The Best Word I Can Think Of

[Phantom Warrior]

The best word I can think of to describe the Xavier debacle is "INEPT!"

Xavier outscored us by 17 points in the second half.

What truly surprised me was how INEPT the team was in terms of attacking Xavier's 1-3-1. The players looked absolutely befuddled.

You would think a coach that has used the 1-3-1 often this year, which Wojo has, would know how to attack it. But it looked like MU didn't have a clue.

In my mind that is just plain shocking. Making matters worse is that Xavier has used the 1-3-1 during the season, so it should not have been a surprise.

I think that is what disappointed me more than anything else about tonight's game.

Whenever Xavier went to the 1-3-1, we looked like a D-3 team playing a high-major powerhouse.

I repeat: "INEPT!"

[unclejohn]

The best word I can think of is "tired." The team is shot to hell. After the home loss to Seton Hall, somebody asked Wojo if he took any positives from the game. He said no, none at all. That was a surprise to many people who watched the team put on a good run toward the end, and never quit trying to make a game of it. Tonight, Wojo had nothing bad to say about the team's effort. he did mention that they all played lots of minutes, and that the young players are getting the playing time they asked for. It is not always pretty to watch. We are OK.

[Alan Bykowski, "brewcity77"]

Luke looked tired at the first media timeout and Xavier just kept rolling out bodies at him. Uphill battle from the start.

[TedBaxter]

Marquette had open shot after open shot on the wing and didn't take them in the second half and when they did, they didn't make them. Simple as that.

[kneelb4zerg]

Lots of hyperbole for a team that just isn't good enough to compete in the Big East this year.

[dubs98]

Marquette had open shot after open shot on the wing and didn't take them in the second half and when they did, they didn't make them. Simple as that.

This. Really hard to attack a 1-3-1 when they sag off five feet on nearly every shooter and are able to space out to prevent any passes inside. It is not that we are just bad outside shooters but that we are also scared to shoot. A defense can feed into that by daring the offense to shoot which just kills the confidence that much more. We literally had two players only who had some confidence shooting from outside. How are you going to attack a sagging 1-3-1 without even the thought of making the defense close out. Crisco? I have no idea how to attack when you have no driving or passing lanes because the other team is playing so far off. Gonna need more options from the perimeter going forward.

[Nukem2]

I called it a passive zone vs. a sagging zone. Prefer the former as X, as Crisco notes in the game thread, was essentially cutting the floor in half. In the meantime, our PG was pounding the ball on the floor out high. In the end,the ball did not get to the corners. Inept, no. Learning experience, definitely (for both the staff and the players ). This seems to be the year of the zone across the conference. Wonder how that will play out in the post-season....?

[Gato78]

That zone was definitely packed in. We saw the value of Carlino; how badly we need a point who is some threat to score; and, a really tired team. At one point Juan was completely gassed during a time out in the first half. He went back in after the TO, to my surprise. We are light on talent and low in manpower. The results are to be expected. One thing about this team, as opposed to last years group, this one gives every ounce of effort. No one I have talked to has given up on this group because of their effort. Surprising since there were a lot of people giving up last year on a better team.

[MUMac]

The best word I can think of to describe the Xavier debacle is "INEPT!"

Xavier outscored us by 17 points in the second half.

What truly surprised me was how INEPT the team was in terms of attacking Xavier's 1-3-1. The players looked absolutely befuddled.

You would think a coach that has used the 1-3-1 often this year, which Wojo has, would know how to attack it. But it looked like MU didn't have a clue.

In my mind that is just plain shocking. Making matters worse is that Xavier has used the 1-3-1 during the season, so it should not have been a surprise.

I think that is what disappointed me more than anything else about tonight's game.

Whenever Xavier went to the 1-3-1, we looked like a D-3 team playing a high-major powerhouse.

I repeat: "INEPT!"

Disagree with your hyperbole.

The team, without Carlino, will struggle against a 1-3-1. X knew this and packed the middle making Luke a non-factor. Derrick cannot shoot from the outside, but needed to play minutes. Duane and JJ have not been making the shots from the outside and Sandy had an off shooting day.

I am not sure what your expectations are, but MU is short on talent and depth. Without Carlino, zones will hurt them. X played tough and physical inside and rotated bodies all game knowing that MU would tire.

[Mucrisco]

This. Really hard to attack a 1-3-1 when they sag off five feet on nearly every shooter and are able to space out to prevent any passes inside. It is not that we are just bad outside shooters but that we are also scared to shoot. A defense can feed into that by daring the offense to shoot which just kills the confidence that much more. We literally had two players only who had some confidence shooting from outside. How are you going to attack a sagging 1-3-1 without even the thought of making the defense close out. Crisco? I have no idea how to attack when you have no driving or passing lanes because the other team is playing so far off. Gonna need more options from the perimeter going forward.

Yeah, I see a lot of criticism, not just here but other places too, but not a lot of answers. People just seem to be letting off steam which is fine. Like what Nukem said, I posted this in the game thread:

"That was difficult for us to do though with all the length that Xavier had down the middle. Without a shooter out there for Marquette, and with all the length, it was smart for them to be passive. We couldn't reverse the ball easily, because of that length. We couldn't drive and dish because of the length. They effectively cut the court in half on us. We got it to the corners and we couldn't hit a shot out there. Derrick is not a scoring option, so they could just lay of of him. A great way to beat the 1-3-1 is diagonal passes, but we couldn't do that with the length. Without the shooters, we couldn't get that 1-3-1 moving. Another way to beat the 1-3-1 is to overload a side. But again, it doesn't matter if you overload a side. The idea is that you will have an advantage with more numbers against defenders. Again, that's negated when the defense doesn't have to play defense against certain players."

The most common way to attack a 1-3-1 is with a 2-1-2 set. The way I do it is a little unorthodox. I have a high post and a low post, which occupies the middle defender and the baseline defender. Then, I use two guards on top of the zone who reverse the ball and have a baseline runner. With the baseline runner, a high post, a low post, and a guard, you have 4 guys attacking 3 defenders. The high post and the low post occupy two of those defenders. So, the advantage becomes the baseline runner and the guard versus the wing defender. If the baseline defender comes out to guard the baseline runner, then that leaves the low post open, etc. Also, the low post guy or the baseline runner doesn't have to cut to the ball side all the time. Then you are able to make those diagonal passes which hurts the 1-3-1.

However, like you said, no one was taking the corner shots or hitting them. No one could hit from the wings. If you can't hit shots where the defense isn't playing you, what are you suppose to do? Xavier was sagging off. It was not like our 1-3-1 because ours is more aggressive. They were fine with protecting the paint. When you don't have to guard Derrick since he can't or won't shoot, you lose any advantage you have from overloading a side. That defense doesn't have to close out, so you are not making the defense shift. Not just that, but Derrick is so slow to move the ball. He always has to take that extra dribble and stare at the guy he is passing to. Juan is also not an outside threat. With the defense sagging, especially since they had three long guys playing in the middle, I'm not sure what we were suppose to do. Maybe we should have made Cohen a baseline runner, Juan in the high post, Luke in the low post, and Duane and JJJ at the guards. But JJJ can't hit an outside shot either. So, they would shade towards Duane and Cohen and pack it in on Luke. There are not a lot of answers for the coaching staff to choose from. Forget about point guard. Duane could thrive in that role if he has a sniper playing with him. We need an outside shooter.

[dubs98]

good stuff Crisco. thanks for the insight. you alluded to this, but often times teams can beat zones with quick rotation and getting the defenses moving fast which will eventually creates seams (shooting or driving), but when the defense can sag they are that much closer to the swing pass therefore negating the need to rush out for a close out. They are much more controlled which makes them less susceptible to that additional pass. In addition, it is much tougher to pass when the defense is sagging because they are now effectively longer by being able to cover a greater area by having more time (secondary to the distance created by the sag) to react to a ball. Agree that the overwhelming answer is to have someone who is at least a minor threat to shoot and be effective from outside.

[Phantom Warrior]

For those who disagree with my use of the term "inept," here is one of the definitions of that term from Webster's: generally incompetent : bungling <inept leadership> .

We had a 16-5 lead with 12 and a half minutes left in the first half, which means we scored a grand total of 28 points in the next 31 and a half minutes. Much of that time, Xavier was in the 1-3-1. I didn't break it down by possessions because I do not want to rewatch the game.

But we were INEPT at attacking the 1-3-1. We were "incompetent," and, yes, we looked "bungling." Anyone who would argue that we were competent in attacking the zone did not watch the same game I did.

Part of that incompetence, or ineptitude, was not taking shots when they were there, Part of that ineptitude was lacking ball movement and player movement. Part of that incompetence was taking shots we should not have taken.

We looked completely puzzled as to what to do.

My teams play a great deal of 1-3-1. In fact, we have four different versions of a 1-3-1 we can use. I love the 1-3-1, but it is attackable.

Crisco was absolutely right that the traditional attack mode is to set up in a 2-1-2 on offense with the primary goal to get the ball into the high post. But the other weak spot in the 1-3-1 is the corner. Either way, you need quick passes - quick ball movement. We did not have that.

Crisco also uses a base-line runner, in other words, player movement. Any movement we had was tentative and slow. Decision-making was slow. I would define the lack of ball movement and player movement as incompetent, i.e. "inept."

Anyone who thinks we were "ept," at attacking the zone I would strongly disagree with.

[Mucrisco]

Silver,

I don't think that anyone thinks we did a good job at attacking the 1-3-1. I think where people take exception is that you put the blame on Wojo. Wojo knows how to attack a 1-3-1. In fact, I call my zone offense "Duke" because I got all the concepts from Duke. We just didn't have the players to attack the 1-3-1. We couldn't move the ball because the defense was in the passing lanes due to the fact that they didn't have to close out on players. When you have guys like Derrick or JJJ where the defense doesn't have to close out, then they will catch the ball and have no one to pass it to because the defense is already standing in the way. The players were moving. But, we couldn't even reverse the ball because the defense had the court cut in half. If you can't reverse the ball quickly, then the players are going to be more stationary.

[79warrior]

What is becoming very apparent is the "talent" level on this team is no where near what we think/hope it is. This is one pretty lousy team. Not a reliable shooter in the bunch outside of MC. Next year, we will have virtually no returning player that can hit reliably hit a jumper.

[Markedman]

What is becoming very apparent is the "talent" level on this team is no where near what we think/hope it is. This is one pretty lousy team. Not a reliable shooter in the bunch outside of MC. Next year, we will have virtually no returning player that can hit reliably hit a jumper.

Some of us are not all surprised by the talent level on this team.

We are who I thought we were.

Duane is a pretty good shooter now...he will get better...as will Cohen. The great thing about college basketball is that rosters constantly change. We are bad now...with 8 guys who are undersized, can't shoot and are mostly inexperienced.

Wojo has a plan.......I have confidence that he knows how to build a roster and mold a team.

Let's give him the time to do it. Dodd's board is getting to. Be as bad as Scoop after games now.

[Mucrisco]

Also, with more scoring options and creativity on the floor, guys should have more time and space to shoot.

[MUMac]

Silver,

I don't think that anyone thinks we did a good job at attacking the 1-3-1. I think where people take exception is that you put the blame on Wojo. Wojo knows how to attack a 1-3-1. In fact, I call my zone offense "Duke" because I got all the concepts from Duke. We just didn't have the players to attack the 1-3-1. We couldn't move the ball because the defense was in the passing lanes due to the fact that they didn't have to close out on players. When you have guys like Derrick or JJJ where the defense doesn't have to close out, then they will catch the ball and have no one to pass it to because the defense is already standing in the way. The players were moving. But, we couldn't even reverse the ball because the defense had the court cut in half. If you can't reverse the ball quickly, then the players are going to be more stationary.

Precisely. The OP blamed Wojo and coaching as being "inept". Citing that they did not know X would p tlay a 1-3-1 or how to attack it. Saying the players were "befuddled". Yes, I disagree with the OP and the hyperbole that was used. No matter what spin was used to defend it in the latter post.

MU does not have the players to attack X's 1-3-1 with their length and athleticism. Especially without Carlino's shooting. The pieces are not there and the OP laid blame where it did not belong. Simple as that.