Earth to Jerel... stop shooting!!**

[LastWarrior]

He could take all these bricks he's throwing up and build his mama a new house! 

[ecompt]

What's scary is he thinks he's a good outside shooter. What's even scarier is that Buzz's entire offensive system is based on outside shooting. And this is by far the worst MU defensive team in eons. We cannot stop a mediocre A-10 team.

[bork]

Jerel is going to shatter the Field Goals attempted record by at least a couple hundred shots.

[Daniel]

I got worried the game befoe when Jerl hit 4 3s - I was worried he would launch at will.  We are average outside shooters - and we can't score inside - hmmm.  Tough - we need to get better

[mugrack]

Nobody else looks like they even wanted to take a shot.  I can't blame McNeal he is surrounded by substandard players.

[MUfan12]

I think the additional liberties given in a motion offense vs. Crean's 2,000,000 set plays have given Jerel, and others at times, the idea they can shoot whenever. BUT, as much as we all love to say he should sit after bad shots, MU doesn't have the depth to get away with that right now.

[77ncaachamps]

Jerel's shooting and driving helped put some desperately needed points up on the board.

DJ should be the one who needs to stop shooting. His dribble penetrations were inconsistent as he was stuck in the trees or he was able to find an open man for the three or short jumper.

I predict that Jerel or Wes will be the STUDS for 80% of the year.

[bma725]

Jerel's shooting and driving helped put some desperately needed points up on the board.

DJ should be the one who needs to stop shooting. His dribble penetrations were inconsistent as he was stuck in the trees or he was able to find an open man for the three or short jumper.

I predict that Jerel or Wes will be the STUDS for 80% of the year.

Ummm...Jerel was 7-23 today and 1-8 from behind the arc.  There's absolutely no reason for him to ever take that many shots, let alone jump shots.  In fact in his four years here when he's taken 20 or more shots in a game, every single one of those games has been a horrible offensive performance for him.  And for all his driving, he managed to only attempt 3 free throws.  That's absolutely terrible, especially when the refs are as whistle happy as they were today.

DJ on the other hand was 6-13 from the field, and while he didn't make enough, he got fouled quite a bit and attempted 11 free throws. 

Given their play today, DJ should be shooting more, and Jerel should be giving the ball up to DJ and Wes.

[mcnealfan1]

the past 2 games mcneal has shot over 50% from the arc, so i would love to see him continue to put treys up

[LastWarrior]

Ummm...Jerel was 7-23 today and 1-8 from behind the arc.  There's absolutely no reason for him to ever take that many shots, let alone jump shots.  In fact in his four years here when he's taken 20 or more shots in a game, every single one of those games has been a horrible offensive performance for him.  And for all his driving, he managed to only attempt 3 free throws.  That's absolutely terrible, especially when the refs are as whistle happy as they were today.

DJ on the other hand was 6-13 from the field, and while he didn't make enough, he got fouled quite a bit and attempted 11 free throws. 

Given their play today, DJ should be shooting more, and Jerel should be giving the ball up to DJ and Wes.

Thank God for some sense here...  Jerel should NEVER take more than 20 shots in a game and more importantly, he needs to realize when his shot is not falling.  If you're gonna drive, you better get the easy basket or get to the line.  PERIOD!

[bma725]

the past 2 games mcneal has shot over 50% from the arc, so i would love to see him continue to put treys up

Lot of bearing those two games had on today considering he was 1 for 8, giving him his second 1 for 8 game of the year beyond the arc.

[mcnealfan1]

big deal, mcneals the best player we have, lazar is terrible when he faces competition, and wes scores all his points from the free throw line but i guess thats ok with everyone

[warriors_mu]

So what if all of Wes' points come from the line? Points are points. And at least he makes his free throws.

Jerel is a very talented player, but he definitely has some flaws. He is not a good 3 point shooter, but keeps shooting them as though he is. Yes, occasionally he has a good night from behind the arc, and when he does he should keep shooting. But other nights the shot just isn't falling. On those nights he needs to realize it and not take those shots. Instead he keeps firing and shoots 7-23. Jerel definitely has the ability to hurt this team with all of the bad shots he takes.

[77ncaachamps]

Jerel's line of 7-23 is what it is. Horrible.

But they all weren't bad shots. A couple were drives that didn't go in.
Sure, he missed 7 three-pointers. But with Lazar out and Wes not seeming to "take over" the game, do you really trust MU's offense in the hands of DJ?

I thought not.

Jerel is a SCORER. It's just too bad that he wasn't hitting, the bench didn't give support (5 to 50), and Lazar tallied only 5 points.

[bma725]

Jerel's line of 7-23 is what it is. Horrible.

But they all weren't bad shots. A couple were drives that didn't go in.
Sure, he missed 7 three-pointers. But with Lazar out and Wes not seeming to "take over" the game, do you really trust MU's offense in the hands of DJ?

I thought not.

Jerel is a SCORER. It's just too bad that he wasn't hitting, the bench didn't give support (5 to 50), and Lazar tallied only 5 points.

The reason Wes didn't take over the game was because Jerel wouldn't give up the damn ball.  He was doing pretty much whatever he wanted to the Dayton defense when he got the ball, but he didn't get that much because Jerel was too busy shooting when he should have been feeding the hot hand.

And yes, I would rather have the ball the in DJ's hand.  Jerel has had four games like this in his career.  We were able to win two of them because the supporting cast picked up the slack.  That's means DJ and Wes and the others need the ball more. 

[romey]

There are two basic schools of thought when a player is having a bad shooting night. 1) Don't shoot - find the hot hand and give it up.  2) shoot your way out of it.  In regards to 1), if Wes was making things happen (I wasn't there, so I'm basing this on bma's post) then by all means, keep feeding him until he cools off. As far as 2) is concerned, if you are Diener or Novak, or J.J. Redick or Reggie Miller, etc. etc. then by all means, find your stroke.  Jerel - you are none of those players - that's not your game.

[Pardner]

Jerel took 38% of MU's shots last night...scorer or no, that is way too much.  I know he was trying to lead us back, but we have to play within our offense.  Gregory was double teaming the wings and Lazar at the top to push us out of access to touches in the paint.  Jerel played right into Dayton's hands by being so helter skelter.  Took others out of the flow and left us out of position.

[ATWizJr]

But, what is our offense? 

I'd feel better if we utilized our great vaunted quickness to play great "d", and make our free throws. 

Tell me, anyone who saw the game, if they played us man to man all night, why weren't we able to take advantage of it?  Isn't that supposed to be the defense we prefer to face?

[warriors_mu]

The reason we couldn't beat the man to man is that we settled for too many outside shots. We're good against a man to man because we have so many good penetrating guards who can get to the basket. We just didn't do that enough last night outside of Matthews.

[wadesworld]

But, what is our offense? 

I'd feel better if we utilized our great vaunted quickness to play great "d", and make our free throws. 

Tell me, anyone who saw the game, if they played us man to man all night, why weren't we able to take advantage of it?  Isn't that supposed to be the defense we prefer to face

They played man to man all night, but any time we tried to penetrate they threw a second defender at the penetrator right away.  They had us scouted out extremely well.  They knew exactly what we wanted to do and took it away from us.  We couldn't adjust.  We also couldn't get a call going to the hoop, which you could tell influenced Jerel, Dominic, and Lazar, and when we got to the hoop we often missed shots we should've definitely made.

[Buzz Williams' Spillproof Chiclets Cup]

DJ should be the one who needs to stop shooting. His dribble penetrations were inconsistent as he was stuck in the trees or he was able to find an open man for the three or short jumper.

This isn't new. This has been DJ's main problem for the past two seasons; driving to the lane before knowing what he was going to do with the ball once he got there.

[mviale]

This isn't new. This has been DJ's main problem for the past two seasons; driving to the lane before knowing what he was going to do with the ball once he got there.

DJ a problem? 19 pts, 8 assists and 2 TO's.  Sit down.

[warriors_mu]

DJ is not the problem right now. He's not the scorer he was as a freshman (last night being the exception), but he's been a very good PG in the early going this year. His assist-to-turnover ratio has been great. If only he could improve that free throw shooting.