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Losing to Monmouth kinda had Shocker Nation stop breathing for the better part of 12 hours. There's no way to sugarcoat it. That was a bad loss, but it's over and done now. Unfortunately, Illinois-Chicago is probably better than Monmouth. UIC beat Bradley 84-75 in their season opener.
Cooz isn't going to clank shots all season. Needs some confidence is all. Chances are he's practicing against Hawkins this year. Last year there probably wasn't anyone who could guard him in practice. The practice change probably isn't helping his confidence at this stage of the season.
Turnovers. I'm going to lay this on system change and Ogirri and Wilson being gone. Last year Mekel, PJ and Matt could always look for Wilson and Ogirri and knew where they'd be. Those guys aren't there. No one is where the players are used to seeing a player in a situation. This will come around.
Braeuer has no one behind him. Preadom and Mekel aren't PG's the way Marshall coaches. I think either could "get it", but right now they aren't. That puts a lot of pressure on Braeuer that he hasn't had before. Either Braeuer adjusts to the pressure and plays his game or one of the other potential PG's needs to step it up and take some of the pressure off.
Juco transfers take some time to adjust to D1 ball. Bringing in 1 JuCo to fill a hole is tough enough even if they're surrounded by 4 players who know what they're doing. The only word I can come up with for Griskenas and Clemente on offense is "tentative". Griskenas seems afraid to shoot. Clemente is taking some time to figure out how to take his game to D1 where he's finding bigger, faster players than at JuCo.
So far Thomasson, Mekel and Durley are the guys with the attitude that if they get the ball they will do something with it. Durley has 0 assists and 7 TO's in 45 minutes. Those areas need to improve.
That's a lot of things that have to improve, but if you look at them individually, they are all correctable.
They're not all going to improve at the same speed and probably not at the same time. It seems reasonable that one or more of those areas could come back as a problem after they apear to be corrected.
Most of these problems could have been anticipated. Cooz's shooting is the big surprise. There's no way anyone would have anticipated all these problems popping up, but they did.
On the court, pretty much everything that could go wrong did. Not muh has gone better than anticipated. Mekel's shooting and Thomasson's play are about the only bright spots.
Marshall has his work cut out for him, but it can be done. It might take longer than expected or hoped for. It's hard to fix 10 things at the same time.
Orukpe is unlikely to be a "quick fix". 4 guys who are still learning the offense and one who is clueless doesn't look like a good plan in Marshall's system.
Cooz isn't going to clank shots all season. Needs some confidence is all. Chances are he's practicing against Hawkins this year. Last year there probably wasn't anyone who could guard him in practice. The practice change probably isn't helping his confidence at this stage of the season.
Turnovers. I'm going to lay this on system change and Ogirri and Wilson being gone. Last year Mekel, PJ and Matt could always look for Wilson and Ogirri and knew where they'd be. Those guys aren't there. No one is where the players are used to seeing a player in a situation. This will come around.
Braeuer has no one behind him. Preadom and Mekel aren't PG's the way Marshall coaches. I think either could "get it", but right now they aren't. That puts a lot of pressure on Braeuer that he hasn't had before. Either Braeuer adjusts to the pressure and plays his game or one of the other potential PG's needs to step it up and take some of the pressure off.
Juco transfers take some time to adjust to D1 ball. Bringing in 1 JuCo to fill a hole is tough enough even if they're surrounded by 4 players who know what they're doing. The only word I can come up with for Griskenas and Clemente on offense is "tentative". Griskenas seems afraid to shoot. Clemente is taking some time to figure out how to take his game to D1 where he's finding bigger, faster players than at JuCo.
So far Thomasson, Mekel and Durley are the guys with the attitude that if they get the ball they will do something with it. Durley has 0 assists and 7 TO's in 45 minutes. Those areas need to improve.
That's a lot of things that have to improve, but if you look at them individually, they are all correctable.
They're not all going to improve at the same speed and probably not at the same time. It seems reasonable that one or more of those areas could come back as a problem after they apear to be corrected.
Most of these problems could have been anticipated. Cooz's shooting is the big surprise. There's no way anyone would have anticipated all these problems popping up, but they did.
On the court, pretty much everything that could go wrong did. Not muh has gone better than anticipated. Mekel's shooting and Thomasson's play are about the only bright spots.
Marshall has his work cut out for him, but it can be done. It might take longer than expected or hoped for. It's hard to fix 10 things at the same time.
Orukpe is unlikely to be a "quick fix". 4 guys who are still learning the offense and one who is clueless doesn't look like a good plan in Marshall's system.
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