Does MU need to push the ball today and play uptempo in order to wear down ND's bigs? Thoughts.
In a word, yes, but we can say that every game. Pushing the ball also will require defensive stops and limiting ND's (ok, Harangody's) offensive rebounding. If we control our defensive boards and push the ball, yes, we will wear down their bigs and yes, we will win. ND IS EVIL AND MUST BE DESTROYED!!!!!!
We will not beat Notre Dame in a half court game. Actually, I do not think we win this game period. But we have to beat them down the floor. This is our best chance to get them in foul trouble and get some easy baskets. If we play passively we will lose by 15. this is a very bad matchup for MU. Notre Dame has two good guards who can shoot and two very mobile bigmen, that MU will have a lot of trouble with.
I don't think we have to worry about Marquette pushing the ball. We do that at every opportunity. Our first 3 steps going from defense to offense are very quick. We will take advantage an chance that we get. That may be the difference in the game. Having set that, our half court offense needs to be efficient because most of the possessions will be in the half court. We spend a lot of time in practice on our half court offense. If we can go inside, outside, strong side, weak side, on every possession, we will be successful. Going inside doesn't have to mean getting the ball in the post. Penetration accomplishes the same thing. Perhaps the biggest key to the game is stopping Harangody. That guy killed us last year.