Coaches kid

Interesting to read the variety of opinions after the St. Mary's game. I only saw the second half, so I missed the worst part. Although I'm disappointed we let a non-con Q1 win slip away, I did like some of what I saw from the team. First, we played with heart and passion, and in some sense, that alone almost propelled us to a win. Meah is clearly a liability and a fish out of water in the 5-out set. Yet, he did some things on defense and provided some intangibles we needed. He altered a few shots and threw his body around on the boards to point that even when he didn't get the rebound, his effort allowed for Berke and others to do so. We will need him to play situational minutes against some of the bigger lineups we will face in conference play. I'm confident Fred and Co. will figure out how to best utilize him in those situations. Berke and Morgan will have to play 5 in order for us to be competent offensively. Second, the new guys haven't gelled yet in our offensive sets. Whoever noted that we don't have enough activity away from the ball was spot on. I am hopeful that will change once the lineup combinations take better shape. Way too many turnovers and sloppiness with the ball. I am a bit surprised Worster has committed so many turnovers. Too much dribbling and not enough side-to-side movement of the ball and failure to cut with purpose. We've also missed too many chip shots at the rim, not only in this game, but in the other games as well. It looks like we're rushing things and not playing under control when we get in the lane. Despite that, we were in a position to beat St. Mary's. They have some real dudes on that team and I wouldn't be surprised if they beat Gonzaga once during conference play. Finally, like Fred said, I think the lid will come off the basket for our 3 point shooting at some point during the season. Essegian has a beautiful stroke, but his footwork and balance have been suspect so far. While Griffiths has been a defensive liability to date, I think he's got the length and athleticism needed to be a good team defender and simply needs to have a fire lit under him to get him to expend effort on the defensive end. We will need his potential firepower on the offensive end at some point to get us over the hump. I'm hopefully optimistic that the pieces will come together in time to get us into position for another NCAA run. It would be a shame if that happened in late January and happened too late for us to have a legit run.

Great points, Norm. Missing those layups had a substantial effect on the game. I'd have to go back and look, but I was at the game and it seemed like every time we missed those easy shots, A&M came back and scored on the next possession. The misses were demoralizing and caused us to press on the offensive end. Allick played and fought so hard, but his missed layups hurt us. As for the pieces we need to add next year, we need to have an athletic shot altering forward to play alongside Mast (if he returns). While he was able to be a facilitator on the offensive end, it was evident that A&M didn't fear getting their shots blocked once they got in the lane. Not every team we play will have Relaford/Obaseki type guys, but when we do have that type of match up, it would be nice to have a guy who could put some fear in them at the rim. Kyle would the type of guy to be helpful in that area. We also need a big guard/wing who can stay in front of the basketball at an elite level. Juwan is a good defensive player, but I don't think his lateral movement is elite. He was matched up on those A&M guys many times, and he did not do a great job of keeping them out of the lane. From what I remember from Ulis, he may help us there. Having a true point guard will also allow Williams to play off the ball, and I think he could see a leap in his game if given that chance.

111

Agree we need to move on and that all of our goals are still attainable. A few thoughts: 1) For the first 12 minutes, we did have a great crowd. It was really loud when we took the 23-22 lead. 2) CJ cost us 8 points during a 2 or 3 minute span - 6 points because he went under the screen when Scheierman was on his hot streak. The other was on a drive where CJ couldn't stay in front of Alexander. I like the kid and pull for him, but those mistakes were really crucial and were part of the reason they went on a run. 3) We missed a number of chip shots in the paint in the first half. Gary missed a few on some nice backdown iso plays, as did Mast. I don't believe those were shots that Kalkbrenner affected. We make those shots and CJ doesn't go under those screens, it's likely less than a 10 point game at half. Officiating in the first half was simply attrocious as well. 4) Inexplicably, we usually didn't make Creighton play defense for more than 15-20 seconds a possession. The ball didn't go from side to side like it had been in our first 7 games, and we didn't make the extra passes to get Creighton into scrambling situations. We had to get Kalkbrenner either out of the lane or out of position. We didn't do that. I still like this team and hope we can bounce back this week.

What encouraged me during the Lindenwood game is the way in which we quickly got into our offensive sets. In years past, especially in the early season games, the team often looked confused and disjointed when attempting to initiate the offense. Not so Monday night.

Good point. That said, I am heartened by how Gary and Bando played last year. Gives me hope that Mast, Williams and Ulis will follow suit.

Have loved what I've seen from Lawrence. He could be a very good 4 year player for this program. He does many things well. Same for Dawson, who does a lot of little things well which do not show up on the stat sheet but nonetheless help the team win. My son was at the game with me and we were impressed with how those guys flew around on defensive rotations. They were technically very sound on closeouts - balanced, choppy feet, hands up. This team is very well coached on the defensive end.

Agreed that this will be an easier team to root for. They exude a different vibe than previous squads. What concerned me is the inability to stop the ball off of the dribble. They broke us down way too often and we were left scrambling on close outs. There were several times Bando initially put good pressure on the dribbler but was unable to move his feet to stay in front of him. I don't quite know who will guard 1s or 2s who are good operating off of the dribble. At this point, Keita cannot guard stretch 5s off of high screen and rolls. We'll need his size when we get into games where teams play traditional bigs. We did some decent things and I think these guys will play hard. Although it was ugly it was much better than watching a loss to Western Illinois.

This is disturbing. The coaches who are successful (Izzo, Self, Jay Wright, etc.) are able to impose their will on their players. They demand that things be done the right way. Some of them may allow for a player to blow off some steam in the heat of the moment, but in the end, the player does what he's instructed to do or there are consequences. On teams where there is a healthy culture, leaders on the team enforce the instructions given by the coaching staff. Hoping the current crew of players can change the culture. My brother was talking with a Michigan basketball booster. The booster said that when John Beilein was coaching, he would often stop practice for even small errors, like making a pass to the wrong shoulder, or failing to set a pick correctly. That's the type of attention to detail which makes a team successful.

1. Sam (Won't have to learn how to play point on the fly; Nebraska kid who loves the program; underrated athletically) 2. Bandoumel (looks to be athletic guy who can defend AND be a threat offensively) 3. Gary (athleticism, defense and comes from a good program; not as accomplished as Bandoumel offensively) 4. Lloyd (perhaps not as big of an upside as Bryce, but physically more ready to play right away; son of a solid player who hopefully has high basketball IQ) 5. Keita (BIG body, bigger upside than Eduardo who may give us another post scoring threat) Just outside the top 5, Dawson and McPherson. If he's at least a little competent offensively, Dawson may be a good glue guy, akin to the Geronimo kid from Indiana. McPherson's attitude and grit alone might get him on the court.

This absolutely!! We need the right kind of role players. Ones who can actually fulfill their roles.

Your observation that "You need 4 bigs to have a chance" is right on point. To win in the Big 10, absent a bunch of NBA talent at multiple positions who can overcome size mismatches, you have to have at least 3 and preferably 4 guys who can guard legitimate 4s and 5s. We suffer against teams who run out traditional center/power forward combos. Walker competes against the centers, but Lat really struggled playing post defense against power forwards. He consistently let guys back him down and did little or nothing to make them uncomfortable. That's why Wilhelm's loss was significant. He was raw, but he battled and at least made it uncomfortable for opposing 4s. CJ gave good effort, but he simply doesn't have the size to guard true 4s. I think you've got to have rotation options to go big against teams who utilize traditional 4/5 players.

Pleased to have him aboard. It's nice that he wants to be here and represent the University. Even if he's not a game changer, I really think we need home state kids like Sam to change the culture. I saw him in high school and watched him in college and felt like he can be a solid contributor.

Exactly! No more "this is the Japanese Steph Curry" or "that guy was a 5 star before he reclassified" or "he made 89 of 100 3s in practice." I was that guy. Not anymore.

Absolutely agree with this. Add in that their effort has been exponentially better, I have actually enjoyed watching them. I think Fred has done a nice job game-planning the last two games.