We’re playing well

[Hards Alumni]

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.

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.

[MU82]

I had no problem with MU fouling when they did, though I understand why others wish there had been less time remaining.

[CountryRoads]

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.

[MuMark]

https://x.com/marquettembb/status/1900594035284193757?s=61&t=6XPB8f4sAKmJIzxgMcsCjw

[MU82]

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.

[JakeBarnes]

https://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.

[Hards Alumni]

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.

Only these people know, not his team mates 

[Elonsmusk]

This 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.

[MU82]

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.

[barfolomew]

https://x.com/marquettembb/status/1900594035284193757?s=61&t=6XPB8f4sAKmJIzxgMcsCjw

Lol @ 3:40, "Ross: Dress for Less, Score for More"

[MU82]

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.

[Nukem2]

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.

Ben's biggest issue at the 5 is against athletic physical type guys.

[Viper]

ESPN matchup predictor only has this at 52% for StJ's. Not far off from a 'pick-em' game. MU getting some respect. 👍

[FairWeatherEagle]

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

[MU82]

Ben'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.

[1SE]

So well.

[PointWarrior]

Are we still playing well?

[MuggsyB]

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. 

[MarquetteMike1977]

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.

[MU82]

Are 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.

[PointWarrior]

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.

Happy to do so!  The X win saved them from an 8 seed hopefully.

[1SE]

So well.