Thoughts on DePaul

The Good:

-- Not sure if it was the start or just that shots started falling, but Davante looked motivated and it was infectious in the second half. That's how we need him to play.
-- Mayo did a bit of everything for us today. That one-man 6-0 run, rebounded well, hit a three, nice game from Todd.
-- The defense was great. Even when DePaul was in the lead, their shooting percentage was woeful and the advantage was mostly due to turnovers on the other end. 28-16 advantage in fouls.
-- Dominating at the line. MU goes 23/31 from the charity stripe, DPU goes 2/4. Two guys fouled out for DePaul as well.

The Bad:

-- Jamil is not a point guard. He turned it over way too much and was largely responsible for DePaul's first half advantage. Like it or not, Derrick is the best point guard on the roster.
-- Guarding the three. Good interior defense, but DePaul got too many open looks from three and took advantage. How do you give Melvin that much room on three straight trips?
-- For about 35 minutes, DePaul was clearly the better team. And that with key players in foul trouble and Young not contributing. MU went 36-16 after that point, but there just didn't seem to be the motivation early. Thank god Ox woke up, or we'd be staring at another loss.

The Ugly:

-- Not ugly for DPU, but that Garrett kid look like he's going to be very good. Seems like a much more complete player than Melvin or Young. If Purnell can put guys around him, DePaul could be a legitimate threat in the next few years.

Good recap...thought Todd's defense was outstanding. Young with zero points was huge. Garrett was 4-14. Shooting wise, this team needs a shrink. The Ox was literally skipping in pre-game in warm ups, so knew something was up. Unleash the Sheesh.

Really good defensive effort which generated offense on the other end, even despite DePaul being hot in the first. The killer was the chuck from the Al circle after 34 seconds of great defense.

DePaul is extremely poorly coached. Clearly MU's gameplan was to pound it inside (no surprise). Once MU got their big men in major foul trouble and fed it to Davante, DePaul refused to double him. Amazing. Also, as good as Davante looked, most of his post points were ones he created for himself. The passes to him occurred when he was wide and he bulled his way inside. We still have no one who can effectively feed the post.

Was gonna say exactly what the Mayor said. Does Purnell not view game tape? You double Ox and make the others beat you. Add another to the Jim Schwartz, Brad Childress hall of shame!

While I agree that OP is not the best game coach, some credit has to go to Buzz. First of all, starting both Otule and Gardner threw DePaul off on any double team plans defensively. Not that it was effective immediately for MU, as it wasn't, but because the war of attrition started as DU had to pay attention to both. What OP was playing worked for 3/4ths of the game, but every DU big was collecting fouls, while MU was staying in the game with free throws (and rode back into the game in both halves once MU hit bonus time which is my point). Then, when OP started the double team in the last ten minutes, MU went three guard. So, with foul trouble and and room for space, MU took over...with free throw after free throw...and the threes.

Buzz also made the adjustment of putting Derrick on Melvin, preventing him from even catching the ball on the perimeter in the 2nd. A bigger question on OP is why he only lets his PF linger all game on the trace when guarded by a 6'1" guard? I think they tried to post Melvin up once. Todd and Jake were outstanding on Garrett and Young, generating offense from defense.

End of they day, Buzz shut down their one advantage and OP didn't. One was more immediate, the other took until MU was in the bonus because they were not shooting fouls (and MU wasted those early half foul possessions with turnovers).

Todd Mayo was very effective in all phases yesterday. He actually has generally played well this season, other than a couple brain f*rts.

Mayor-I didnt think DePaul did a bad job on Davante in the post at all. They continued to switch strategies throughout the game. Initially, they left him alone and he turned the ball over, missed a few layups. Eventually he scored a few times. When the double game on consecutive possessions in the second half- he passed to Derrick twice underneath the hoop. One time Derrick got fouled. One time he passed to Mayo for the 3. Buzz just countered their moves really well. Instead of leaving Derrick on the perimeter, he was obviously told to cut right underneath the hoop. That also wasnt all that bad for DePaul. Derrick isnt really good at 6 foot underneath the hoop. He just made a play once by jumping into Hamilton and the other time passing to Mayo. It was really a cool chess match to watch.
Of course, then they stopped doubling and Devante scored everytime on big guys who were in foul trouble. In short, that wasn't on Purnell at all, it was Davante and Buzz just being a little better.

It was tough for DePaul because everyone they threw at Gardner got in foul trouble. Marcius got 2 quick ones and ended up fouling out. Hamilton finished with 4 fouls. Ryckbosch and Robinson both had 3 fouls. Gardner is darn near unguardable when the refs are giving him calls. That's the first time this year he's really got calls like that.

Marcus picked up 2 in the first 26 seconds of the game, one really quick on Otule and the second was on Jamil I think. Then came back in later and picked up his third in 30 seconds. Less than a minute of play and three fouls.

Hamilton had been starting for them and saw no PT until late, Purnell said that was done with the intent to send a message to Hamilton about his work ethic.

"intent to send a message to Hamilton about his work ethic"

I guess Buzz isn't the only coach who does this.......