Four Questions

[rgoode57]

I hate for my first post of the season to be like this, but I have to ask four questions after watching the Michigan debacle:

1. How much did Michigan pay MU for that game? MU looked like a scrappy little buy-game team that Michigan brought in to get some practice. Completely outclassed and outplayed in every phase of the game. MU was just good enough not to get completely blitzed but never had a chance of winning.

2. How much is MU paying Fru? I think I now understand why he lost his starting job at Louisville last year. Sat a large part of the game and was totally ineffective when he was on the floor.

3. Did Nigel James not make the trip to Michigan? I saw a guy out on the floor wearing number 0, but that could not have been Nigel James. The guy I saw last night did nothing at all - had no effect on the game whatsoever. So, maybe Nigel really didn't make the trip and they just put some random guy out there in his jersey.

4. How many layups did Parham miss? I watched this show all last season.

It was bad. If not for Porter's shooting, Michigan might have won that game by 30. This team has a long, long way to go.

[79Warrior]

I hate for my first post of the season to be like this, but I have to ask four questions after watching the Michigan debacle:

1. How much did Michigan pay MU for that game? MU looked like a scrappy little buy-game team that Michigan brought in to get some practice. Completely outclassed and outplayed in every phase of the game. MU was just good enough not to get completely blitzed but never had a chance of winning.

2. How much is MU paying Fru? I think I now understand why he lost his starting job at Louisville last year. Sat a large part of the game and was totally ineffective when he was on the floor.

3. Did Nigel James not make the trip to Michigan? I saw a guy out on the floor wearing number 0, but that could not have been Nigel James. The guy I saw last night did nothing at all - had no effect on the game whatsoever. So, maybe Nigel really didn't make the trip and they just put some random guy out there in his jersey.

4. How many layups did Parham miss? I watched this show all last season.

It was bad. If not for Porter's shooting, Michigan might have won that game by 30. This team has a long, long way to go.

Geez. It is one game. No question some disappointing play last night. I expect the team to play much better Sunday.

[Scoop Snoop]

Geez. It is one game. No question some disappointing play last night. I expect the team to play much better Sunday.

Agree, except I think "disappointing" is too mild of a word. Scoopers who love to bitch are having a field day.

[Captain Quette]

I think this year's team is much more talented versus last year. We also have more size and most of our starters have 1 more year of experience.

However, as I watch our games the past few years, it seems like we are soft. Is Shaka's focus on culture n RGV simply not allowing us to have that physical and mental edge. I think of Buzz, Izzo, Huggins, etc as coaches with teams that have an edge or physical presence. That is not us. Think we had it with Kolek, Kam, etc but not anymore. Thoughts?

[Superfan]

Last night Fru and Clark combined for 6 points, 2 rebounds and 6 fouls.  They, with Parham's help, got completely out-manned by MI's front line.  Fru looked disinterested and disengaged.
Nigel had the worst game of his MU career but has looked out of sink against the patsies too.

[CountryRoads]

Come March, it'll hopefully just be a funny memory of how absolute buns both James and Parham were last night. They were comically bad. I think James is feeling the weight of the preseason accolades. Shaka pointed to the box score like 4 times in his press conference and was obviously alluding to James being self aware of how bad he was playing individually. He had some games like that last year where it was just a total meltdown. I'm excited to see how he bounces back Sunday. Parham will be just fine.

Agree with some others on the growing concerns with Fru. I'm not at the point of questioning whether he cares or not, but I wouldn't be surprised if most feel disappointed in what we got out of him at the end of the year. He played with zero motor last night. By everything Shaka has said, he is an unselfish guy and is a good teammate so hoping he settles in and finds a role. Shaka wants him to shoot over 10 times a game, but he may need to give that one up. 

So as long as they don't completely bury themselves in the non conference, I think there's enough talent on this team to have us engaged in March. We will learn a lot in the next 9 games as the players settle into their roles.

[Farley36]

I have 4 more questions:

1. Is there any NIL money left to bring in Norman Reedus before the next game? This program is clearly a zombie at this point, and somebody needs to put a crossbow bolt through its head.

2. How many losses until the powers that be admit a coaching staff of Claude and ChatGPT would beat Shaka? At least one of them would call a timeout during a 15–0 run.

3. After last night's Blue Tsunami in Ann Arbor, is it true that 60% of the incumbent players lost their scholarships, and replacements will be sworn in for 2nd semester?

4. Should Shaka apply for the open Nvidia CEO job? As far as I can tell, he's never dated a spy, which makes him more qualified to run Nvidia than to coach Marquette basketball.

[rgoode57]

Adrien Stevens is clearly the best player on the team at this point - and a gamer. I truly felt sorry for him last night because he got no help from anyone else at all except Porter.

I sincerely hope I am wrong, but last night made me think it may well be another long year.

I saw where another poster said that MU is at the level of being a very good mid-major team but does not have the overall talent to be a truly strong high major team. Unfortunately, that may be accurate. The difference in overall talent between Michigan and Marquette was glaringly obvious. But, the real disappointment was that Michigan played much harder and with a lot more determination - on both ends of the court. Michigan looked like they came to win. MU looked like they came because they had to.

[NCMUFan]

Last year national champions on their home court.  Losing by 14 pts may have been an accomplishment by Shaka.  We will see how the season goes on.  But if UCONN thoroughly beat Michigan on Michigan's home court, yipes!

[Johnny B]

The idea they lost like that because Michigan is drastically more talented is f ucking asinine.

[Shooter McGavin]

I rewatched the game today after watching it live yesterday.  Michigan's length obviously bothered the whole team and especially Nigel and Parham.  But prior to Nigel being taken out of the game he had a couple good drives with aggression and hopefully that will carry over to Mizzou.  Would be nice for him to see a 3 pointer go in to open up lanes for him and to space the floor.

The rest of the team besides Stevens, Porter and Egbuonu played tentatively and really didn't need to.  They are athletic and talented enough IMO. They got to the hoop.  Make layups and it's a much closer game.  A few less stupid unforced turnovers and the game is closer. Defensively there were so many mismatches where our smallest players were on their bigs.  They also didn't hustle back on transition defense.  I think some of that had to do with what Tower said which was the offense (balls rolling off the rim and in and out on several threes) affecting the defense. 

Regardless,  I don't think it's necessarily a talent issue.  Need to play with more toughness and less tentativeness.

I think Sunday will be interesting to watch.  Agree with posters that it's not a must win game but the sooner they play with toughness and less tentativeness the better.  That's what I'll be looking for. To me the talent is there, unlike last year.  Don't jump off the wagon yet fellas!

[Vander Blue Man Group]

Some of these overreactions are comical.

[#UnleashThePortal]

I always love scoop the day after a loss.

[MU82]

Thought this was gonna be a thread about Passover, which would have been odd because there aren't many Jewish folks 'round these parts.

https://reformjudaism.org/jewish-holidays/passover/four-questions

[BCHoopster]

I think there are a few around here!

[DoctorV]

Nigel is clearly the best player on the team, full stop.

Adrien continues to improve though, which is great.

You can tell that Adrien really cares about Nigel and wants to see him get back to normal, which is a great sign for when he does.

[Shooter McGavin]

I always love scoop the day after a loss.

Me too. I hate people who talk basketball. I wish people didn't watch games and at least didn't have an opinion on what they saw.

[#UnleashThePortal]

Me too. I hate people who talk basketball. I wish people didn't watch games and at least didn't have an opinion on what they saw.

Yes

[Viper]

Geez. It is one game. No question some disappointing play last night. I expect the team to play much better Sunday.

more than just one game. The backslide from mid 24-25...with this sort of performance to kick off 26-27 is understandable in a collective angst. Against a decent but not great front line, Fru and Clark looked like just guys. Nothing more. Minnesale has a motor, but appeared somewhat overmatched. Parnham had a bad one, but  Nigel? perplexing. If this season goes as Nigel is going so far, MU's ceiling is low. Going into this early season, i was thinking Michigan and Virginia to be L's, but MU would handle the rest. Now? Sunday will be interesting. Maybe MU has a bust out, starts to reverse the trend, and some collective optimism is restored. Due to this performance and MU's recent run, Michigan was more than just one game.

[Vander Blue Man Group]

more than just one game. The backslide from mid 24-25...with this sort of performance to kick off 26-27 is understandable in a collective angst. Against a decent but not great front line, Fru and Clark looked like just guys. Nothing more. Minnesale has a motor, but appeared somewhat overmatched. Parnham had a bad one, but  Nigel? perplexing. If this season goes as Nigel is going so far, MU's ceiling is low. Going into this early season, i was thinking Michigan and Virginia to be L's, but MU would handle the rest. Now? Sunday will be interesting. Maybe MU has a bust out, starts to reverse the trend, and some collective optimism is restored. Due to this performance and MU's recent run, Michigan was more than just one game.

What the struggles in the last half of the 25-25 season have absolutely no relevance to this season.

[MUbiz]

What the struggles in the last half of the 25-25 season have absolutely no relevance to this season.

Different roster, sure — but it's the mostly the staff running the same system, and the exact same flaws from a 17-28 stretch (ending 24-25 on a 5-8 slide before last year's 12-20 campaign) just showed up again: getting bullied on the glass (41-26), settling for contested jumpers when the half-court offense stalls (35% FG), and the returning core (Nigel 0-for-11, Parham 2-for-13) looking stuck.

Nobody's writing off the season in November, and the new transfers need time to gel. Pretending 28 losses over the last 45 games — 8 in the final 13 games of 24-25 and 20 more during last year's 12-20 collapse magically stopped being relevant just because the calendar flipped misses why Wednesday felt so familiar.

[Scoop Snoop]

What the struggles in the last half of the 25-25 season have absolutely no relevance to this season.

Yet you repeatedly reminded everyone on scoop about Shaka's success in his earlier seasons as a reply to anyone who dared to criticize the team last year. 

I remember your "one bad year" mantra well. I was one of the scoopers who said that the last half of the '24-'25 season (but not the '25-'25 season  )  was definitely relevant.

With that said...the struggles in the latter part of that season are probably not all that relevant. I think that even the problems in the UM game that reminded scoopers were (wait for it...) "one bad game". I think it is much too early to reference last season's repetitive problems, but I do get why some scoopers are doing so. I disagree with them though.

[SoCalEagle]

Gonzaga lost to Michigan last year on the same floor by 40.  They went on to a 31-4 record (weak conference, I get it).  The moral of the story: Lotta basketball still to play.  Go Marquette!!!