Marquette in this week's SI

[IAmMarquette]

Unfortunately (and rightfully) it's in the "Who's Not" portion of the Who's Hot/Who's Not:

Golden Eagles Basketball
Not one but two losses last week--including an upset by Big East rival Connecticut--sunk Marquette from No. 13 to No. 21. Top scorer Dominic James is nursing an injured wrist, but coach Tom Crean has a plan for success: "We have to play with our hair on fire."

What makes it even worse (for me, anyway) is that the very next entry is Packers WR Greg Jennings. I can't bring myself to read the story on cover boy Eli Manning.

[chapman]

Top scorer Dominic James is nursing an injured wrist, but coach Tom Crean has a plan for success: "We have to play with our hair on fire.

But doesn't burning hair really stink?  In that case, I don't know if there's any hair left to burn.

[greenman]

If my hair was on fire, I could not do much of anything, let alone try and play a game of basketball.

[MilTown]

I'd rather see us slow it down a bit and focus on execution in a half court set vs. playing with our hair on fire.

[sigep80]

Miltown

Slow down is exactly what we cannot do.  We get in trouble and can't execute when we don't run and are not aggresive.   We need to go, go, go on every possesion, including made baskets.  Speed and aggresiveness are the team's strength, and when we don't execute to our strengths we get clobbered by the other team's strengths.

[HarveysWallbangers]

Agreed. Teams are trying to make us play halfcourt games because they know we can't shoot.

[Nukem2]

Right, thats what Lousville did with its press.  Keep us from a full court game.  Once in half court,  Ville and UConn kept our 5's in the alley and let Tahbeet challenge the slashers.  Some how, our 5's need to come to meet the ball rather than waiting for a pass under the hoop.  At least they could could then kick the ball out.  As it is, UL and UConn was encouraging the slashing drives and converging and challenging the short shots.  Gotta get some mid-range jumpers as well (ins spite of TC's comments about mid-range jumpers).

[MilTown]

Well, if teams are trying to limit our full court running game, that is even more reason we need to work on and develop a consistent half court offense. We cannot impose our style on every team, specificially on the road. We need to be able to execute in the half court in order to compete on the road and come BE and NCAA tourney time. 

This argument brings up another issue in my mind. Traditionally, the Big East has been a physical, grind it out, half court conference. Granted there are exceptions, but I think for the most part it holds true. Is Crean trying to stick a square peg in a round hole by developing undersized, guard oriented, quick teams that like to get up and down the court? 

[robmufan]

What makes it even worse (for me, anyway) is that the very next entry is Packers WR Greg Jennings. I can't bring myself to read the story on cover boy Eli Manning.

Shouldn't Al Harris be on there after Plexico showed him what a big physical receiver can do?

[IAmMarquette]

Shouldn't Al Harris be on there after Plexico showed him what a big physical receiver can do?

Ugh... don't get me started. As I was watching the game, I noticed that every time Manning made a call at the line, they threw to Burress, who was in one-on-one coverage vs. Harris. Harris is a Pro Bowl CB this year, and deservedly so, but the combination of Burress' 4 inch height advantage and countless option post/comeback routes just killed Harris, as they would have done to any CB left w/o safety help in that situation.

[bma725]

That's not the only MU thing in this weeks issue.  Though they don't mention him, there's a group photo of all the D-League players, including Scott Merritt.  I guess it was taken fairly recently, because Novak isn't in it.