Outplayed, Outhustled

[Piratz]

What an egg laid tonight. Jeez. Very odd to see us outplayed on the boards like that. Revealing.

We looked like we just wanted to get the game over with and get home.

 

[Vegas pj]

Fried or scrambled? Pathetic. Maybe they're all (except Ish) recovering from the flu. Where ave I heard that excuse before?

 

[Proud NJ Sports Fan]

They were dominated and didn't play well.

But Marquette is a good team that plays fast and shoots lights out.

Their two BE losses were a close home loss to Xavier and at Nova.

They won at Providence which is not easy.
That 5th year senior transfer Rousey is a throwback and he opens up the court for Howard and the other pure shooters.

 

[halltheway]

I agree, last night, they could have won against most schools.

 

[Piratz]

So what so we attribute the worst rebounding team in the league beating the best on the boards?

Marquette had a good shooting night but not crazy.

 

[HALL28]

Wojo is a good coach and he drilled into his team the importance of rebounding against us. Willard drilled into our guys the importance of locking down Howard and we did.

That Butler game was a very tough one only 4 days ago - look how they came out of it. Whooped at Creighton.

 

[HALL85]

It only counts as one loss, but it was a stinker, plain and simple. We are what we are....a very good team; but not an elite team. Interested to see the next "How I see it" ranking, but right now it looks like Villanova as a clear #1 and SHU, Creighton and Xavier bunched together (and not in that order).

 

[seton1996]

Fried or scrambled? Pathetic. Maybe they're all (except Ish) recovering from the flu. Where ave I heard that excuse before?

Smashed egg. Not shocked by the lost, but surprised by the way we lost. As others have said, Marquette is a good team, and no matter how bad our play was still only counts as one loss.

 

[Muggsy Blue]

Yup agree, we're just a good team. Maybe we should just forget about the rankings until March. And second bracket, no.

 

[SHUSource]

Probably shouldn't have lost by 20, but this is no big deal. Playing on the road is tough as hell in this league, and this result is not too surprising. This is what made the win at Butler so good. Of course, you can't go into road games thinking it's OK to lose, but even very good teams are going to lose them now and then.

Shake this one off and get back to business on Saturday.

 

[SHUSource]

Yup agree, we're just a good team. Maybe we should just forget about the rankings until March.

I keep urging this. Rankings are irrelevant in this sport, and only serve to do harm to teams that put too much stock in them.

 

[HALL28]

My opinion on the team has not changed at all. I still think we can compete with X and Nova at the top of the conference and can beat any team on a neutral court.

 

[Piratz]

Through 4 BE games we are being outscored. Not good.

 

[Section112]

Through 4 BE games we are being outscored. Not good.

That is not a problem offensively either - it's our defense. This is not a very good defensive team so far. We can play D at a high level but we haven't sustained it for more than 5-7 minutes in most games that we have played so far.

 

[knowknow456]

Through 4 BE games we are being outscored. Not good.

Generally speaking this is not good. Can you be more specific?

 

[HALL28]

Through 4 BE games we are being outscored. Not good.

Not too worried about that. I'm sure we'll have a blowout in the other direction. Most games will be close, decided in final 10 minutes.

 

[hbkmyr]

we we're outscored for the entire BE season last year.

 

[mbraue]

So what so we attribute the worst rebounding team in the league beating the best on the boards?

Marquette had a good shooting night but not crazy.

Same thing happened against Rutgers. We were outhustled and second chance points hurt us, and porous defense.

 

[Piratz]

Generally speaking this is not good. Can you be more specific?

I’m stoked to be 3-1. That’s great. Objective is to win.

But we have not played well overall or our typical brand of ball. We’ve been down at least 9+ points in every game. That’s a red flag. We’ve made great comebacks and big plays in key spots thanks to very talented and experienced players, but that’s not sustainable as we saw last night (even after we cut it from -13 to -1).

The specifics are defense. It’s been bad. If that doesn’t improve we won’t be able to carry a pretty record.

Through these 4 games, we are just 7th of 10 in Defensive Efficiency, 9th of 10 in forcing turnovers (to counteract our own inherent sloppiness), 8th of 10 in 3PT defense, and just 8th of 10 in opponent’s offensive rebounding %.

These have been issues throughout the season here and there too. So if our offense isn’t having a great shooting day, we’re in trouble.

 

[knowknow456]

I’m stoked to be 3-1. That’s great. Objective is to win.

But we have not played well overall or our typical brand of ball. We’ve been down at least 9+ points in every game. That’s a red flag. We’ve made great comebacks and big plays in key spots thanks to very talented and experienced players, but that’s not sustainable as we saw last night (even after we cut it from -13 to -1).

The specifics are defense. It’s been bad. If that doesn’t improve we won’t be able to carry a pretty record.

Through these 4 games, we are just 7th of 10 in Defensive Efficiency, 9th of 10 in forcing turnovers (to counteract our own inherent sloppiness), 8th of 10 in 3PT defense, and just 8th of 10 in opponent’s offensive rebounding %.

These have been issues throughout the season here and there too. So if our offense isn’t having a great shooting day, we’re in trouble.

I agree with almost everything in this post. However, I do not place much value in scoring margin/differential as a metric.

 

[Piratz]

we we're outscored for the entire BE season last year.

Interesting about that is we were good on boards and defense, weak o. Like inverse of this year.

Maybe we'll follow suit this year and be 10-8 again.

 

[Piratz]

I agree not be-all, end-all but usually revealing of something being up when compared to winning %. And vice versa.

 

[radecicco]

On another website I predict d 10-8 in the BE. The reason was that aside from our core guys, who are more exprienced and have naturally improved skill-wise, we are basically the same team as last year. Our new guys have potential but aside ffrom I’m Cale, I don’t see major contributions this year. 10-8 gets us back to the Tournament for 3rd straight year and if we are in it we have a chance to do something.

That being said, the team has looked real good at times with significant wins to back that up— Indiana, TT, Louisville, Creighton, Butler. Two on the road and one at a semi neutral court. My estimation has gone up: 11-7 maybe even 12-6. That earns a 5 seed.