AP Poll out, Marquette moves up to #14

[rocky_warrior]

About as expected.

http://sports.espn.go.com/ncb/rankingsindex

[mu_hilltopper]

What's kind of ironic is that when we were #8, we had ~2 real wins to prove we were that good.  Now that we have a bunch of quality Ws, with a slew of road wins, we're #14.  Things that make you go hmm.

[NavinRJohnson]

What's kind of ironic is that when we were #8, we had ~2 real wins to prove we were that good.  Now that we have a bunch of quality Ws, with a slew of road wins, we're #14.  Things that make you go hmm.

I'd say that is about as ironic as rain on your wedding day, which is to say not at all, as there is one rather significant difference...When we were number 8, we didn't have the losses to prove we weren't that good. 

[rocky_warrior]

Now that we have a bunch of quality Ws, with a slew of road wins, we're #14.  Things that make you go hmm.

Throw in a few silly losses, and I guess the math adds up. 

[jmayer1]

I think 14 is right about where we should be.  The team shouldn't worry about the ranking anyway.  Take care of business and a higher ranking (and tourney seed) will come.

[Mayor McCheese]

what I find interesting is the Big 12 has 3 teams in the top 15, yet I hardly hear anything about that conference except Durant news, in which he plays for an unranked team.  I would take Marquette to beat multiple teams that are ranked higher than MU right now

[BM1090]

Of the teams ahead of us, if we were to play all of them on a neutral court i think it would go something like this:

Wins:
Duke
Butler
Memphis
Ok State
Tex am
Oregon
Pitt


Losses:
Florida
Wisconsin
NC

Toss ups
Kansas
UCLA
Ohio State

[Mayor McCheese]

Of the teams ahead of us, if we were to play all of them on a neutral court i think it would go something like this:

Wins:
Duke
Butler
Memphis
Ok State
Tex am
Oregon
Pitt


Losses:
Florida
Wisconsin
NC

Toss ups
Kansas
UCLA
Ohio State

I think Wisconsin is a toss up(sure they beat us, but we are a different team, and Bucky hasn't seen anything remotely tough since OSU)....  UCLA would beat us I think more than Wisconsin

Maybe I am being a homer, but I don't see anyone heads or shoulders better than Marquette except for Florida and UNC, possibly UCLA

[BM1090]

I was very close to putting Wisconsin into the Toss up column. The reason I did not is I still dont think that we have an answer for Tucker. I think he would tear us apart inside.

UCLA is such a streaky team. They can look like National Champions one night, but then go and lay a dud the next night (ala stanford game). Thus, I put them in the toss up column

[SoCalwarrior]

UCLA is good.  Yes, they lost to Stanford, but Stanford isn't a lowly team like some have suggested.  They struggled early in the season, but Stanford has beaten 3 ranked teams now.  We're the only ranked team that Syracuse and Providence has beaten.

I'm not really a fan of the Big Ten, but living out here I can recognize the east coast bias that many have for it. 

[Sir Lawrence]

I'd put Kansas in the loss column instead of the toss up.  I actually think we'd match up decently with UCLA.  And, as much as it pains me to say it, I don't think we have an answer for Tucker either--UW is looking awfully good.

[Marquette84]

I think when we're playing well, we can beat anyone in the nation--and I'd include Florida and UNC. 

My guess is that we'll play a lot better against UW if we face them again.  Keep in mind that we shot 7 percentage points below our season average (and 15 points below on 3's) Tucker shot 10 percentage points above his--and despite this we only lost by 4.

All we have to do is play an average game, and we would easily defeat UW.   

[DoubleMU0609]

All we have to do is play an average game, and we would easily defeat UW.   

Easy there killer.  Do I think we can beat UW? Of course.  But if we only play average? Not a chance. 

[nycwarrior]

Think that 15-20 is about right for this team. And, at this point in the year, I'd much rather be a little underrated than overrated (as we were at #8).

Call me old fashioned but I like the week to week build that the fellas have goin now. One thing's for sure, we're getting way way better. Better against zones. Better at distributing the ball ad finding good shots. More confident shooting free throws. Better in every phase of the game.

That said, the team I saw yesterday showed that it's got a long way to go. The team I was watching couldn't hit lay-ups for most of the game. Granted escaping with the win is all that matters but a better team would have had us down 15 while we were shooting 2 for our first 20.

[Marquette84]

Easy there killer.  Do I think we can beat UW? Of course.  But if we only play average? Not a chance. 

Here's my thinking.  Against UW we shot 23-48 (47.9%) on two pointers, 3 of 18 (16.7%) on treys, and 11/18 (61.1%) on FTs.

Average for the season:  50.3% on twos, 33.5% on treys, and 63.9% on FTs.

Assuming the identical shot attempts, If we merely improve shooting to average:
24 two points shots (net gain 2 points)
6 three point shots (net gain 9 points)
12 free throws (net gain 1 point)

We lost by 4.  Merely improving our shooting to the season average (while holding everything else constant)  gives us 12 additional points.  

[Sir Lawrence]

We could beat UW on a neutral court, perhaps 4 out of ten attempts.  Look, I loathe the Badgers, but objectively they are the #2 team in the land--and a good argument could be made that they are #1.

[marquette09]

Of the teams ahead of us, if we were to play all of them on a neutral court i think it would go something like this:

Wins:
Duke
Butler
Memphis
Ok State
Tex am
Oregon
Pitt


Losses:
Florida
Wisconsin
NC

Toss ups
Kansas
UCLA
Ohio State

I think Ohio State shoud be in the loss column.  Oden is dominant defensively and he eliminated the paint for opponetns.  That would be a problem for us becasue our guards don't shoot well, and thus they end up scoring a good chunk of their points in the paint. 

[Mayor McCheese]

We could beat UW on a neutral court, perhaps 4 out of ten attempts.  Look, I loathe the Badgers, but objectively they are the #2 team in the land--and a good argument could be made that they are #1.

Florida would piss pound Wisconsin, end of story, they are #1     

[tower912]

Regardless of how we are playing right now, which is really good, we are the highest ranked 4-loss team in the country.   Somebody has to be, I guess.   I agree that if we are having a good day, we can beat anybody.  If we have a bad day, we can squeak past Hillsdale and Idaho St, and lose to NDSU.   Let us hope we have six straight good days during the middle to end of March.