Don't know how many get the Field of 68 daily e mail but this was their MU blurb today. Good daily e mail and their podcasts are good wit Fanta and others.
1. Forget the Big East. Marquette's focused on March.
Amid an active transfer portal, there's something to be said for sticking with what you got. Just ask Marquette.
The Golden Eagles' marvelous season — 29 wins (most in school history) and Big East regular-season and tourney titles (no small thing given UConn won the natty) — was a direct result of coach Shaka Smart evaluating his roster and deciding that his roster was already good enough to win. So he forsook the portal.
Well, Smart used the same approach this offseason and ignored the transfer portal. Though it's easy to understand given what Marquette returns: Eight of nine rotation players, including Big East POY Tyler Kolek.
From The Almanac:
"It's for our guys to feel like there is a genuine commitment to them, to their games and to their growth as people," Smart said. "I think if our guys feel that, there are powerful downstream effects with winning."
If Marquette is going to repeat as Big East champions this season, it's going to start with Kolek, arguably the best point guard in all of college basketball.
A former transfer from George Mason, Kolek went from being a slick passer that had moments in his first season with Marquette to the unquestioned leader of the program. "All the things that matter to us as coaches, he has," Smart said. "Mental toughness, the willingness to sacrifice, communication, resiliency, who you are as a teammate."
And, oh by the way, he also happens to be a basketball junkie that is one of the best passers in the country. He thrives in ball screens, he's much improved as a shooter, and despite looking like he showed up at the Fiserv Forum because he got lost on his way to a frat party, he's an underrated defender whose willingness to accept mismatches allows Smart's defensive game plans to be successful.
There are more details in the Almanac, which also addresses the loss of do-it-all wing Olivier-Maxence Prosper, Marquette's best defender and third-leading scorer from last season. It's a great way to spend $19.99, if you haven't already bought it.
But what about a personal touch? How are Marquette fans feeling about this season, their chances to repeat, and Smart's influence?
For that, I turned to Andrei Greska. He runs Paint Touches, one of my favorite college hoops sites. It fuses fandom, tempo-free analysis, and the eye test as seamlessly as any place on the web.
He was kind enough to answer four questions.
Q: How are you feeling about a repeat as Big East champs? We pegged them as the team to beat in The Almanac. And after last season's unexpected stellar season, will anything less than a regular-season or Big East tourney title feel like a letdown?
Andrei Greska: It's quite a foreign feeling as a Marquette fan, first and foremost. Even during Buzz Williams' peak, Marquette was still sort of fighting for respect and wasn't considered a favorite any preseason.
So this whole offseason of nothing but love, including from the Almanac, has thrown me. But as for personal expectations, I think March success is the bigger letdown potential. Creighton and UConn will be insanely good. Marquette was fairly fortunate to get 17 league wins last season (with some close wins down the stretch vs Xavier and Creighton) so if MU were to go 14-6 and finish a game or two behind, I think that's well within the realm of possibilities of not meeting last year's results, while still performing at very high level.
But if you ask most around these parts, they'd trade the Big East banner for an Elite 8 most years. Shaka Smart and the team have been quite vocal about their national title aspirations and leaning into the heightened expectations, so for me, not reaching the Sweet 16 at minimum will feel like a letdown, no matter what happens in the regular season.
Q: You recently wrote at Paint Touches about what makes Chase Ross a "dude." You summarize it pretty succinctly at the end —- go read the whole article if you haven't already — but I'm curious. Is he the only "dude" on the Marquette roster? Tyler Kolek is certainly The Man, but I wouldn't call him a dude, that is, someone who wows you with an athletic display.
Greska: I think he's definitely the only bonafide dude.
Kolek, Kam and Oso are top end talents, no doubt, but they don't necessarily thrive off their athletic gifts. Stevie Mitchell's a winner and epic glue guy, Jop can get buckets and while Ben Gold is template Euro-style 5, none of them are a dude. Sean Jones could be, as he's probably the most athletic Marquette guard since Dominic James, but tough for a sub-6-foot role player to be a dude.
From the freshmen, Zaide Lowery has gotten direct Chase Ross comps from a few places, including Shaka, so he has dude potential, but I'd be hesitant to tag him just yet, without seeing on court production.
Q: David Joplin's seen as the obvious choice to replace OMax in the starting line both for his experience and scoring ability. But I have to think Ross will push for that spot because of his defense. Because that's the big concern for this season, right?
Greska: Ross most likely won't have a starring role this season, and won't be a national name just yet, but his defensive skillset will be even more crucial to MU without OMax Prosper, so he will have an integral role, most likely as the first off the bench.
And the big question mark about the team this year is 100% defensive. Marquette was better down the stretch, and particularly so against high level opponents, but it still wasn't anywhere close to elite on D. Now take away OMax, the lengthy first-round draft pick who defended 1-4 at an elite level, I think the defense has legitimate questions.
Take Hoop-Explorer's lineup data. The starters (Kolek/Jones/Mitchell/Oso) + Prosper put up an insane +35.7 Adjusted Net Rating in 728 possessions, filtering out garbage time. The starters + Joplin were only +8.1 in 72 possessions, with a ghastly Adj DRating of 124.7. Obviously that's a much smaller sample size and no one would have pegged MU's starting 5 to be one of the top lineups in college basketball last summer, so I am expecting significant improvement.
But this is all to say, Ross' defensive acumen and versatility has me believing he'll play as many minutes as Joplin, if not more.
Q: Describe the difference between Wojo's teams and Shaka teams as fan. Do you wake up every day and just think "Yes. This is what I wanted."?
Greska: Have you ever tried to cut through a wood 2x4 with a steak knife, even those super sharp ones? It requires an extreme amount of effort and when you stop to breathe because your arm is about to fall off, you realize you barely made a dent. That's a Wojo team.
Some individual pieces are the sharpest knives in their class but when you see what the task at hand is, it's nearly impossible. And then you lose a Markus Howard series knife and you're left with 3 butter knives and a spoon and you look at the mirror and say what is wrong with me. So you go to Home Depot and get a circular saw all of a sudden you're slicing through 2x4s in like 5 seconds. That's Shaka.
The individual parts may not be as awe-inducing, but as a whole, they punch so far above their weight. Winning is important, duh, but aside from the results, the style Shaka's Marquette teams have played are so incredibly easy on the eyes. It's more satisfying than I could have ever imagined.
Andrei's been a Marquette fan for more than 15 years, and has been running Paint Touches nearly the whole time. You can find more of his work here.
Need more on the Golden Eagles, the Big East and college hoops in general? Buy The Almanac, just $19.99.
Ha! Like the analogy at the end.
Still concerned about the defense. The entire group getting better plus guard depth with extreme ball pressure should help.
Part of defense is securing the rebound. MU will need to improve that.
Shooter
I think the defense might be the star of the show this year. With the deep team I am expecting much more pressure and think the D will shine. I think they force a crazy number of turnovers this season.
That would be fun.
Quote from: Goose on October 24, 2023, 08:32:56 PM
Shooter
I think the defense might be the star of the show this year. With the deep team I am expecting much more pressure and think the D will shine. I think they force a crazy number of turnovers this season.
Boy do we all hope so!
That said, it's hard to be the star of the show in a room with a top 5, if not top 1 ranked offense.
I'm pretty sure the new intro includes a "Jerel McNeal" shout at the end. Wonder if he's joining as an analyst/host.
Quote from: Goose on October 24, 2023, 08:32:56 PM
Shooter
I think the defense might be the star of the show this year. With the deep team I am expecting much more pressure and think the D will shine. I think they force a crazy number of turnovers this season.
I think they will force a crazy number of turnovers this season. What "worries" me is what happens when they don't force a turnover. Replacing a human bear trap like O-Max with a human turnstile like Joplin makes me nervous. Stevie can lock down guards. I think Ross has lockdown potential for guards and wings. I don't know who can lockdown star forwards. I also don't know who lockdown star wings when Ross isn't on the floor (or has to cover another star player w/o Mitchell).
I do think they will be much better defending the interior this season. I think Oso and Gold have both taken significant steps forward in that department.
TAMU
Your worry is legitimate, and I agree with your comment. That said, I think they will be extremely disruptive enough that it will hide their weakness to some degree. Agree on Omax, but I think this is the first team in the Shaka era that can play the type of D I think he wants to play.
Quote from: TAMU, Knower of Ball on October 25, 2023, 10:53:24 AM
I think they will force a crazy number of turnovers this season. What "worries" me is what happens when they don't force a turnover. Replacing a human bear trap like O-Max with a human turnstile like Joplin makes me nervous. Stevie can lock down guards. I think Ross has lockdown potential for guards and wings. I don't know who can lockdown star forwards. I also don't know who lockdown star wings when Ross isn't on the floor (or has to cover another star player w/o Mitchell).
I do think they will be much better defending the interior this season. I think Oso and Gold have both taken significant steps forward in that department.
I think Jop will be a lot better than "human turnstile" this year. He's at a much different conditioning level this year, but I also haven't been able to watch any of the scrimmages this year so the eye test of others may be better informed.
I also think Zaide is the heir apparant to Ross on the lockdown side, and will do so with more length. Should be interesting to see what Shaka does on that front.
Quote from: JakeBarnes on October 25, 2023, 10:58:06 AM
I think Jop will be a lot better than "human turnstile" this year. He's at a much different conditioning level this year, but I also haven't been able to watch any of the scrimmages this year so the eye test of others may be better informed.
I went to the scrimmage (not the open practice). With the obvious caveat that it is an extremely small sample size, Joplin's perimeter D didn't look improved (and it was bad last season). His interior D looked improved.
Quote from: TAMU, Knower of Ball on October 25, 2023, 11:04:22 AM
I went to the scrimmage (not the open practice). With the obvious caveat that it is an extremely small sample size, Joplin's perimeter D didn't look improved (and it was bad last season). His interior D looked improved.
Is he thick enough he could switch with Oso and bang against a center while Oso guards the perimeter?
Quote from: TAMU, Knower of Ball on October 25, 2023, 11:04:22 AM
I went to the scrimmage (not the open practice). With the obvious caveat that it is an extremely small sample size, Joplin's perimeter D didn't look improved (and it was bad last season). His interior D looked improved.
Just needs to our score his guy by +1, yo
Quote from: TAMU, Knower of Ball on October 25, 2023, 11:04:22 AM
I went to the scrimmage (not the open practice). With the obvious caveat that it is an extremely small sample size, Joplin's perimeter D didn't look improved (and it was bad last season). His interior D looked improved.
Jop doesn't have the foot speed to guard the perimeter. Omax couldn't guard the interior. It's a trade to improve the overall defense. There are a lot of big interior teams on the schedule.
Chase and Zaide need to fill Omax's role, and I think Ben's bulk helps this year where he was manhandled often last year in the paint (and Ben can't guard the perimeter either).
Give a little, get a little.
Quote from: Galway Eagle on October 25, 2023, 11:11:58 AM
Is he thick enough he could switch with Oso and bang against a center while Oso guards the perimeter?
Against 6'8, 6'9 centers, yes I think so (though I'm not sure I want Oso away from the paint for extended stretches).
Against Clingan/Kalkbrenner types? Absolutely not.
Quote from: Galway Eagle on October 25, 2023, 11:11:58 AM
Is he thick enough he could switch with Oso and bang against a center while Oso guards the perimeter?
Jop was banging down low with Sanogo last year in the BE tourney semis due to MU foul trouble. He did not do a half bad job iirc.
Quote from: tower912 on October 24, 2023, 08:14:32 PM
Part of defense is securing the rebound. MU will need to improve that.
Can you teach rebounding?
Quote from: muwarrior69 on October 25, 2023, 11:51:33 AM
Can you teach rebounding?
Absolutely.
Rebounding isn't about how high you can jump. It's about how quick you can jump. And proper positioning.
Quote from: Dickthedribbler on October 25, 2023, 12:02:31 PM
Absolutely.
Rebounding isn't about how high you can jump. It's about how quick you can jump. And proper positioning.
And a wide azz
Quote from: MUbiz on October 25, 2023, 11:37:57 AM
Jop was banging down low with Sanogo last year in the BE tourney semis due to MU foul trouble. He did not do a half bad job iirc.
I Remember Gus Johnson saying " all day" as they fed Sonogo in the paint and he scored with little resistance.
If Jop is defending bigs in the paint MU will need to double team.....assuming the player has any decent level of post game.