The Positive Spin Thread

[NCMUFan]

Everyone has had a night to sleep.  Figured I would give Tower some help.
1.  Marquette has gone from a "Let's hope we can hang with Villanova in Milwaukee" to a "We expect to win against Villanova at their home".
2. We lost to a probable NCAA tourney team on their home court.
3. We may have a rising star in Zaide Lowery.

[tower912]

The bench has made great strides over the last couple of weeks.

[rocky_warrior]

20 win season.

[muwarrior69]

There is more to life than Marquette Basketball. We shouldn't be so upset over a game. Dish and his family know that more than most. Just my perspective as an avid Warrior.

[Viper]

Tuesday is perfect timing to play a bad opponent on our home court.

[MUfan12]

In no way is Nova a probable NCAA team.

[IL Warrior]

Everyone has had a night to sleep.  Figured I would give Tower some help.
1.  Marquette has gone from a "Let's hope we can hang with Villanova in Milwaukee" to a "We expect to win against Villanova at their home".
2. We lost to a probable NCAA team on their home court.
3. We may have a rising star in Zaide Lowery.

Sure, but Villanova's fall has a lot to do with the bolded. They've gone from 2 national championships in 3 years to a team that is 51-45 in the last 3 seasons. And Villanova is not a "probable NCAA team". On Bracket Matrix, 0 out of 113 brackets have them in the field.

[NCMUFan]

Ok, nix the first two then.

[GoldenWarrior11]

We still get at minimum another six more games with this group.  The potential for another special season is there.  Just need to get back in the gym, watch film and get to work.

They just need a spark.

[willie warrior]

Sure, but Villanova's fall has a lot to do with the bolded. They've gone from 2 national championships in 3 years to a team that is 51-45 in the last 3 seasons. And Villanova is not a "probable NCAA team". On Bracket Matrix, 0 out of 113 brackets have them in the field.

But they just whooped our ass, didnt they?

[willie warrior]

We still get at minimum another six more games with this group.  The potential for another special season is there.  Just need to get back in the gym, watch film and get to work.

They just need a spark.

They have been doing that all year and are regressing. And they need a hell of a lot more than a spark

[tower912]

The ceiling hasn't changed.

[MuggsyB]

I didn't sleep much.  It's extremely difficult to spin what happened last night, or for the past month for that matter.  As many Scoopers have stated:  this isn't about bad shooting, it's about bad basketball.  And for a team with F4 aspirations, and looking like one early in the year, we're quite frankly a shell of that squad. 

But there is still time to get it back.  It's never too late.  We have to remind ourselves that one game, one performance, can change everything.  The opportunities for that to happen are around the corner at UConn, vs St.J, and in the BEast tournament.  And while we have proven to be an abysmally bad shooting team, it's important to note that we basically can't shoot worse than we've witnessed

Someone needs to light an inferno for this team.  We're dealing with what I believe is 70-75% a mental hurdle.  That's what we must overcome.  I saw our starters cheering our bench last night.  I saw several young players playing free, with decisiveness, and fearlessly.  We need to get back to that and  enjoying this ride.  We must regain our competitive edge which these guys and Shaka have always had. 

It's very straightforward:  4/5 of our starting 5 are playing awful basketball.  Period.  There are no excuses, and it's way more than simply missing shots.  They are playing well below their standards and know this full well.  This doesn't mean Shaka is blameless but our Senior leaders have to find their games or we are fertilizer.  Know your game and play free with enthusiasm, axe the hesitation, share the rock, and trust each other.  Confidence is paramount and we absolutely can get this back. 

[NCMUFan]

Thanks Muggsy.  IMHO best post yet.

[rocky_warrior]

Lots of people are focusing on offense, but according to Torvik yesterday was the second worst defensive game during the Shaka era.  Worst was his first season against Butler. 

Fix the defense, and the offense will be fine.

[#UnleashSean]

This thread is way to wojo for me.

[rgoode57]

The only positive from last night was Zaide. Really good to see him progressing. Nothing else at all to smile about. Realistically, this team is probably going to win only one more game in the regular season, may lose the bye for the BE tournament, and will win no more than one game in the NCAA. It is simply not a good team right now, and, as others have pointed out, it has been a long while since they have beaten a good team.

[HutchwasClutch]

Tuesday is perfect timing to play a bad opponent on our home court.

That's all this team has going for it right now, the schedule giving them a break with a Fiserv game against a lousy team.  The same good fortune in scheduling the two games before last night. 

[DoggyDaddy]

Faith and patience Scoopers.
In his final season in 1977, Al lost his last his last 3 home games and a final away game. He was ready to take his Harley on the road and leave town. His team seemed worn out and miserable as did all of us old Warriors.
They still got a bid based on body the of work in the season and then went on to win the all the way to the NCAA Championship. Al did not think this was his best team.

Not saying this will happen this year but the body of work will get the Golden Eagles a bid, methinks.
What happens if they beat St. Johns at home? And they may get another chance in the BE tournament.

[tower912]

Thank you for that. 

[MuggsyB]

As far as Shaka is concerned, we have to get off to better starts.  Yesterday Jop missed two wide open threes to begin the game but we were also way too soft defensively, especially our doubling the post.  When we do not force turnovers we're not a great defensive team but we have gotten torched off the bounce too much in tbe h-court. 

I think we began the game like 0-7 from distance.  Against a team mind you that doesn't have a rim protector.  We have to a better job of converting or drawing fouls in the paint.  My take is there's no variation in our paint attacks.  They're generally straight vertical drives or Kam spins.  We do a poor job with few shot fakes or playing off of two feet and just relaxing.  We also rush the shots constantly.   Ben had a wide open 6 footer that he rushed and had a zero % chance of going in. This is the mental part of the game I'm talking about.

We all know everything starts with Kam.  He dominated a Purdue and Wisconsin team not forcing a single shot.  He got our guys involved early and then took over once everyone was contributing.  This I believe is our best chance of regaining our mojo.  We need a complete team effort scoring the ball.  If Jop and Ben cannot find their games?  Sit them and play ZL and RP or DO extended mins. 

[CountryRoads]

We're going to be playing in the tournament this year. That felt like a Herculean task with the previous coach.

[Scoop Snoop]

And while we have proven to be an abysmally bad shooting team, it's important to note that we basically can't shoot worse than we've witnessed.
 

I do not consider this "best post yet". Typical rah rah pep talk with a really weird assurance that "we can't shoot worse than we've witnessed".

Getting back to the thread title- Lowery's performance along with the rest of the bench at the end of the game was the positive spin for me.

I get the potential to turn things around. There's no question it can happen, but our last 6 games include only 2 Ws-Depaul and Seton Hall, both on our home court. I'm hoping for a turnaround. It's the same players, same coach so it's not a stretch that we finish strong.

[Markusquette]

We're going to be playing in the tournament this year. That felt like a Herculean task with the previous coach.

Agreed. MU has not been up to standard lately. But still a team that will make the tournament. Hopefully they have their heads on straight come March madness.

[79Warrior]

Tuesday is perfect timing to play a bad opponent on our home court.

Exactly