What Marquette Needs to do to still make a run at the BEast Title and Final 4

[OneMadWarrior]

After looking at DJ and in no way trying to downplay the intangibles he brought to every game in his long and illustrious career at Marquette. I believe this is the only way that Marquette can have a chance at running the table in the BEast and making a run in the NCAA tournament.

McNeal, Hayward and Matthews, baring foul trouble, must play 38-40 minutes every game.

Acker must start and play the kind of defense he played earlier this year and be able to keep the opposing teams 2nd best perimeter player in check.

McNeal, Hayward and Matthews must all average at least 20 a game down the stretch.

Acker must shoot at least 40% from beyond the arch

Butler must truly become the 6th man he has been maturing into the last few weeks.

One of the other guys must step up whether it be Fulce, Cubillian, or Hazel, every night one of them will need to come up big. My money is on that Fulce finally can get out there and hopefully build some confidence.

Thankfully unlike under Crean we are no longer so reliant on One or two players to carry the load. Buzz offense expects everyone to be able to get there shots and scores. I think this isnt' nearly as bad as when Diener went down in 03-04, when he was the entire offense thanks to the multitude of sets the tanned one ran.

Marquette still needs to play up-temp and great D and embody the personality that Buzz has carried with him all year long.

We can do it.

We are Marquette.

[Jam Chowder]

Frozena will need to average a double-double

[OneMadWarrior]

Frozena will need to average a double-double

Way to put down any sense of optimism.

[romey]

Those are a lot of factors to ask for - the stars need to be aligned.  But, optimism can't hurt.  One game at a time.

[RawdogDX]

If we found the magic cake that made alice grow 10 feet tall...

[denverMU]

We are not going to win the BEAST Championship!  It was a stretch with DJ. IMO, we need to use the next 4-5 games to get some playing time/experience for our bench.  We need at Fulce/Acker to get time maybe Cubillan/Otule.  The most important games to win are THE LAST SIX!  We are going to the NCAA tourney, we need to use the games before that to get our team prepared.  Even with DJ our starters were getting tired at the end of both halves.  With the loss of DJ we need to use our bench to give our key three players some rest so they are fresh for the NCAA tourney.

[dwaderoy2004]

disagree.  because if we lose the next 4-5 games, we get a 7 seed or so in the tourney.  we're not winning as a 7 seed.  even if we don;t win the big east tourney, we have to keeop winning so that we can try and keep a protected seed (1-4) and at least have an easier road to the sweet 16.

[denverMU]

It always amazes me the logic of that post.  You think we are good enough to beat Louisville and Syracuse but if we get a 7 seed in the tournament than we are lost and won't do well?????  If we are as good a team as most of us think then 4 seed 7 seed we will win.

[willie warrior]

how about getting two rebounding shot blocking big men?

[MUWarrior06]

And McMorrow needs to be un-redshirted and average 10 blocks per game

MU can still go far in the tourney. Their biggest hurt is on defense. Everything else you wrote about needed to happen anyways. DJ wasn't an offensive threat for us; when he was off we could deal with it. His biggest contribution was defense. Acker can run the offense well enough, but where he lacks is defense. And that's where we'll see our biggest weakness in the post season.

Your list can be broken down to one comment- Acker needs to play lights out D. He does that, and everyone else takes care of their own business, we will find a way and be competitive and successful

[MUEng92]

how about getting two rebounding shot blocking big men?

Has the trade deadline already passed?

[bilsu]

What Buzz will not do, but what I would try is start Fulce at the 3 spot. Move Matthews to point. That way we still have Aker and Butler to come offf the bench. I think that gives us the best team for multiple games. Fulce has three games to play before the Big East tournament to get some experience. However, Buzz will not do this because he only looks at one game at a time instead of the big picture. I like Aker, but his size will prevent us from making a run in either tournment and starting him disrupts our bench.

[dwaderoy2004]

It always amazes me the logic of that post.  You think we are good enough to beat Louisville and Syracuse but if we get a 7 seed in the tournament than we are lost and won't do well?????  If we are as good a team as most of us think then 4 seed 7 seed we will win.

i don;t understand what you are talking about.  in your last post you basically said that we should give up on the last 4 games and mess around with our lineups so that we can get ready for the tourney.  all i said was if we give up on these games, our seed will plummet.  when did i say i thought we would beat both louisville and pitt?  i said we need to try and keep winning to keep our seed high.  do i think we can beat them...yeah.  but you need to look historically at the tourney.  the odds of seeds lower than even a 3 seed to make the final four are extremely low.  if your goal is to win the NC, which is what you said was your goal, then you want as low of a seed as possible.  period.  and if you don;t understand that logic, then you're an idiot.

[bilsu]

We are not going to win a game starting Aker.

[reinko]

We'll see bilsu.

BTW, the kid has a "c" in his name, Acker. 

[rocky_warrior]

We are not going to win a game starting Aker.

Ahem....