Hunt Blog re Buzz

[Nukem2]

Buzz says he has learned a lot this year. Suspect he wishes he had done some things differently...?

http://www.jsonline.com/blogs/sports/243991711.html

[WindyCityGoldenEagle]

his tweet today saying: "The snake that cant shed its skin shall perish. You must be able to adapt, or you will die" certainly reflected the fact that he realizes he has made some mistakes this year and is trying to correct them in time to make a run this season or at least to learn from them so they don't occur again in future seasons.

I think this reiterates that as much as we love Buzz and as much bball knowledge as he and the staff have over us idiots, it's not wrong of us to critique and even criticize some of his moves from time to time especially on these fan message boards - that's part of being a fan and can be fun to discuss/debate these various topics. #nocoachisperfect

[kneelb4zerg]

But I would guess the 'mistakes' most of the online community has been harping on (ie playing time for the younger players over Jake and Derrick) aren't the things Buzz views as mistakes. I doubt buzz is going away from his you have to earn it in practice mantra.

At minimum the reference to 'mistakes' was pretty darn vague.

[Nukem2]

I wonder what he would have done differently?

[WindyCityGoldenEagle]

Kneel - I don't know either and all we can make is a guess. However, in the Hunt article he does make quite a bit of reference to the begining of the season and how he wouldve done things a little differently. Whether that's from a personnel, strategy, etc standpoint is completely unknown.

I agree that Buzz is not going away from his mantra of earning it in practice, but who's to say the youg pups didnt earn it in practice? In other words maybe they did and Buzz was just so hard wired about playing vets to start the year esp with the front loaded schedule and now he's realizing that was one of his mistakes (giving vets the edge even if all else is equal in practice). Just hypothecizing obviously.

Point being, we dont know.

[TheSultan]

It frankly could have been something else entirely not related to playing time.

[Mucrisco]

I believe the point that Windy is trying to make is that people should be allowed to criticize Buzz, as long as it is constructive, without people constantly responding that Buzz knows all. The best coaches are constantly learning.

[IWB]

I think it has anything to do with younger guys vs upperclassmen. Buzz talked about the changes he made twice during the second half, but both times he stuck with a lineup of the upperclassmen. I think it has more to do with Buzz' historical 90% defensive focus to a more balanced offensive and defensive focus.

Since he has been here Buzz has always said he focuses the majority of their time on defense because, "they are scorers, I'm not worried about them scoring, they'll score." Well, this team isn't made up of 'scorers', so Buzz has had to come up with more ways to score than he ever has in the past.

Not saying I'm right, but that's how I read it anyway.

[Nukem2]

Yes, I believe it has to do with defense. Team played a lot of zone earlier in the year, not so much as the season has progressed. Perhaps he would have focused more on man defense earlier on...?

[kneelb4zerg]

I believe the point that Windy is trying to make is that people should be allowed to criticize Buzz, as long as it is constructive, without people constantly responding that Buzz knows all. The best coaches are constantly learning.

I'm all for constructive criticism but when it comes to lineup choices playing time etc it's fair to say that most of it has been pretty knee jerk, not constructive. Not referring to you or anyone else who has commented in this thread (yet).

[WindyCityGoldenEagle]

Crisco has me spot on - I have no idea what the issues are that he would do differently (hearing IWB, maybe that's the area that Hunt was referencing, honestly I have no idea) - just trying to reiterate that despite many knee jerk reactions (of which I've probably had my fair share), critiquing/criticizing Buzz is something that we should feel comfortable doing esp on a fan message board.

With respect to the lineup changes certainly many were knee jerk, but some werent either.

Anywho, thought it was an interesting article by hunt as it coincided very nicely with Buzz's tweet today.

[IrwinFletcher]

I think it has anything to do with younger guys vs upperclassmen. Buzz talked about the changes he made twice during the second half, but both times he stuck with a lineup of the upperclassmen. I think it has more to do with Buzz' historical 90% defensive focus to a more balanced offensive and defensive focus.

Since he has been here Buzz has always said he focuses the majority of their time on defense because, "they are scorers, I'm not worried about them scoring, they'll score." Well, this team isn't made up of 'scorers', so Buzz has had to come up with more ways to score than he ever has in the past.

Not saying I'm right, but that's how I read it anyway.

I have not had a chance to call in to your show Jim, but when I do I want to ask about the coaching staff's philosophy about inbound plays under the basket. We rarely look to score off of an inbound set. It usually is just something to get the ball in and set up the offense.

With a lack of scoring coming from the offense, it seems as if we are missing an opporunity to run a set play like many teams do that lead to a good shot.

[IWB]

I don't know Fletch, one practice in particular that I have been to spent a lot of time working on in-bounds plays, but there were specific situations, "Ball here 3.4 left"....ball over there, 7.6 left.... they were all designed to score, but those were time crunching plays, not basic in-game plays.

[Markedman]

Seems like teams are doing a much better job of defending baseline out of bounds plays. Most teams I watch end up throwing it near halfcourt and then starting offense from there.

[unclejohn]

Crisco has me spot on - I have no idea what the issues are that he would do differently (hearing IWB, maybe that's the area that Hunt was referencing, honestly I have no idea) - just trying to reiterate that despite many knee jerk reactions (of which I've probably had my fair share), critiquing/criticizing Buzz is something that we should feel comfortable doing esp on a fan message board.

With respect to the lineup changes certainly many were knee jerk, but some werent either.

Anywho, thought it was an interesting article by hunt as it coincided very nicely with Buzz's tweet today.

From what Buzz has said recently, in press conferences or on his radio show, he has made reference to how the team started the year, specifically the schedule. We started against some really good teams. So the team did not get the benefit of learning how to play against the weaker ones. It means the team has to do what works to win that game, which is not necessarily how you want the team to play in the long run. It is the same in any sport. I do not know why anybody plays golf, but my understanding is that if you want to change your swing to get better, you get worse in the short run. If you watch little leaguers when they start to play, they tend to chase base runners around the bases, rather than throw the ball. It seems quicker, and when they throw the ball, they throw it over each other's heads. But you have to teach them to throw the ball, because that is the way to play.

When you start a schedule with a bunch of tough teams like we did this year, you don't have the chance to lay out how you want the team to play together for the rest of the year and allow them to make mistakes. So the team learns to do that later. Buzz talked about Burton's wide open three the other night. It didn't matter that it was wide open. He would rather that he passed it to someone for an easy two. If he takes that and hits it against Ohio State, he is a hero. Buzz would rather give up the points and have him do it right.

So that is what I think he was talking about, and it did not have anything to do with line-ups and the like. Just my opinion.

[MUMac]

From what Buzz has said recently, in press conferences or on his radio show, he has made reference to how the team started the year, specifically the schedule. We started against some really good teams. So the team did not get the benefit of learning how to play against the weaker ones. It means the team has to do what works to win that game, which is not necessarily how you want the team to play in the long run. It is the same in any sport. I do not know why anybody plays golf, but my understanding is that if you want to change your swing to get better, you get worse in the short run. If you watch little leaguers when they start to play, they tend to chase base runners around the bases, rather than throw the ball. It seems quicker, and when they throw the ball, they throw it over each other's heads. But you have to teach them to throw the ball, because that is the way to play.

When you start a schedule with a bunch of tough teams like we did this year, you don't have the chance to lay out how you want the team to play together for the rest of the year and allow them to make mistakes. So the team learns to do that later. Buzz talked about Burton's wide open three the other night. It didn't matter that it was wide open. He would rather that he passed it to someone for an easy two. If he takes that and hits it against Ohio State, he is a hero. Buzz would rather give up the points and have him do it right.

So that is what I think he was talking about, and it did not have anything to do with line-ups and the like. Just my opinion.

I was going to post something similar. I agree, as that is how I took it.

[Halo]

I was going to post something similar. I agree, as that is how I took it.

I agree with you UJ also. I hope Buzz can get some type of summer tour to play some exhibition teams next summer like UW did this year as it appears to have given them a step ahead of others to allow the team to gel together. What is the rule on how often you can play those tournaments? I thought every 3 years.

UW is not playing well right now as others have caught up, but they were so far ahead in the non-conference season that they really have little to worry about except seeding now (and other issues of course). If MU would have went 11-2 in non-conference with the only losses to UW and OSU, it's a whole different discussion of the future this year.

Nothing Buzz can do about it now except try and put this together to get to 12-6 in the BE for a chance.

[BLT]

If any of you have Pomeroy access, he added this section called "Most Frequent Line-ups Past Five Games". MU has 10 line-ups played, with the highest being 10.1% of the game. That lineup consists of Derrick, Jake, Jamil, Todd and Davante. The line up that won the Butler game when Buzz adjusted mid 2nd half has played 5.1%, most likely all that one game.

Let's compare top line minutes to some other teams' first units: Creighton 30.3%, Syracuse 58.4%, Nova 20.4%, Wisconsin 26.8%. When you look further, these teams's next top line-up is one sub off of the top five. When you look at MU's it is Dawson, Jake, Taylor, Jamil and Davante, which is pretty much the Georgetown game.

While we clamor for this line up or that, fact is, Buzz has probably played it. He has been working his rear end off tinkering with lineups all season: Oxtule, Jamil as PG, the three guard weave we saw last game, etc. So, I think that he was alluding to the things mentioned above about stressing offense earlier, a very tough early schedule, etc. I will add that he also didn't utilize the NCAA rule change IIRC in regard to early practices (which still confuses me), opting to stay on his set Boot Camp schedule of years past instead of folding in a few introductory practices. I am guessing he felt that the changes to allow summer practices didn't necessitate starting so early in the fall, and he wanted to go with the Marquette Way, which has worked so successfully. Throw in some injuries, new and lingering, and some drama, and the season start put MU behind compared to, let's say, Wisconsin (exempt Canadian games) or OSU (early practice), for example.

Now, the early jumps are catching up with some of these teams, but with such a young and unbalanced team put in new starting roles, he obviously thinks he would have done things differently looking back. This is Buzz's worst Pomeroy ranked offensive team as he tries to find lineups to balance offense and defense from time out to time out even. On one hand it causes criticism like Butler 1. On the other it is masterful like vs. Butler 2. If he pieces together a run line up(s) here, look out.

[Alan Bykowski, "brewcity77"]

Lots of good stuff in here. I definitely think there have been some missteps, but as alluded to, probably not the ones many posters have been complaining about.
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Scheduling was huge, as unclejohn pointed out. We had a brutal run and what really hurt was not having any real stretch of home games early on to get into a rhythm. After 4 home games to start the season, we went on a 5-game road trip and 6 of 8. We haven't played more than 2 in a row at home since November 21. Further, there was no middle ground in the schedule. Every non-con foe was a tourney-type team or a cupcake. I love Broeker and Buzz, I love how tough the meat was, but it was a poorly designed schedule compared to years past.
Derrick is Buzz's guy, but after the DuWil injury, he needed to develop someone to take the pressure off. It seems like Derrick's defense has fallen off in the second half and I have to think 30+ mpg might be part of that. Jamil wasn't the answer, and they needed to work Dawson in sooner. Allowing your players to rest makes everyone better.
As many have said, the offense needs work. Not just our worst offensive team, but by far our worst offensive team. 133rd in points per possession. In comparison, the previous worst was 2011-12, which was ranked 52nd. Too many offensively-challenged guys out there at the same time. I said recently one of the biggest problems on this team was balance. As Buzz has said, the best defenders and best offensive players are not the same guys. The only one that is the best on both ends at one position is Jamil. At no time under Buzz has that been the case for only one guy.
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Not sold on him needing to work more on defense. This is the second highest ranking in terms of PPP for a Buzz defense. In addition, another new stat Pomeroy has is average length of possession. On defense, MU is 325th, which is a good thing because it means teams have to work harder and longer to get a shot against us. Among the few teams ahead of us are defensive stalwarts like Arizona, Syracuse, and Virginia. If we had an average Buzz offense we'd be much better. Hell, if we had a bad Buzz offense, we'd be much better. This one is way beyond bad.

[Nukem2]

Lots of good stuff in here. I definitely think there have been some missteps, but as alluded to, probably not the ones many posters have been complaining about.
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[list] Not sold on him needing to work more on defense. This is the second highest ranking in terms of PPP for a Buzz defense. In addition, another new stat Pomeroy has is average length of possession. On defense, MU is 325th, which is a good thing because it means teams have to work harder and longer to get a shot against us. Among the few teams ahead of us are defensive stalwarts like Arizona, Syracuse, and Virginia. If we had an average Buzz offense we'd be much better. Hell, if we had a bad Buzz offense, we'd be much better. This one is way beyond bad. Buzz spoke about fundamentals in the blog. Which, to Buzz, is defense. As I posted earlier, I think the staff decided to use a lot of zone defense against the meat of the NC schedule thus not rooting the newbies in fundamental man defense. As such, these guys have been behind the learning curve and have not been able to contribute the way he might have hoped as MU is not playing much zone any more...?

[IWB]

Halo - The need for foreign travel is slipping away. Had a discussion with B&B about that over the summer. It used to be a huge advantage as coaches couldn't work with their players over the summer. Heck, they were barely allowed to talk to them. It was never really about the games they played overseas, it was about being able to practice for two full weeks leading up to the trip. Remember, one year MU went up to British Columbia to play. Was it because of the great competition in Southwestern Canada? No, it was because it was a full 3 1/2 weeks of practice.

Now they can accomplish all of that over the summer, which was a great rule implemented by the NCAA, the only ones hurt by it are the smaller mid major schools that can't afford to keep their kids in school and on campus during the summer.

[Nukem2]

Halo - The need for foreign travel is slipping away. Had a discussion with B&B about that over the summer. It used to be a huge advantage as coaches couldn't work with their players over the summer. Heck, they were barely allowed to talk to them. It was never really about the games they played overseas, it was about being able to practice for two full weeks leading up to the trip. Remember, one year MU went up to British Columbia to play. Was it because of the great competition in Southwestern Canada? No, it was because it was a full 3 1/2 weeks of practice.

Now they can accomplish all of that over the summer, which was a great rule implemented by the NCAA, the only ones hurt by it are the smaller mid major schools that can't afford to keep their kids in school and on campus during the summer.

Though, I would think a foreign trip would help build team chemistry while providing real game experience (assuming the trip is not to a BB wasteland ).

[IWB]

Agreed Nuke.