely as I watch MU games) and I do pay attention to results.

If it was just today's game that would be one thing. Losing at home to Xavier might or might not be any worse than Tennessee losing on the road to Vanderbilt or Georgia only winning by 2 at Georgia. But conference road games are often tough against teams around the top 50. They shouldn't be tough against teams as sad as DePaul.

Teams have off days. But from my frame of reference 3 straight games falling 10-15 points short of covering the spread sends more of a signal than one off day.

Maybe the cool kids will be right and MU will come out of this funk and go on to the high NCAA seed that they seem to expect. We will see.

[MUEng92]

Maybe a different story if Kam's pass didn't get deflected.

Live by the defection, die by the deflection

[CountryRoads]

Live by the defection, die by the deflection

One thing I find semi interesting is that Shaka is stuck on that 32 deflections a game number but he has never ever mentioned how many the other team had. I would actually like to know how many deflections we get relative to the other team. If it's a such "deflection culture" and they show leaderboards and give out chicken and what not, shouldn't we at the very least know if we are even winning the deflection battle? What good is 32 deflections if the other team has 42? I don't know. Always bothered me.

[Uncle Rico]

I do watch them (but obviously not as closely as I watch MU games) and I do pay attention to results.

If it was just today's game that would be one thing. Losing at home to Xavier might or might not be any worse than Tennessee losing on the road to Vanderbilt or Georgia only winning by 2 at Georgia. But conference road games are often tough against teams around the top 50. They shouldn't be tough against teams as sad as DePaul.

Teams have off days. But from my frame of reference 3 straight games falling 10-15 points short of covering the spread sends more of a signal than one off day.

Maybe the cool kids will be right and MU will come out of this funk and go on to the high NCAA seed that they seem to expect. We will see.

Tennessee hasn't covered the spread in 3 of the 4 last games and have a 30 point loss where they scored 43.  Good example

[BM1090]

I do watch them (but obviously not as closely as I watch MU games) and I do pay attention to results.

If it was just today's game that would be one thing. Losing at home to Xavier might or might not be any worse than Tennessee losing on the road to Vanderbilt or Georgia only winning by 2 at Georgia. But conference road games are often tough against teams around the top 50. They shouldn't be tough against teams as sad as DePaul.

Teams have off days. But from my frame of reference 3 straight games falling 10-15 points short of covering the spread sends more of a signal than one off day.

Maybe the cool kids will be right and MU will come out of this funk and go on to the high NCAA seed that they seem to expect. We will see.

We failed to cover vs Georgetown by 4. The last two games have been disappointing. We're also 3-0 in conference road games with two wins against middle of the pack BE teams.

Unless you've done this game by game for every team, it's kind of pointless.

If you're up for it, tell me 20 teams better than MU.

[wisblue]

Wisblue is just venting.  And possibly trolling.

Why would you think I am trolling?

I am exteremely disappointed that the team that was so entertaining in games against Purdue and Wisconsin has become so hard to watch.

I wish I believed that this is just a rough patch for a team that will go on to a high NCAA seed. But I've seen other teams (MU and others) that look good in December fall flat as the season rolls along.

Some us don't have an NFL team that figures to have a cakewalk in a playoff game tonight to ease the disappointment.

[tower912]

Lol

[Newsdreams]

ISU just lost to WV

[BM1090]

Tennessee hasn't covered the spread in 3 of the 4 last games and have a 30 point loss where they scored 43.  Good example

Auburn fell 13 points short of the spread at South Carolina three games ago.

Illinois lost by 10 to USC and fell 24 points short of the spread a week ago today.

I know you're not trolling. I think that you believe you're a realist when in reality you're a pessimist.

[MUfan12]

Iowa State loses by 7. 13.5 points from covering.

The cool kids are wrong about them too.

[tower912]

So, upsets aplenty today.

[Shooter McGavin]

I do watch them (but obviously not as closely as I watch MU games) and I do pay attention to results.

If it was just today's game that would be one thing. Losing at home to Xavier might or might not be any worse than Tennessee losing on the road to Vanderbilt or Georgia only winning by 2 at Georgia. But conference road games are often tough against teams around the top 50. They shouldn't be tough against teams as sad as DePaul.

Teams have off days. But from my frame of reference 3 straight games falling 10-15 points short of covering the spread sends more of a signal than one off day.

Maybe the cool kids will be right and MU will come out of this funk and go on to the high NCAA seed that they seem to expect. We will see.

Do you think they will play this poorly the rest of the year?  Do you think that they do not have the talent to compete with UConn, St John's, Creighton and Villanova? Were their wins over Maryland, Wisconsin, Purdue, and Georgia flukes?

I'm curious as to where you stand.  If the answer to these questions are yes then by all means keep up the doom and gloom.  If you are right you will look prescient. 

[BM1090]

I do think today will be a valuable lesson and I think offensively they learned something today to move away from ball screens if Kam is getting doubled every time, as Sultan noted.

[Shaka Shart]

We failed to cover vs Georgetown by 4. The last two games have been disappointing. We're also 3-0 in conference road games with two wins against middle of the pack BE teams.

Unless you've done this game by game for every team, it's kind of pointless.

If you're up for it, tell me 20 teams better than MU.

Radford, St. Thomas, Central Michigan, Dayton, Depaul, Xavier, Georgetown, Bradley, SLU, UW, George Mason, Iowa State, NC State, 2023 Uconn, Texas A&M, Depaul again but just their bench, The Mequon Warriors, the Al McGuire center concession stands, Matt Painter, 5 inbred generations of the Ners clan

[wisblue]

Do you think they will play this poorly the rest of the year?  Do you think that they do not have the talent to compete with UConn, St John's, Creighton and Villanova? Were their wins over Maryland, Wisconsin, Purdue, and Georgia flukes?

I'm curious as to where you stand.  If the answer to these questions are yes then by all means keep up the doom and gloom.  If you are right you will look prescient. 

The wins you listed were not flukes.

And of course MU has the talent to compete with anyone in this conference, especially in this down year for the league.

If I thought MU would play the rest of the season as poorly as they have played the last 3 games I would expect them to finish close to .500, and I am not there.

But, unless the team can start getting some help from its bench they are going to have a difficult time in February and March. Other teams are improving and have found ways to stymie MU's offense.

Since you asked where I stand, I have not yet changed my expectation of a 15-5 conference season. But these last 3 games, and a couple of the other uneven performances in the conference, are shaking my confidence.

I always thought that talk of an 18-2 conference record and a number 1 seed was unrealistic.

If that fits your definition of doom and gloom, I guess I'm guilty.

[muhoops1]

What happened in the hand shake line post game.  Freemantle had to be held back.  Couple of assistance from both benches barking at each other.

[MUEng92]

What happened in the hand shake line post game.  Freemantle had to be held back.  Couple of assistance from both benches barking at each other.

Discussion in Game Chat. No one knows for sure

[tower912]

Ben Gold, 13 rebounds.  Unlucky 13.

[The Sultan]

maybe but if you want a chance at a 3 seed better be taking care of business the rest of January cause febuarary looking pretty daunting. Especially the way the team is playing.

If they're playing so bad, it doesn't matter what seed they are.

Anyway, enjoy the journey. Don't worry too much about what February brings.

[Vander Blue Man Group]

Why would you think I am trolling?

I am exteremely disappointed that the team that was so entertaining in games against Purdue and Wisconsin has become so hard to watch.

I wish I believed that this is just a rough patch for a team that will go on to a high NCAA seed. But I've seen other teams (MU and others) that look good in December fall flat as the season rolls along.

Some us don't have an NFL team that figures to have a cakewalk in a playoff game tonight to ease the disappointment.

Hilarious stuff.

[The Sultan]

Last year at this time, Marquette was 12-5 (3-3), ranked #17, and coming off of recent losses to Seaton Hall and Butler.

[wisblue]

Iowa State loses by 7. 13.5 points from covering.

The cool kids are wrong about them too.

That's a loss coming a few days after a dominating home win over Kansas.

I have said clearly that I am talking about a succession of subpar performances, not an isolated one.

And I count the Georgetown game as subpar even though MU pulled away from a tie in the last 2 minutes to win by 8 against a 13 point underdog.

[Shooter McGavin]

That's a loss coming a few days after a dominating home win over Kansas.

I have said clearly that I am talking about a succession of subpar performances, not an isolated one.

And I count the Georgetown game as subpar even though MU pulled away from a tie in the last 2 minutes to win by 14 against a 13 point underdog.

Definitely one way to look at it. Hope you are not right about MU being mediocre. 

[MuggsyB]

That's a loss coming a few days after a dominating home win over Kansas.

I have said clearly that I am talking about a succession of subpar performances, not an isolated one.

And I count the Georgetown game as subpar even though MU pulled away from a tie in the last 2 minutes to win by 14 against a 13 point underdog.

Blue,  we played like a pile of excrement on the offensive end.  There  is no disputing that.  We've now had several bad performances and our All-American is definitely in a funk.  We're not going to beat many teams in D-1 frankly with what we saw through 27 mins.  That all said I believe we can get back our mojo.  We continued to compete despite the dumpster fire shooting and overall ineptitude.  This team is way too good, experienced, and well coached not to overcome this little rough patch.  I fully expect us to bounce back.

[GoldenEagles03]

Anybody hear anything about Chase's injury?

I sat next to somebody at the game that was telling me he sustained a serious thumb injury against DePaul.

I hadn't seen or heard that anywhere until today.