Poll: Your opinion of Marquette's loss to Wisconsin

[rocky_warrior]

Just curious...

[spiral97]

hrm.. how about.. "MU lost by 4 to an OK team that played badly by playing badly themselves"?

[LastWarrior]

too much red in the crowd.

[mu_hilltopper]

Yeah, sorry, those poll questions won't quite do it .. Answering #1 means you don't think UW was a good team, which few probably fall into, which force you to answer #2, even though #1 has some truth to it.

Maybe .. We got our Butts kicked by a better team at home?  .. or .. what we're really trying to get to is .. do you see the glass half empty or full after this loss?  Did you expect to win this game or not?  With the loss, did your expectations go down for the remainder of the season?

That sort of thing.

[SoCalstu09]

That was a good team. Alando is a leader on the court that drained everything from everywhere, despite hands in his face. I remember a shot where Wesley was giving Tucker no room on the baseline, Tucker pulled up from 15 and drained it, swish. I mean c'mon. We just didn't have an answer to him, but despite his 28 points, we still only lost by 4. Not too bad.

I hate saying it, but they are the better team right now.

[Harrison]

WHAT HAPPENED TO MY REPONSE?

[rocky_warrior]

Yeah, sorry, those poll questions won't quite do it

I wasn't trying to slant the poll, and I don't think answering #1 means that you don't think Wisconsin is a good team.  I think the options are mutually exclusive.  Either:
a) You think Wisconsin embarrassed Marquette or
b) Eh, we lost by 4 to a ranked team.  I've seen worse (ala NDSU), lets move on.

Perhaps our difference of opinion is in location.  I don't have to deal with any UW alums on a daily (or really even monthly) basis.  Therefore the loss is one of those that doesn't rank in the "bad" loss category to me, so I'm not so concerned about it.  If you're in Wisconsin however, it's likely that you're surrounded by bucky fans and will have to deal with the taunts until will destroy them at the Kohl next year

BTW, I did expect to win the game, primarily though because the home team had won the past 5 or so years.  My expectations of the season have not been lowered due to the loss, because frankly it wasn't that bad of a loss.

I realize there are probably a million options in between those two, but I figured everybody would lean one way or the other.

[mu_hilltopper]

But because you must pick one, picking option A excludes picking option B, which many want to do, as they feel both are true.  This makes the poll inconclusive. 

I agree that losing to UW, wherever it's played, is not a "bad" loss in terms of NCAA seeding, certainly (answer B).  However, the way we lost (further) exposed some very important weaknesses that do not bode well for the BE season where we were beaten from ~tip to buzzer on our home court (answer A, a butt kicking.)

[Sir Lawrence]

I guess my thoughts, after reflecting for a few days, is that very early in the second half I knew we were screwed.  Honestly?  The last time I felt that way about a MU game was the loss to Kansas during the final four run--perhaps it was such a strong desire to win "a" particular game, (I wanted this win so badly I could taste it) and then wanting to crawl under a blanket.

[TVDirector]

too much red in the crowd.

I hate losing at home.
it's sooo much worse when the opponent has a large a presence as UW did beating us at home.
yuck.

[MURAYZR]

I was the the one that voted "MU played UW?" and this is why.  I can't stress strongly enough that Coach C. has to stop standing there like a statue and coach.  I don't like to beat up Crean but I have to wonder about some of his decisions.  MU is small and has to use that as an advantage as much as the opponent uses it to theirs.  Up-tempo basketball would fit these players so much better.  If they decide to go with this then James might need to run the point.  What an idea that would be.  Zone defense I think is a must when you have a team this size.  How many jumpers did UW make?  They came down fed it inside and scored.  MU never forced UW to do anything that they didn't want to do.
My point I guess is that I didn't see MU play UW.  I saw UW playing a team in Marquette uniforms that were not allowed to play the way that they can.  Granted it would have been nice if MU would have hit a jumper or two also.  Compared to the MU team that played against Duke this was an imposter. 

[herboturbo]

A lot of people keep saying that Wisconsin is so much better than us but frankly I just dont see it.  I've watched three of thier games this season and the only one who impressed in each game was Tucker.  He is a giant talent that killed us in the game last saturday but other than a plus game from Landry (where he essentially added Bohannans normal production to his own) nobody else really did anything out of the ordinary on thier team. 

IMO we are a better team than Wisconsin.  Down the stretch Wisconsin was throwing up prayers that were being answered, the refs took our our only interior defensive presence out for almost the entire second half, we had are best driver and defender sit or be hindered with 4 fouls for key stretches and we basicallly played like garbage yet we still only lost by four.  Any combination of four more points, two baskets, 4 free throws, a basket and two free throws, a three and a free throw and that game goes to overtime.  Some of those threes will eventually start to go in by Lazar and Wesley.  Lazar is a very good shooter and Wes was hitting them earlier this year.   If this game was played 10 times I'd be willing to be that MU would win 8 of them. 

As for the zone  we did play some during the game but every time we used it someone, usually Tucker, busted it up.  The only thing I would have changed that Crean did is that we really needed someone sitting on the weakside with a shotblocking presence after the Ooze went down and I would have like to have at least seen Trend in there for a bit to see if he could do it.  Trend is probably the best guy we have on the weakside shotblocking help and that might discouraged tucker from taking it to the basket so many times during the game.   

[bheitz]

I was the the one that voted "MU played UW?" and this is why.........  Compared to the MU team that played against Duke this was an imposter. 

Rayzr is on the board -- look out now    Welcome, my friend.

[Murffieus]

The reason our zone didn't work is because it wasn't compact enough-----we were still trying to overplay passing lanes looking for deflections-----can't protect the middle from penetration that way----have to sag and jam the middle to prevent the penetration!

Against some teams------ overplaying passing lanes is the correct MO-----but not against UW !

[MURAYZR]

Deflections, deflections  and more deflections.  I hear that coach C is big on these.  I saw against UMBC that this brand of defense worked out fine.  I also saw the UW game and I agree that MU has to pack it in a little more and not be so wreckless.
Speaking of defense can't these guys guard anyone one on one besides James.  Is it poor mechanics or poor coaching?  McNeal reaches and follows anyone that he guards.  It would be nice to see him try to defend chest to chest and use his athleticism.  Just nit picking a bit but I hate lazy defenders. 
Also it was nice to see a few jumpers fall in.  Lazar looked pretty good around the rim.  We'll need that in the BIG EAST!

[Marquette84]

Against some teams------ overplaying passing lanes is the correct MO-----but not against UW !

19 points off turnovers says otherwise.