[Cracked Sidewalks] Marquette Defeats Texas Southern

[CrackedSidewalksSays]

Marquette Defeats Texas Southern

Written by: noreply@blogger.com (Rob Lowe (aka Henry Sugar))

In an outcome that is really not a surprise, Marquette beat Texas Southern last night by a score of 85-68.  Although the fan base was hoping that MU would top 100 for the third consecutive game, it just wasn't in the cards last night.




Last night, Marquette did worse than expected on both their offensive efficiency (AdjO) and defensive efficiency (AdjD).  In the team's previous three games, they were averaging an AdjO of 123.8 and an AdjD of 90.3.  On offense, the primary culprit dragging down the offensive efficiency was the (relatively) poor eFG%.  Considering the team made a season-high 10 three-pointers and was still below the eFG% average (53%), we can see how poorly the team shot.  Also, Marquette was really sloppy with the ball.  However, the team achieved a season-best at Offensive Rebounding percentage (OR%), and did a great job getting to the line yet again.

On defense, Marquette lost on one of the Four Factors for the first time all season in eFG%.  As noted by Buzz, Texas Southern shot 64% overall in the second half.  They managed to be even looser with the ball at turnover percentage, however, and lost by a sizeable margin on OR%.  Now, if you listen to the Buzz post-game podcast (link below), he talks about how the offensive rebound numbers are skewed because Texas Southern didn't miss much in the second half.  Well, Marquette still crushed on the offensive boards.

Moving onto other coverage, here is Rosiak's blog entry from last night.  Lots of good little nuggets, as he talks about Burke's lack of contribution, DJ's overall floor game, and positive contributions last night from Butler and Acker.  Also, Rosiak rightly notices that a player wore black shoes last night for the first time in seven years.

Rosiak also filed a full story for this morning's paper, calling last night's game an educational experience for Marquette.  Indeed, Marquette looked ugly for long stretches last night against the TSU zone.

Here is the official GoMarquette.com story.  On top of the photo gallery and box score, I recommend checking out the postgame notes for lots of quotes, as well as the Buzz Williams podcast.  I've come to really enjoy the post-game comments from Buzz, and I appreciate that they're now available online.

Finally, once again Marquette is no longer in the running for Jamil Wilson.  The comments from Jamil paint Marquette in a pretty poor light.  However, since this has been a fairly weird recruitment in general, we tend to give Marquette the benefit of the doubt here.  These are the Days of our Lives.

http://marquettebasketball.blogspot.com/2008/11/marquette-defeats-texas-southern.html

[Pardner]

As always, great job Henry decomposing the team for those of us who love the stats.  I think we are over sensitizing to what we already know on a lot of threads:  we need some bigs.  Problem is, even with the return of the boot crew, we are a short team.  As a result of the obvious, Buzz has a plan to push our team strength and depth this year--whether I or any one else thinks he will be successful vs. the big BE line-ups like UCONN we will face:  Which is to use our quickness to push possessions in the most efficient way on O. 

I looked at the offensive efficiency rankings over the past number years, and those teams with the highest rankings advance in the NCAA's.  Even after yesterday (which is a game where we turned the ball over on easy/bad passes uncharacteristically), our team O efficiency ranking is 15th.  Our assist % is 54% and our assist:turnover ratio is 1.6.  We are getting to the line (free points) at the 16th best rate in the country.  We are really moving and distributing well.  In the first half of yesterday's game against the zone, we forgot about spacing, and getting touches in the paint.  Some of our guys were sick (Wes with the flu), banged up and tired (we are playing a lot of games in a bunch, while going full blast at practice)--resulting in a lot of bad passes.  We adjusted and adapted against the zones eventually but we will see our share again--not a new problem.

The biggest thing about Otule and Fulce returning is they will help on spacing against the zones.  Otule has good hands, feet and takes up space (he is not an end all as he has a lot to learn and he will foul out in 13 minutes).  Fulce has hops and is skilled offensively--and is a tough match-up.  Hazel gives us some energy minutes (especially at home) and a different look off the bench.  DB gives us some post up defense in the half court.  Each has major weaknesses...but together they gives us combined depth to cause distractions for our four very skilled studs. 

Advice:  enjoy the offensive show knowing we are vulnerable this year on D.  If the bench develops just a bit, and we continue this O efficiency, MU can make a deep run according to the stats.  There will be bumps, however--maybe even this weekend.