Quote from: CrackedSidewalksSays on January 27, 2014, 06:00:10 PM
The Two Mayos
There's been a ton of discussion this season as to the reasons for Marquette's inability to pull out some tough games. This weekend featured a rarity, a loss in which Todd Mayo really stepped up and played well throughout. No player on Marquette's team has been more of an indicator of Marquette success than Mayo. When Marquette wins, Todd Mayo is often one of the best players on the court. When Marquette loses, it seems like Mayo simply can't buy a basket.
Yet this past Saturday, Mayo stepped up and Marquette still lost. So what made the Villanova game different from the other losses? One thing that stood out to me was the venue. 7 of Marquette's 9 losses have come away from the Bradley Center. And looking at the numbers, it is shocking to see the disparity in Todd Mayo's play at home and on the road. I can't really explain it, so I'll let the numbers speak for themselves:
Todd at Home
Games: 10
Minutes: 22.6
FG%: 51.4% (38/74)
3P%: 37.0% (10/27)
FT%: 85.7% (42/49)
Rebounds: 2.7
Assists: 1.7
Steals: 1.1
Points: 12.8
Todd on the Road
Games: 8 (2 DNP)
Minutes: 19.9
FG%: 36.2% (17/47)
3P%: 26.3% (5/19)
FT%: 61.5% (8/13)
Rebounds: 1.6
Assists: 1.4
Steals: 0.4
Points: 5.9
One thing seems certain. If Marquette wants to have a chance to end up in the NCAA Tournament, they need Mayo to bring some of that consistently good home play to games away from the BC. Hopefully that will happen before the end of conference play, because by the time this team gets to New York for the Big East Tournament, it may be too late.
Source: The Two Mayos (http://www.crackedsidewalks.com/2014/01/the-two-mayos.html)
I am totally lost. MU played Villanova at the Bradley Center. Mayo played well (which is what the theory is when he is at home).
MU lost 7 out of 9 times occurred away from home. Mayo doesn't play well on the road and therefore MU loses.
Mayo plays well at home as he did against Villanova but Marquette still lost (which goes against the MU wins when Mayo plays well Theory). In Marquette's other home loss, Mayo didn't play well (which goes against the theory he plays well at home).
Other than Mayo plays well at home and not on the road, is there a connection to the Villanova game? Help me out here.
I reviewed our schedule again and it should be noted that Mayo plays well at home because 8 of the 10 home games were against cupcakes or bottom of the Big East (Nova and OSU being the exception). While on the road or neutral site, MU has played significantly better opponents like GWU, UNM, Butler, GU, SDSU, Creighton and Xavier. The other road game we played CS Fullerton and he played 8 minutes (ankle injury I believe).
If we review the data, the common theme would be regardless of the venue, Mayo does not play as well against better opponents except for Nova. Definition of well can be debated but that would be a more likely connection then venue.