Simon & Garfunkel said it best

[muwarrior69]

Talk about jumping to some negative conclusions after 1 game!  A game in which we set a program record for kills, held the opposition to .69 points per possession, and won by 27 on a night where we shoot 5-24 from three - I was very pleased.

Chase Ross was running A LOT of PG during the game - that's the answer to your question about after SJ/Nigel.

Lowery is going to be a stud.  Stevens looks like a great wing.  Nigel showed great promise.  Gold was okay. Owens started slow, but finished well. Tre Norman played a very nice game.  Josh Clark?  Talk about some serious upside potential.  The two guys who didn't play as well as we might expect - Royce and Caedin.

I'd be shocked if this isn't an NCAA team, even if it is a poor shooting 3 point team.

C'mon! Our defense really sucked. They allowed 53 points!

[WhiteTrash]

In Shaka year 2, there was significant in season growth. 8-3 non-conference to 17-3 BE proves that.

I agree with that. Shaka has done it before.
(I should have said the last 2 years, not few year)

[BallBoy]

I'm not sure how you can say the growth of Gold, Lowery, Owens, Parham, and Ross isn't where it needs to be based on one game with disjointed rotations against a bad team.  That's way too small of a sample size to come to that conclusion. 

My first statement was it is opening night which makes it hard to judge.  Also pointed out the amount of minutes each player got as impactful.  We need that to be an opening night thing but we can also mix the results from last year with the first game this year to see a trend.

That group of players, especially Gold and Ross, have been with the program for a several years.  Based on the one game (again we need to monitor), that group looked to be similar players as last year.  None of them looked like a break out player.  Again hopefully that is just a minutes/first night jitters thing but we need a break out player.  Based on the game last night, did you see who that was?  Ok, me neither, so if we don't see that emerge we are going to have a tough season. Especially against the top tier Big East. 

The Big East sent just three teams in 2024 and 5 teams in 2025.  In 2025, no team outside of the Big 4 made it to the Sweet Sixteen.  Going into this season, it is conceivable that only 3-5 teams make it in and based on the S16 results, it is not a stretch that fewer non-Big 4 teams are in the tournament.  If MU struggles offensively then it is highly possible that we aren't top 3 in the Big East putting us at risk.   

When you compare to last year, we saw an immediate set of breakout players stepping up but in that first game it also showed we had a bench problem.  That bench problem carried itself all the way through the season. 

If it is a one night thing then this is moot but if it isn't we could be on the outside looking in. 

[Its DJOver]

That's a whole lot of words for very little substance, even less of which made sense.

[BM1090]

I agree with that. Shaka has done it before.
(I should have said the last 2 years, not few year)

I disagree on 2023. Started 12-5. Then won 11 out of 12 including some massive routs before TK got hurt. Battled hard against a really tough Creighton team without Oso and TK and against UConn without TK. Then won three more without TK to get to the big east final. They were rolling.

[BrewCity83]

Nobody's mentioned this, but that Ramsey kid can play!