I don't think there has ever been a player...

[Jake]

I've despised so much one year, and loved so much then next. But if the game is on the line, I want Dion with the ball in his hands. Good things happen.

FWIW. JB really needs to sit Kris down and explain that he's a catch and shoot player. His handle is TERRIBLE. Less dribble, more off the ball movement and Kris would be a special player.

Not sure what to make of Scoop. Bad scoop for nearly the entire game today...won in spite of him. Sad to see a 5th year senior still not understand game situations. I don't buy JB's explanation in the post game presser. I'd rather have Triche and Dion in the game together...they are a much better complementary pair.

 

[BostonOrange]

I've despised so much one year, and loved so much then next. But if the game is on the line, I want Dion with the ball in his hands. Good things happen.

FWIW. JB really needs to sit Kris down and explain that he's a catch and shoot player. His handle is TERRIBLE. Less dribble, more off the ball movement and Kris would be a special player.

Not sure what to make of Scoop. Bad scoop for nearly the entire game today...won in spite of him. Sad to see a 5th year senior still not understand game situations. I don't buy JB's explanation in the post game presser. I'd rather have Triche and Dion in the game together...they are a much better complementary pair.

This might be semantics but I am going to disagree on kj's handle I actually think he has nasty handle for a sf. But he overrates it and dribbles himself into trouble a lot

 

[Orangezoo]

ill second that kjs handle is perfect against other sfs but cant dribble a lot against marquettes 3 guards

 

[RF2044]

This might be semantics but I am going to disagree on kj's handle I actually think he has nasty handle for a sf. But he overrates it and dribbles himself into trouble a lot

Tend to agree--but less is more when it comes to KJ's dribbling. He'd be EXPONENTIALLY more dangerous off the bounce if he took the mustard off of his handle and didn't make simple plays more complicated than he needs to be.

I think it may have been Bilas who said it several weeks ago [against Florida?] that when he tries to dribble like he's Kobe Bryant, he gets into trouble. When he makes the simple play instead of the more difficult one when he puts the ball on the floor, he is usually much better.

 

[mountaincuse]

Kris was fantastic two years ago when he came in off the bench because he didn't do too much, just moved without the ball and slashed to the hoop.

He may not have a bad handle but he dribbles way too much - i could stop his behind the back dribble.

 

[Toga]

And did you not love that Triche gave up an open jam so Dion could get it?

I've despised so much one year, and loved so much then next. But if the game is on the line, I want Dion with the ball in his hands. Good things happen.

FWIW. JB really needs to sit Kris down and explain that he's a catch and shoot player. His handle is TERRIBLE. Less dribble, more off the ball movement and Kris would be a special player.

Not sure what to make of Scoop. Bad scoop for nearly the entire game today...won in spite of him. Sad to see a 5th year senior still not understand game situations. I don't buy JB's explanation in the post game presser. I'd rather have Triche and Dion in the game together...they are a much better complementary pair.

 

[CaptainJ]

And did you not love that Triche gave up an open jam so Dion could get it?

That was one of the top highlights of the game for me. I love unselfish play, and you could see what that did for Dion's emotion after the jam.

 

[RF2044]

That was one of the top highlights of the game for me. I love unselfish play, and you could see what that did for Dion's emotion after the jam.

Agreed. Last year, our guards were not on the same page at all--and frankly, didn't like each other. There is no such evidence of chemistry issues this year with that same group.

Great to see.

 

[stuckinbig11]

I agree. When the game was close over the last few minutes, I kept saying, "Let Dion keep the ball."

 

[Ghost]

Tend to agree--but less is more when it comes to KJ's dribbling. He'd be EXPONENTIALLY more dangerous off the bounce if he took the mustard off of his handle and didn't make simple plays more complicated than he needs to be.

I think it may have been Bilas who said it several weeks ago [against Florida?] that when he tries to dribble like he's Kobe Bryant, he gets into trouble. When he makes the simple play instead of the more difficult one when he puts the ball on the floor, he is usually much better.

Oh, KJo - at some point he fell in love with dribbling between his legs and for some reason has yet to realize it's not productive at all. He just kills 2 or 3 seconds w/out accomplishing much, and today was pretty close to turning the ball over every time.

Scoop was definitely off today (that's being terribly kind), but I was shocked to see how bad everyone was passing the ball. It wasn't just him, seemed like every entry pass was inevitably going to Marquette regardless of who was throwing it. Weird game in that regard.

 

[CaptainJ]

Scoop was definitely off today (that's being terribly kind), but I was shocked to see how bad everyone was passing the ball. It wasn't just him, seemed like every entry pass was inevitably going to Marquette regardless of who was throwing it. Weird game in that regard.

Thank you. I was wondering if it was just me or if everyone had somehow missed all the other bad passing that didn't involve Scoop.

 

[pfister1]

ill second that kjs handle is perfect against other sfs but cant dribble a lot against marquettes 3 guards

I wouldn't disagree that his handle is decent for a SF, but KJ has to recognize that today wasn't a day that he should have been looking to put the ball on the floor. Seemed like every time he did something bad happened.

I was disappointed that JB didn't play James a bit in the second half. Seemed like our offense stagnated to coming down and taking jump shots. Might as well put in a guy that has a decent shot at making some of those jump shots.

 

[pfister1]

Tend to agree--but less is more when it comes to KJ's dribbling. He'd be EXPONENTIALLY more dangerous off the bounce if he took the mustard off of his handle and didn't make simple plays more complicated than he needs to be.

I think it may have been Bilas who said it several weeks ago [against Florida?] that when he tries to dribble like he's Kobe Bryant, he gets into trouble. When he makes the simple play instead of the more difficult one when he puts the ball on the floor, he is usually much better.

I think what he said was if he uses one dribble to get his shot that is ideal, any more than one dribble and it likely spells trouble.

 

[realorange]

I've despised so much one year, and loved so much then next. But if the game is on the line, I want Dion with the ball in his hands. Good things happen.

FWIW. JB really needs to sit Kris down and explain that he's a catch and shoot player. His handle is TERRIBLE. Less dribble, more off the ball movement and Kris would be a special player.

Not sure what to make of Scoop. Bad scoop for nearly the entire game today...won in spite of him. Sad to see a 5th year senior still not understand game situations. I don't buy JB's explanation in the post game presser. I'd rather have Triche and Dion in the game together...they are a much better complementary pair.

The only one worse on the dribble than KJ is Southerland. Neither one should ever dribble more than twice. And KJ coming across the lane to the basket from left to right has a 50/50 chance of being out of control and a charge.

 

[alibrat66]

The only one worse on the dribble than KJ is Southerland. Neither one should ever dribble more than twice. And KJ coming across the lane to the basket from left to right has a 50/50 chance of being out of control and a charge.

Apparently using ball fakes on entry passes is a lost art with our players. We rely almost solely on the Samuel Morse method of passing.

Time for a tutorial in Hoops 101. Calling Red, Hop, and GMac. Back to the basics.

 

[SoBeCuse]

I've despised so much one year, and loved so much then next. But if the game is on the line, I want Dion with the ball in his hands. Good things happen.

FWIW. JB really needs to sit Kris down and explain that he's a catch and shoot player. His handle is TERRIBLE. Less dribble, more off the ball movement and Kris would be a special player.

Not sure what to make of Scoop. Bad scoop for nearly the entire game today...won in spite of him. Sad to see a 5th year senior still not understand game situations. I don't buy JB's explanation in the post game presser. I'd rather have Triche and Dion in the game together...they are a much better complementary pair.

Good post, Jake. Totally agree. Kris shouldn't be trying dribbling exhibitions against Marquette of all teams. Dion is the man and he is making big plays on both ends. Scoop was just awful and REALLY bad defensively today. He just never will be able to deal with these kinds of style teams...just not gonna happen. The backwards/semi-circling dribbling and picking up his dribble sans double team way outside the three-point line just can't happen.

 

[rottweiler44]

Good post, Jake. Totally agree. Kris shouldn't be trying dribbling exhibitions against Marquette of all teams. Dion is the man and he is making big plays on both ends. Scoop was just awful and REALLY bad defensively today. He just never will be able to deal with these kinds of style teams...just not gonna happen. The backwards/semi-circling dribbling and picking up his dribble sans double team way outside the three-point line just can't happen.

Yep, Scoop picked up his dribble at least 3 times with absolutely nobody to go to...its a panic move and more teams are going to pick up on this in game film...if they haven't already

 

[pfister1]

I thought we were surprisingly tentative against their pressure defense all game. I hate when we try to break press with the two guards coming up looping passes across the court to each other. While we handled Depaul's press, I don't think playing against a good pressing team is going to be a strength of ours. We also had one possession where the ball was inbounded to Keita and all the ball handlers ran away from him. Scoop circled back but Waiters was in the frontcourt...really?

 

[MadNY3]

This might be semantics but I am going to disagree on kj's handle I actually think he has nasty handle for a sf. But he overrates it and dribbles himself into trouble a lot

KJ's handle stinks.

He's phenomenal in transition and on arch and shoot or off one dribble. Watch how he scores.

 

[rrlbees]

KJo spends too much time dribbling east-west trying to beat his man now. When he was a sophomore, he looked good handling the ball because he wasn't the focus of the defense with guys like Wes and Andy on the court. He would slash to the basket with a couple of dribbles. Now the defense plays up on him tight because he can shoot the J and they want him to beat them off the dribble. He now goes between the legs and behind the back trying to beat his man, or men, and can't do either well. The defense treats him the opposite of Dion. Teams are so afraid of getting beat off the dribble by Dion, they play off him and give him the J even in m2m. I was surprised KJo only had 2 turnovers. Someone was nice to him because things seemed to get out of whack a lot more than that, especially the 1st half. I will say he played much better the 2nd half and we needed him to.

As to Scoop, he has good games and bad ones. When he is in his "bad zone", there is no need to play him as much as Dion and Triche. He played well last game, but today he was bad early, middle and late. I have no idea how he played as many 2nd half minutes as Dion and more than Triche. He gave us nothing that 2nd half just looking at the stats. 0 made baskets, 0 rebounds, 0 steals, 2 TO's, 1/2 FT's, 1 assist and 0 defense to go with it. Why? Whether it was bringing Triche back in or going with MCW some, there was no need for Scoop that much. Triche should have come out at that 8 minute mark, he had lost his legs and his last 3 was a bad miss as he leaned in way too much and just pushed it. But after a few minutes he (or MCW) should have been out there. When Triche came out, he led the team in scoring, rebounding and assists.

BTW, since we won, I can say this without sounding whiny, but the refs blew chunks. I didn't think they were all that bad the 2nd half as we got away with a couple, but that 1st half 19 point lead should have been 30. As Jake and I were saying, we haven't seen so much grabbing, clutching and pushing since the old GTown days. They must have grabbed our arms about 4-5 different times the first half as we shot or drove to the basket. And if the refs wanted to call people for elbows, there were plenty of those too by Marquette. #22 on their team, while he didn't play a whole lot, was used to set a lot of high screens and every one he complimented the screen with an elbow. 2nd half, Triche took one to the nose as he came across the lane. IMO, Marquette has very little basketball skills but has good athletes who play hard and Williams works the refs like K does and Thompson used too. That game was over in the 1st half if not for the drunks in the striped shirts.

But a win is a win is a win. The line looked safe early, but I knew this could end up a war and why I said don't bet it or else take the points.

 

[SoBeCuse]

I thought we were surprisingly tentative against their pressure defense all game. I hate when we try to break press with the two guards coming up looping passes across the court to each other. While we handled Depaul's press, I don't think playing against a good pressing team is going to be a strength of ours. We also had one possession where the ball was inbounded to Keita and all the ball handlers ran away from him. Scoop circled back but Waiters was in the frontcourt...really?

Yeah, this looping business is driving me nuts. Scoop against a good press=fail. Scoop just won't go forward and as indicated above he is picking up his dribble too much. I thought Dion was fine and Triche OK. We will get somebody in the tourney who will play us like this. It's just unfortunate how Scoop continues to struggle in these scenarios.

 

[SoBeCuse]

KJ's handle stinks.

He's phenomenal in transition and on arch and shoot or off one dribble. Watch how he scores.

Yep, like Bilas said. One or two dribbles and that should be about it with him.

 

[Chosen0ne]

I think Joseph's handle is fine, but he tries to do way too much and gets into trouble. He needs to get put in one of those basketball drills they had at camps when I was younger where you played one on one, but you were only allowed 3 dribbles each possession. He needs to use his dribbles to take him toward the hoop or somewhere, rather than goof around standing still. He has clearly become a great spot up shooter. It would be great to see him add a pull up off of one strong dribble toward the hoop.

 

[PeteCalvin]

Not sure what to make of Scoop. Bad scoop for nearly the entire game today...won in spite of him. Sad to see a 5th year senior still not understand game situations. I don't buy JB's explanation in the post game presser. I'd rather have Triche and Dion in the game together...they are a much better complementary pair.

Scoop seems to suffer from "I gotta make the big shot" syndrome. He forced some I'll advised shots and made some really bad decisions with the ball. He needs to learn that he can still impact a game even when his offense isn't there. He missed some defensive assignments during that Marquette run that led to big buckets. Then he made things worse by trying to make up for it on the other end. Scoop can still be deadly without scoring. He can draw and dish and use his physical build to get to the line. You don't have to make threes to stem a run by the other team.

 

[ssbriefcase]

There isn't one thing that makes me more nervous, than when KJ starts to dribble. He constantly dribbles off his foot, or that spin move while dribbling and leaves the ball behind. His handle is horrible.