We're a couple weeks into the basketball season, MU and UWM faced off last night, and, of course, the Milwaukee Bucks are on a tear. It's a perfect time to take a peak at how things are going and shaping up for the rest of the season.
White players have stood no chance against Wes "Mega-arm" Matthews this season
Let's start off with the Bucks, who most people figured would lose 74 games this year. Well, with Michael Redd injured, the Bucks have given substantial playing time to their best player Razor Ramon Sessions. Sessions has led them to respectability. But before we get too excited here, remember that Redd will be back soon and the Bucks are devoid of talent. With Redd shooting 30 times a game and playing absolutely no defense, the Bucks still figure to lose 60 games this season. But, as long as Redd is out, this blog will continue to support the Bucks.
On to the real basketball - Marquette. MU handed UWM a 100-80 defeat last night in a game that was close throughout the first half and a blowout in the second. UWM played pretty well, and it'd be interesting to see how close they could have kept the game had they not gotten into serious foul trouble.
MU is now 3-0 after three decisive victories, scoring 301 total points in the first three contests. One thing has become quite clear - MU is a fantastic team in transition, perhaps the best in the country. Under Buzz Williams, MU has played at as fast of a pace as possible. The high paced games have been influenced by teams like UWM and Chicago State that also try to play a wide open transitional style. MU is not going to lose many games where they can get into the open court with momentum.
After three games, the most pleasant surprise has been Wes Matthews. Over the offseason, Matthews hit the weight room, as you can see by his mega-arm in the above picture. Matthews has been a force on the offsensive boards, and his shot has looked incredibly smooth. Further, he's established himself as the team's best freethrow shooter. He's averaging 26 pts and 7 rebounds per game and shooting 57% behind the arc and 94% from the line. He's been fantastic.
Also playing fantastic basketball are Lazar Hayward and Jerel McNeal, to no one's surprise. Those two were the team's best players last year and have continued to develop. Hayward is the team's best offensive weapon, shooting 58.5% from the field and averaging an outstanding 4.3 offensive rebounds per game. McNeal has been somewhat inconsistent in the early going, but has nevertheless averaged 19.7 pts per game and is the team's best on-the-ball defender. Hayward and Matthews have shown great jumpshooting ability in the early going.
Dominic James has struggled offensively, and unfortunately has shown no progress in his shooting. He's played defense well, though, and more than previous years been willing to look to pass first. He's been a good court general so far, and with the three aforementioned offensive weapons, James has no reason to shoot too often. He's only attempted 24 shots total in the team's first 3 games.
And then there's the rest of the team. This is a team that's currently suiting up 7 guards, 2 small forwards, 1 power forward and 0 centers. Acker, Cubillan and Jimmy Butler are adequate backups for the backcourt players. Cubillan and Acker have seemed to hit their ceilings already, and Jimmy Butler is a bit too lanky and inexperienced to be a significant contributor. But they don't kill the team when they come in, and that's all you need from them.
The great performances by Matthews and Hayward to date are going to be much harder to come by when they'll be giving up 4 inches a man to tougher opponents. The interior points they've been scoring are going to drop significantly against the likes of Wisconsin, Connecticut, Louisville, Pittsburgh and Georgetown. MU needs someone to step up on the front court.
Unfortunately, injuries to Joe Fulce and Chris Otule, the team's only true center, have left the frontcourt dangerously thin. Both should be back around the new year. Otule is young and raw, but he has size. He'll add depth and defense against the bigger players in the big east. But, until he returns, MU has absolutely no one who can defend talented frontcourt players. That's going to be a problem.
The biggest disappointment to date has been Dwight Burke. I have nothing good to say about Burke's performance so far. He's been nonexistent. Patrick Hazel has taken many of Burke's minutes. Hazel has been a pleasant surprise. Unfortunately, his ceiling is nothing great, and he's no more than one inch and 5 pounds bigger than Lazar Hayward.
This is without a doubt the most talented 1-4 I've seen at MU in my lifetime. James, McNeal, Matthews and Hayward are all very good players. But, like the prior 3 seasons, MU's lack of size will likely be its undoing. So far I'm happy to see Buzz Williams' style of play is to run the court way more than Tommy Turncoat Crean ever did and to run an offense that is not so complex and slow as Crean's. MU hasn't employed much in the way of fullcourt pressing, but perhaps that will come against particular teams. Without a doubt, this team is going to have to run a lot to win.
Labels: Bucks, MU Basketball, Turncoat Tommy
Drew Brees had a great game, that was the most accurate I have seen a quarterback throw in a long time. Talk about the suckfest and this coming weeks game here 
Due to an utter lack of intelligent conversation on the internets regarding CC "Ox" Sabathia's pending decision, I decided to do some simple research.
Captian Kyle Neckbeard completed a whopping 4 passes to his scurvy ridden wide receivers
AJ Made a fairly seamless move to the "mike" linebacker position
