How did Marquette Get Crushed by Kansas?

[chren21]

Members of the team were out late the night before the game drinking and enjoying New Orleans.

Not sure if the team was but I sure was.  Just remember bits and pieces of Pat o' Brian's. 

[PuertoRicanNightmare]

We gave up something like 60 points in the first half. 4ever nails it

[GGGG]

I cannot believe that someone thought it was a good idea to bring this topic back up.  Same old characters saying the same old sh*t...

[avid1010]

for the same reason a superior IU team lost to Cuse this year

[tower912]

3 post from the OP.    Kansas hit MU hard early, right in the mouth, the game got away and there were no answers.   It was painful but it happens to everybody.    It just happened to MU on the biggest stage.

[Rudy]

They had us on foot speed at every position...and they were hot. I think Ray Langford was just shredding anyone that was covering him. One of their other 2/3's was doing the same to a lesser extent. No one could stay in front of them. Hinrich was not the problem as much as those slashers. What hurt was those were probably not the guys we were terrified of. Langford to a certain degree, but if you have Langford running by his guy at will and then Collison on the block on the other side and have to help, you are done.

I remember Crean's best move was putting in Carlton Christian.Karon Bradley --- I knew it was a one year wonder---thanks for the correction---  He actually stayed in front of Langford. I can't remember it too well, but I think we tried zoning and they just shredded the zone too.

Rough day. I prefer to remember the Kentucky game from that year.

[tower912]

That would have been quite a move by Coach Crean, since Carlton Christian did not start his brief MU career until autumn of 2003.   (I use 'autumn', because the 'fall' of 2003 happened in NOLA.)

[ceh]

We had a penis head masqueradin' as a head coach who crapped his trousers on college basketball's biggest stage because couldn't figure out Kansas' fast break, though he had a week to prepare.

Not exactly how I would have put it, but we essentially peed down our collective leg.  I don't think we were mentally ready for the show.

[ChicosBailBonds]

While I agree that there is a tendency to blame the coach for losses but not give credit for victories (especially Crean), I disagree with your vehemance about not giving Crean credit for the victory over Kentucky in 2003. Plenty of people (probably including some of the detractors you are trying to call out) acknowledge how wise a move it was to double-down on Estill. Challenging him that way really shook him up and took him out of the game. There were other factors in the win, but that was undoubtedly a coaching move that made a big difference, and people have noted that plenty over the years.

I have NEVER read the detratctors here ever give the staff credit for that win against Kentucky.  NEVER.  It's as if it didn't happen.  It is quite revealing.

I would suggest people read the NCAA transcripts of the interviews that week leading up to the game and the transcripts after the game.  They knew exactly what was coming, they prepared for it in practice, they didn't execute in the game. It didn't help that we also shot horribly.

Reading Dwyane, Travis, etc quotes about our head coach will further validate to some here how stupid Dwyane and Travis are that they don't see it their way.   

[bilsu]

I'll be the first to say it was partial coaching two years ago.  Buzz wasn't experienced enough yet to beat a Blue Blood program on that stage, the caliber of players (at that moment) didn't help either. 

In my opinion it was the wrong game plan. Buzz was worried about North Carolina fast breaking on missed threes so his game plan was to continually feed the ball into Otule and not take any outside shots. Several of the passes to Otule were stolen and when they did get it to Otule he did not score at all. The reality was the only way we were going to beat North Carolina was if we were hot from three point line. That option was not in Buzz's game plan.

[Aughnanure]

I'm watching HOU vs OKC and I discover the stiff, Nick Coliform, from Kansas is still in the NBA.  Kirk Hinrich has a decent but unspectacular career and I continue to wonder how did we lose to Kansas in the Final Four with D Wade? Novak is the best 3 pt shooter ever. Diener is my favorite MU player in my history. RJax was a stud! Merritt had some SOG games. I painfully sat in Major Goolsby's as we were crushed from minute 1. MU had the best team I saw in my career and I'm 50. And I'm not a Crean basher as I know the huge positive impact that O'Neill and Crean made at MU. Perhaps if my new favorite coach of all time, Buzz Williams was running the team, MU would have 2 NCAA titles by now?  Buzz, I'm all in....go get them 2014 and 2015 recruits who will help put Hinrich and Collison out of my mind forever !!!! Go Warriors !!!!

Because Nick Collison still plays in the NBA. RJax? Hardly. Hinrich was much better than Diener, as much as we love him, and his NBA career proves that beyond a doubt. Also, Wayne Simien played in the NBA player and was an All-American, and Keith Langford got a cup of coffee in the league and has had a pretty good international career.

They had more NBA players, and besides Wade - better ones.

[ZiggysFryBoy]

Partly due to Crean not being a very good coach, but lots to do with ZFB jinxing MU. Every tourney game up to KU he rocked an awesome MU shirt. The KU game was at the same time his friend was having his "pink out" birthday party at La Cage.

ZFB wore the lucky MU shirt under his little pink & glitter number, but it wasn't the same. MU was doomed.

Nope, sitting at the bar at Caffrey's.  Luckily, I was so damn drunk I don't remember much, if any, of that game.

[tower912]

Kansas was better that day.   They executed their plan and hit their shots.    MU didn't.       Why?    Besides Kansas being really good, IMO, the moment was too big for that MU team on that day.   Their goal was to make it to NOLA.   They made it.     Now what?     Crean and the team prepared for that game like they prepared for the others.   On that day, it simply wasn't good enough.   MU couldn't make stops, couln't play transition defense, couldn't hit shots, and when MU did, Kansas took the ball out of the basket and pushed the ball anyway.     A whole bunch of things came together against MU.   It was painful, humiliating, ugly, but it happens.     Earlier this past season, when Miami was running a lay-up/alley oop drill against Duke, did anybody think it meant that Miami was really that much better than Duke or that K had lost his touch?   When Louisville went on a 44-10 run against Syracuse in the BEast final, did Cuse fold its tent?    

Bottom line is that Kansas had a really good team.   And they played really well against MU and MU did not respond, from head coach to walk-on.   The Gator game this season felt the same, the only difference was the size of the stage and the amount of attention.  And somehow, MU's season continued.  It turned out ok. 

[ResidentBrown]

I'll tell you what it was, it was that damned Sasquatch!

[klyrish]

I'll tell you what it was, it was that damned Sasquatch!

Lady, you're scaring us.

(I know it's not the same movie, but still)

[jesmu84]

Lady, you're scaring us.

(I know it's not the same movie, but still)

Same movie.

[warriorfred]

I'll take the blame.  For every game leading up to the Final Four I was able to watch, sneaking away from work, driving 20 miles to a country bar, blowing-off guests and hiding in the basement watching the Kentucky game.  But when Marquette played Kansas, I never got to see more than 2 minutes of the game.

Despite 6 months warning, my sister scheduled her wedding for that afternoon.  As expected the marriage didn't last.  I may be more bitter than her.

[Hards Alumni]

I'll take the blame.  For every game leading up to the Final Four I was able to watch, sneaking away from work, driving 20 miles to a country bar, blowing-off guests and hiding in the basement watching the Kentucky game.  But when Marquette played Kansas, I never got to see more than 2 minutes of the game.

Despite 6 months warning, my sister scheduled her wedding for that afternoon.  As expected the marriage didn't last.  I may be more bitter than her.

You win the internet for today.

[ATL MU Warrior]

You win the internet for today.

I don't know...I'd say she did him a favor.

[ChicosBailBonds]

I will never find it shameful when a MU team makes the Final Four.....something that has happened only three times in our history.

[keefe]

I will never find it shameful when a MU team makes the Final Four.....something that has happened only three times in our history.

Making the Final Four was not shameful. But our presence there was questioned. We were seen as the poor relations at the wedding reception. Many said we simply did not belong. And on that Saturday we proved to the world that we were unworthy. Within 10 minutes we told the world we had no business being there. And that is shameful.

But this is not on the lads. Far from it. This was a failure of leadership. From a talent stand point we should have been competitive. Instead, the coach failed to prepare properly and when deluge turned cataclysm he did nothing more than to look on in pained horror. And that is when shame turned to humiliation.

Tom Crean. The man who put the tan in Charlatan.

[MUDrag]

When Heinrich was with the Bulls (his first go around) and was about to play the Heat, he was asked about playing Wade in the final four.  He noted that when MU came out wanting to run to start the game, he and his teammates' eyes widened as they could not believe it.  They knew no one could run with Kansas and was obviously the wrong strategy.  In all honesty, I was at the game (barely made it and arrived just a few minutes before the game started) and have not been able to watch a replay of the game, so I can't vouch for Heinrich's assessment.  Sounds reasonable to me as a fast-paced game truly would play to Kansas' strength and allow for such a lop-sided game.   

[keefe]

When Heinrich was with the Bulls (his first go around) and was about to play the Heat, he was asked about playing Wade in the final four.  He noted that when MU came out wanting to run to start the game, he and his teammates' eyes widened as they could not believe it.  They knew no one could run with Kansas and was obviously the wrong strategy.  In all honesty, I was at the game (barely made it and arrived just a few minutes before the game started) and have not been able to watch a replay of the game, so I can't vouch for Heinrich's assessment.  Sounds reasonable to me as a fast-paced game truly would play to Kansas' strength and allow for such a lop-sided game.   

leave it to Crean to devise such a devastatingly effective plan of attack. That guy would have f#cked up Desert Storm.

[ChicosBailBonds]

Making the Final Four was not shameful. But our presence there was questioned. We were seen as the poor relations at the wedding reception. Many said we simply did not belong. And on that Saturday we proved to the world that we were unworthy. Within 10 minutes we told the world we had no business being there. And that is shameful.

But this is not on the lads. Far from it. This was a failure of leadership. From a talent stand point we should have been competitive. Instead, the coach failed to prepare properly and when deluge turned cataclysm he did nothing more than to look on in pained horror. And that is when shame turned to humiliation.

Tom Crean. The man who put the tan in Charlatan.

Yeah, I wish we would have just lost to Kentucky like we were supposed to so you would feel less shame.  That would have been ideal.

[keefe]

Yeah, I wish we would have just lost to Kentucky like we were supposed to so you would feel less shame.  That would have been ideal.

Very obtuse, Chico. I expect better of you!