Marquette game thread 1/23/2022

[Anti-Homer]

Watching playoff game now. Can someone plus summarize what Coach Cliché says in the postgame? I suspect he'll share metrics on who cheered the most during the game. Hell of a recruiter.

Resume is also looking very ordinary now. MQuette has 6 quad one wins. X? Two. Travis can recruit!

are you going to complain about Hunter 3s because since the Bif East started he is shooting 40%

In Travis we trust. 6-23 from three, but the good news is Nunge, Hunter, and 10% Zac took eight of them. Good point about Hunter. He has been shooting better from 3. Johnson was only 1-6, but he has been a top five three point shooter the last two years. He has earned the right for a slump, which he's in. Good thing Steele put in Hunter over Kunkel, instead of say....Nunge, considering X would be pressing and needed threes. There are no discernible, sets run by Steele except out of timeouts. Kind of like an AAU offense. Do you know he has bought drinks at Dana's after beating UC three years in a row? OK, so I know some posters will complain about that minor thing about missing the tourney three yrs in a row and melting down when it counts three years in a row. Haters!!!!

[XavierBob]

I’ve had issues with Travis but what is he going to do. He is getting nothing from Nate the last four games, Odom is an offensive cipher. Scruggs up and down. Soft big men, how many chippies has X missed over the last few games. The softness of this team is my biggest complaint and I put that on Steele. X used to play with a chip on his shoulder haven’t seen that with this regime. We all say well don’t play this guy, bench that guy for making mistakes, well who do you play. Can’t play five for fourty minutes. I trust Nunge, Colby and Kunkle now but that’s about it. Sadly it’s not three man basketball.

[Anti-Homer]

I’ve had issues with Travis but what is he going to do. He is getting nothing from Nate the last four games, Odom is an offensive cipher. Scruggs up and down. Soft big men, how want chippies has X missed over the last few games. The softness of this team is my biggest complaint and I put that on Steele. X used to play with a chip on his shoulder haven’t seen that with this regime. We all say well don’t play this guy, bench that guy for making mistakes, well who do you play. Can’t play five for fourty minutes. I trust Nunge, Colby and Kunkle now but that’s about it. Sadly it’s not three man basketball.

A wfe ideas:

When Free gives little offensively and is a deficit defensively, sit him down.

When Scruggs forces 3 horrible shots in 4 possessions in crunch time, sit him down.

Steele does not make players accountable. Kind of like an AAU coach.

XBob, serious question for you and my mentor Muskieman. Down 8 with 50 seconds, would you have let them burn thirty seconds only for them to bury a three? Symptomatic of his coaching acumen for three plus years.

[muskieman]

the problem with Colby is he is hot and cold when he is good he is very very good but when he is cold he is timid.

Make half of those layups and bunnies and there is a 10 point swing.

[XavierBob]

Anti,
To answer your question X could have put them on the line and try to extend the game, coaches decision but not trying to be contrarian today down eight with 50 seconds to play it was probably over either way.

[muskieman]

I’ve had issues with Travis but what is he going to do. He is getting nothing from Nate the last four games, Odom is an offensive cipher. Scruggs up and down. Soft big men, how want chippies has X missed over the last few games. The softness of this team is my biggest complaint and I put that on Steele. X used to play with a chip on his shoulder haven’t seen that with this regime. We all say well don’t play this guy, bench that guy for making mistakes, well who do you play. Can’t play five for fourty minutes. I trust Nunge, Colby and Kunkle now but that’s about it. Sadly it’s not three man basketball.

A wfe ideas:

When Free gives little offensively and is a deficit defensively, sit him down.

When Scruggs forces 3 horrible shots in 4 possessions in crunch time, sit him down.

Steele does not make players accountable. Kind of like an AAU coach.

XBob, serious question for you and my mentor Muskieman. Down 8 with 50 seconds, would you have let them burn thirty seconds only for them to bury a three? Symptomatic of his coaching acumen for three plus years.

they were trying to foul but they had to make three fouls before they got to 7 so burning thirty seconds is much easier than you think...or in your case ? YOu and bob say take out Nate when he is shooting poorly but if you put in Kunkel he wasn't much better and Nate had played some good D. You say Free gives little offensively but he didn't play that bad of D. You think you can sit anyone that was playing bad, in your opinion but no one was outstanding in this game on offense and no one had a hot hand long enough to make an impact. Odom scored 2 points in 16 minutes so who does he replace? You say paul played poorly 5-9 from the filed but Colby, who you didn't call out was 4-9 in the same number of minutes. I think you guys work on feelings rather than reality.

[XavierBob]

MM,
I think you might have misunderstood. I didn’t say take out a certain player. My point is we all ask for substitutions after poor/sloppy play. My point was right now who’s does he play, Hoping it gets better but not a lot of guys I trust right now. Have to keep playing, plugging away hoping for some consistency.

[Anti-Homer]

I’ve had issues with Travis but what is he going to do. He is getting nothing from Nate the last four games, Odom is an offensive cipher. Scruggs up and down. Soft big men, how want chippies has X missed over the last few games. The softness of this team is my biggest complaint and I put that on Steele. X used to play with a chip on his shoulder haven’t seen that with this regime. We all say well don’t play this guy, bench that guy for making mistakes, well who do you play. Can’t play five for fourty minutes. I trust Nunge, Colby and Kunkle now but that’s about it. Sadly it’s not three man basketball.

A wfe ideas:

When Free gives little offensively and is a deficit defensively, sit him down.

When Scruggs forces 3 horrible shots in 4 possessions in crunch time, sit him down.

Steele does not make players accountable. Kind of like an AAU coach.

XBob, serious question for you and my mentor Muskieman. Down 8 with 50 seconds, would you have let them burn thirty seconds only for them to bury a three? Symptomatic of his coaching acumen for three plus years.

they were trying to foul but they had to make three fouls before they got to 7 so burning thirty seconds is much easier than you think...or in your case ? YOu and bob say take out Nate when he is shooting poorly but if you put in Kunkel he wasn't much better and Nate had played some good D. You say Free gives little offensively but he didn't play that bad of D. You think you can sit anyone that was playing bad, in your opinion but no one was outstanding in this game on offense and no one had a hot hand long enough to make an impact. Odom scored 2 points in 16 minutes so who does he replace? You say paul played poorly 5-9 from the filed but Colby, who you didn't call out was 4-9 in the same number of minutes. I think you guys work on feelings rather than reality.

Mman,

Despite the fact that we occasionally, rarely disagree, you know I like the cut of your jib. First of all, I never advocated taking Nate out at any time. He has been a great three point shooter his whole college career, so the next miss only increases the chance he makes the next one. To your astute points, no one else was playing great, though Kunkel carried us offensively AGAIN in the first half. He should have been in over Nunge in the last few minutes.

Secondly, they were not trying to foul under a minute. It is really easy for one of five guys to foul if they want to. They hunkered down to play D. It almost worked b/c they hit a low percentage three, but you have to extend the game regardless when down by multiple possessions under a minute by fouling. It was the same, perplexing flawed strategy when they played someone last year and had a three point lead. There was 1.5 seconds or so, and instead of fouling, Steele decided to play out the D. They missed an opened three from the wing. Steele said if the ball was thrown in from the sideline as opposed to under the basket, he would have fouled. I'm not making it up. It is in print and on video.

Sincere question: Is there a game in Steele's three years with no postseason appearances where you think he coached a poor game? I can think of a lot of games where he coached well, including a loss to Nova in his first year. What about you? Even Jay Wright has laid eggs before.

[muskieman]

MM,
I think you might have misunderstood. I didn’t say take out a certain player. My point is we all ask for substitutions after poor/sloppy play. My point was right now who’s does he play, Hoping it gets better but not a lot of guys I trust right now. Have to keep playing, plugging away hoping for some consistency.

I think the big mystery is Nate. Last year he has a slump in Big East and some were saying he only scored against non-conference inferior teams which was a wrong take but he has become progressively less effective since the BE started. overall in the big east he is around 35-36% which for him is bad.

The second big mystery is Colby looking solid and then looking timid. I think Colby could be a consistent 18-22 point games

The third mystery is finishing and the follow up! X came out and the first two scored were dunks and I know every score cannot be a dunk but when it is there those little layups are not working

[muskieman]

Travis has had a number of games which I thought he could had had different line ups including today when I though miles needed to be the rim protector. Unfortunately when he was in he made no difference.

I do agree with letting Nate and künkel shoot because the odds are in most games they could make the next shot. Today they didn’t and in recent games, Nate has not. I just wish this team did all take the day off shooting