Monday is all about Respect

[mviale]

ESPN experts just called us overrated - Monday, we will find out.

Jay Williams said that Buzz Williams is coach of the year so far.
Doug Gottlieb said we are overrated for #10 in the Nation.

[LastWarrior]

Overrated at #10?  We'll be rated higher than #10 by the time the game starts!

Too bad UConn won tonight but I have a good feeling about Monday.  We're expected to lose this game... we have nothing to lose.  Take care of Shrek and we'll be in a good position.  Let's let it all hang out... as my old coach used to say... balls to wall!

[mviale]

If these seniors are worth more than 1 NCAA win over the last 3 years, we will take care of business Monday.  I hate to make it this black and white, but we need this win.

[TallTitan34]

I'd call Gottlieb overrated but everyone seems to agree he's worthless.  Well unless he has someone elses credit cards.....

[downtown85]

Overrated at #10?  We'll be rated higher than #10 by the time the game starts!

Too bad UConn won tonight but I have a good feeling about Monday.  We're expected to lose this game... we have nothing to lose.  Take care of Shrek and we'll be in a good position.  Let's let it all hang out... as my old coach used to say... balls to wall!

I would argue that we just need to keep Shrek at his average or below, (Burke seems to be good at limiting, but not shutting down the other team's big).  We just to make sure McNeal gets into Doobie boy's jock strap once he walks onto the floor and blankets him the whole game.  Contest his shots and he will miss just like against UConn.  I just hope the other guys can keep once of the other ND players from having a career night on us.   

[jce]

I think Gottleib is right.  We really have yet to beat someone we shouldn't have, especially on the road.  The tough part of the schedule is coming up.  We'll see how worthy we are of our ranking soon enough.

[strobl2]

If we can contain or limit Shrek then we will win the game

[Rollout-the-Barrel]

Shrek will get his. If Mcalarney is contained like last night, MU wins.

[RubyWiscy]

I say let Shrek have the game of his life. Keep everyone else incheck and we win. One great player cannot beat very good, boardering on great players.

[Daniel]

I think being ranked # 11/10 is great  - but as said above, we ahve not yet been tested with high quality opponents.  Granted, we did what we had to do so far.  All good.  But the meat is ahead.  The game agaisnt ND is a must for us.  How would it look it we lose to a 3-4 BEast team?  Not good.  Beat them, and we may not get a lot of props, but we beat them.  And then we are 7-0.

Respect? Yes.  Sure.  But I think it is a negative repect - if we don;t beat ND, we are disrespected adn everyone says "see, over-rated."  If we win, we beat a 3-4 record team in the BEast.  So the best thing to do is crush them.  LOL - I would love to see that.  But any kind of win is a good win.  Let's beat ND!

GO MARQUETTE!

[Badgerhater]

Monday is not about respect.  It is about beating ND.

You don't play for respect, you play to win.  You don't find respect or even seek it, respect finds you after you have accomplished the task at hand.

I like our schedule.  We get to build momentum, moving up a step at a time.  We had some good home wins and some good road wins against teams we should beat.  Now we are in the 50-50 part of our schedule with a wounded upper echelon opponent in their house as well as ours.  Then we go on a 3 game roadtrip of very winnable games, but also very losable.  MU takes care of business with one loss in all of that then we are sitting pretty going into the final five.    As of right now, I predict MU going 2-3 in the final five.

My initial conference pick was 11-7,  I now revise it to a strong 13-5 trending to 14-4.

[muwarrior87]

I would argue that we just need to keep Shrek at his average or below, (Burke seems to be good at limiting, but not shutting down the other team's big).  We just to make sure McNeal gets into Doobie boy's jock strap once he walks onto the floor and blankets him the whole game.  Contest his shots and he will miss just like against UConn.  I just hope the other guys can keep once of the other ND players from having a career night on us.   

agree with most of that.  James needs to be on McAlarney though. He's been our best shutdown defender this year.

[DaCoach]

Monday is not about respect.  It is about beating ND.

You don't play for respect, you play to win.  You don't find respect or even seek it, respect finds you after you have accomplished the task at hand.

Badgerhater is 100% right. It's all about the W. ND has 4 losses already. Tomorrow's game is critical for them and they know it. Conn made only 7 fouls against the and ND only had 4 foul shots. The Irish offense consists of Harangody and perimeter shooters. James on McAlarney and McNeal on Jackson should be the key. Their big guy will get his 20+ but we can't allow ND to get on a 3 point run. I hope Buzz is willing to use his TOs to good use if that happens. We seem to be allowing too much dribble penetration lately and that's our Achilles heel. I don't see them breaking us down off the dribble. This game is very winnable if we don't try to get into a 3 point contest and we get to the line.

[muwarrior69]

If the Zebras call the game like they did Saturday we should be OK. Hope Hightower is officiating somewhere else.

[bilsu]

I think we will win Monday. Even with the win, I do not believe we are really a top 10 team.

[tower912]

Let Gody get his, hold the rest of the team to <40 and we win.    Not about respect, about stockpiling W's before the slog at the end.     If we get the W on Monday and beat G-town at home on Saturday, then the #10 ranking is legit. 

[bilsu]

Georgetown just lost at Seton Hall. Both Georgetown and Notre Dame are on a downward spiral.

[Badgerhater]

Time to kick them both while they are down.

It is the time of separation in the BE between the elite and the rest.  Time to put ND and GU solidly in the rest category.

[MarquetteVol]

By no means can we declare the game against ND as "must win." Would it be a nice win? Sure. Is it a "must win" for ND? Quite possibly. The way I see it is that to compete for a league title, we need a split in the Georgetown/ND games, and then to beat South Florida and DePaul. That would put us at 9-1 in conference heading into our final eight games. From there, we only have two games against weak opposition (Seton Hall and St. Johns). Win those two, and hope for 4-2 amongst the brutal part of the schedule. That would get us to 15 wins and might get us a title. Drop an unexpected game or two, and we might still have a good shot for a top 4 seed in the BE tourney. I would be quite content with either outcome.

[bilsu]

It is a must win if we want to get a top four seed in the NCAA tourney. It is a must win if we want to finish in the top 4 in the Big East. It is not a must win if you are happy with 6th to 9th seed in NCAA tournament.

[rugbydrummer]

i think we can all agree that W > L

to quote liz lemon,  "... a duh"


iDK, this will be a tough game.  It doesn't matter what the record is, we all know that ND has the potential for brutality, same for G-Town, etc.  I consider any BEast team a potential hazard.  I will surely be happy for a W tomorrow.... but I am not acting entitled for it, either.

Thread hijack!  http://www.muscoop.com/index.php?topic=11859.0

Do you hate UCONN or ND more?

[79Warrior]

It is a must win if we want to get a top four seed in the NCAA tourney. It is a must win if we want to finish in the top 4 in the Big East. It is not a must win if you are happy with 6th to 9th seed in NCAA tournament.

This is a hardly a must win for us to finish in the Top 4 in the league. Sooner or later we are going to lose. Every game is not a must win. So far we have won every game we have expected to win. This game wouold be a nice win, but it is not critical for MU. It is however, critical to the Irish. They do not want to drop to 3-5.

The Irish are going to bring everything they have tomorrow.

[rugbydrummer]

This is a hardly a must win for us to finish in the Top 4 in the league. Sooner or later we are going to lose. Every game is not a must win. So far we have won every game we have expected to win. This game wouold be a nice win, but it is not critical for MU. It is however, critical to the Irish. They do not want to drop to 3-5.

The Irish are going to bring everything they have tomorrow.

Yeah... what you said.  come on, "If you ain't first, you're last..." right? 
I am just dreading whenever we get a conference loss.... everyone will be voraciously vexed....

[mviale]

This is a hardly a must win for us to finish in the Top 4 in the league. Sooner or later we are going to lose. Every game is not a must win. So far we have won every game we have expected to win. This game wouold be a nice win, but it is not critical for MU. It is however, critical to the Irish. They do not want to drop to 3-5.

The Irish are going to bring everything they have tomorrow.

This sure puts a lot pressure on ND and our seniors are cool customers. 

[bamamarquettefan]

I don't think we should be repeating the critics claim that we haven't beaten anyone.  Granted we haven't played Pitt, UConn and Louisville, and those are emerging as the toughest three for us.  But when he was also rattling off that we hadn't played G'town (I'm sorry, we torched WVU and they torched G'town), Syracuse, who just lost as well, who cares.  We are better than those teams.  On top of that we won two on the road - which Seton Hall again proved today is no gimme'.  I think we are No. 8 in both polls tomorrow (I think Louisville leap frogs us in the AP as well, but hope I'm wrong).  If ND beats us it is because they shoot out of their minds on 3-pointers, like they did in their one narrow, lucky win against us last year against two times we ran them out of the gym.  We need to finish in the top 4, and right now, everyone in the league except Pitt-UConn-L'ville are THREE losses behind us, except Providence who is two losses behind us but lost the head-to-head on their court.  We are going to eventually lose a couple in this league, but we've created a margin of victory.  Notre Dame is not a must win, but we are clearly a better team and beating them on their home court clearly makes us part of a Big 4 so far in the conference.  As for not beating anyone we weren't supposed to, I think WVU is going to beat everyone but the top 4 this year, and we have now beaten three ranked teams - it's just that we knock them out of the Top 25 when we beat them.