It seems like there is a hesitation by every player just before shooting a 3 and the shot looks so bad leaving their hands as a result. Agree it's something mental.  Maybe need the Ted Lasso sports psychologist?

A win is a win, but yesterday was very worrisome if we want to talk about this rationally or have hopes to advance in the tournament.  Our offense looks completely inept in the half-court.  Kam isn't getting downhill as easily because he has no confidence in his jump shot.  This is where the problems start.

Beyond that the spacing and action off the ball seems very stagnant to me.  We also aren't moving the ball when we do get into the paint with any fluidity, lots of ball stopping and hesitation.  There is also very little patience.  We didn't see this earlier in the year.

As for the shooting?  It's a horror show and in many ways inexplicable. Last night most of our shots were wide open or modestly contested in the paint.  These attempts weren't just missed, they were wildly whiffed or miserably clanked.  This is 1000% a mental issue.  We might not have lights out snipers but they're not this bad.

The biggest positive moving forward is we have a full week and a D2 team coming in before the homestretch.  We have seen this team clicking on all cylinders, they're damn good.  But time is now a factor and we need to find a way to get things back on track and play with confidence.   Immediately btw. 

Quote from: tower912 on February 12, 2025, 05:20:26 AMThat is what I have.   Apparently, just me.  Ah, well.

Not just you.  Happened to me me twice and threatened to do it several other times.  When the game was on the production was good though.

Quote from: The Sultan on February 12, 2025, 04:24:26 AMSorry it's become a miserable experience for you.

Thank you, watching two crap teams out crap each other was one of the most miserable games I have watched in a long time. 

Quote from: PointWarrior on February 12, 2025, 08:55:37 AMThank you, watching two crap teams out crap each other was one of the most miserable games I have watched in a long time. 

Sorry you couldn't find something else better to do with your time.

Yep.  Glad they won but watching bad basketball is not fun for anyone.  And both MU and DePaul played poorly.

Quote from: MuggsyB on February 12, 2025, 07:21:35 AMA win is a win, but yesterday was very worrisome if we want to talk about this rationally or have hopes to advance in the tournament.  Our offense looks completely inept in the half-court.  Kam isn't getting downhill as easily because he has no confidence in his jump shot.  This is where the problems start.

Beyond that the spacing and action off the ball seems very stagnant to me.  We also aren't moving the ball when we do get into the paint with any fluidity, lots of ball stopping and hesitation.  There is also very little patience.  We didn't see this earlier in the year.

As for the shooting?  It's a horror show and in many ways inexplicable. Last night most of our shots were wide open or modestly contested in the paint.  These attempts weren't just missed, they were wildly whiffed or miserably clanked.  This is 1000% a mental issue.  We might not have lights out snipers but they're not this bad.

The biggest positive moving forward is we have a full week and a D2 team coming in before the homestretch.  We have seen this team clicking on all cylinders, they're damn good.  But time is now a factor and we need to find a way to get things back on track and play with confidence.   Immediately btw. 

SH is a trap game

Quote from: Big Papi on February 11, 2025, 10:40:25 PM4. Thought Tre played good. Grabbed rebounds and was aggressive

Tre is a huge liability on offense. Another airballed 3 last night. Thank goodness he didnt get fouled on his missed layup cuz that charity stripe aint working too well for him either.
Teams are sagging off him.....daring him to shoot the wide open 3.......when that ball leaves his hands....i find myself saying "nope" and it seems to hit the backboard before anything.
Love his defense....but tough spot for Shaka.

Quote from: Newsdreams on February 12, 2025, 09:02:18 AMSH is a trap game

Ackbar games are the worst

Quote from: tower912 on February 12, 2025, 05:20:26 AMThat is what I have.   Apparently, just me.  Ah, well.

My ESPN+ feeds are crap (I mentioned this during the Iowa State game and I'd watched other games on there that were just as bad) but others here said they had no issues. Who knows. Unfortunately, we're going to have to deal with it more and more as more games are streamed moving forward.

Quote from: The Sultan on February 12, 2025, 08:56:21 AMSorry you couldn't find something else better to do with your time.

Thanks again - I actually multitasked and did some work while watching the game.  Glad I did.  Thanks for the tips!!!

Quote from: tower912 on February 11, 2025, 09:31:19 PM1.  Peacock was brutal.  Freezing incessantly.  Having to reboot 6 times. Blurry.  Did not see the end of the game. 
2.  3 pt shooting is all in their heads right now.  Short arming and guiding.  Bleeding over into their dunks and lay ups
3.  My viewing experience sucked so bad I have nothing else to say.  I feel like I did not see enough to have an opinion.
4. Get healthy, get out of your own way.

Been banging the drum on "get out of your heads" for a bit. Even my wife mentioned that it felt like there is a swagger that isn't there and everyone is waiting for the other shoe to drop. Need to get back to "hoopin"

Quote from: MU24 on February 11, 2025, 10:14:25 PMQuite perplexing to see this stretch, because early season they looked unstoppable. Is it as simple as stating that teams have figured out MU?

I'd say no. It's just a lack of confidence. The ball isn't going in on shots where it normally would. Now they're pressing. need a few confidence builders.

Quote from: We R Final Four on February 12, 2025, 09:10:38 AMTre is a huge liability on offense. Another airballed 3 last night. Thank goodness he didnt get fouled on his missed layup cuz that charity stripe aint working too well for him either.
Teams are sagging off him.....daring him to shoot the wide open 3.......when that ball leaves his hands....i find myself saying "nope" and it seems to hit the backboard before anything.
Love his defense....but tough spot for Shaka.

True but he still stepped it up and looked better last night than what he has shown all year.  I liked that he was aggressive on the boards, 5 rebounds, defended and took the ball to the hoop aggressively and scored.

Teams are daring Stevie to shoot the 3 and Stevie is finding other ways to be productive on the offensive end. It was good to see Tre have what I thought was one of his better games.  Small steps.

The shooting slump from everyone is putting Shaka in a tough spot.

Shaka had a couple of salty moments in his presser.

Quote from: tower912 on February 12, 2025, 11:00:16 AMShaka had a couple of salty moments in his presser.

Do you have a link?  I couldn't find it. 

Google Shaka Smart

Quote from: tower912 on February 12, 2025, 11:00:16 AMShaka had a couple of salty moments in his presser.

Yeah you can tell this stretch is getting to him a bit. The terse answer he gave what I assume was a student who asked about timeouts was out of character for him.

https://youtu.be/EFF16Fx5KmI?si=KEEwolCX_JnvD0a9

Quote from: MUfan12 on February 12, 2025, 11:43:02 AMYeah you can tell this stretch is getting to him a bit. The terse answer he gave what I assume was a student who asked about timeouts was out of character for him.

https://youtu.be/EFF16Fx5KmI?si=KEEwolCX_JnvD0a9

Virginia dreamin'

Lack of shooting confidence is a tough thing to overcome because it feeds on itself. The guys just have to keep at it. Not that Shaka ever would do it, but yelling, "Be confident!" at someone is likely to hurt more than help. Just have to keep encouraging guys to play their game, take their shots and put the team first - which I'm guessing is exactly what Shaka is doing.

Hopefully it just starts clicking again, because if it doesn't we'll have a very short NCAAT stay - and I say that as one of the more optimistic Scoopers. You simply have to make 3s to win with any consistency, both because you need the points and because you need to keep the other team from playing pack defense. And that goes double for Marquette, whose half-court offense is based totally on 3-point shooting and rim runs.

I don't think it's unfair criticism of Shaka to say that if we're gonna be a 3-point shooting team we need more 3-point shooters. Hopefully the incoming class will start to provide some of that, but we really need the improvement to come from within - as it did with Kolek and Ross.

Either the shots go in or they don't. What frustrated me most last night was that we were lackadaisical on defense and, at key junctures, with the ball. For a long stretch of the first half, just about every time we missed a 3, our transition defense was really bad and DePaul got either a layup or a wide-open look. I was begging for Shaka to call his use-it-or-lose-it TO during that stretch; not sure why he didn't, because he was obviously frustrated by the team's lack of hustle (which, thank goodness, is rare for MU).

There also was a second-half stretch after we had built our lead but were slowly starting to fritter it away. There were no foul calls and no TV timeouts, and our guys were obviously gassed. Shaka needed to call a TO but didn't, and Stevie - who had played brilliantly during the 18-2 stretch that effectively won the game - gave up two layups because he was exhausted.

Ross had maybe his worst game of the season. He had two lazy inbound passes, one gifting DePaul 2 points at the halftime buzzer, the other handing DePaul the ball when we were trying to protect our late lead. He also loped back on defense early in the second half - no doubt after Shaka had just emphasized hustling - and Shaka quickly benched him. For this team to get where it wants to go, it needs Chase to play at a high level and to be a leader.

Norman badly missed a 3 but later made several excellent decisions with the ball - passing up the 3s DePaul wanted him to take to drive it inside. He drove under control and with a purpose, and it led to two layups, a foul that gave him FTs, and an assist to a teammate. He had 5 rebounds, too. One of his stronger games. I'm on the fence as to whether he can be a real contributor next season because he hasn't shown the ability to be a Big East PG yet, but games like this give me hope.

Except for a few missed shots and a couple of brain farts, I thought Kam had a good game. He was able to set himself up for a very make-able shot pretty much any time he wanted, and made some nice passes, too. When he went to the floor holding his ankle, I held my breath for a second; obviously glad he was able to return almost immediately.

Jop left with a hand injury but also returned ... and the injury didn't stop him from jacking some 3s. I guess that's a sign he hasn't lost his confidence? I actually called the missed dunk as he was driving down the court - glad he could laugh about it.

Gold played his best game in awhile despite looking like he was nursing his injury some. Had at least two occasions where he went straight up on defense, absorbed contact and forced misses. Also hit a 3 and grabbed a few boards.

Parham and Zaide mostly played well off the bench. Didn't score much, but also combined for no turnovers in 34 minutes.

Had no problem with the Peacock feed. Crean was good, although sometimes he either didn't speak into the microphone or the volume on his mic was too low.

I still think my expectations of getting to the second weekend are realistic ... but I'll sure feel a lot better if we can get back to even hitting 30% of our 3s.

Quote from: The Sultan on February 12, 2025, 08:56:21 AMSorry you couldn't find something else better to do with your time.

What's even more troubling is that he took the time to inform others of his awful experience.

I mean it's ok to admit they played poorly and it wasn't a fun game to watch......but does everything have to be over the top .....end of the world type stuff?

Relax......have a drink.......there's another game in a week for you to watch, hate and tell everyone about how miserable you are about it.....

Quote from: MU82 on February 12, 2025, 12:14:30 PMLack of shooting confidence is a tough thing to overcome because it feeds on itself. The guys just have to keep at it. Not that Shaka ever would do it, but yelling, "Be confident!" at someone is likely to hurt more than help. Just have to keep encouraging guys to play their game, take their shots and put the team first - which I'm guessing is exactly what Shaka is doing.

Hopefully it just starts clicking again, because if it doesn't we'll have a very short NCAAT stay - and I say that as one of the more optimistic Scoopers. You simply have to make 3s to win with any consistency, both because you need the points and because you need to keep the other team from playing pack defense. And that goes double for Marquette, whose half-court offense is based totally on 3-point shooting and rim runs.

I don't think it's unfair criticism of Shaka to say that if we're gonna be a 3-point shooting team we need more 3-point shooters. Hopefully the incoming class will start to provide some of that, but we really need the improvement to come from within - as it did with Kolek and Ross.

Either the shots go in or they don't. What frustrated me most last night was that we were lackadaisical on defense and, at key junctures, with the ball. For a long stretch of the first half, just about every time we missed a 3, our transition defense was really bad and DePaul got either a layup or a wide-open look. I was begging for Shaka to call his use-it-or-lose-it TO during that stretch; not sure why he didn't, because he was obviously frustrated by the team's lack of hustle (which, thank goodness, is rare for MU).

There also was a second-half stretch after we had built our lead but were slowly starting to fritter it away. There were no foul calls and no TV timeouts, and our guys were obviously gassed. Shaka needed to call a TO but didn't, and Stevie - who had played brilliantly during the 18-2 stretch that effectively won the game - gave up two layups because he was exhausted.

Ross had maybe his worst game of the season. He had two lazy inbound passes, one gifting DePaul 2 points at the halftime buzzer, the other handing DePaul the ball when we were trying to protect our late lead. He also loped back on defense early in the second half - no doubt after Shaka had just emphasized hustling - and Shaka quickly benched him. For this team to get where it wants to go, it needs Chase to play at a high level and to be a leader.

Norman badly missed a 3 but later made several excellent decisions with the ball - passing up the 3s DePaul wanted him to take to drive it inside. He drove under control and with a purpose, and it led to two layups, a foul that gave him FTs, and an assist to a teammate. He had 5 rebounds, too. One of his stronger games. I'm on the fence as to whether he can be a real contributor next season because he hasn't shown the ability to be a Big East PG yet, but games like this give me hope.

Except for a few missed shots and a couple of brain farts, I thought Kam had a good game. He was able to set himself up for a very make-able shot pretty much any time he wanted, and made some nice passes, too. When he went to the floor holding his ankle, I held my breath for a second; obviously glad he was able to return almost immediately.

Jop left with a hand injury but also returned ... and the injury didn't stop him from jacking some 3s. I guess that's a sign he hasn't lost his confidence? I actually called the missed dunk as he was driving down the court - glad he could laugh about it.

Gold played his best game in awhile despite looking like he was nursing his injury some. Had at least two occasions where he went straight up on defense, absorbed contact and forced misses. Also hit a 3 and grabbed a few boards.

Parham and Zaide mostly played well off the bench. Didn't score much, but also combined for no turnovers in 34 minutes.

Had no problem with the Peacock feed. Crean was good, although sometimes he either didn't speak into the microphone or the volume on his mic was too low.

I still think my expectations of getting to the second weekend are realistic ... but I'll sure feel a lot better if we can get back to even hitting 30% of our 3s.

No TV timeouts. Is that a Peacock thing?

Quote from: muwarrior69 on February 12, 2025, 12:39:08 PMNo TV timeouts. Is that a Peacock thing?

There are TV timeouts in every game. He meant there was no dead ball so a TV timeout could be called.

Quote from: DoctorV on February 11, 2025, 11:22:42 PMMarquette has scored under 70 in 4 straight games...
Wonder when the last time that happened was?

Best I can tell 2015.  Nearly a decade.

2015
Wed, Feb 25 | Butler | L | 73-52
Sun, Mar 1 | @Providence | L | 77-66
Wed, Mar 4 | St. John's | L | 67-51
Sat, Mar 7 | DePaul | W | 58-48

At this point, I think everyone has to accept that this team is what it is - a group that plays very aggressive defense but still gives up too many easy baskets and a group that simply cannot shoot straight. Back in December I thought they were good enough to beat any team in the country if they just made their shots. Right now, I think any opponent is a challenge for them. Good tournament teams are starting to play their best at this time of year. Our team is regressing. They may fix the problem enough to hang on to third or fourth place in the BE and get a tournament bid. But, they could also continue to screw around, lose two or three more games, and end up on the wrong side of the bubble.