Perspective 2025

[PointWarrior]

I don't know about that. Last year was our best shot in a long time. It was not Shaka's fault we lost to NC State. The pieces were there. Unfortunately, the team was at a bricklayers convention. It is not Shaka's fault they were ice cold that game.

Sometimes the players just don't get it done. Shaka is the right guy for MU.He will sort it out.

Yep, other than the bricklayers he recruited, it's not his fault.

[PointWarrior]

I don't know about that. Last year was our best shot in a long time. It was not Shaka's fault we lost to NC State. The pieces were there. Unfortunately, the team was at a bricklayers convention. It is not Shaka's fault they were ice cold that game.

Sometimes the players just don't get it done. Shaka is the right guy for MU.He will sort it out.

And...

The CoS will never blame the coach, the only excuse is the players did not perform to their capabilities.

[🏀]

One day, Kam, Stevie, and Jop will be spoken of with the same reverence as the three amigos.

Insulting to Neek, Jerel and Wes.

[Viper]

Our offense has to be the easiest to scout/defend in the conference.  They're either shooting a 3 or driving into to traffic for a highly contested layup. That's it.  Now next year they'll do the same but without an All American guard on the team. Very likely looking at a sub .500 team next year.  But, hey, they'll be connected.

and balanced. We'll have a balanced roster!

[tower912]

Insulting to Neek, Jerel and Wes.

Sepia

[🏀]

Sepia

Cute, but if you truly think those three are on the same planet as the Amigos, I don't know what to tell you.

[Viper]

Cute, but if you truly think those three are on the same planet as the Amigos, I don't know what to tell you.

100%.

[tower912]

Fated to disagree. 

[WellsstreetWanderer]

Early season success set our expectations too high. Our offense was very predictable and difficult to watch with the lack of crisp passing and movement off the ball

[rgoode57]

I have very mixed feelings about this season. I enjoyed watching the team but they gave me indigestion the last part of the season. You cannot call yourself a good team when you cannot beat other good teams. 0-3 against SJ...0-2 against UConn...lose 4 of the last 5 games...one and out in the tournament... That does not sound like a really good team - just a middle of the pack BE team. But, at the same time, the guys played their asses off and, I think, consistently gave 100% of what they had. You have to give the players credit for that.

Will next year's team be better? No, probably not. In fact, next season may well be worse as young players develop and rely on Ross and Gold for leadership. I'm not sure how that will work out, but it will be interesting to watch.

Is Shaka's approach of avoiding the portal going to work? I have no idea, but I do think Shaka is taking the harder road. But, I do understand the difficulties of the portal. I saw an article the other day claiming that Louisville is prepared to spend $8 to 10 million acquiring portal players. No way MU can compete with that. At the same time, I will have to be convinced that players like Parham, Norman, and Owens plus a continual parade of project big men is going to get the program where we would all like to see it go. (I intentionally left Lowery out of that sentence because I do think he is the real deal.)

[manny31]

My issues around roster construction is what happens when there is an injury or for that matter just your average "off" night. When you see Ben Gold disappear from the stat line for 3 or 4 games or watch a clearly injured/hurting Stevie play and watch him get eaten up by a guy he would, under healthy circumstances, devour.. Stevie and Gold continue to play and the reason can only be that severely impaired Stevie or Gold is better than what comes off the bench? I don't expect guys 6-10 be as good as 1-5 but I don't think it recipe for success when guys 6-10 can't play high level D-1 ball. In reality it's probably guys 7.5-10. Did Shaka and the rest of the coaching staff miss that badly??

[🏀]

Fated to disagree.

Would love to debate it over 18 holes one day.

[Big Papi]

Is Shaka's approach of avoiding the portal going to work? I have no idea, but I do think Shaka is taking the harder road. But, I do understand the difficulties of the portal. I saw an article the other day claiming that Louisville is prepared to spend $8 to 10 million acquiring portal players. No way MU can compete with that. At the same time, I will have to be convinced that players like Parham, Norman, and Owens plus a continual parade of project big men is going to get the program where we would all like to see it go. (I intentionally left Lowery out of that sentence because I do think he is the real deal.)

Shaka's portal philosophy is just avoidance.  We are going to have to pay regardless of participation in the portal.  We paid Kam, Jop, Stevie and everyone else.  Did we get a discount?  Maybe on our top players but are we overpaying the bottom of the roster? 

We are going to have to compete against Louisville and the like if we want high end players so we will be dishing out lots of money.  If we can compete there, then our expectations should be lowered.

The problem with Shaka's portal philosophy is if he doesn't hit on his recruiting, we are stuck with below average players with no other means of improvement.

Shaka could easily alter his portal philosophy such that the portal is secondary way to enhance his teams with obvious weaknesses, not be the go-to method.

Shaka is really not going to use the portal, he better be bringing in a few top 50 players year after year.  With 15 scholarship players, you can afford a few projects but not the roster.  You miss on recruiting one year and you are in trouble. 

[BM1090]

Yep, other than the bricklayers he recruited, it's not his fault.

I've rewatched that NC state game a couple of times bc I'm a masochist. We outplayed them. Out coached them. The only difference was shot making.

Yes Shaka probably has to recruit some better shot makers. But that game was just open miss after open miss at the wrong time.

[willie warrior]

Oh now we better be careful not to aggravate the hell out of Shaka. Rigghhttt. What about the way he has aggravated the hell out of the fans? He makes what--around 4 million per? Maybe he should put on his big boy pants, you know the ones that hold his wallet in the pocket, and stop the slide the team has been on. Oops, sorry. Please, please Shaka, please try to get better results. Please Shaka. We will try harder not to aggravate the hell out of you.

[tower912]

Would love to debate it over 18 holes one day.

Not after the range session I just had.  My swing was more off than a Dominic James free throw.

[muhoops1]

Yep, other than the bricklayers he recruited, it's not his fault.

Shaka had an interesting quote post game when asked about the slide.  He basically said they have to go out and play without being connected to the results.  Said they did that better early and not so much down that poor stretch.  Maybe these guys put too much pressure on themselves to get over the hump.  He has to figure out a way to get them to play loose in big moments.

[NotAnAlum]

First of all no one should be asking for Shaka to be fired or believing that the season was a disaster.  And having concerns about the future should not be construed as being ungrateful for the success that Shaka and the 3 seniors brought us since they took over the program 4 years ago.
That said Shaka seems to be pretty dug in to the idea of avoiding the transfer portal and all that goes with it including dealing with players agents.  He values "relationships" above everything else and being loyal to the guys he recruited above all else.  These are all admirable values.   The problem is he needs to win in a high major league and he needs to have more success in March.  By that I mean winning more frequently when facing a lesser seeded team and occasionally upsetting a favorite.

College sports have changed a lot since Shaka got here.  As of now these guys are effectively being treated as "professionals" playing on 1 year contracts.  This is not how Shaka believes it should be (its not how I believe it should be either) but until someone steps in to manage this situation this free for all is the way it is and the way we should plan on it staying.  Shaka standing as the poster child for doing it the "right way" is not going to change the system and only risks as I've heard it phrased "Marquette being road kill on the road to reform".     
Shaka should use the portal to bring in critical pieces that have talents proven at the college level in skills his current team needs.  If your offense dictates that you shoot a lot of 3s you need a proven 3 point shooter.  If you currently lack a rim protecting center or a rebounder you can get that 1 person.  You can do this without changing over your whole team each year.  One or two players brought in this way is not going to wreck your culture assuming you are a strong coach.  Will there be NIL issues?  Probably, and they may stop MU from getting some of the most sought-after players.  But you have to play the game.  Having "relationships" as Shaka does, may mean telling a current player "I may not be able to get you as much $$ as last year" or "you may have to wait a little longer for bigger $ because we all want to win next year and we need this other skill set to win".  Its not easy but I think Shaka is skillful enough to pull it off.  Recruiting HS kids is a crap shoot and sometimes they may prove to be almost there after a year but you can't wait. 

Standing against the system and saying I'm going to be 100% for my current players all the time is the easier way to go but its unlikely to lead to success when the rest of the high major world patches their weaknesses with known solutions every off season.

[MUEng92]

You try to take a walk to take your mind off things and the universe just shoves it in your face.

[MarquetteFan94]

I don't know about that. Last year was our best shot in a long time. It was not Shaka's fault we lost to NC State. The pieces were there. Unfortunately, the team was at a bricklayers convention. It is not Shaka's fault they were ice cold that game.

Sometimes the players just don't get it done. Shaka is the right guy for MU.He will sort it out.

Ugh. Right. Shaka was not missing those shots. I think that part is pretty clear. He was also not capable of adjusting bc his offense does not allow it.

How many series does it take to keep running the ball up the middle for one yard on first/second down then running the same out route on 3 and 8 before the other team knows exactly how to defend you?

A 2 seed (with 2 NBA players on the roster) losing to an 11 is a disaster any way you slice it. And it falls on the coach.

[Tums Festival]

The two main offensive weapons, who were average three-point shooters at best, were asked to lead an offense that relies on three-point shooting. Add to that, when they missed shots, and they missed almost 70% of them, there was no one capable of getting offensive rebounds. The team also was missing a consistent inside scorer. Every game was them expending tons of energy on offense with not enough to show for it.

To sum it up, this was a very-poorly constructed team with enough talent to beat bad and average teams, but not enough pieces to win consistently against teams above average and up.

[Big Papi]

The two main offensive weapons, who were average three-point shooters at best, were asked to lead an offense that relies on three-point shooting. Add to that, when they missed shots, and they missed almost 70% of them, there was no one capable of getting offensive rebounds. The team also was missing a consistent inside scorer. Every game was them expending tons of energy on offense with not enough to show for it.

To sum it up, this was a very-poorly constructed team with enough talent to beat bad and average teams, but not enough pieces to win consistently against teams above average and up.

Amen brother

[connie]

The roster problems that lead to the preseason rankings finally bit us in the a$$.  If not (for example) the persistent inbounds failures we should be praising Shaka for the early season coaching job.  Relatively poor 3 point shooting, a lack of any real offensive rebounding, and an interior offense that relied on slashing guards to complete remarkable finishes caught up to us hard when the counters were identified.  The lack of any bench presence or any ability to change up the offense when driving lanes were cut off makes what this team did accomplish more surprising. Those complaining about "relationships" could always try to solve that program limitation by opening their checkbooks.  I can't imagine Shaka not taking in some portal help with an extra 5-10 mil a year to throw around. To fall so fast and hard from the height we were at makes this more bitter to be sure, but middle of the BE likely means NIT in the current NIL world.

[Markusquette]

Anyway, other than the season ending sooner than I would have like, which is the same complaint that every fanbase but one makes, I enjoyed the season and will now sit back and watch how the offseason shakes out.

Tower, I admire your optimism and wouldn't mind a bit of what you're sipping sometimes. This season just felt like a train that was on track, slowly derailing into a total wreck. I didn't expect MU to completely keep up with their pace to start the year, but folding down the stretch forced them into a difficult first round matchup even as a 7 seed.

I must admit that despite the tournament blunders, Shaka and his MU teams have exceeded expectations I had for them before each year. It's just a tough pill to swallow because it feels like a rebuild may be in store for the next couple of years. Who is poised to be the breakout player(s) for MU on offense next year?

[willie warrior]

I have very mixed feelings about this season. I enjoyed watching the team but they gave me indigestion the last part of the season. You cannot call yourself a good team when you cannot beat other good teams. 0-3 against SJ...0-2 against UConn...lose 4 of the last 5 games...one and out in the tournament... That does not sound like a really good team - just a middle of the pack BE team. But, at the same time, the guys played their asses off and, I think, consistently gave 100% of what they had. You have to give the players credit for that.

Will next year's team be better? No, probably not. In fact, next season may well be worse as young players develop and rely on Ross and Gold for leadership. I'm not sure how that will work out, but it will be interesting to watch.

Is Shaka's approach of avoiding the portal going to work? I have no idea, but I do think Shaka is taking the harder road. But, I do understand the difficulties of the portal. I saw an article the other day claiming that Louisville is prepared to spend $8 to 10 million acquiring portal players. No way MU can compete with that. At the same time, I will have to be convinced that players like Parham, Norman, and Owens plus a continual parade of project big men is going to get the program where we would all like to see it go. (I intentionally left Lowery out of that sentence because I do think he is the real deal.)

Explain why MU cannot compete at 8 to 10 million for portal players. Not enough people kicking in? Doubt it. But if that is the case, then we need to move down to D2.