So....What are we ranked on Monday - 1/6/2025?

[Lighthouse 84]

North Carolina just dropped a bill on Buzz.

Beats having Rick drop a duece on ya....

[wadesworld]

Get me 2 wins this week and things will fall where they may.

[MU Avenue]

Most of this poll stuff is utter nonsense in terms of where we're seeded and how we're treated by the NCAA.

That said, I'm absolutely delighted the guys are getting some well-deserved recognition. The rebuild of our program following the absurd and bizarre "Last Days of the Hillbilly" is largely complete. Coach Wojo has our dudes playing defense and the team is well-balanced and fits with what both the Coach and the University want of it.

Not yet are we among the elite of college basketball. But we're showing that we are moving in that direction and we're closing. The challenge now is to play as if we are a truly elite team.

I poked my head here today for the first time in a good while, did some quick reading and came upon dgies9156's declaration: "The rebuild of our program following the absurd and bizarre 'Last Days of the Hillbilly' is largely complete. Coach Wojo has our dudes playing defense and the team is well-balanced and fits with what both the Coach and the University want of it."

This dgies9156 then proclaimed while we are not yet "among the elite of college basketball," we are "moving in that direction" and "the challenge now is to play as if we are a truly elite team."

Hillbilly? Dudes? Rebuild? Elite?

Some strong play and exciting, fun wins mean the "rebuild" is "largely complete" and we are nearing the level of "elite," whatever that really means?

I did not know we needed a "rebuild" and, thus, had not known that over a matter of weeks this season, we have gone from "rebuilding" to "almost elite."

The smartest people I have known have always emphasized the importance of avoiding extremes and keeping proper perspective.

[JakeBarnes]

I poked my head here today for the first time in a good while, did some quick reading and came upon dgies9156's declaration: "The rebuild of our program following the absurd and bizarre 'Last Days of the Hillbilly' is largely complete. Coach Wojo has our dudes playing defense and the team is well-balanced and fits with what both the Coach and the University want of it."

This dgies9156 then proclaimed while we are not yet "among the elite of college basketball," we are "moving in that direction" and "the challenge now is to play as if we are a truly elite team."

Hillbilly? Dudes? Rebuild? Elite?

Some strong play and exciting, fun wins mean the "rebuild" is "largely complete" and we are nearing the level of "elite," whatever that really means?

I did not know we needed a "rebuild" and, thus, had not known that over a matter of weeks this season, we have gone from "rebuilding" to "almost elite."

The smartest people I have known have always emphasized the importance of avoiding extremes and keeping proper perspective.

We are both the best and worst team in the world.

[MUMountin]

We are both the best and worst team in the world.

Schrodinger's team!

[BrewCity83]

It was the best of times, it was the worst of times...it was the spring of hope, it was the winter of despair

[dgies9156]

I poked my head here today for the first time in a good while, did some quick reading and came upon dgies9156's declaration: "The rebuild of our program following the absurd and bizarre 'Last Days of the Hillbilly' is largely complete. Coach Wojo has our dudes playing defense and the team is well-balanced and fits with what both the Coach and the University want of it."

This dgies9156 then proclaimed while we are not yet "among the elite of college basketball," we are "moving in that direction" and "the challenge now is to play as if we are a truly elite team."

Hillbilly? Dudes? Rebuild? Elite?

Some strong play and exciting, fun wins mean the "rebuild" is "largely complete" and we are nearing the level of "elite," whatever that really means?

I did not know we needed a "rebuild" and, thus, had not known that over a matter of weeks this season, we have gone from "rebuilding" to "almost elite."

The smartest people I have known have always emphasized the importance of avoiding extremes and keeping proper perspective.

Avenue, here's my point. Five years ago, this program was in trouble again. When the Hillbilly, Buzz Williams, left us, the cupboard was bare. The rebuild was bringing in a new coach, implementing a new system (Coach Wojo's) and adopting Coach Wojo's philosophy about the type of student athlete we want.

As to absurd and bizzare, we were on the front page of the Chicago Tribune for the wrong reason. Our point guard (Vander Blue) left us under apparently less than ideal circumstances and there are more than a few stories about disagreements between the Athletic Director and the Head Coach.

Wojo took five years and he's got us ranked 12th in the nation. While I repeat that what matters is the NCAA, I'm delighted we're back to a point where we were before the problems started. We're ranked, we have a good core nucleus and our guys (dudes in the vernacular) are playing defense.

A 12th ranking does not make us an elite team. It makes us a very good team with strong potential. If we sustain it and go deep in the tournament, then we will be close to eliteness. During the McGuire era, when some of us were at Marquette, we were truly elite. We're not quite there.... yet.

Now, what's so confusing about any of this?

[Windyplayer]

Avenue, here's my point. Five years ago, this program was in trouble again. When the Hillbilly, Buzz Williams, left us, the cupboard was bare. The rebuild was bringing in a new coach, implementing a new system (Coach Wojo's) and adopting Coach Wojo's philosophy about the type of student athlete we want.

As to absurd and bizzare, we were on the front page of the Chicago Tribune for the wrong reason. Our point guard (Vander Blue) left us under apparently less than ideal circumstances and there are more than a few stories about disagreements between the Athletic Director and the Head Coach.

Wojo took five years and he's got us ranked 12th in the nation. While I repeat that what matters is the NCAA, I'm delighted we're back to a point where we were before the problems started. We're ranked, we have a good core nucleus and our guys (dudes in the vernacular) are playing defense.

A 12th ranking does not make us an elite team. It makes us a very good team with strong potential. If we sustain it and go deep in the tournament, then we will be close to eliteness. During the McGuire era, when some of us were at Marquette, we were truly elite. We're not quite there.... yet.

Now, what's so confusing about any of this?

I think elite is conferred upon programs with consistent success in the Tournament. We've made one appearance in 6 years.

Don't get me wrong, I am ecstatic with the direction of this program under Wojo and enjoying every second of this season, but let's not even think elite until we make three Sweet 16s in a row with an Elite 8 mixed in there. Buzz truly did have us on the cusp of elite.

[dgies9156]

I think elite is conferred upon programs with consistent success in the Tournament. We've made one appearance in 6 years.

Don't get me wrong, I am ecstatic with the direction of this program under Wojo and enjoying every second of this season, but let's not even think elite until we make three Sweet 16s in a row with an Elite 8 mixed in there. Buzz truly did have us on the cusp of elite.

Brother Windy,

That's why I said on the cusp. We were elite when Coach McGuire was here. We want to be there again. It comes when we have sustained high-level success. We're headed in the right direction!

[Loose Cannon]

We are both the best and worst team in the world.

That's extremely Accurate.

[IrwinFletcher]

I think elite is conferred upon programs with consistent success in the Tournament. We've made one appearance in 6 years.

Don't get me wrong, I am ecstatic with the direction of this program under Wojo and enjoying every second of this season, but let's not even think elite until we make three Sweet 16s in a row with an Elite 8 mixed in there. Buzz truly did have us on the cusp of elite.

I think there are elite teams and elite programs.

We can have an elite team that is in the Top 5 or 10 and makes a final four, but after the season guys graduate or leave and that team falls back.

Elite programs have sustained success year after year and are grabbing top players and continually make deep runs.

We are close to the first, a ways to go for the second.

[1SE]

Great to be at 12, but it is going to be tough to creep up from here. Every team but Nevada (18) in front of us in Kenpom top 11. I think we'll need to make the computers love us a bit more to crack the top ten.

[Marquette Fan]

They probably could have had legitimate final four aspirations if Tori McCoy was healthy.

Anybody have an update on her? Haven't seen anything recently, hopefully she gets the transplant she needs.

I haven't heard anything recently.  As far as I know, she is still waiting on a kidney transplant.  I see her on the bench for some games and figure when she's not there she's either getting dialysis or recovering from it.

As far as doing it all without Blockton, that is true for most of the BE season but Blockton was able to play for all the non-conference games.  Blockton played 8 minutes in their first BE game before hurting her ankle.  She then missed the next 5 games and just returned for the last game for limited minutes as a poster stated.  Sophomore Selena Lott really blossomed when put in the starting lineup in Blockton's absence.  And I must say the team did much better during her absence than I thought they would.  MU is 7-0 in the BE and plays at second place Butler (6-1) on Sunday (after playing at Xavier Friday who is probably the worst team in the league) - every other BE team has at least 3 losses already.  And Natisha Hiedeman is positioning herself quite well to keep the BE POY with Marquette since Blockton has missed quite a bit of time - Hiedeman is averaging 24 points in BE games more than 5 points ahead of the next highest BE player.

And they set another program record with the release of the Coaches' Poll on Tuesday moving up to a program best 9th in that poll.

[Jay Bee]

Great to be at 12, but it is going to be tough to creep up from here. Every team but Nevada (18) in front of us in Kenpom top 11. I think we'll need to make the computers love us a bit more to crack the top ten.

I don't think so. There are many flawed individuals voting. To crack the top ten, we simply have to keep winning while others lose a game.

[TAMU, Knower of Ball]

Great to be at 12, but it is going to be tough to creep up from here. Every team but Nevada (18) in front of us in Kenpom top 11. I think we'll need to make the computers love us a bit more to crack the top ten.

If we win both our games,  we will move past Virginia Tech and whoever loses the KU/UK match-up.  Just the nature of the polls,  most look at their rankings from last week and then move down teams who lost and up teams that won.

[4everwarriors]

It don't matta, hey?

[Marquette4life]

If we win both our games,  we will move past Virginia Tech and whoever loses the KU/UK match-up.  Just the nature of the polls,  most look at their rankings from last week and then move down teams who lost and up teams that won.

I think we would move past Kansas but not UK

[IrwinFletcher]

I haven't heard anything recently.  As far as I know, she is still waiting on a kidney transplant.  I see her on the bench for some games and figure when she's not there she's either getting dialysis or recovering from it.

As far as doing it all without Blockton, that is true for most of the BE season but Blockton was able to play for all the non-conference games.  Blockton played 8 minutes in their first BE game before hurting her ankle.  She then missed the next 5 games and just returned for the last game for limited minutes as a poster stated.  Sophomore Selena Lott really blossomed when put in the starting lineup in Blockton's absence.  And I must say the team did much better during her absence than I thought they would.  MU is 7-0 in the BE and plays at second place Butler (6-1) on Sunday (after playing at Xavier Friday who is probably the worst team in the league) - every other BE team has at least 3 losses already.  And Natisha Hiedeman is positioning herself quite well to keep the BE POY with Marquette since Blockton has missed quite a bit of time - Hiedeman is averaging 24 points in BE games more than 5 points ahead of the next highest BE player.

And they set another program record with the release of the Coaches' Poll on Tuesday moving up to a program best 9th in that poll.

What does the future hold for this team, MU Fan?  I know they lose a lot, but have a couple of kids like Lott coming back.  How do things look next year?

[PGsHeroes32]

Great to be at 12, but it is going to be tough to creep up from here. Every team but Nevada (18) in front of us in Kenpom top 11. I think we'll need to make the computers love us a bit more to crack the top ten.

As others have said

When it comes to top 25 rankings. It's mostlt just a product of whose currently winning and losing.

Not many put any weight into metrics

[Silkk the Shaka]

Great to be at 12, but it is going to be tough to creep up from here. Every team but Nevada (18) in front of us in Kenpom top 11. I think we'll need to make the computers love us a bit more to crack the top ten.

A solid ass kicking of DePaul tonight would be a good start!

[Daniel]

We have tough games this week. Right now, just beat DePsul.   Then on the road.   So let'ds Get a W tonight.  Go Marquette!

[Marquette Fan]

What does the future hold for this team, MU Fan?  I know they lose a lot, but have a couple of kids like Lott coming back.  How do things look next year?

I think it's a big drop off next year as the young talent develops - there are 8 freshmen coming in.  I expect Selena Lott to start and could see there being 4 freshmen starting along with her.  But I would expect them to be back to competing for the NCAA Tournament the following season.  One of their recruits for the fall is already on campus sitting on the bench with the team - she'll technically be a redshirt freshman in the fall - she's from Australia.  Their highest rated recruit is Shemera Williams from Milwaukee - she averaged 39.9 points per game last season.

[Galway Eagle]

Only Virginia tech has lost above us so far right?

[brewcity77]

Only Virginia tech has lost above us so far right?

Yes, but Maryland, Auburn, Buffalo, and Texas Tech all lost just behind us, so we'll probably still be moving up on a lot of ballots if we beat Xavier.

[TAMU, Knower of Ball]

Only Virginia tech has lost above us so far right?

Yes, but what Brew said, and Kentucky and Kansas play each other so one of them has to lose.