That was a thrilling game, a great comeback, some ballsy play down the stretch, and the kind of game that winners win.
Got superb contributions from lots of guys. Kam was the ultimate leader and Warrior. Stevie - wow - what a defensive stud. Jop ... I guess Shaka shouldn't bench him after all. Ross with several big plays late.
Outstanding effort by Parham - when he made his second 3, I told the guys in my text chain we were gonna win.
Withstood an absolutely ridiculous game from Conwell.
Thanks for missing that dunk with nobody near you, Freemantle! That was very generous.
And yes, we're STILL playing well.
I disagree on "well", but getting a close win at MSG over a very solid team should be a big confidence boost prior to the tournament. We can definitely build on this.
We were not playing well in that first half, and it was a lot of the same issues we had the last 2 months.
Jop started the turn around the last couple of games by finding his 3-point stroke.
The second half, Kam figured it out and started hitting shots, Stevie became Stevie on defense and offensively the fear went away. Ross stepped up and started scoring. Gold, Parham and Z all had some very good contributions as well.
The second half of this game is the first time we have looked close to team we were in 2024.
This was a huge and well-deserved win.
Quote from: Big Papi on March 13, 2025, 04:08:25 PMWe were not playing well in that first half, and it was a lot of the same issues we had the last 2 months.
Jop started the turn around the last couple of games by finding his 3-point stroke.
The second half, Kam figured it out and started hitting shots, Stevie became Stevie on defense and offensively the fear went away. Ross stepped up and started scoring. Gold, Parham and Z all had some very good contributions as well.
The second half of this game is the first time we have looked close to team we were in 2024.
This was a huge and well-deserved win.
The entire issue in the first half was defense. 46 points. Yeah, we missed some bunnies but that was the problem.
Quote from: Big Papi on March 13, 2025, 04:08:25 PMWe were not playing well in that first half, and it was a lot of the same issues we had the last 2 months.
Jop started the turn around the last couple of games by finding his 3-point stroke.
The second half, Kam figured it out and started hitting shots, Stevie became Stevie on defense and offensively the fear went away. Ross stepped up and started scoring. Gold, Parham and Z all had some very good contributions as well.
The second half of this game is the first time we have looked close to team we were in 2024.
This was a huge and well-deserved win.
Imagine if Ben had been there.
https://x.com/tammarag/status/1900292656808550518?s=61&t=6XPB8f4sAKmJIzxgMcsCjw
Games have ebbs and flows. Few teams play great every stretch of every game. I mean, y'all watch basketball enough to know that.
We played extremely well for a long stretch in today's game, and that's why we won.
One little thing that's not so little ...
Watching the postgame show, one of the studio analysts made a great point: Marquette had to execute numerous inbound plays at the end with no timeouts remaining, and we did so every single time. That's not easy, and it's a sign of a team that's been prepared well by its coach.
We've been playing pretty well for some 3 weeks now. And now we've beaten a good team that had won 7 straight, and we did it at MSG to earn a Q1 win. It's OK to enjoy it.
Second half team all season.
Quote from: MU82 on March 13, 2025, 04:22:01 PMGames have ebbs and flows. Few teams play great every stretch of every game. I mean, y'all watch basketball enough to know that.
We played extremely well for a long stretch in today's game, and that's why we won.
One little thing that's not so little ...
Watching the postgame show, one of the studio analysts made a great point: Marquette had to execute numerous inbound plays at the end with no timeouts remaining, and we did so every single time. That's not easy, and it's a sign of a team that's been prepared well by its coach.
We've been playing pretty well for some 3 weeks now. And now we've beaten a good team that had won 7 straight, and we did it at MSG to earn a Q1 win. It's OK to enjoy it.
I will say, it ended up working out. But in my opinion Chase isn't the best inbounder, and he's probably the guy I trust most at the line down the stretch of games. Stevie made them today, but he's missed some big ones this year. Kam has missed a lot of free throws in general and some big ones this year. Ben doesn't get there enough for me to have confidence in him, and has missed a couple late ones (today and at SJU come to mind). Chase and Jop are the two I have most confidence in at the line in clutch situations, and Chase is the one inbounding. Wouldn't hate seeing him be the one receiving passes.
Quote from: wadesworld on March 13, 2025, 04:29:22 PMI will say, it ended up working out. But in my opinion Chase isn't the best inbounder, and he's probably the guy I trust most at the line down the stretch of games. Stevie made them today, but he's missed some big ones this year. Kam has missed a lot of free throws in general and some big ones this year. Ben doesn't get there enough for me to have confidence in him, and has missed a couple late ones (today and at SJU come to mind). Chase and Jop are the two I have most confidence in at the line in clutch situations, and Chase is the one inbounding. Wouldn't hate seeing him be the one receiving passes.
You notice the difference without TK to knock down FTs at the end. I don't love Chase throwing it in, either.
I thought maybe Ben could be that guy but I imagine they want his height available to grab an inbounds pass.
With Kam's free throw struggles and how good he is passing the ball you'd think he could be an option but they likely want him in for his ball-handling.
Shaka thinks it's Chase so even though Scoop knows better that works for me.
Quote from: tower912 on March 13, 2025, 04:24:28 PMSecond half team all season.
Do MU's assistants struggle with preparing the scout for these games leading to slow first halves? Obviously, the staff has done a terrific job with halftime adjustments.
I actually thought similar - Chase is one of the guys I'd want shooting. Kam would be the only other one I'd want inbounding; he usually makes good decisions and the bonus is that it also makes it less likely he'd be the one fouled. But Kam also is the best at getting open to receive a pass.
I'm guessing that Chase is the one who inbounds in those situations most of the time at practice, and Shaka feels the most comfortable with him doing it. So I know some folks don't always want to hear this, but we're just gonna have to trust our coach on this.
I liked the fouling up 3 strategy. #7 would've tied it up the way he was shooting
Quote from: Judge Smails on March 13, 2025, 05:17:38 PMI liked the fouling up 3 strategy. #7 would've tied it up the way he was shooting
100%.
I'm "situational" on the strategy in that I wouldn't do it every time against any opponent. There would be several factors, including can my opponent shoot, and are we rebounding well enough that I'm confident we'd secure the rebound. The way Conwell was shooting, it was a no-brainer today, and I was yelling at my TV to do it!
Quote from: wadesworld on March 13, 2025, 04:29:22 PMI will say, it ended up working out. But in my opinion Chase isn't the best inbounder, and he's probably the guy I trust most at the line down the stretch of games. Stevie made them today, but he's missed some big ones this year. Kam has missed a lot of free throws in general and some big ones this year. Ben doesn't get there enough for me to have confidence in him, and has missed a couple late ones (today and at SJU come to mind). Chase and Jop are the two I have most confidence in at the line in clutch situations, and Chase is the one inbounding. Wouldn't hate seeing him be the one receiving passes.
Jop is oddly the guy I have a lot of faith in if we're up. Don't trust him as much when we're down in big spots. Then I'd want Stevie or Chase
Quote from: Big Papi on March 13, 2025, 04:08:25 PMWe were not playing well in that first half, and it was a lot of the same issues we had the last 2 months.
Jop started the turn around the last couple of games by finding his 3-point stroke.
The second half, Kam figured it out and started hitting shots, Stevie became Stevie on defense and offensively the fear went away. Ross stepped up and started scoring. Gold, Parham and Z all had some very good contributions as well.
The second half of this game is the first time we have looked close to team we were in 2024.
This was a huge and well-deserved win.
Muggsy disagrees on deserve to win
When the team is hitting 3s, look out.
Unfortunately the team has been most not hitting 3s. It's like every 5th game they hit.
Quote from: MU82 on March 13, 2025, 05:23:11 PM100%.
I'm "situational" on the strategy in that I wouldn't do it every time against any opponent. There would be several factors, including can my opponent shoot, and are we rebounding well enough that I'm confident we'd secure the rebound. The way Conwell was shooting, it was a no-brainer today, and I was yelling at my TV to do it!
I don't know any coach who is a "always" foul when up three coach. Is there one these days?Aren't they all "situational"?
MU fouled too early. Fouled with 6 seconds left.By doing so....had to follow again with 4 seconds left. Comwell's 35' footer does in now way justify that we "should have fouled because look what he would have done."
Shaka and Annie Duke call that resulting.
Quote from: We R Final Four on March 13, 2025, 10:06:17 PMI don't know any coach who is a "always" foul when up three coach. Is there one these days?Aren't they all "situational"?
MU fouled too early. Fouled with 6 seconds left.By doing so....had to follow again with 4 seconds left. Comwell's 35' footer does in now way justify that we "should have fouled because look what he would have done."
Shaka and Annie Duke call that resulting.
MU executed it perfectly.
Quote from: We R Final Four on March 13, 2025, 10:06:17 PMI don't know any coach who is a "always" foul when up three coach. Is there one these days?Aren't they all "situational"?
MU fouled too early. Fouled with 6 seconds left.By doing so....had to follow again with 4 seconds left. Comwell's 35' footer does in now way justify that we "should have fouled because look what he would have done."
Shaka and Annie Duke call that resulting.
OK.
Quote from: MU24 on March 13, 2025, 08:13:26 PMWhen the team is hitting 3s, look out.
Unfortunately the team has been most not hitting 3s. It's like every 5th game they hit.
Last seven games we're shooting 35.4% from 3 with only one clunker (@UConn). Over 40% in 3 of those 7 games.
But yeah, we only hit one out of every 5 games...
Quote from: BM1090 on March 13, 2025, 05:27:04 PMJop is oddly the guy I have a lot of faith in if we're up. Don't trust him as much when we're down in big spots. Then I'd want Stevie or Chase
I still have nightmares of Jop missing 3 FT's at the end of the 1st half vs. NC ST last year. Haven't gotten over that.
Kam and (especially) Jop are finally, finally, finally having their long overdue "reversion to mean" 3-point experience. If it continues, it could contribute significantly to a nice little NCAAT run.
Jop played fearlessly. It was nice to see.
Kam's swagger is entering the building. Those two firing on all cylinders will pay multiples.
This continues to be a Stevie appreciation account:
Quote from: MU82 on March 14, 2025, 10:37:24 AMKam and (especially) Jop are finally, finally, finally having their long overdue "reversion to mean" 3-point experience. If it continues, it could contribute significantly to a nice little NCAAT run.
This is a good point and it does bode well. Jop's shot looks especially good right now.
Regarding the fouling up 3, I felt we fouled too early at 6 seconds - would have been okay with it if it were at the 3 second mark or so. Here's why:
1) We had no timeouts left - if we had trouble inbounding the ball off potential 2 makes, we would have turned it over, up 1, and X with 6 seconds left to get a game winner
2) Our FT shooting just isn't very reliable. Foul with 6 seconds, X makes 2, and it's a 1 point game - we go to the other end and miss front end of 1-1 or miss a second, it's a 1 or 2 point game and X can tie with 6 seconds.
Granted Conwell was on a heater and his heave at the end that banked in justifies the strategy. And the fouling up 3 is generally an approach I like, but only when there is less than max 4 seconds left.
Quote from: Elonsmusk on March 14, 2025, 10:52:26 AMThis is a good point and it does bode well. Jop's shot looks especially good right now.
Regarding the fouling up 3, I felt we fouled too early at 6 seconds - would have been okay with it if it were at the 3 second mark or so. Here's why:
1) We had no timeouts left - if we had trouble inbounding the ball off potential 2 makes, we would have turned it over, up 1, and X with 6 seconds left to get a game winner
2) Our FT shooting just isn't very reliable. Foul with 6 seconds, X makes 2, and it's a 1 point game - we go to the other end and miss front end of 1-1 or miss a second, it's a 1 or 2 point game and X can tie with 6 seconds.
Granted Conwell was on a heater and his heave at the end that banked in justifies the strategy. And the fouling up 3 is generally an approach I like, but only when there is less than max 4 seconds left.
Agree. I think they were fouling early just to be sure that no one let the Xavier guys try to get a shot off and make it a 3 shot foul.
I had no problem with MU fouling when they did, though I understand why others wish there had been less time remaining.
Given that we're #148 as a team in free throws, I'd prefer if we just didn't foul especially if we're in the bonus and don't have any timeouts. Seemed like we self volleyed all of the pressure back into our court with too much time remaining when the worst case should have been overtime.
Hard to fault the execution though. Sure, I'd like to foul earlier but I've seen essentially zero teams this year execute any better than MU did. It's always sort of chaos. MU looked like a veteran team in the final minute yesterday.
https://x.com/marquettembb/status/1900594035284193757?s=61&t=6XPB8f4sAKmJIzxgMcsCjw
Love the video, thanks for posting.
Strange that Sean Jones would deliver words of inspiration before the game given that sources close to his brother's ex-wife's cousin say he already has one foot out the door.
Quote from: MuMark on March 14, 2025, 12:19:11 PMhttps://x.com/marquettembb/status/1900594035284193757?s=61&t=6XPB8f4sAKmJIzxgMcsCjw
This team is HUNGRY. F'ing love it. Tonight is about making a statement. Go get em, boys.
Quote from: MU82 on March 14, 2025, 12:24:25 PMLove the video, thanks for posting.
Strange that Sean Jones would deliver words of inspiration before the game given that sources close to his brother's ex-wife's cousin say he already has one foot out the door.
Only these people know, not his team mates :P
Quote from: JakeBarnes on March 14, 2025, 12:38:58 PMThis team is HUNGRY. F'ing love it. Tonight is about making a statement. Go get em, boys.
I'd imagine the guys can't get the image of St. John's telling fans in MKE to "go home," after their buzzer beater on Senior Day less than 1 week ago. If a team ever had motivation for a revenge win, tonight's about as good as it gets.
In my opinion we are playing with house money tonight - St. John's is the home team, we are predicted to lose, yet St. John's has some game pressure to win as the favorite, home team, but also their long drought from a Big East Conference tourney title.
At this point, I like to think our team doesn't need extra motivation to win. But maybe.
We're playing well. Hopefully we'll see the very best of our guys - kinda like the way they played in the second half yesterday.
That version of MU's best self could win several more March games.
Quote from: MuMark on March 14, 2025, 12:19:11 PMhttps://x.com/marquettembb/status/1900594035284193757?s=61&t=6XPB8f4sAKmJIzxgMcsCjw
Lol @ 3:40, "Ross: Dress for Less, Score for More"
I just rewatched some of yesterday's game on Peacock. One sequence caught my eye:
Gold faked a 3, drove toward the lane and kicked it out to a wide-open Kam for the 3 that gave us our first lead since forever ... then, on defense, Gold hedged out 30+ feet and Swaim, trying to go around him, dribbled it off his foot ... after we missed and had to go back on D, Gold switched onto Conwell and forced a rare miss ... we got the rebound, went downcourt and Gold passed up what would have been a defended 3 to hit Stevie, who scored on a drive.
So Gold didn't get any points or rebounds or steals in that sequence, but he made several big plays to help us go from down 2 to up 3 in about 1:30 of game time.
He's not a star or anything close to it, but when he's healthy, he's a pretty good college 5. We could do better at that position, I suppose, but we also could do a helluva lot worse.
Quote from: MU82 on March 14, 2025, 04:38:00 PMI just rewatched some of yesterday's game on Peacock. One sequence caught my eye:
Gold faked a 3, drove toward the lane and kicked it out to a wide-open Kam for the 3 that gave us our first lead since forever ... then, on defense, Gold hedged out 30+ feet and Swaim, trying to go around him, dribbled it off his foot ... after we missed and had to go back on D, Gold switched onto Conwell and forced a rare miss ... we got the rebound, went downcourt and Gold passed up what would have been a defended 3 to hit Stevie, who scored on a drive.
So Gold didn't get any points or rebounds or steals in that sequence, but he made several big plays to help us go from down 2 to up 3 in about 1:30 of game time.
He's not a star or anything close to it, but when he's healthy, he's a pretty good college 5. We could do better at that position, I suppose, but we also could do a helluva lot worse.
Ben's biggest issue at the 5 is against athletic physical type guys.
ESPN matchup predictor only has this at 52% for StJ's. Not far off from a 'pick-em' game. MU getting some respect. 👍
I agree we're playing well. But we need to play really well to win the BET. I think a dispassionate observer would say STJ is playing great and will beat us by 10....spirited 2 pt wins are nice but...
I am not a dispassionate observer so looking for a WIN tonight!
By the way, this guy on YouTube today had some great visual graphs detailing the bball landscape going into MM. VCU and ZAGs look like dangerous matches. MU 3 data % takes vs % makes are a bit ugly.
https://youtu.be/7VKN6t-On6k?si=ACVfqRRsX3wo5iou
Quote from: Nukem2 on March 14, 2025, 04:42:48 PMBen's biggest issue at the 5 is against athletic physical type guys.
Good point. Freemantle's not one of those.
He was a no-show most of the second half.
Actually worse - Freemantle was an important part of several negative plays for X down the stretch. We should send him a thank-you gift!
If he keeps working on it over his next 3-4 years at Xavier, though, maybe he'll improve.
So well.
Are we still playing well?
I'd feel much better if we were a 6. Best possible scenario it seems to me will be Houston if we're an 8 and Mich St. if we're a 7. Assuming we win the first game of course.
Am posting again since feel this is important to note
Did the math. Again some of this is natural but
In Marquette Wins Marquette averaged 82 points rounded to the nearest point.
In Marquette Losses Marquette averaged 67 points rounded. to the nearest point.
Marquette plays better in general in higher scoring games.
It would help to get back to challenging every pass. And not to be overly simplistic and this is not rocket science but getting back to having less turnovers and more shots.
Quote from: PointWarrior on March 14, 2025, 10:24:15 PMAre we still playing well?
We didn't play well vs. St. John's. Congratulations to you!
At least I get to drown my disappointment with the beers you'll be buying me for winning our MU-X bet.
Quote from: MU82 on March 15, 2025, 01:48:26 AMWe didn't play well vs. St. John's. Congratulations to you!
At least I get to drown my disappointment with the beers you'll be buying me for winning our MU-X bet.
Happy to do so! The X win saved them from an 8 seed hopefully.
So well.