MU opens +2.5 vs. Creighton

[Tha Hound]

I'll stand by what I said earlier: If we are predicting a loss to a down-year Creighton team, we shouldn't be expecting much out of this team come March. I'm predicting a win that kicks off a five game winning streak.

To expand on this - I think we shoot decently from the perimeter, but Sacar and Theo/Ed have huge games in the paint. I also think our vastly improved defense holds Creighton to a reasonable score of around 70. We score at least 75.

[JamilJaeJamailJrJuan]

I have Directv and the same problem, I just upgrade my base package to Xtra for 24 hours and then drop it back to Choice, simple to do online.

Its included in the Sports Pack.  Call directv.  Ask for the Loyalty Department.  They will give you the Sportpack for free to 4-6 months. Will take 10-15 minutes, but you'll have that channel (and all regional channels that have a ton of CBB games, including some MU games that are FS Wisconsin if you don't live in Wisco) for the rest of the season!

[TAMU, Knower of Ball]

I'll stand by what I said earlier: If we are predicting a loss to a down-year Creighton team, we shouldn't be expecting much out of this team come March. I'm predicting a win that kicks off a five game winning streak.

To expand on this - I think we shoot decently from the perimeter, but Sacar and Theo/Ed have huge games in the paint. I also think our vastly improved defense holds Creighton to a reasonable score of around 70. We score at least 75.

Wouldn't a win tonight be continuing a 6 game winning streak? 

I don't disagree with you sentiment, the question is whether or not this is a down year for Creighton. Right now they are 34 on KP which is only 4 spots below where they finished last season. I personally think they are overrated by KP at the moment but if they truly are a top 35 team, losing to them on the road should not alter expectations of Marquette that much.

[BM1090]

Wouldn't a win tonight be continuing a 6 game winning streak? 

I don't disagree with you sentiment, the question is whether or not this is a down year for Creighton. Right now they are 34 on KP which is only 4 spots below where they finished last season. I personally think they are overrated by KP at the moment but if they truly are a top 35 team, losing to them on the road should not alter expectations of Marquette that much.

Yeah a loss tonight does not change my expectations of challenging for the BE title at all.

I think the formula is pretty simple.

8-1 at home (allows for loss to Nova, SHU, Creighton, SJU, Butler). I don't think we should lose more than 1 at home.

4 to 5 wins on the road - Beat X, DePaul, Georgetown, Providence. Win 1 of the 4 against Creighton, SHU, Nova, Butler.

I think that's a realistic path to 12-6. And I think we're fully capable of going 9-0 at home.

[milwaukee ex-pat]

Its included in the Sports Pack.  Call directv.  Ask for the Loyalty Department.  They will give you the Sportpack for free to 4-6 months. Will take 10-15 minutes, but you'll have that channel (and all regional channels that have a ton of CBB games, including some MU games that are FS Wisconsin if you don't live in Wisco) for the rest of the season!

Just called directTV and this worked!  I am only getting the package for free for the rest of the month but still can watch the game tonite.  Thx for the heads up!!

[Herman Cain]

Wouldn't a win tonight be continuing a 6 game winning streak? 

I don't disagree with you sentiment, the question is whether or not this is a down year for Creighton. Right now they are 34 on KP which is only 4 spots below where they finished last season. I personally think they are overrated by KP at the moment but if they truly are a top 35 team, losing to them on the road should not alter expectations of Marquette that much.

Are you saying the eye test does not match the stats test?

I think Creighton has done a good job of gaming the non conference scheduling . Part of that is because they can pretty much control their own arena dates. Also I believe their AD was a big wig on the selection committee last year and has a good idea of what goes into the sausage making and they scheduled  appropriately. 

[Spotcheck Billy]

..

[mu03eng]

I have Directv and the same problem, I just upgrade my base package to Xtra for 24 hours and then drop it back to Choice, simple to do online.

Get a free week subscription to YouTube TV, CBSSN is included and you can stream it to any device including smart TVs

[mu03eng]

I think we've got this eng.  Where's your usual optimism?  I think our guys know they need a very solid road performance.  I'm expecting 'dialed in'.

The last two seasons I've been burned by my optimism, every time I've gotten the feeling of "damn we're pretty good and putting it all together" we've laid an egg.

Logically I think we win by 6 in a relatively high scoring affair (84-78, something like that), but emotionally I think this team is toying with me right now

[TAMU, Knower of Ball]

Are you saying the eye test does not match the stats test?

I think Creighton has done a good job of gaming the non conference scheduling . Part of that is because they can pretty much control their own arena dates. Also I believe their AD was a big wig on the selection committee last year and has a good idea of what goes into the sausage making and they scheduled  appropriately.

I guess I'm saying that the eye test does not match this stats test. If you look at other ranking systems besides KenPom, all the major ones have Creighton ranked lower.  I do think you are right about "gaming the non-conference." They avoided bad buy games and scheduled a bunch of good ones. They've done a good job of blowing out quality buy games like Georgia State and Montana which gives them a lot points in KenPom. They also get kudos for a double digit road win at Providence....while their leading scorer was injured. But they have looked pretty hapless against top competition. 9 point loss at home to Ohio State, 19 point road loss  at Nebraska, 13 point road loss at Oklahoma, 15 point road loss at Butler. The only top 70 teams that they looked good against were Clemson (5 point win on a neutral court) and Gonzaga at home...though they only looked good in the first half. 7 point lead at half followed by 18 point dismantling in the second (sound familiar?).

If their offense is clicking, they could absolutely beat us. I'm just not convinced that they are an at large quality team at this point. I think they can overwhelm teams that aren't as good as them but will struggle against better competition. Honestly, they remind me a lot of our team last season. We had some pretty good wins and avoided all but 1 bad loss. But we had no signature wins, we couldn't take the top teams down. I think Creighton may find themselves in similar waters this season.

[Silkk the Shaka]

I guess I'm saying that the eye test does not match this stats test. If you look at other ranking systems besides KenPom, all the major ones have Creighton ranked lower.  I do think you are right about "gaming the non-conference." They avoided bad buy games and scheduled a bunch of good ones. They've done a good job of blowing out quality buy games like Georgia State and Montana which gives them a lot points in KenPom. They also get kudos for a double digit road win at Providence....while their leading scorer was injured. But they have looked pretty hapless against top competition. 9 point loss at home to Ohio State, 19 point road loss  at Nebraska, 13 point road loss at Oklahoma, 15 point road loss at Butler. The only top 70 teams that they looked good against were Clemson (5 point win on a neutral court) and Gonzaga at home...though they only looked good in the first half. 7 point lead at half followed by 18 point dismantling in the second (sound familiar?).

If their offense is clicking, they could absolutely beat us. I'm just not convinced that they are an at large quality team at this point. I think they can overwhelm teams that aren't as good as them but will struggle against better competition. Honestly, they remind me a lot of our team last season. We had some pretty good wins and avoided all but 1 bad loss. But we had no signature wins, we couldn't take the top teams down. I think Creighton may find themselves in similar waters this season.

...when Montana was missing Jamar Akoh, their best all-around player and only remotely good interior defender. Not saying they wouldn't have won... just probably wouldn't have been quite the blowout, so the KenPom bump is overdone there too

[TAMU, Knower of Ball]

...when Montana was missing Jamar Akoh, their best all-around player and only remotely good interior defender. Not saying they wouldn't have won... just probably wouldn't have been quite the blowout, so the KenPom bump is overdone there too

Excellent catch

[TSmith34, Inc.]

https://whiteandbluereview.com/pregame-primer-creightons-huge-week-begins-with-midweek-battle-against-marquette/

CU giving us a lot of respect.  They know Markus can hit from anywhere at anytime.  Also always amusing to see people's reaction when they discover that we have a second Hauser, who's arguably better than the first.  Would like to see Sacar replicate his performance last year, would also be nice to see Ed rebound from a bad game against a former in-state rival.

Would be nice to see us guard the 3pt line and Theo destroy any Jay foolish enough to drive the lane.

[Spotcheck Billy]

..

[Class71]

If we are a serious contender we need to win tonight.

Here is the concern. We have 5 key road games. STJ, 'Nova, Creighton, Butler and SH. If we loose tonight can we realistically be optimistic about the remaining 3? If we loose the remaining 3 we are no better than 13-5.  Given the strength of the bottom teams (DePaul, GU, PC, X) we could loose 1-2 more away games. Throw in 1 home game loss (i.e 'Nova, SH or STJ) and we are down to a  10-8 or 11-7.

The point is this was to be our breakout season. If that is the case we need to win on the road against some decent teams. We need to win tonight.

No the season will not be over if we do not win and we will continue to cheer them on. However, for those with high expectations of returning to the old glory days -- well that might be a bridge too far.

[KampusFoods]

Get a free week subscription to YouTube TV, CBSSN is included and you can stream it to any device including smart TVs

This has always been my play. I think I'm on my 4th email address 

[BM1090]

If we are a serious contender we need to win tonight.

Here is the concern. We have 5 key road games. STJ, 'Nova, Creighton, Butler and SH. If we loose tonight can we realistically be optimistic about the remaining 3? If we loose the remaining 3 we are no better than 13-5.  Given the strength of the bottom teams (DePaul, GU, PC, X) we could loose 1-2 more away games. Throw in 1 home game loss (i.e 'Nova, SH or STJ) and we are down to a  10-8 or 11-7.

The point is this was to be our breakout season. If that is the case we need to win on the road against some decent teams. We need to win tonight.

No the season will not be over if we do not win and we will continue to cheer them on. However, for those with high expectations of returning to the old glory days -- well that might be a bridge too far.

No, we don't. We can win the conference and earn a very high seed while losing all 5 of those road games.

I'm far more confident in the Butler/SHU road games than this one. More confident in this one than Nova.

[Class71]

Anything can happen. If that is your likely scenario we have different opinions. I can live with that.

[BM1090]

I was wrong.

I think this could be the start o a nice winning streak for us.

[Marcus92]

We've got this. If I had money on the game, I'd take Marquette and the points. My prediction: MU 79, CU 75.

I could not have been more wrong on the game's final score, other than getting the right team in the win column.

[Juan Anderson's Mixtape]

Anyone that had Creighton covering suffered an all time bad beat.

[YoungMUFan4]

Glad I put some dough on MU 

[TAMU, Knower of Ball]

I think this could be the start o a nice winning streak for us.

I think it could be the continuing of a nice winning streak for us

[We R Final Four]

When we are down three and MH hits that game tying 3 at the buzzer......you will not cheer with the same heart felt exuberance that you would normally. Then you start thinking we’ll maybe Bluejays will still cover in OT.  It sucks. I’ve done it and won’t do it anymore. I’ll bet on MU to win, but can’t go the other way. Not because I’m more of a fan or anything along those lines, it’s just a sucky feeling when it could be better.

Sam, not MH.

[wadesworld]

Sam, not MH.

Haha wow, that's pretty awesome.