+3 / -3

[bleedbluegold03]

I'm going to try and put a neutral spin on my thoughts for the game tonight by giving three things I liked coming away from the match up and three things that ticked me off:

+ Vander Blue - played one of the best 2nd halfs of his career, really hope this bodes well for his optimism

+ 49% - 9 out of 10 games you win by 10+ with a shooting percentage that good; giving your opponents 25% more shots though obviously negates that

+ Juan Anderson - it's easy for a young player to stand out against poor competition (see Jamail Jones game 1 last year), but his stat stuffing performance today - 5 pts, 6 rbs (2 orb), 2 ast, 3 stl, and 1 blk show me that he could be far ahead the timeline many of us could've dreamed for him


- Jamil Wilson - really, really disappointed in the guy's performance today. I was at work listening on the radio so I can't speak to how he looked, but we will not win many games in the BEast if he doesn't assert himself offensively

- Jake Thomas / Todd Mayo - this isn't much Thomas' fault, though from what I hear he's not looking for his shot at all, it's just the absence of Mayo being able to play 20-25 mins a night makes this offense much easier to guard. I moved my prediction back 2-3 games with losing Mayo but it may need to be one or two more.

- Chris Otule - perhaps someone who got to see the contest could chime in that he positively impacted the game but with Homer/Mac's play by play and his stat line, he needs to give a little more on both end for this to be a good season

Overall what I took away from this is we have very, very little room for error this season. Hopefully karma can work in our favor with regards to the injury bug because I don't see any position (outside of maybe center) where we can sustain a long term injury and maintain our level of play. Lastly, I think given the level of play today beating Wisconsin at home is as close to a must win as possible in the OOC schedule because of what's occurred to this point. I'll be happy with MU being within 10 points of Florida and our RPI could not have had a worse first 5 games: no OSU or UNC at all and a loss to a decent team, ouch

[beerhere6]

Agreed on Anderson.. Didn't quite understand why he was barely on the floor the last 4 mins of the game, especially with 0 stops in the last 6 mins

[Markedman]

0 stops in the last 7 minutes actually

[bleedbluegold03]

if i heard correctly 11 straight made baskets, and all were lay ins. can anyone describe where the defense broke down for those of us in work without tv? thanks ahead of time

[TheSultan]

Butler spread the floor and their guards beat ours off the dribble and they marched down the lane endlessly. Thomas just can't get his shot off. He plays hard, and his defense is better than advertised, but he just can't get the looks.

[Markedman]

Yeah it was mostly Jones and Marshall beating us off the dribble and either making plays for themselves or others. A couple of put backs also hurt.

I don't know what was up with Jamil today but he really struggled....got beat off the dribble badly by guys who should be able to stay in front of with his quickness. Missed a number of wide open looks too.

No turnovers forced in the 2nd half at all...not 1...and that is with Butler basically playing without a point guard. Clarke is really and undersized 2.

We out shot them from the floor...had a better 3 point percentage, better free throw percentage and outrebounded them and still lost....that's hard to do.
http://scores.espn.go.com/ncb/playby...40269&period=2

[IWB]

if i heard correctly 11 straight made baskets, and all were lay ins. can anyone describe where the defense broke down for those of us in work without tv? thanks ahead of time

From my point of view, because of the foul trouble with Wilson, Gardner etc, it seemed to me as if, down the stretch anyway, guys like Juan, Lockett and Jake were stuck guarding post players. Or maybe it was just the switches off of screens, but several of the lay-ups/lay ins were by there bigs and it looked to me as if it was due to mis-matches.

[Gato78]

Everybody in the house knew Jones was going left and he just kept going left. None of our guys could figur eit out. He needed to be overplayed.

[Markedman]

Things could be worse....Texas down 14 in 2nd half to Chaminade....

[dw3dw3dw3]

Jamil just had bad body language from the start... never have seen that from him before. Outside of pure athleticism there is no reason he should have been in there at the end. He had no confidence in himself offensively or defensively.

I'm not sure if Marshall is on anyone's NBA radar, but he dominated Jamil today and looked the part.

Loved Vander's confidence. One game doesn't mean much, but I don't know if we can go dancing this year without at least 75% of today's game on the offensive end from Vander every game.

I'm not getting the warm and fuzzies after Lockett playing for 3 games. I hope there's more there offensively. Like the announcers were saying, he seems a half step slow, which at times can be good, but other times.. he just seems a half step slow.

Jake is just a guy out there right now... doesn't seem to have the confidence to take/make the 3 off the curl. He needs to make more stuff happen for himself (like the putback) to justify him playing.

Need Juan or Steve Taylor to be able to hit the top of the key 3 (Lazar special). It's going to be there all season, without it, their defender will be sagging to help out on the drive from the wing.

I'm liking Junior's jump stop shot game... we need points from him.

Gardner is going to have to work on handling that double team better. He bulled his way through for a few baskets today, but he struggled with the quick, aggressive double from the weak side. That's going to be coming all year, hopefully we can come up with a good answer for it.

Not much out of Chris. Would have hoped for a little more impact defensively.

After a couple of hours my emotions have mellowed out and I'm staying positive. Vander finding confidence and riding it for the year would be a good trade-off for a single loss.