[Cracked Sidewalks] Marquette - High Risk Stock?

[CrackedSidewalksSays]

Marquette - High Risk Stock?


read here .. graphs included:

http://www.crackedsidewalks.com/2008/01/marquette-high-risk-stock.html

[Avenue Commons]

I don't know if everyone is ready Henry Sugar's contributions to the excellent Cracked Sidewalks blog, but the level of statistical analysis is unbelievably in depth. Its the kind of analysis you would expect to see on ESPN.com or on some kind of pay-for-use site. It's tremendous. Thanks to him for doing this!

[Henry Sugar]

Check's in the mail, AC...

[WashDCWarrior]

What a great article! I've been trying to figure out how the same team that blew out ND, could be so ineffective against L'ville and UConn.  This really helped put things in perspective.

The one addition I have is that the first 5 minutes of the game have really set the tone for what will follow.

If we come out and hit our first few 3's, it opens up the middle, takes the opponent out of the zone, and allows us to play to our strength, dribble penetration.  If our big men get touches and score early, the defense will continue to pay attention to them, also freeing up guard penetration or giving shooters additional room.

Conversely, if shots are missed early and we can't get our frontcourt involved, we'll see the defense pack it in, forcing us to shoot more 3's than we want, and creating a higher number of steals/blocked shots when we do penetrate.

Bottom line for Marquette, the 'style' of the game gets determined early.  If it's our style, we're one of the best teams in the country.  If it's not, watch out.  We'll see more games like the last two.

[Eye]

I agree on the outstanding stuff by HS. The last team that I remember that was this volatile in terms of shooting threes was '05 U of A and Salim Stoudamire. You could sometimes tell in as soon as about the first minute or two of the game how things were going to go. That team got killed at UVA and played that awful clunker at the BC against MU (48-43), but also won the Pac 10 and swept UCLA. That team made a run to the Final 8, beat a good Oklahoma State team in the Sweet 16 and should have beaten Illinois to go to the Final Four, before imploding in the final minutes in that game at the Horizon. So maybe there's hope for MU yet.

(BTW, if these teams are comparable and you can tell pretty early how it's going to go, maybe halftime lines wouldn't be a bad idea for a way to make some shellcasings on MU games this year if you're hanging out in Nevada)