What’s the word on his injury? I assume it’s not major if he was on the bench. Hopefully just minor and they sat him as a precaution.
Mag
- Thread starter JudgeSmails56
- Start date
Eh. I’m pretty concerned.
The last bunch of games he’s looked off, especially on offense.
And he sat unexpectedly in a game that we HAD to have.
Sounds like this is something that is going to impact him the rest of the season. Hope I’m wrong but the circumstances are concerning.
You thought he looked off recently? He may have had the best three game stretch of his career.
Uhhh wut? Last bunch of games he's looked much better. He's scored 12 15 15
He had 15 pts against Wisconsin
That’s off?
Sorry sorry. Yes he was catching on offensively. I was still scared form the 2-3 game stretch where he didn’t score just prior to this run
Pike stated in the presser that Mag had one of his best practices, and then right before tip said he couldn’t go. Sounded like earlier
in the year when he was cleared but opted not to play. Can’t blame him if every little tweak freaks him out after the ACL, but for Pike to make a point to say it’s his decision has to mean something…
in the year when he was cleared but opted not to play. Can’t blame him if every little tweak freaks him out after the ACL, but for Pike to make a point to say it’s his decision has to mean something…
Yes I don’t know what 3 games he was watching? A statement like that means he has no clue to what is going on on the court. Mag will be back.
We can’t make a run without him. We got away with one vs NW without him but we need him back in there .
All the pieces need to fit.
Do we make a defensive jump in post defense without Ogbole on the floor against other big men, instead of Wolf?? No......
Does RU win if we had to ask Noah Fernandes and Austin Williams to try and keep up with Buie and Barnheizer for 28 to 30 minutes a game, instead of asking Simpson, Davis and JWill to do that ?? No.....
Did Northwestern get some contributions from Mullins off the bench with 8 PTS and 4 blocked shots....YES, he actually played better on both ends than what Langborg would have given them. It doesn't mean I would expect Mullins to give them that production each and every game the rest of the year, but NW found a solution and another player who could actually play very good defense. His block on JWill and his Euro-step layup, was a great play, for a kid who barely played at all for NW.
As fans, we need to watch these games and these rosters are not finished products.
We also have fans who already have their minds made up, that this roster or RU team, can't win games unless Mag plays. Maybe we should watch the games, watch the performances and see who steps forward, when a player is out, or in foul trouble or whatever, before declaring something will take place, before it actually happens.
If fans knew 3 days ago that Mag was out for the NW game, 95% of the fans are programmed mentally and emotionally, to automatically assume RU would have lost the game last night. And based on most of the 1st half, they would have been 100% correct......and based on last years thinner roster and roster that was not built to defend in the backcourt, they would have been 100% correct.
Last years roster and lack of depth does not automatically assume that it transfers to this year's roster. This year's backcourt is dramatically different from a defensive perspective....so is the post defense.
They get more steals...
They're blocking/altering more shots....
The backcourt is getting more deflections....
The relentless on the ball pressure, impacts opponents.
ALL of these items are drastically different than what happened last year. We didn't have the depth in the backcourt to overcome Mag being a menace/pest on defense, to compliment Caleb and Cliff.
Add to it, we now have JWill, who is capable of taking over the playmaking, when things breakdown and getting a shot attempt, which didn't happen for most of last year and nowhere as consistent, since he started playing this year.
This year's roster and guards are able to sustain pressure on teams guards. It doesn't mean we shouldn't have been able to adjust last year, but Simpson would have been the only option last year and he was not part of that rotation.....and Jalen Miller when given minutes, just didn't produce and we have upgraded significantly, with JaMicheal Davis.
Davis, JWill and Simpson as a group in the backcourt and Ogbole being a more effective post defender when Cliff is out, can overcome Mag not playing major minutes the rest of the season. We simply don't win last night's game without Mag, unless the roster was equipped and deeper on defense, to do so this year.
I would not jump to conclusions and make jumps that Mag has to play major minutes for RU. He has to be part of the puzzle for segments of games, but if his knee is sore and he's not comfortable or feels like he'll be effective, we have to adjust to a reduced level of Mag.
So to briefly summarize: this year we are not as vulnerable if Mag is out because we are much deeper this year particularly on the defensive end
Yup-
Mag is an ELITE defender, one of the best in the country.
We will hugely miss him if he can’t play.
Get well my man!!!!
We saw what happened last year when mags went down. Last night we fell back to our old ways ( pre JWill) for most of the game and late in the game we made a comeback after the NW player was ejected. Mag is a very important piece to this team and I still say it will be tough to make a run at it without him.
This team can beat a depleted northwestern at home without mag. They aren’t beating any team of substance on the road without him.
The "Mag isn't essential" one man crusade continues.
Yeah I don’t get why he does that. Didn’t he learn his lesson last year ?
It's TBD.....it's not based on 1 game. But I don't feel that the items Mag brings to the table, are as essential or that it cannot be duplicated with the current guards on the roster.
It doesn't mean his minutes aren't important, they are. But I am concerned that he either doesn't feel he can't contribute any minutes, in what was a kinda "must-have" home game, or that he doesn't have the ability to play starters minutes (24 /26+ per night).
What is the game plan when we get to Minneapolis and the B1G tournament??? It may be beneficial to have Mag for 12 to 18 minutes per game vs asking him to play starters minutes, when there could be back to back (to back) games that could see RU advancing.
Anyway we look at this, there should be some modification of the game plan, where we have to assume he plays some minutes the rest of the way, we just may not get starter minutes from him.
I think Minnesota has too many offensive weapons for us to beat them without Mag, especially on their court.
You have the answers of course.....you tell us what you saw last night.
You have the answers, what is "your assessment " of the situation??
Why on earth would any logical RU fan, put all of their eggs in a basket, 2 consecutive years and ask 1 player off an injury, to do all of these things and have NO contingency plans, if Mag isn't available....this is how illogical you and other fans are, instead of looking at the actual roster.....this is what you want Mag to do and expect the roster to not have anyone else capable of doing all of these things.....
Be the focal point of the press in 3/4 court, half court....
Be the 2nd most important rebounder to help Cliff......
Be the best defender on the perimeter and ask him to slow down the opponents best front court player or guard and not get in foul trouble.
Also ask him to be a threat to shoot, score at 10 to 12PPG.
Contribute at a high level, with hustle plays.
In your world, the RU coaching staff should not have ANY other options and should expect no one else to provide these items for the team or roster.
I am just saying that there are now OTHER options and this year's roster is not last year's roster. It is about what allows RU to be successful, you and others are blinded into believing that the RU defense doesn't have other options now.
I am saying unless you have an actual solution that makes sense, you're wasting time.
On the other hand, for months, despite many others who kept telling me "stop talking about JWill, he's not playing, he's not helping RU, he should probably sit out if he hasn't played yet, the season's over......LMAO
I'm not going to say I was right, I'm just going to say what I see on the court. I'm also going to say (again), that Mag has a role on this roster and helps add more defense, rebounding, leadership etc.
This overwhelming item of "RU has no path to success without him playing major minutes" , is where I take the exit ramp. I am not going to take the stance that RU can't win games if he doesn't play major minutes.....you can think that way, I am not on board with that mindset.
Let's take the Northwestern point of view and how foolish and dangerous jumping to conclusions can be.
For 2 days, there were discussions that "Starter Ty Berry is out for the season".....well you have 2 choices if you are Northwestern.....
A) Cave in and say "woe is me", we have no chance to win, we lost a starter".
B) Devise a game plan, that changes how you play the game, change requirements for players and expand roles for others on the roster and continue towards winning.
Add to the NW saga, was another starter, gets thrown out of the game.....so now they're down 2 starters or 2 players who can score and shoot.
What actually happened was NW leaned on Buie a little more and used Mullins to backfill for Langborg being out. Mullins actually had FOUR blocked shots, went 3-3 from the field (1 3 pointer) and buries 2 FTs.
Do I think NW is better off with Langborg and Berry?? Of course. They're starting caliber players.
On the other hand, it is up to the coaches, to devise another game plan, change the lineups, revise rotations for minutes and make a new game plan that allows for the roster to continue forward.
Some players are just simply irreplaceable and some players just have more impact on rosters.....losing Ty Berry or Langborg is not the same as losing Boo Buie......the same concepts apply for RU.....replacing Cliff is not happening.....I would like to think that after seeing JWill play after 4 games and almost 2 years off, his impact is obviously huge to not just his stat line, but others.....
Guards and paint/post defense carry more weight for how I view the game. Guards dictate the tempo and handle the ball more and defend the better scorers more.....paint defense and players who erase mistakes with blocked shots and gather rebounds are also essential.
This is what I see when watching games. I'm not overly concerned whatsoever, if people disagree with this or don't want to see what I see.....I base it on what happens on the court and during games, not a guess or quick take.
For 2 days, there were discussions that "Starter Ty Berry is out for the season".....well you have 2 choices if you are Northwestern.....
A) Cave in and say "woe is me", we have no chance to win, we lost a starter".
B) Devise a game plan, that changes how you play the game, change requirements for players and expand roles for others on the roster and continue towards winning.
Add to the NW saga, was another starter, gets thrown out of the game.....so now they're down 2 starters or 2 players who can score and shoot.
What actually happened was NW leaned on Buie a little more and used Mullins to backfill for Langborg being out. Mullins actually had FOUR blocked shots, went 3-3 from the field (1 3 pointer) and buries 2 FTs.
Do I think NW is better off with Langborg and Berry?? Of course. They're starting caliber players.
On the other hand, it is up to the coaches, to devise another game plan, change the lineups, revise rotations for minutes and make a new game plan that allows for the roster to continue forward.
Some players are just simply irreplaceable and some players just have more impact on rosters.....losing Ty Berry or Langborg is not the same as losing Boo Buie......the same concepts apply for RU.....replacing Cliff is not happening.....I would like to think that after seeing JWill play after 4 games and almost 2 years off, his impact is obviously huge to not just his stat line, but others.....
Guards and paint/post defense carry more weight for how I view the game. Guards dictate the tempo and handle the ball more and defend the better scorers more.....paint defense and players who erase mistakes with blocked shots and gather rebounds are also essential.
This is what I see when watching games. I'm not overly concerned whatsoever, if people disagree with this or don't want to see what I see.....I base it on what happens on the court and during games, not a guess or quick take.
Okay - but your example is very different. NW had to replace a sharp shooters scoring.
No matter how you slice it - we simply don’t have a great substitute defensive answer to cover Garcia. He’s not a good assignment for Hyatt or Oskar. We can’t afford to put J William’s on him and risk foul trouble. I think in his absence we’d end up seeing Austin at the 4 and he looked awfully rusty.
Horrible take. Do you even watch this team ?
In addition to his defense, Mag has been putting up a consistent 12 to 15 PPG in B1G play (outside of a three game stretch where he struggled). His offense has been important this year.
This. Even if you 100% agree with Hawk that Mag isn't important and we can win games without him....
The Minnesota game in particular is one where we really need Mag to guard 6'11 Garcia. Most teams don't play a 4 that big. We really don't have a good option to guard him without Mag.... 6'6 Hyatt and Oskar most likely on their best offensive player.... instead of our best defensive player. It's a major major loss
Saw him walk over to the corner and talk to the trainer during the layup drills - thought it was odd but didn’t put two and two together until i heard Hyatt starting and saw Mag in sweats. Hopefully he was overly cautious and the rest gets him ready for mInny.
I think we have to assume Garcia hits us with a Buie-like performance. He gets 25-30 pts but we can still win if we focus on controlling the rest of the team. It’s a dangerous approach because guys like that can always hit late game winners, but we don’t have any other options without Mag.
Holy moly. Thank you for the summary!!
Yes. It makes no sense to me. It’s paragraphs and paragraphs of BS. We have to keep winning, home and away, against good teams.
We absolutely need Mag.
Mag is a glue guy for our team. Also no one on the roster can replace Mag at the point of the press or top of the 1-3-1 zone.
Absolutely. The press is different and more effective with Mag at the top. His energy, quickness and length is really hard to match.
It ain’t that tough to understand just how elite Mag is defensively and how important he is to our team.
TO ALL THE CHAPTER WRITERS:
Acknowledging how good and important Mag is has nothing to do with “woe is me”
We have no chance now, we’re down a starter, we can’t win.
To the contrary, it’s acknowledging we will miss a player capable of impacting a game the way Mag does….it ain’t that hard, it absolutely doesn’t require a multi paragraph diatribe to refute his importance
Seems pretty simple to me that you significantly limit his practices to save the knee. If, as Pike said, his practices were great and then boom, he overworked the knee and it was not ready to go in the game. At this point in the season, practices are not as vital as early on you need them to get all the players on board with the plays.
Some people that were wrong on mag last year suddenly doubling down again this year as soon as he went down . Guess they want to try and prove again that mag is not good or important to the team. Head scratcher for sure.
Mawot Mag is a great defender , a pivotal piece in the press …a player who also rebounds and scores. Those still pushing this thinking are either oblivious when watching the game or just creating a post to stir up nonsense.
Mag is huge for us. Everyone had to do a little more than normal to beat NW. it is possible to win without him but we are a better team with him for sure. Not sure what all the above is about. It's pretty black and white. Without Mag we need everyone to do a little more. The little things that win games.
