[PaintTouches]What we have learned about Marquette so far

[PaintTouchesSays]

What we have learned about Marquette so far

The panic button getting worn out by December. A tradition unlike any other. If you read any of the Marquette forums or follow the #mubb hashtag on Twitter, you would think this was a lost season for the blue and gold with the amount of negativity and shade being thrown around. The point guard sucks. [...]<img alt="" border="0" src="http://stats.wordpress.com/b.gif?host=painttouches.com&blog=28348875&post=10103&subd=painttouches&ref=&feed=1" width="1" height="1" />

Source: What we have learned about Marquette so far

[tower912]

Wow, a whole bunch of common assumptions skewered in one column.    Well done.   

[TAMU, Knower of Ball]

Loved everything about this article. Thank you

[Slim]

"13.8% of Marquette's possessions have been in transition"

Just doesn't seem right to me.

Another reason I appreciate PT

[muwarrior97]

Thanks PT, some good flight reading material for LV.....Let's go Marquette

[WarriorFan]

Another excellent article.  I occasionally read the sports journalism on ESPN.com, CBS sports, USAToday, Journal Sentinal, and a few other places and Paint Touches regularly has greater insight, more facts, better research and - most importantly - perspective in their writing.  Well done.

[Nukem2]

Another excellent article.  I occasionally read the sports journalism on ESPN.com, CBS sports, USAToday, Journal Sentinal, and a few other places and Paint Touches regularly has greater insight, more facts, better research and - most importantly - perspective in their writing.  Well done.

Perspective?  More opinion.  Otherwise well done.

[PGsHeroes32]

Good article but 1 thing is that this year we have padded some offense against 3 god awful teams. I don't think we played teams quite as awful as grambling IUPUI and ball state.

[GurneeHitchkr]

I love reading PaintTouches articles.  In this article, I really loved how they pointed out the Chicken Little's that are rampant this year and how they were around last year too (and we all know how well last year turned out).  It's so discouraging to read all of the negative comments, to read how everyone knows so much more than Buzz, and how everyone wants to give up on a season that is just getting going.  Relax. In Buzz (we should) trust.  For those too young to remember, a decade ago (and more) we had a lot to complain about.  But these hese are exciting times.  So get excited.

[TAMU, Knower of Ball]

Good article but 1 thing is that this year we have padded some offense against 3 god awful teams. I don't think we played teams quite as awful as grambling IUPUI and ball state.

Colgate, SE Louisiana, and Mississippi State (yes, they were that bad) all had similar RPIs.

[brewcity77]

Good article but 1 thing is that this year we have padded some offense against 3 god awful teams. I don't think we played teams quite as awful as grambling IUPUI and ball state.

You're right in terms of rankings, but barely. If you follow the PT article, they basically disprove the fallacies, and the three worst defenses we faced this year have parallels to the three worst we faced last year.

Yes, Grambling is awful and at 348, one of the worst defenses in the country, but last year the 304 ranked defense of UMBC was also awful. The other two you mention are IUPUI (273) and Ball State (247). Last year we played Colgate (264) and Southeastern Louisiana (241). Each just barely worse than their comparison teams from this year.

So yes, this year's schedule against the bottom is slightly easier, but it's a very slight margin, so much so that I would be surprised if, outside of Grambling, there was any actual statistical significance.

[UticaBusBarn]

Andrei, thank you for the article; however, you are treading on dangerous ground. Providing facts in a well thought out manner could be very disturbing to those who have a tendency to ignore facts, and try not to think things through.

Seriously, thank you for all you guys do. Reading Paint Touches is like a breath of fresh air.

[The Sultan of Silly]

Andrei, thank you for the article; however, you are treading on dangerous ground. Providing facts in a well thought out manner could be very disturbing to those who have a tendency to ignore facts, and try not to think things through.

Seriously, thank you for all you guys do. Reading Paint Touches is like a breath of fresh air.

Yes those crazy nut jobs that point out our most important statistic is our wins and losses and we've lost every key NCAA résumé building non-conference game thus far inspite of being ranked in the top 25 preseason. Even stat geeks can't hide that fact.

Let's hope they win tonight....would definitely be a step in the right direction as I have liked what I've seen against iupiu and testicle tech as far as rotation and minute allocation. Tonight will be a tougher challenge and if Burton, mayo, JJJ and Dawson get a lots of collective minutes then we will win.

[T-Bone]

SOS at this time last year 235.
This year 125.

[brewcity77]

Yes those crazy nut jobs that point out our most important statistic is our wins and losses and we've lost every key NCAA résumé building non-conference game thus far inspite of being ranked in the top 25 preseason. Even stat geeks can't hide that fact.

Can we stop with this already? We beat George Washington. I know that some Scoopers may not put much stock in that, but we are the only team to do that this season. The Colonials have two quality wins over Creighton and Maryland, while also beating Miami and Manhattan, both of which could be top-100 teams by the end of the year. Depending on how strong the A-10 ends up, GW could very well be a tourney team this year.

[GGGG]

GW's RPI is 27.

Right now, that looks like a solid win.

[WayOfTheWarrior]

Loved the article! The similarity on the stat sheet is scary.

One of the main differences I notice so far when comparing this season non-conference to last is the how the key wins and losses stack up.

2012-13 Losses:
Butler by 1 (buzzer beater, tournament team, unranked)
Florida by 33 (blow out away, tournament team, ranked 9)
UWGB by 2 (bad loss away, non-tournament team, unranked)

2012-2013 Notable Wins:
Wisconsin by 10 (home win, tournament team, ranked 22)

2013-14 Losses:
OSU by 18 (blow out @ home, tournament team, top 5?)
ASU by 2 (close away loss, tournament team, unranked?)
SDSU by 8 ("away" loss, tournament team, ranked?)
UW by 6 (away loss, tournament team, top 15?)

2013-14 Notable Wins:
???

Basically we REALLY NEED THIS WIN TONIGHT! All of our losses have been to good teams probably going to the tournament (all of them relatively close) but we need at least one good win. From then on it's basically how well we can duplicate the outstanding conference run we had last year.

[GGGG]

GW RPI: 27
NM RPI: 45

[WayOfTheWarrior]

True GW is the best win we have had in terms of RPI so far, but I'm a little skeptical of how it will look at the end of the season. They did upset Creighton but who have they really played so far outside of that? Hopefully they will do well in conference and it will help us come selection day but I'm not counting it a notable win just yet.

[GGGG]

True GW is the best win we have had in terms of RPI so far, but I'm a little skeptical of how it will look at the end of the season. They did upset Creighton but who have they really played so far outside of that? Hopefully they will do well in conference and it will help us come selection day but I'm not counting it a notable win just yet.

And who has New Mexico beaten?

If we win this game, it will *not* be the most impressive non conference win on our schedule.

[brewcity77]

They did upset Creighton but who have they really played so far outside of that?

Thought I covered this already...

Can we stop with this already? We beat George Washington. I know that some Scoopers may not put much stock in that, but we are the only team to do that this season. The Colonials have two quality wins over Creighton and Maryland, while also beating Miami and Manhattan, both of which could be top-100 teams by the end of the year. Depending on how strong the A-10 ends up, GW could very well be a tourney team this year.

According to RPIForecast.com, both Maryland and Manhattan project to be top-100 teams. Miami projects to be top-150. They also beat Boston, who also projects to be top-150.

Currently, GW is our only win that projects to be top-150, so maybe we shouldn't look so far down our noses at them.

[WayOfTheWarrior]

Sorry brewcity, I kind of breezed over the posts after reading the article. What you say is very true, but I am factoring a couple other things which may or may not matter in the end.

I'm just looking at this from a perspective of our situation in March when the selection committee comes together. I'm factoring in how a win over New Mexico in an environment favoring the Lobos will look to a committee compared to a win to George Washington in a neutral court scenario. I put a little more weight upon the intangible way a win against New Mexico sounds compared to one against GW since they tend to be a higher profile team thanks to last year. I know that can sound stupid from pure stats perspective but a committee creates the bracket, not a computer like the BCS.

Obviously a lot of this could be irrelevant depending on how the conference season goes. I'm glad we whooped GW by 16 and I'm hoping we can take care of business in Vegas tonight.

[pbiflyer]

GW's RPI is 27.

Right now, that looks like a solid win.

Stupid facts getting in the way of a perfectly good rant!