How did Marquette Lose?

[ZiggysFryBoy]

Fine, fine.

now it's just gay.  like spanish odonnells gay.

[Junkman]

To blame this loss solely on coaching is only a limited view.  This was a perfect storm of things that come together to get Louisville the victory.  Knowles got ridiculously hot.  If he didn't, the coaching wouldn't have matter.  

MU players started to play carelessly.  That included missed rebounds, turnovers, and Buycks going to hole up on with little time on the clock.  No matter how much in game coaching occurs bad turnovers and bad execution will kill you.

It was coaching, Buzz should have called a couple of timeouts to stem the Louisville tide.  There were a lot of things that he could have done but he put his best players in the game and they didn't execute.  He tried to slow the game down to chew up clock and that didn't work.

It was the crowd who was silent for 90% of the game only to go crazy down the end.  This helped the pressure.  

It was Bulter who couldn't handle the ball as he was making his way to the hoop and he had to throw up a poor shot.  

As a Louisville fan, I would have to agree with most of this but let's face it, things had to go really bad for MU and get really good for Louisville for this to remotely be possible. It just so happens, that's what happened.

Let's face it, Knowles went off and one of his 3 point shots was nothing but pure luck. How the hell do you hit a three when your body isn't even facing the basket as you jump? That was LUCK with a freakin' Leprechaun standing under the basket.

Then there was Jennings actually getting some rebounds. We Louisville fans know that Jennings couldn't rebound a pair of breast if a naked woman was sitting on top of him. The next thing you know, he's hitting his free throws. Go figure.

Add to that, we had "The Bullet" in at point guard instead of Siva, the latter who occasionally goes into "Little Eddie" mode (a knock at Sosa, our former point guard who had a bunch of WTF moments when handling the basketball). This guy was to be a walk on, but got a scholarship at the last minute. He's the type of player who ain't gonna wow anyone, but he never hurts the team. That's a good trade off in my book. Had Siva been running the point, he would have given MU the ball back a few times while doing something stupid like driving the lane while Kareem and Hakeem were guarding the basket.

The fault that I found in MU's play at the end were two things. Not paying attention to the clock and playing not to loose instead of continuing to play to win. They had their foot so far down on Louisville's throat that I could taste their sneakers through my TV. All of a sudden, they started running time off the clock instead of continuing to shove their foot down Louisville's throat. Every time I see a team do this, they loose. I can't stand it. You have got to knock an opponent out when you have them on the ropes. You show no mercy. You take no prisoners.

Lets not place all the blame on MU. Louisville got lucky and MU made enough mistakes for the outcome to turn out the way it did. This game does not end the way it did unless BOTH of those things happen. Yea, I'm glad it did but I am not stupid enough to think it happened without some help from MU. Louisville and Marquette have had some games that were so exciting and I know you guys have got to hate us but don't doubt your team. Your boys will probably go a lot further than we will in the tournament. Louisville didn't beat Marquette, Marquette beat themselves.  

A little side note about your coach. He did something that shows just how classy he is. I really never cared for Crean, but this guy is a class act. Check out his story here.

http://www.courier-journal.com/article/20110116/COLUMNISTS02/301160092/1028/sports02/Eric+Crawford

We'll meet again. May the better team win.