[Cracked Sidewalks] Mayo's return eclipses Monarch's departure; prepares MU to take on 3 top 25 RPI opponents early

[CrackedSidewalksSays]

Mayo's return eclipses Monarch's departure; prepares MU to take on 3 top 25 RPI opponents early

Written by: noreply@blogger.com (bamamarquettefan1)

After 1,467 self-reported secondary violations in the Big Ten from 2006-2011, critics were quick to  jump on Marquette having a rare one.  Buying a piece of merchandise and giving a ride to a recruit is certainly a clear violation in the almost 500-page and growing NCAA rule book. It is a shame that Scott Monarch is no longer an assistant coach at Marquette due to reportedly being untruthful over what would otherwise be one of thousands of secondary violations.

We certainly do not want to kick Coach Monarch while he is down, but assistant coaches move on frequently and his departure is eclipsed by the reports that one of Marquette's four top 500 players - Todd Mayo - is now back in class.  Based on http://www.valueaddbasketball.com/ Todd Mayo is MUs 4th best player and Marquette is the 25th best team in the land, while without him MU would drop to the 41st best team and a bubble team.  Here is how Marquette's top 3 players and 25th best Value Add stacks up against the non-conference foes.

DateOpponent / EventRnkRank, Player, Height2nd Best3rd Best[/tr]

10/12/2012	Marquette Madness	25	158 Gardner 6-8	317 J. Wilson 6-7	327 Blue 6-4
11/9/2012	vs. Ohio State (Carrier Cl, Charleston SC)	9	8 Craft 6-2	12 Thomas 6-7	219 Smith 6-4
11/11/2012	vs. Colgate TV	318	2321 McMullen 6-6	2383 Roh 6-4	2688 Moore 6-5
11/13/2012	vs. Southeastern Louisiana	250	760 Johnson 6-6	1665 Populist 5-10	1688 Petovcic 6-8
11/19/2012	EA SPORTS Maui Invitational	Rnk	Best Value Add	2nd Best	3rd Best
	vs. vs. Butler TV	85	209 Clarke 6-0	373 Smith 6-11	464 Marshall 6-6
11/20/2012	EA SPORTS 2nd Round	Rnk	Best Value Add	2nd Best	3rd Best
	vs. North Carolina-2nd round? TV	31	176 McAdoo 6-9	206 Bullock 6-7	223 Hairston 6-6
	vs. Mississippi St.-2nd round?	135	506 Steele 6-3	748 Sword 6-3	819 Ware 6-8
11/21/2012	EA Sports 3rd Round (unless Chaminade)	Rnk	Best Value Add	2nd Best	3rd Best
	vs. Illinois-Final Round?	107	586 Paul 6-4	596 Abrams 6-1	598 Shaw 6-6
	vs. Texas-Final Round?	10	34 McClellan 6-4	98 Holmes 6-7	156 Kabongo 6-1
	vs. Southern Cal-Final Round?	74	226 Terrell 6-3	465 Jones 5-7	525 Dedmon 525
	Final Non-Conference	Rnk	Best Value Add	2nd Best	3rd Best
11/26/2012	vs. MD Baltimore Co.	320	2125 Basalyga 6-9	2223 Getz 6-0	2289 Lane 5-11
11/29/2012	at Florida (SEC/BE Challenge) TV	15	29 Boynton 6-2	96 Young 6-9	277 Murphy 6-10
12/8/2012	vs. Wisconsin TV	23	90 Gasser 6-3	128 Berggren 6-10	162 Evans 6-6
12/15/2012	vs. Savannah State	150	622 Louis 6-7	839 Rudolph 5-11	874 Smith 6-8
12/19/2012	at Green Bay	113	174 Brown 7-1	232 Cerroni 6-2	340 Sykes 5-10
12/22/2012	vs. LSU	77	155 Hickey 5-10	503 O'Bryant 6-9	532 Carmouche 6-2
12/29/2012	vs. North Carolina Central	218	896 Chapman 6-1	947 Willis 6-6	1584 Ingram 6-3

If opponents' RPIs play out like their preseason Value Adds, Marquette could face 3 non-conference top 25 RPI teams and 4 in the top 50.  As you can see, Ohio State has two of the top 12 players in the country while Colgate does not have any of the top 2300 players in the country.table.tableizer-table {border: 1px solid #CCC; font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 12px;} .tableizer-table td {padding: 4px; margin: 3px; border: 1px solid #ccc;} .tableizer-table th {background-color: #104E8B; color: #FFF; font-weight: bold;}

13 Non-Conf201220112010[/tr]

RPI Top 25	3	2	2
Top 50	4	0	3
Top 100	6	5	6
Top 200	9	9	7
Not Top 200	4	4	6

The 6th top 100 opponent could be LSU, which stunned then No. 8 Marquette last year but did not appear to be a Top 100 team until Memphis graduate Charles Carmouche signed to play this year with LSU.  It looks like Mayo's return means Marquette will be ready for an improved non-conference schedule.

http://www.crackedsidewalks.com/2012/08/mayos-return-eclipses-monarchs.html

[Dawson Rental]

Wow, as usual.

A small criticism.  There is no way that Moore from Colgate is any worse than the 2632nd best player.

[UticaBusBarn]

After a month of posts written by folks living under rocks, your post was the proverbial breath of fresh air.

Thank you for providing a post with some real information, and for your previous Otule-Gardner comparison. The latter was an amazing, interesting and insightful analysis.

I have said it before, Gardner reminds me of Wes Unseld, though Gardner may jump higher. And, again, this Warrior fan thinks that Mayo is THE rising star of the Warriors.

Gardner is always cool and in control. It almost seems as though he sees the game around him in slow motion; thus, allowing him to do all the things that he does so well - hitting the shot with people drapped all over him, drawing fouls, passing to the open man, anticipating the offense rebound, etc.

Mayo, on the other hand just seems to have true ("killer"?) basketball instinct which is a mix of "chip-on-the-shoulder", being cold blooded, and being technically great/consistent.

It is going to be another entertaining year, with a very deep team facing a top level schedule. If Coach Williams gets out of this team what he got out of the Acker, et al., mighty mouse team, it will be even a more fun season!

[bamamarquettefan]

A small criticism.  There is no way that Moore from Colgate is any worse than the 2632nd best player.

Thanks Utica and LittleMurs, though I can't believe you are claiming that Moore is better than Khalil Kelley, the terror out of Pacific who is currently rated 2632nd.   

Perhaps you missed his Khalil had 23 points, 10 rebounds, and 4 block performance in a loss to Rancho Cucamonga. Clearly, he is the superior prospect to make the jump to Division 1.

OK, I feel kind of worthless for googling Khalil Kelley and finding a favorable blog post for a pretend argument.

[brewcity77]

Colgate may be awful, but a few questions.

First, you didn't include Brandon Fortenberry for Southeastern Louisiana. He is a fifth-year senior who was averaging 17.6 ppg and would have had the 3rd highest O-Rating among 28% possession users per Kenpom.com had he not suffered a season-ending injury in the 7th game of the season last year. Where does he rank, and what impact does he have on the Lions team? I really think they are going to be a threat to win the Southland with a healthy Fortenberry.

Second, I'm really surprised to see Andre Stringer and Ralston Turner ranked so low. Both were solid four-star prospects coming out and have been solid contributors. Is it because they declined from their freshman to sophomore years? That can likely be attributed to the impact of transfer Justin Hamilton, who averaged nearly 13 ppg before declaring for the NBA Draft, as well as being able to share the load with incoming freshmen Johnny O'Bryant and Anthony Hickey. Might just be me, but I think both Stringer and Turner will trend up significantly with Hamilton and Storm Warren both gone.

[jsglow]

Bama, I'll have to show jsglow jr. your story.  He'll be thrilled that you've relied on his critical eyewitness investigative reporting for your story.  His Pulitzer prize is surely in the mail.