Muss said it best Sunday after the game. At some point teams have to worry about matching up with us instead of us matching up with them. People thought Steve Kerr was nuts when he made the death line up at Golden State. Draymond green playing the 5 and bringing the ball up court. Now look at how basketball is played.
When you put Mason at the four it is a total mismatch for the other team. I don’t think any big team yet has went small against us to match up. What’s been great about that is we have held our own on the defensive end. With better coaching Indiana should have taken advantage of that. They couldn’t do it because the got out prepared, out scouted and out coached. I think Muss and his crew eat and sleep basketball. If you have a weak staff Muss is going to eat you alive with preparation.
People keep saying that not playing more than 7 players is going to hurt us. I will say your right if someone fouls out or is injured. To be honest I haven’t seen a Razorback team in this kind of shape since Nolan left.
This team has really made me proud. I really thought we would be pretty bad this year. So many obstacles and unknowns going in to the season. I’m sure its hard for young men to lose an entire coaching staff that recruited them. I’ve lost a a few bosses in my time and it was pretty rough on a grown man. Much respect to our young men for hanging in there and buying in.
In my opinion, the Hogs have played at or near their full potential thus far. I don’t see much more upside remaining, although the performance during the final minutes of the Valpo and Indy games are very encouraging.
We are one key injury away from looking like Tennessee. If our team remains healthy, we should have a nice remainder of the season.
Muss gets the best out of anybody on the court. Even when Henderson is out there for a few minutes they are quality minutes. We might be one foul out Or one injury away from playing 8 or 9 guys in any given night, but I’m sure the effort will come from that 8th/9th man.
What I am most impressed with is the way Muss has adjusted his game plan to maximize what these players can do and these players have bought in. That can be difficult for a new coach. I think they see he is teaching them skills that will give them their best opportunity to continue their basketball career past college, whether that be NBA or overseas.
So many coaches want to come in and force their system and start building for the future. Muss shows he can teach his players and adjust to give the best opportunity to win. I think some of our past coaches tried to force their style even though they did not have the capacity to fully run it.
When BP was our football coach, I always felt like we had the smarter coach on our sideline that could adjust and beat you with less players. I know it is early, but right now I think coach Muss MAY be our version of that in basketball.
Very well said! I’ve seen so many coach’s try and force a system to players that weren’t meant for it.
What I loved about Petrino was his motto of FTS feed the studs. Get the ball to your best players and get out of the way.
This is what Muss is doing especially in crunch time. He goes 5 out, high pick and roll with Joe and Jones. If you can’t stop it, he’s going to keep going to it.
I disagree. I see Chaney learning and becoming comfortable with his role in this offense and expect them to be working with him on some inside scoring moves in practice. I see Jones having work to do on avoiding silly fouls and learning by trial and error which drives work and which will flounder against good defenses. I see Sills starting to come out of his slump with potential to be even more effective in this offense. I see Joe with lots of learning on the way in ball handling, developing a drive and pop mid range game, and learning how to drive for dunks and “and ones.” I am curious if Sills can be the outside shooting threat at point guard (we sorely need) who can also break down the defense on the dribble to attack the basket, draw the defenses in, and then pitch it back to Joe or Jones for 3’s. If Henderson or Cylla can come on to spell Chaney and Adrio, I can see the two forwards and three guard offense being very effective against our future competition like it was in the second half against Indiana. Having the team buy in, work hard on defense, and be the stronger team in the second half like at Indiana, is a solid base to build a team on, but I think we got lots of room for improvement available and I can’t wait to see if that can happen. JMVVVVHO
I think Sills started out 2/30 on 3’s. If my math is right he is 10/27 in past 5 games. That’s 37% and gets season totals up to 20% now. If he can hit a couple per game plus his defense and attacking style that will be huge.
If Sills can continue to give us a third option from deep that will be huge. Amazing that we were winning while he was oh-for, even though it wasn’t the best opposition.
What I was implying by my word “see” is what I’m actually seeing in the play, not stuff I hope to see or that I could envision.
I envision lots of potential improvement; I’m just not seeing it in their play. I feel I Joe has the potential to be our best player since Sidney…but, I don’t see him doing the things to get there. I envision Chaney being a really strong power forward, but I don’t see it in his play…he might get there next year, but he’s not showing it (to me) this season. The most improvement I am seeing is in Mason’s performance over last year…he is playing like a go to guy.