After last night's defensive performance, MU has the 16th rated defense in the nation, according to Pomeroy. (http://kenpom.com/index.php?s=RankAdjDE) While this is was a complete mismatch, I did like what I saw.
- Ball pressure was swarming--19 steals, 29 TO's, 45-2 in points off TO's
- Lots of back side help
- Challenged the arc on reversals--11% 3pt %
- Freshman were working it, although they did get exposed at times
- Yes, lots of Orebs given, but there were a lot of misses--still only 4 second chance points
- MU obviously has been working on defensive positioning and recovery, just now have to close off the rebounding lanes.
Overall, I was very pleased with the defensive effort. Major cupcake yes, but the scrimmages have really helped MU early. Did anyone listen to Buzz on Homer with his opus on defense? LMAO....and the best part, Homer couldn't get a word in edgewise.
kenpom also has Marquette as the 11th best team in the country. He now projects us at 21-8 (not included are the last two P-Jam games) and 12-6 in the Big East, though if you extrapolate game-by-game, he has us at 24-5 and 14-4 in the Big East.
I know it was a depleted MSM team, but I really think that this win could be a good one in the long run. We destroyed a team that will look much better when they get their starters back, and should be in the top half of their league. If we win the P-Jam and somehow manage to beat Wisconsin, I can't even imagine where we'll end up in all these rankings. It's not inconceivable that we could be top ten by the second week of December.