I'm going to go ahead and say it, that Murray St. squad was tough as nails and one of the best teams in the country. I doubted they were great because they were 'unproven,' but they, honestly, are freaking great. We just were tougher, luckier, or whatever enough to get out with the W.
Seriously, any Murry St. fan that sees this, you might have lost the game, but you won a freaking ton of respect from this hoophead.
+ a billion. They really were a much better squad than I anticipated. I only saw some of the St. Mary's game, so didn't know if it was hype. They are legit. This was a big and well earned victory against a very talented squad.
Definitely agree. It is hard to judge teams that are in "weak" conferences. Sometimes they end up being better than you think, sometimes they end up worse. Nevertheless, Murray State played hard and showed that they deserved to be a highly rated team.
That said, I am so glad we are moving on =)
Agreed, very good team!!! I would've like to root for them if they weren't playing against us.
That Daniels guy is an absolute beast. Man o man is that a tough team. That was one of the most entertaining hoops games I have seen in a long long time.
Agreed. Wasn't overly impressed on Thur, but they played hard today, made us take some bad shots, and *just* got overpowered. Props to them for a great game, and a great year.
Afro-dude was tremendous! Props to them. Definitely root for them in the future.
Murray State was really, really good. However, in the end, Coach Williams out-coached Murray, and the Warriors were simply in better shape. After 35 minutes, the Racers began to wilt, while Marquette seemed to get stronger. To state the obvious, being better conditioned and, more importantly, mentally "tuffer", determined the winner of this 40 minute toe-to-toe slug fest. What a great game!
comments from murray state board (during game)
I'm just going out on a limb on this... whoever wins this, is final four material
Correction: Final ONE, imho
That was one of the best games I have ever watched, if not the best. Great effort all around.
Quote from: rocky_warrior on March 17, 2012, 06:31:08 PM
Agreed. Wasn't overly impressed on Thur, but they played hard today, made us take some bad shots, and *just* got overpowered. Props to them for a great game, and a great year.
+1. Thought we'd win fairly easily after seeing them Thursday. I was wrong. They were quick, athletic, and made you work for every bucket. They were very similar to Marquette.
30-1, ranked 9th in the nation, and get a 6 seed. Unfortunate. I understand it seeing as they literally played nobody, but still, if they were a 5 or 4 or whatever, they could've done a lot more damage in this tournament.
Had this discussion with some people on Thursday. Say they don't lose to Tennessee State or whatever and go 31-0. What seed are they? 2? You couldn't give an undefeated team anything worse than a 3 seed, could you? That 1 loss by 2 points makes a difference of 4 seed spots. Crazy.
Add me to the list. Canaan was the quickest player on the floor today, and with MU's quickness, that's saying something. Wilson got dominated inside. A game MU big-time could have used Otule today. But survive and advance this time of year as Jimmy V would say.
I have nothing but respect for Murray St. They could not have played any harder. They completely earned their gaudy record. Great game, gentlemen.
I was unbelievably nervous before this game, because more than any other team we have played this year, we had no way of knowing how good this team really was. We beat them, but they were a worthy opponent and then some.
Hold your heads high, Racers. You are a great team.
Agree with all of the above. What a great game -- a dog fight until the end. Way to compete, Racers.
Hmmm....I wasn't that impressed. They shot 31% and had a pathetic 7 assists to 16 turnovers en route to 53 points....21 less than their average. I think the committee did a good job not buying the hype and giving them a seed in line with their ranking in the polls. They would have lost to a lot of teams today.
Quote from: TheBuzzsaw on March 17, 2012, 08:23:04 PM
Hmmm....I wasn't that impressed. They shot 31% and had a pathetic 7 assists to 16 turnovers en route to 53 points....21 less than their average. I think the committee did a good job not buying the hype and giving them a seed in line with their ranking in the polls. They would have lost to a lot of teams today.
Defense is part of basketball. Especially in college.
Quote from: TheBuzzsaw on March 17, 2012, 08:23:04 PM
Hmmm....I wasn't that impressed. They shot 31% and had a pathetic 7 assists to 16 turnovers en route to 53 points....21 less than their average. I think the committee did a good job not buying the hype and giving them a seed in line with their ranking in the polls. They would have lost to a lot of teams today.
We shot 38% and scored well below our average. So going by your logic, how much did we suck?
I agree on Murray State. Really impressed with them. Intense, smart and clean. But can I also say I thought both teams were "off" from the field. I feel like players on both sides missed shots because of the intensity.
That said, Murray State Is a really nice team, better than some that will be playing on Thursday and Friday.
Murray State good but not great - MU played poorly for 30 minutes, great for final 8 mins....
Quote from: AZWarrior on March 17, 2012, 08:39:07 PM
We shot 38% and scored well below our average. So going by your logic, how much did we suck?
If we put up the numbers that Murray State did there would be a TOTAL meltdown. Their FG% and assist/TO ratio were atrocious. I'm sure their fans thought they had one of their worst games and their stats would back that sentiment. In no way am I trying to diminish a HUGE win, but Murray State didn't look anywhere close to a top 10 team today.....that's a good thing.
Quote from: madtownwarrior on March 17, 2012, 08:47:42 PM
Murray State good but not great - MU played poorly for 30 minutes, great for final 8 mins....
At least we did not finish with a 4 game losing streak.
Murray State played a very tough D on MU. They contributed greatly to MU's poor play.
Quote from: wadesworld on March 17, 2012, 08:29:09 PM
Defense is part of basketball. Especially in college.
MU held Murray to 26% in the 2nd half. Super impressive for MU, not-so impressive for Murray!
Quote from: TheBuzzsaw on March 17, 2012, 09:11:16 PM
MU held Murray to 26% in the 2nd half. Super impressive for MU, not-so impressive for Murray!
I give more of the credit to MU's D. They were tenacious - especially in the last 8 minutes. Quite an impressive performance by MU.
Murray St was good and I expected them to be good. Did anyone else notice that during the timeout just before the game turned the fans were chanting overrated. They should take back their chant.
Brewcity posted nice on their forum. Well done.
Quote from: bilsu on March 17, 2012, 09:17:44 PM
Murray St was good and I expected them to be good. Did anyone else notice that during the timeout just before the game turned the fans were chanting overrated. They should take back their chant.
Chanting "over rated" is really a left-handed insult to your own team. Alternatively, I like to view our defensive intensity as a major factor in Murray State's poor shooting percentage.
Quote from: Spaniel with a Short Tail on March 17, 2012, 09:19:09 PMBrewcity posted nice on their forum. Well done.
Bit of a pain, too...lots of hoops to join their forum, and had to have the confirmation email resent a couple times. Still, I was impressed, and they deserve props. Hell of a team, far better than I expected.
I thought Murray State was a good but not great team. They sure did play hard and tough but we missed soooo many shots that normally go in and it wasn't Murray State defense as much as it was just rushed shots and shots that were just off. If Vander could learn how to finish around the basket, we win by 20.
Was trading texts with Tim during the game. My analogy was that Marquette was Apollo Creed from Rocky One.
"He doesn't think this is a show. He thinks this is a damn fight!"
Yeah, I compared MSU to Rocky
What was the line on today's game?
Quote from: UticaBusBarn on March 17, 2012, 06:51:27 PM
Murray State was really, really good. However, in the end, Coach Williams out-coached Murray, and the Warriors were simply in better shape. After 35 minutes, the Racers began to wilt, while Marquette seemed to get stronger. To state the obvious, being better conditioned and, more importantly, mentally "tuffer", determined the winner of this 40 minute toe-to-toe slug fest. What a great game!
I would like to take this opportunity to point out the coach of Murray State is not himself named Murray, otherwise the outcome could very well have been different!
Quote from: Henry Sugar on March 17, 2012, 10:04:18 PM
Was trading texts with Tim during the game. My analogy was that Marquette was Apollo Creed from Rocky One.
"He doesn't think this is a show. He thinks this is a damn fight!"
Yeah, I compared MSU to Rocky
I was thinking the same thing. This was a slugfest, pure and simple. You can nitpick if you want, but this was an out and out battle, and that earns my respect for Murray State.
Can anyone more familiar with MSU give a guess on .. was MSU "off" yesterday, or was Marquette's defense the reason they lost?
I ask because .. I think MU was off, missing more-than-usual open 3s, mid-range jumpers, and around-the-rim.
I personally congratulated several Murray State fans after the game. They were gracious in defeat, proud of their team, and wished us well going forward. I'll reserve judgement on the UK throngs.
Quote from: mu_hilltopper on March 18, 2012, 08:46:01 AM
Can anyone more familiar with MSU give a guess on .. was MSU "off" yesterday, or was Marquette's defense the reason they lost?
I ask because .. I think MU was off, missing more-than-usual open 3s, mid-range jumpers, and around-the-rim.
It was a very physical game. Every time DJO went on the move on offense without the ball, his defender had a fistfull of jersey. Every shot was contested at the rim. Junior's defensive effort was focused and simply outstanding on Canaan....the guy is a 1st team AA and shoots nearly 50% from three. As is often the case on these quick turnaround games, teams have to be able to play in the half court in these grinder games. Lastly, many kudos to Buzz with his game management...working in rest, critical time outs and adjustments, working Sheesh in in the 2nd to just finally wearing down their bigs. The refs let both teams play, and Buzz adjusted. Many UK fans I talked to said that was a brilliant time out and was the difference.
Lastly, DJO was a stud. Just wanted it on both ends and was being worked and working it all game. Kudos to both teams on great efforts.
Quote from: mu_hilltopper on March 18, 2012, 08:46:01 AM
Can anyone more familiar with MSU give a guess on .. was MSU "off" yesterday, or was Marquette's defense the reason they lost?
I ask because .. I think MU was off, missing more-than-usual open 3s, mid-range jumpers, and around-the-rim.
I think much of it was MU's swarming D. I didn't think we were capable of such a consistent defensive effort (sans a few easy baskets in transition and halfcourt). Helped that they didn't have much size, so we could overwhelm them physically.
Both teams played good D, but both teams missed some very makeable shots, particularly in the first half. Think we were better conditioned and just wore them down, as was said in many other threads. We shoot like we did yesterday against Florida (assuming they get past NSU) and we may well lose.
That said, it was a very spirited game with both teams giving their all, the kind of game you like to see in the tournament.
They were a nice team but the best team won yesterday. I think we played poorly for too many minutes of the game and were in control much of it. Not taking away from Murray State but we are the better team. I think we would beat them 7-8 times out of ten on neutral court. Boys... bigger and better fish to fry between now and April 2nd.
Quote from: mu_hilltopper on March 18, 2012, 08:46:01 AM
Can anyone more familiar with MSU give a guess on .. was MSU "off" yesterday, or was Marquette's defense the reason they lost?
I ask because .. I think MU was off, missing more-than-usual open 3s, mid-range jumpers, and around-the-rim.
Friend of mine who is a PITT alumni, brought this up. If this year's MSU squad was in the Big East, would they be like a Rutgers/Providence or an upper tier team? Based on yesterday's performance, I really couldn't give a fair answer.
Murray State was really difficult to seed. Only one loss is quite impressive, but they're conference was not very good, and they lost at home to Middle Tennessee State. I watched them a couple times and I wasn't very impressed (including the conference tournament). I figured a 6 was fair.
But watching them against "us" I decided that, at least by the end of the year, they could have competed in the Big East. Certainly more losses, but they'd have won more games than Rutgers, I think.
Quote from: nyg on March 18, 2012, 10:14:07 AM
Friend of mine who is a PITT alumni, brought this up. If this year's MSU squad was in the Big East, would they be like a Rutgers/Providence or an upper tier team? Based on yesterday's performance, I really couldn't give a fair answer.
They'd have been a very good team, I think. Somewhere between 9-9 and 13-5 depending on how their schedule broke. I haven't seen a lot of them other than dismantling St. Mary's and their game against us, so I don't know how much that opinion is worth. I can guarantee Providence or Rutgers (or most of the BE conference, for that matter) would not have done as well as 31-2 against Murray State's schedule.
That was a very, very good Murray State team. Having to play them in their home state as a 6 seed was a very tough matchup for Marquette in the Round of 32. It's rare that the team we played in the Round of 32 was a better seed (6) than the team we will play in the Sweet 16. Florida is a 7 seed and Norfolk State is a 15 seed. Add the fact that Murray State was nationally ranked in the Top 10, and one could make the argument that was a "better" team than anyone MQ might face in our region other than Michigan State.
Quote from: AZWarrior on March 17, 2012, 09:22:06 PM
Chanting "over rated" is really a left-handed insult to your own team. Alternatively, I like to view our defensive intensity as a major factor in Murray State's poor shooting percentage.
I've never understood this cheer.
It is chanted by dumb people who are too dumb to realize the dumbness of dumbing down your team's victory.