Road Warriors Finally Add a Big Home WinButler was the 7th Top 200 team to visit the Bradley Center this season. The first times Marquette averaged doing 13 points WORSE than their projection at
www.kenpom.com.
Toss-ups vs. Iowa and Seton Hall? 20-point losses. Eight-point favorites over Belmont and DePaul? Losses. Sixteen point favorite over IUPUI? It took overtime. Only Xavier met up to expectations - losing by exactly the eight point projection.
But Henry Ellenson looked like a guy expecting to be in the NBA next year rather than a freshman, scoring 32 points as Marquette beat favored Butler 75-69.
The reason this is so encouraging is that with the freshman experiencing what it is like to have a crowd behind you - rather than disappointed in you - this could help MU take care of business at home.
And if they do that they already played like a tournament team on the road, averaging 5.5 points a game better than projected - but more importantly winning four games in which they were underdogs.
A HUGE win. Here are all the results in home and then away/neutral games.
| Home Games vs. Top 200 | Result | Projection | Better |
|---|
| DePaul | -1 | 8 | -9 |
| Xavier | -8 | -8 | 0 |
| Seton Hall | -20 | 1 | -21 |
| Iowa | -28 | -1 | -27 |
| IUPUI | 4 | 16 | -12 |
| Belmont | -3 | 8 | -11 |
| Average Home Performance | -9.3 | 4.0 | -13.3 |
| Away Games vs. Top 200 | | | |
| Villanova | -15 | -18 | 3 |
| Providence | 1 | -11 | 12 |
| Georgetown | -10 | -7 | -3 |
| Wisconsin | 2 | -8 | 10 |
| Arizona State | 5 | -2 | 7 |
| LSU | 1 | -3 | 4 |
| Average Away Performance | -2.7 | -8.2 | 5.5 |
Source: Road Warriors Finally Add a Big Home Win (http://www.crackedsidewalks.com/2016/01/road-warriors-finally-add-big-home-win.html)