Quick thoughts ...

[Mark Miller]

1) More Duane Wilson less Derrick Wilson.

2) MU needs a better effort out of Juan Anderson, especially on defense.

3) MU seemed to get tired around the 14 minute mark and gave up waaayyyy too many layups/dunks.

4) Short bench needs help. Luke Fischer can't get eligible quick enough.

5) Deonte Burton looks a bit lost, on both ends. Needs to figure it out.

6) Matt Carlino is a steadying presence.

7) Steve Taylor played about as well as he's capable of playing.

8) Sandy Cohen is a solid player in all aspects. Love his future.

9) JJ needs to get a better perimeter shot.

10) Defense will get better with a deeper bench and more time together. Tonight's second-half defense was really, really bad. Led to a layup/dunk drill.

[Nukem2]

As I posted in the other thread, Derrick just does not fit what Wojo is doing. As I type this, Homer and Mac just named Derrick 6th man of the game...ouch. Fine fine young guy...but this is Div I BB. Deonte was a total non-factor tonite. That cannot be.

[dubs98]

First half defense was really good for the most part. osu got a few open threes, but overall thought the rotation was great, denied the post great, and created a lot of turnovers. In regards to the second half d and juan's effort, I disagree on juans effort. thought it was fine. I thought it was a product of all of the players getting gassed. they were a step slow on the break, a step slow on the screens, and just didn't have the hop in their step that they had in the first half. that is what happens with a limited bench and limited bigs. agree that luke can't get here soon enough.
Overall, I was happy. A few more threes (which were open good looks) in the first half and we are tied at half. jjj losing the ball after his steal followed by steves dribble off of his leg in the open court turned the game from a 2-4 pt game to a 10 pt game. after that they got gassed....pure and simple. Thought the zone offense was really good. a lot of open looks. defensive rebounding was better then I thought it would be. I only remember one offensive rebound but I think that is going to be the story for a while. I absolutely love having carlino out there. just runs the offense great and is a threat. he will hit a lot of big shots for us this year. Also agree on cohen.
Only real disappoint for me (outside of missing too many open threes) was deonte. Not sure he looks lost, but we absolutely need more from him out there. he needs to be a force on offense and rebounding.

[Gato78]

We need to be patient with Deonte. He lost his mom just a few weeks ago. Tough deal for a kid his age. He gets a multiple game pass in my book.

[dubs98]

We need to be patient with Deonte. He lost his mom just a few weeks ago. Tough deal for a kid his age. He gets a multiple game pass in my book.

agree. don't want to be too critical after one game. With that said, with our short bench and small team he will be absolutely pivotal if this team is going to beat good teams. just no way around it. I don't doubt for one minute that he will be as well.

[Mark Miller]

I agree with Gato on Deonte. He'll come around.

[MulliganMusings]

My quick thoughts

1. It was the best of times; it was the worst of times Steve Taylor edition. Missed a couple of chippies and should have given up the ball after his steal when he kicked it out of bounds. Overall good aggressiveness, pros outweigh cons I'm looking for Steve to have a great season.

2. Kick it out Juan. Juan doesn't need to take on bigger interior players. A perimeter shot is preferable to watching Juan eat leather multiple times. Thar said I liked the way Juan handled and helped break OSU press. He may have had 5 TO's but I think most of them were interior rejections and not open court turnovers.

3. Zone offense is significantly better, from a schematic perspective, than it has been in past. Frankly, from execution basis too just failed to finish too many times.

Frankly, I was encouraged. This team has some talent and Fischer will make a big difference. I think we can be competitive in this year's Big; however, very narrow margin of error

[IrwinFletcher]

I think some opponents saw the formula against MU this year. Pressure full court to wear the team out for the last 10 minutes. Just don't have the depth to play this way for 40 minutes. I would expect teams like Villanova, Xavier and STJ to use this strategy.

STJ missed 3 bunnies and the TO on a breakaway and JJJ missed the dunk. MU could have been up 39-37 and made a game of it. That doesn't count all the other errors that happened. Fix some minor things and maybe this team can get to 10 or 11 wins in the BE.

[farmerdoc]

Other than Bucky, who else on our schedule has this combination of size? Nova has the athletes, but not really the size, X has some size, but lost their best guards if I recall correctly. SJU? Lavin would figure out a way to screw it up.

Point being, I don't think there are alot of teams on our remaining schedule that can do this to us nearly as effectively as OSU did. They are really good.

[MU/Panther]

I think some opponents saw the formula against MU this year. Pressure full court to wear the team out for the last 10 minutes. Just don't have the depth to play this way for 40 minutes. I would expect teams like Villanova, Xavier and STJ to use this strategy.

STJ missed 3 bunnies and the TO on a breakaway and JJJ missed the dunk. MU could have been up 39-37 and made a game of it. That doesn't count all the other errors that happened. Fix some minor things and maybe this team can get to 10 or 11 wins in the BE.
I hope John Dawson can learn fast because that is another body.

[farmerdoc]

The TV guys were commenting on MU's short bench, and I am sure I heard them say MU currently only has 3 guys on its' bench. I found it curious at the time, but maybe it is more than that. Did they find out something about John's future? Just speculating, but...?

[CaribouJim]

The TV guys were commenting on MU's short bench, and I am sure I heard them say MU currently only has 3 guys on its' bench. I found it curious at the time, but maybe it is more than that. Did they find out something about John's future? Just speculating, but...?

He was in his sweats so maybe they didn't notice him, but were his sweats the same as the rest of the team - looked like a different shade of blue?

[dubs98]

The TV guys were commenting on MU's short bench, and I am sure I heard them say MU currently only has 3 guys on its' bench. I found it curious at the time, but maybe it is more than that. Did they find out something about John's future? Just speculating, but...?
When they panned over there were only three on the bench. Not sure where Derrick was, but he wasn't on the bench (it was early before he had entered.). Maybe he was on the bike warming up? Anyways, the three they mentioned included Dawson I believe.

[TheSultan]

Everybody seems to love the guy that is on the end of the bench. But really, outside of 10 minutes against Georgetown, John Dawson hasn't shown he can play at this level. At least not yet. Buzz knew it. Looks like Wojo does too. Matt V. tweeted at halftime that, based on his observations of practice, that Dawson seemed like the odd man out at guard. That clearly seems to be the case.

[Alan Bykowski, "brewcity77"]

1) We looked great when the game was over: OSU was up 16, at that point we finally started making 3's. 4/4 from beyond the arc in the last 8 minutes. Needed Sandy, Duane, and Jajuan to hit from long range much earlier to keep us in the game.

2) Derrick is a contributor: He's better when he can play with another guard that provides offense. He had a great entry pass to Steve against the zone and some others that didn't get finished. And he finally hit a three. He's not ideal, but playing alongside Carlino in this system suits him much better than playing alongside Jake in Buzz's system.

3) The defense is a work in progress: At least I hope it is. Part of that was Amir Williams & Trey McDonald destroying us on the interior (8/8 between them) but OSU was simply hitting everything. We limited second chance points far better than I expected, but it didn't matter much because they kept scoring on the first chance. Surprised to not see full court press out of us. Shannon Scott also decimated us.

4) I like Carlino: His shooting percentages aren't really there yet, but I think he's the type of player this team needs. Does a good job of distributing and creating while also being able to hit a shot. I feel pretty confident we'll see him win us some games.

5) Steve looks great: There were some obvious mistakes, some shots that you simply can't miss, but physically he's in great shape. He's miscast right now as a center. I think when Luke comes back, we'll really see him be able to play well. 20 points/7 rebounds tonight and I truly feel he's capable of more.

[MUfan12]

Agree on 1 and 2.

3) If MU would have pressed, they would have had their doors blown off. I didn't like the extended halfcourt defense. With the thin bench and lack of size, they are better suited playing more of a containment defense.

4) He has value offensively, but can't guard his own shadow.

5) Steve had a nice scoring night. Defensively he looked totally confounded by a simple pick and roll.

I'll add

6) Deonte needs to get his mind right and be engaged from the start. They have no chance of doing anything this year if he plays like he has the first two games.

[dw3dw3dw3]

Lot's of good looks. Liked the zone offense, but if there is going to be no dribble penetration, we've got to be great at getting the ball to the flasher, it seemed overly difficult at times.

Interesting the off-season skill work seems to be paying off in the skill department, but the guys just seem dog tired. Yes there is a short bench, but JJ and DB were slow getting back from their first minutes. I know the boot camp thing was overplayed, but there was a focus on conditioning. Seems like there might be a trade-off.

They didn't seem to be pressing or trapping that hard, more of a containment type of thing. Would have liked to see Duane have the opportunity to just bust through it a few times and see what happens. We let it be known early on that we were going to be conservative against it and that it was ok to start the half court offense with 26 seconds on the clock.

Defensively, just not good, lots and lots of room for improvement. I don't like the pressure with the short bench and small team either.

[Nukem2]

Lets face it, this is truly a rebuilding year. Need to have a lot of patience with this group.

[dw3dw3dw3]

I'm still optimistic that a top 4 finish is possible. Throw in an improbable but possible win vs Mich St or Wisc without Luke and we are on the right side of the bubble without any other major hiccups. Probably overly optimistic, but there's something to work with this year. Last year just had a different feeling from early on.

[Alan Bykowski, "brewcity77"]

I'm still optimistic that a top 4 finish is possible. Throw in an improbable but possible win vs Mich St or Wisc without Luke and we are on the right side of the bubble without any other major hiccups. Probably overly optimistic, but there's something to work with this year. Last year just had a different feeling from early on.

Michigan State maybe, but my hope is more that we beat Georgia Tech, Arizona State, and whomever we play third in Orlando, likely Santa Clara or Tennessee. Avoid a major slip, go 9-3 in the non-conference, then any winning Big East record will at least have us on the bubble. Probably need to sweep Creighton and Butler, then go 6-8 against the rest of the league. Not impossible.

[dw3dw3dw3]

That's a good option too. It looks like we are going to be heavy on the 3's this year. Good or bad, that gives us a punchers chance against better teams. With an average defense that could help us steal a big game. Probably will cost us a game we should win too.

[MU/Panther]

Avoid a major slip, go 9-3 in the non-conference, then any winning Big East record will at least have us on the bubble. As I been saying, all depends on what the other Big East schools do in the non-conference, to what the league wins will really mean.

[MulliganMusings]

Michigan State maybe, but my hope is more that we beat Georgia Tech, Arizona State, and whomever we play third in Orlando, likely Santa Clara or Tennessee. Avoid a major slip, go 9-3 in the non-conference, then any winning Big East record will at least have us on the bubble. Probably need to sweep Creighton and Butler, then go 6-8 against the rest of the league. Not impossible.

Michigan State? We need to get by Georgia Tech first and that's not going to easy. Saw their opener and they have some experienced bigs in Mitchell, Cox and Stephens and a veteran back court. The also have 6-11 Ben Lammers who was recruited by Buzz. Lammers never got off the bench.?

[MulliganMusings]

Michigan State maybe, but my hope is more that we beat Georgia Tech, Arizona State, and whomever we play third in Orlando, likely Santa Clara or Tennessee. Avoid a major slip, go 9-3 in the non-conference, then any winning Big East record will at least have us on the bubble. Probably need to sweep Creighton and Butler, then go 6-8 against the rest of the league. Not impossible.

Michigan State? We need to get by Georgia Tech first and that's not going to easy. Saw their opener and they have some experienced bigs in Mitchell, Cox and Stephens and a veteran back court. The also have 6-11 Ben Lammers who was recruited by Buzz. Lammers never got off the bench.?

[Alan Bykowski, "brewcity77"]

That was my point. Michigan State and Wisconsin aren't the teams we need to beat. Georgia Tech and Arizona State are.

[Goose85]

That was my point. Michigan State and Wisconsin aren't the teams we need to beat. Georgia Tech and Arizona State are.

A key for Arizona State is that Fischer will be available (I think Wisconsin is the last game he sits).

I also think a big game for us is the first Conference game of the year, at DePaul.
If we can win this road game, it does give us a chance to sweep DePaul. We should then have a chance to do the same with Creighton and Butler.
Sure we can lose to anyone just as easy, but to be .500 or better in conference, we will need to sweep a couple teams and that starts with DePaul.

[Nukem2]

Michigan State? We need to get by Georgia Tech first and that's not going to easy. Saw their opener and they have some experienced bigs in Mitchell, Cox and Stephens and a veteran back court. The also have 6-11 Ben Lammers who was recruited by Buzz. Lammers never got off the bench.?Lammers played 5 minutes with a bucket and a rebound. GT is going to be a tough game for out guys.

[Markedman]

Butler has played pretty well so far....I think they are going to be improved

[JohnnyRev]

People keep mentioning sweeping Creighton. I saw their fantastic comeback against a strong Oklahoma (#18) team. Right now Creighton looks better than we do, in my opinion.

[Alan Bykowski, "brewcity77"]

People keep mentioning sweeping Creighton. I saw their fantastic comeback against a strong Oklahoma (#18) team. Right now Creighton looks better than we do, in my opinion.

Considering what Creighton lost, they really looked like they would be down around the bottom of the league, along with DePaul and Butler. So far, both the Jays and Bulldogs look better than many may have expected. That doesn't change that for Marquette to have a chance at the NCAAs, they probably need to sweep 2-3 of the teams in the league. If they go 9-3 in non-conference and 11-7 in league play that should be enough almost regardless of the rest of the league. 8-1 at home (assuming a loss to 'Nova) and minimum 2, more likely 3 road wins.

I'll be honest, I'm really not sure what to expect. I am not planning my March around where Marquette may or may not be playing. This team could end up 13-18, they could end up 26-7. I honestly don't have any idea. All I'm saying is if they want to be on the bubble (especially on the right side of it) it will probably take 19-21 wins, and that will probably take sweeping 2-3 teams. DePaul seems like an obvious name, Creighton, Butler, Seton Hall, and St. John's seem like the other best chances for that.