St. John's game thread

1st half positives - shot the ball great and rebounded well

1st half negatives - Markus and Luke continue to be foul-prone and Haanif is still a TO machine

Man, I like what Heldt is bringing to the table. He's a winner.

Heldt is really playing well

JJJ with the emphatic dunk and Markus with a 3 -- life is good for MU right now

Luke has more fouls than minutes played. He and Haanif are going to be seeing a lot of pine time the remainder of the season

Luke's size impacts shots but he simply cannot guard anyone. It's that simple. I'm beginning to think Heldt's effort, intensity and footwork on defense makes us tougher defensively and that's what we need.

Heldt and Sam were both really good.....great to see. Too many turnovers again but we ran the offense got good looks, knocked them down and outrebounded them by quite a few.

Great win!

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Originally Posted by DCwarrior

Luke has more fouls than minutes played. He and Haanif are going to be seeing a lot of pine time the remainder of the season

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Couple of Luke's fouls were absolute bull$h!t. Went up straight, kept his arms straight up, was out of the circle and still got the call. This crew sucked hard and I usually like Roger Ayers.

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Originally Posted by MUAlphaBangura

Couple of Luke's fouls were absolute bull$h!t. Went up straight, kept his arms straight up, was out of the circle and still got the call. This crew sucked hard and I usually like Roger Ayers.

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Not sure I agree. Watching on TV, I thought his fouls were legit

Didn't see replays of any of Luke's fouls, but let's not write him off over a couple games. He needs to get back to playing like he was earlier this season. Hopefully that starts with Providence.

Last night almost all of Fischer and Heldt's fouls were on guards who easily blew by their defenders causing the big guys to have to help out. This often puts them out of position and results in their trying to cover quicker players. All year I've heard people in my section complain about Luke picking up fouls, but never complain that Howard, Rowsey, Reinhardt, Hauser, JJ, Cheatham, get beat time and time again off the dribble that led to Fischer having to leave his man to help out (also putting him out of rebound position). Should Fischer just let them go in for layups instead of trying to get the stop?

Yes Fischer and Heldt's fouls drive me crazy at times, but it is incredible how often and how easily our guards (include Reinhardt too) get absolutely burned off the dribble leaving our big guys to try and help out.

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Originally Posted by Goose85

Last night almost all of Fischer and Heldt's fouls were on guards who easily blew by their defenders causing the big guys to have to help out. This often puts them out of position and results in their trying to cover quicker players. All year I've heard people in my section complain about Luke picking up fouls, but never complain that Howard, Rowsey, Reinhardt, Hauser, JJ, Cheatham, get beat time and time again off the dribble that led to Fischer having to leave his man to help out (also putting him out of rebound position). Should Fischer just let them go in for layups instead of trying to get the stop?

Yes Fischer and Heldt's fouls drive me crazy at times, but it is incredible how often and how easily our guards (include Reinhardt too) get absolutely burned off the dribble leaving our big guys to try and help out.

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Our guards were abused last night, St. John's is really quick, we couldn't keep up. Props to Heldt, he showed good control later in the game by taking swipes at the guards' layups without fouling.

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Originally Posted by Goose85

Last night almost all of Fischer and Heldt's fouls were on guards who easily blew by their defenders causing the big guys to have to help out. This often puts them out of position and results in their trying to cover quicker players. All year I've heard people in my section complain about Luke picking up fouls, but never complain that Howard, Rowsey, Reinhardt, Hauser, JJ, Cheatham, get beat time and time again off the dribble that led to Fischer having to leave his man to help out (also putting him out of rebound position). Should Fischer just let them go in for layups instead of trying to get the stop?

Yes Fischer and Heldt's fouls drive me crazy at times, but it is incredible how often and how easily our guards (include Reinhardt too) get absolutely burned off the dribble leaving our big guys to try and help out.

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Clearly you're not a member of the Fightin' 218. It's a recurring topic of discussion there. The worst offender is JJ as his overplays for steal attempts lead to major defensive problems the 9 out of 10 times he doesn't get the steal.

There were a few times last night where I actually laughed at how easily Reinhardt was beaten off the dribble.
Lucky for us Rowsey, Howard and Reinhardt can hit 3s, because they give up a lot of 2's.

And for some reason, the guards were playing tight 25+ feet from the hoop. Thought they showed way too much respect for SJU's outside shooting.

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Originally Posted by Goose85

Last night almost all of Fischer and Heldt's fouls were on guards who easily blew by their defenders causing the big guys to have to help out. This often puts them out of position and results in their trying to cover quicker players. All year I've heard people in my section complain about Luke picking up fouls, but never complain that Howard, Rowsey, Reinhardt, Hauser, JJ, Cheatham, get beat time and time again off the dribble that led to Fischer having to leave his man to help out (also putting him out of rebound position). Should Fischer just let them go in for layups instead of trying to get the stop?

Yes Fischer and Heldt's fouls drive me crazy at times, but it is incredible how often and how easily our guards (include Reinhardt too) get absolutely burned off the dribble leaving our big guys to try and help out.

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Agree with all of this. Unless we're playing a team with lights out shooters, our guards need to sag more to prevent penetration because they're simply not good enough/quick enough to guard closely on the perimeter.

That said, Fischer has terribly slow feet and is always a step to slow when sliding over to help. He also picks up 1 to 2 fouls per game 25 feet from the basket when he's hedging at the top of the key trying to defend the pick and roll. He's simply too slow to do that and picks up careless fouls in the process. Heldt has quicker feet and is much more effective hedging the pick and roll.