X-crement

[Newsdreams]

Markus needs to "win" a big game for MU, not just score 30 in a game they should win anyhow.  Everyone is going to have an off-night, but Markus compounded things by playing stupid.

No chance MU gets into the tourney with all these home losses.

Markus won us Xavier game last year

[Newsdreams]

But Markus needs to learn when to give it up on transition. Same as Rowsey on that one terrible game.

[muwarrior69]

I guess they want Harry to pass first rather than take the open shot. Jamal was sensational tonight. If he can put on some weight/muscle over the summer watch out.

[GGGG]

But Narkus needs to learn when to give it up on transition. Same as Rowsey on that one terrible game.

Also Rowsey needs to learn how to run the offense come crunch time and not just hero ball it. 

[mayfairskatingrink]

Markus won us Xavier game last year

MU hasn't gotten anything close to a good win this season, and they've lost a bunch of home games already.

[GGGG]

MU hasn't gotten anything close to a good win this season, and they've lost a bunch of home games already.

They weren't supposed to win this game and didn't.  Plenty of opportunities ahead.

[mileskishnish72]

Seems like some better D could have changed the  outcome. I saw at least 3 X breakaways for an uncontested jam, plus there were a number of ole's. Disappointing. I think there will be a lot of games this year where we are competitive but can't get over the hump. Nice game for Jamal.

[21rooster]

Cain stole the show, but I think Froling is the X factor that can take the team up a notch.  When John replaced him in the second half, the difference in the offense was noticeable, and Xavier made its run.  Froling comes back in and mu claws its way back.  I tend to think Froling starts on Saturday, rather than our third best big man.  He gets boards and finds the open man, which is what this team needs. 

That foul call on Hauser's block was a killer.  That was as clean as they get - at least as clean as the block on Howard on the other end.   We had our shots after that, but that turned the tide, followed by a couple ugly sequences by MU. 

Wojo better show them film of the uncontested layups after made baskets.  I can take missed shots (even free throws).  There is no reason an opponent should get a layup off a made basket.  That is just laziness, and it was the difference in the game. 

JP is a punk, but he is a punk who knows how to use it to get in his favor.  Rowsey could learn a thing or two from him in terms of getting under guys' skin but not actually getting T'd up himself. 

With all that said, heck of a game.  There's plenty to be optimistic about. 

[Juan Anderson's Mixtape]

Wasted opportunity.  Rowsey had some great hot streaks, Cain stepped up big, and Hauser had a very nice floor game with 8 assists.  Too bad he didn't get some of Howard's shot.

Obviously a poor game for Markus, but I'll still ride with him any day.

Defense let us down, especially in a key 6 minute stretch in the second half.  Xavier used a 21-9 run to turn a 5 point deficit into a 7 point lead.  I think MU had just one defensive stop in the stretch.

Onto the next one.  Need a W on Saturday.

[rocky_warrior]

2.  Macura is a punk.   Nice flop to draw the tech.   And so many other things.   How did Duke miss on him?

Sure some acting on the flop.  But watch the replay.  Froling threw a pretty good shoulder his way.  I may ask what Macura was doing so close to Rowsey at that point after the foul though...

All part of the game.

[MUBigDance]

Woulda shoulda coulda game. Only 1. Hope we don't regret it at end of season.

Every team will have woulda-shoulda-coulda games but a loser team has a season full of them. Let's beat Georgetown and avoid that path.

[mayfairskatingrink]

So, in order to get the needed "resume win," MU will need to beat Villanova (2 chances) or Xavier on the road?

[MU82]

I know there will be some who jump on me for saying this - they'll view it as "accepting mediocrity" or some garbage - but I come out of this game very encouraged.

Our young players exceeded expectations and made some very nice contributions against an outstanding team. Cain ... wow!

We almost beat the No. 6 team in the country even though our 25 ppg scorer had a poor game - and an even more horrible second half. I agree with the earlier comment that if Markus had even a B- game, we walk out of there with a win.

I'm not pinning it all on Markus, he's won us a fair share of games, too. But unfortunately he picked a bad game to have a bad game.

Also, several of us had a discussion in another thread the last couple of days about the future of the center position for Marquette. I think Wojo showed us how he rates our candidates. Matt works as hard as he can and does as well as his very limited talent lets him, but he is a 10-15 mpg guy max. I was extremely encouraged by the couple of very nice post moves Theo had, and I like the way Froling fought for the ball and had 8 rebounds (several in traffic) in 20 minutes. He needs to show some confidence when he gets the ball in the post.

Macura and Rowsey are the exact same kind of basketball personality. I would hate Rowsey if I was playing against Marquette, and Macura obviously is extremely hate-able. Rowsey was trash-talking the X bench even when we were losing.

Our D is still lacking, but X is a heck of an offensive team with no real weakness.

I know that FT% doesn't matter because that's what the smart money says, but if we shot X's % tonight and they shot ours, we're celebrating. Heresy, I know.

Love the headline, tower!

If we play like that every game, we will get the 9 victories we need and then some. If we play like that AND get a typical Markus game, we can even beat Nova again. If we don't "bring it," though, we can lose to anybody, even DePauw.

All in all, while I sure wish we would have won, I come out of this encouraged and excited about our future - both for the rest of this season and beyond.

Go Marquette!

[mayfairskatingrink]

Woulda shoulda coulda game. Only 1. Hope we don't regret it at end of season.

Every team will have woulda-shoulda-coulda games but a loser team has a season full of them. Let's beat Georgetown and avoid that path.

MU should beat Georgetown.  No juice to that game.  It only means  something if they lose.

[Jockey]

1. I'd take Macura on MU in a second.

2. Most entertaining MU team in quite a while.

3. Froling will continue to get more minutes than Heldt or Theo - and we are still on the rusty version of him.

4. If the freshman and Froling are the players they showed tonight, we move up to a 3rd or 4th place team in the BE.

[rocky_warrior]

If we give Froling another couple games to adjust, and/or a decent Howard (esp second half), this turns into a win...I think. 

Had we won, we'd be debating Cain as SOTG!

Rowsey played well tonight.  Distributed the ball fine...not his fault most guys wanted to give it right back.

[TAMU, Knower of Ball]

Heldt got abused by Jones in the beginning and was quickly shuffled to the bench, not an encouraging sign from a usually solid defender.

Rowsey took it personally when Macura drew the BS technical and elevated his game. Helluva performance from him tonight. Would have been the stud had we won.

Where's Sacar?

As other's noted, Xavier correctly keyed on Sam as our most important player. Despite this he ended up with 12 points, 7 boards, and 8 assists. Kid is the smartest player we've had in a long time. The foul on his block was a real momentum killer.

Howard's three point shot is off. He's 6/27 over the last three games. I'm sure that will correct itself. More worried that he seems to be shying away from contact the past two games. That's what caused the Macura block. He's drawn zero fouls despite taking a lot of drives. He biffed that last layup and it seemed to because he was worried about getting hit. Stitches messing with him a little bit maybe? I think he will be fine.

John showed some nice post moves to get his four points. If he keeps working on that he will have a role on the team. On defense he gets blocks but is consistently abused. Needs to be better.

This is what I envisioned Jamal Cain being as a freshman. A three and d specialist who occasionally throws down devastating dunks. Keep this up and Sacar will be hard to find again.

Froling was beastly on the boards and wast the only big to slow down their bigs. He needs to get his shooting legs under him. Once he does, he will be our starting center.

Did an admirable job on defense against some tough assignments in Macura and Blueitt. Liked seeing those two threes go in for him, even if the one didn't count. If he can be even a 33% shooter from range, he could start for us.

[TAMU, Knower of Ball]

So, in order to get the needed "resume win," MU will need to beat Villanova (2 chances) or Xavier on the road?

Not how the tournament works. Marquette could go 0-4 against X and Nova and as long as they go 9-5 against the rest of the BEast or better, they should be dancing.

[wadesworld]

Xavier really keyed on Sam.  Wouldn't help off of him at any cost.  Essentially the sole problem to Sam's game is that he struggles creating his own shot, and if our guards can't get him the ball, well...there ya go.

Which is a second reason I struggle seeing him in the NBA.   6'7 and can't create his own shot.   And doesn't shoot as well as Korver.

Count me in for 12 points on 67% shooting, 8 rebounds, and 7 assists with 0 turnovers every night from Sam.

[21rooster]

I tend to agree that Rowsey's distribution was fine.  Announcers love to say a team shouldn't take an early three when down three or four in the last minute.  That approach is fine unless you're playing the top free throw team in the conference.  Rowsey was right to be jacking up threes at the end.  Trading twos for two made free throws gets you nowhere. 

[wadesworld]

FT% didn't matter.  FT rate did.  Xavier attacks the basket and gets calls.  Marquette shoots jumpers and doesn't.  Basketball 101.

Yet if Marquette shoots the same FT% that Xavier did, Marquette wins the game.  So free throw percentage certainly mattered.

[Newsdreams]

So, in order to get the needed "resume win," MU will need to beat Villanova (2 chances) or Xavier on the road?

We could split SH, Creighton, Providence, Butler, sweep, GT, Depaul, St. Johns. Be 10-8

[TAMU, Knower of Ball]

Yet if Marquette shoots the same FT% that Xavier did, Marquette wins the game.  So free throw percentage certainly mattered.

FT% always mattas.

It just mattas a lot less than fans tend to think

[Anti-Dentite]

I saw what I needed to see, this is a tournament team.

[WarriorFan]

Lots of good things from the team tonight.
- Rowsey was excellent
- Cain was on... not just with the shooting, but playing decent D as well
- Sam was strong and smart
- John was strong and big  (not so smart?)
- Greg was what we need from a freshman backup guard
Unfortunately:
- Sacar was overmatched with Bluiett... so was everyone else.  Kid is good.
- Froling was very tentative.  I know lots have high hopes for him, but he showed no nose for the basket yet.  One or two missed threes from him still create space because the D will need to guard him.  A couple makes would be much better!
- Howard was off, but he was also abused constantly.  Most plays - whether he had the ball or not - he was fouled 3-5 times.  He needs to learn to handle this better, and to get some calls.