Tough Loss but the match up was not good.

[ken8406]

I know some of believe they should have won the game but from the start and just looking at the players it would take a lot to beat this team.

1. They have Kemba Walker. Even though he did not do anything his prescense affected the game termendously. Constantly drawing attention to him leaving teammates open. Especially Lamb

2. They have guys who know how to play in the post. Yes there was not much scoring except for dunks but the rebounds they could get killed us.

3. The biggest blow to us would be their length. As we all know Marquette is not the biggest team. Well UCONN on the other hand is one of the Longest. Most of MU's big men min came from Butler and Crowder 6-7 and 6-8 respectively. Well of the guys UCONN played for 10 or more min 5 were longer than Butler. Oriahki is 6'9", Lamb 6'5" but with a 7' 4" wing span, Smith 6'8" with 7' wingspan, McDaniel 6'8", and Okwandu 7'0". Much of the time it was evident in the rebounding that UCONN was much longer which would give them more chances and out rebounded us 37 to 30. If you do not believe that height is a factor well look at the NBA finals last year. Once Kendrick Perkins went out in game 6, Pau Gasol was able to take advantage in game 7 giving the Lakers more chances which would help them win the championship. To be exact. Gasol game six 13 reb 5 offensive. Gasol game 7 no perkins  18 rebs 9 offensive.

[Boone]

True, but lately when do we match up well with a quality opponent?

[mu_hilltopper]

True, but lately when do we match up well with a quality opponent?

Bingo.  Gotta say, really tired of the "it was a bad matchup" phrase.  It's a total excuse for losing, and it's been used on countless losses over the past decade.

"Well, if the other team didn't have such good basketball players, we would have won the game."

[chapman]

As far as Walker and Lamb, most teams have a superstar or two, doesn't mean you can pay less attention to players deeper in the rotation.  Not sure if it's true or not, but it's been said that "everyone seems to get their career high against MU".  It seems when someone goes off for a season/career high against us it's the 5th-10th player in the rotation doing this, not the superstar.  Good in the sense that the superstar's career high is a lot higher than the other guy, but bad in the sense that a mediocre game for a star player combined with a career high from a role player isn't any better than the star going off.