Marquette Basketball 2018 -19

[brewcrewdue80]

Lost one game and took a huge drop in the polls. Reality that Big East is just not a good conference this year, period. That doesn't mean winning the conference gets an asterisk, still a big accomplishment for them if they can do it.

 

It is 2 games in a row to non-ranked teams in Villanova and Creighton. Said it after the Creighton game on FB they are now a bubble 4seed most likely. Winning out I think gets them to a 3seed. Losing 1 is a 4seed. Losing 2 or more will be worse as they'll have a 5-5 last 10 game record.

[nate82]

Not sure what is going wrong but it is like they are running out of gas.

[DHonks]

Every team has a lull. Wisconsin had theirs in December into early January, I think. Marquette's poor ball handling and passing is being exposed, as teams are throwing full-court and 3/4 court presses at them. It's been a while since MU had a guard that could just put his head down and outrun a press. Howard's shortcomings entering this year are still present--he's a poor ball-handler, his defense is poor for a PG (improving though), he doesn't distribute/create well. Hopefully next year with McEwen, Elliott, and others, MU will have help at ball handling. Anim has potential, but he doesn't trust his left hand

[jjfanec]

If you are Marquette it would be easy to freak out but honestly this is just things balancing back out. Marquette had won every close game they had played up until St Johns part 1. Something like 6-0 in games that were within a possession or two late. After St. Johns they beat Nova so they were 7-1 in very close games. That has now evened back out a bit to 7-4. They weren't going to be able to sustain that pace. Computers had them as mid teens to 20 team ranked team most of the year. They are now low to mid 20s. I think the real Marquette is somewhere between the team that was winning every close game and the team that can score in the last 5 minutes. Somewhere around a 5 seed come tourney time.

[Pugger]

I was surprised Seton Hall gave Villanova all they could handle.

[LouisEly]

They finished third in the conference for a reason. Powell is a star - he's a three inch taller version of Markus Howard, and I believe he was 2nd in conference POY to Howard. I really hope Powell goes pro after this year. Mamu and Nz offer a decent inside presence, and they have length at guard with McKnight and Cale.

 

The ejection of Theo John, and non-ejection of Powell and non-technical on the guard who got up in Anim's face causing Anim to get a 2nd technical, was horse manure. The elbow that Powell threw at Anim in the first half was far more egregious than anything John did. But Powell gets a flagrant one on the elbow and a technical in the scuffle, but doesn't get ejected. The bright side is it gives Howard a little more rest for his wrist.

[patrickgpe]

Seems like the consensus from the “experts” is a 6 tonight. I’m ok with this, especially if they get the play in game winner instead getting one of those mid major 12 seeds that always seem to get the upset.

 

Still think Marquette would have won Friday if John and Sacar didn’t get ejected and could have given nova a run yesterday.

 

Without this fall I think they would have been a 2 or 3, but that’s the way college basketball goes sometimes.

[lcbj68c]

Hauser is a joke. What an embarrassment this was for the program.

[PeaveyFury]

Unbelievable to think where things were for Marquette a month ago, and how horrible this season ended up.

[OldSchoolSnapper]

I'm not sure this is an embarrassment. This is a really good Murray State team. MU really gassed at the end of the year but Morant looks capable of taking this team deep.

[PeaveyFury]

They lost by 19..... that's embarrassing whether it's Murray State or Georgetown.

[owbc]

That Morant guy is ridiculous, the real embarrassment was on the offensive end.

 

One has to wonder if there is something going on off the court that we don't know about. It's rare for a good team to completely fall apart like this.

[FVBrewerFan]

Im not a fan of MU, nor root against them. So an objective opinion. Is Wojo just a bad coach? Seems they recruit talent, some guys leave, then never really accomplish anything. Then the nose dive at the end of this season. Just seems like its coaching, but I dont watch many MU games.

[OldSchoolSnapper]

I think it was fairly predictable. They looked awful down the stretch and drew a really athletic 4-loss team. It would be embarrassing if they'd been a highly touted top seed, but they fell backwards into the tournament.

[xisxisxis]

Is Wojo just a bad coach?

 

Hard to tell with this game - not many teams are going to look good/win when you shoot 33% from the field. One thing that stands out is a player with 16 assists. That really tells me that the coach had no answer to the offensive game-plan of the other team, so in game management is clearly atrocious... The rest, well he has a lot of time to think about it since there isn't anything else on his schedule...

[OldSchoolSnapper]

I thought they'd win because I don't watch a whole lot of Murray State and guessed the more blue chip talent would win out, but about three minutes it, it seemed obvious this was a match up problem.

[wildcat83]

That Morant guy is ridiculous, the real embarrassment was on the offensive end.

 

One has to wonder if there is something going on off the court that we don't know about. It's rare for a good team to completely fall apart like this.

 

I think Marquette had like 2 assists at halftime. There was no ball movement/flow to the offense.

 

Marquette seems to recruit well, but just missing something on the court. I want to say soft, but not really sure if that's the correct term. They just don't dig in on defense when needed, get beat in transition at times for layups, etc. They just don't look like they are playing with a tenacity, or passion.

 

One of the most impressive things about Wisconsin under Bo and now Gard, they don't recruit a lot of blue chip talent, they go into some games completely outmatched, and still grind their way to keeping it in single digits. Could be wrong without actually looking up scores, but I just don't remember a WI team getting throttled in a tournament game like that, or at any point in the season honestly.

[sveumrules]

At least the Badgers waited until the tourney to get throttled in a game this season, I guess.

 

Last year Gard's squad got throttled plenty - by 25 against Ohio State, by 19 against Marquette, by 28 against Purdue & by 18 against Iowa.

 

Bo's teams had plenty of big tourney losses over the years too - by 30 against Maryland in 02, by 19 against Arizona in 06, by 17 against Davidson in 08 & by 18 against Cornell in 10.

[DHonks]

All season long we’ve k own Marquette was lacking in ball-handling, distribution, and avoiding foul trouble. The lack of a PG really hurts them. They have great shooters, but nobody to drive and kick. You watch these other teams, and most have secondary or tertiary guys that can make an initial move with the ball, forcing others to respond on defense. Teams figured out to press Howard and to focus on the Hausers to make Howard beat them. Hopefully McEwen and Elliott help with ball handling next year.

Marquette had a great season with one lull. Wisconsin has a lull. Nova had a lull. Most teams have one at some point

[LouisEly]

"We came to the conclusion that Morant was almost virtually unguardable," Florida State coach Leonard Hamilton said after the game. "So we had to make sure that we defended the other guys that fed off of him. We worked hard and made him earn all his baskets, and I thought we did a really good job defending the other guys, and I thought that really made the difference in the game."

 

So, pretty much the opposite game plan that Marquette had where they doubled Morant every time he touched the ball which left his teammates wide open.

[patrickgpe]

Could Marquette be loosing another coach to Virginia Tech?

 

https://techlunchpail.com/2019/04/01/rumors-flight-patterns-pointing-buzz-williams-steve-wojciechowski-virginia-tech/

[HiAndTight]

Could Marquette be loosing another coach to Virginia Tech?

 

https://techlunchpail.com/2019/04/01/rumors-flight-patterns-pointing-buzz-williams-steve-wojciechowski-virginia-tech/

 

 

Can someone explain why Va Tech is considered that much better of a job than Marquette?

 

I get it's in the ACC, but it's a football school, it's no an elite basketball school. I was a bit surprised when Buzz did this. I expected Wojo to use Marquette as a stepping stone if he built a successful program(not sure this is what I expected, but we can debate that later).

 

But Marquette seems to be willing to give him whatever he needs to succeed there and it's not like the Big East is a joke.

 

 

But enlighten me. What am I missing? Proximity from Coach K?

[patrickgpe]

It’s not. When buzz left Marquette he left for a pay cut because the boosters wanted him out. There is no indication that Wojo is leaving g Marquette minus the report I sighted based off of flight plans.

 

Maybe the program is in better shape than Marquette right now depending on if Howard comes back or not and who transfers from Virginia Tech which usually happens.

 

The truth is minus that the ACC is a better conference than the big east, there is no barometer that VA tech is a better job than Marquette.

 

Marquette has better history, facilities, fan support, financial support and is the only gig in town.

 

I do hope someday Marquette will no longer be viewed as a stepping stone because it shouldn’t be. They are not a mid major and they put a ton of resources into being a big time program.

[HiAndTight]

It’s not. When buzz left Marquette he left for a pay cut because the boosters wanted him out. There is no indication that Wojo is leaving g Marquette minus the report I sighted based off of flight plans.

 

Maybe the program is in better shape than Marquette right now depending on if Howard comes back or not and who transfers from Virginia Tech which usually happens.

 

The truth is minus that the ACC is a better conference than the big east, there is no barometer that VA tech is a better job than Marquette.

 

Marquette has better history, facilities, fan support, financial support and is the only gig in town.

 

I do hope someday Marquette will no longer be viewed as a stepping stone because it shouldn’t be. They are not a mid major and they put a ton of resources into being a big time program.

 

 

I find it a bit odd that they were trying to push Buzz out. What was the reasoning behind those rumors? I'm a Badgers fan first and foremost, but I didn't play any Basketball, so I've got zero trouble rooting for Marquette outside of that one game and follow them pretty closely. Dominic James is probably my favorite CBB player just because of the type of defensive player he turned himself into and how he played.

 

My only recollection of Buzz leaving was a very good run after Crean left and then one disappointing season. Though again, I'm not on Marquette message boards or in the know with anyone who would know anything at Marquette. I do love the campus and the old practice facility. When they had a wrestling program, I went down there from 8th grade through HS to work out with some of their guys. Then Marquette just up and dropped the program after trying to drop it previously citing both Title 9 and financial reasons, both were BS as alum stepped up to support the program financially so it wouldn't cost the University a dime and there were no Title 9 issues without a football team. But I digress.

 

 

 

Edit-Found this article by Sports Illustrated. It is pretty adamant about how inferior the job at Tech is compared to the Marquette job...pretty much echoing what you just said about it. Reading this from the 2015 perspective...you gotta give Buzz props for getting this team to a sweet 16 and just SOO close to beating Duke and advancing further than they'd already every advanced in the tourney.

 

https://www.si.com/college-basketball/one-and-one/2014/03/21/buzz-williams-stunningly-leaves-marquette-for-virginia-tech

[patrickgpe]

There was a lot of off the court incidents during buzz’s time that I think gave boosters concern. You will notice that since Wojo took over there hasn’t been a single reported one.