Better Believe

[Floorslapper]

Sheesh you’re obsessed with the transitive property! Hilarious. Bet your WIAA HOF head coach was all about talking about how your upcoming opponents beat or lost to someone you had already played by so many points.

Whatever helps you sleep at night Ners. Point is there’s plenty of room for you on the bandwagon. It’d be a good time to hop on in because this team is for real. But you’re too hard headed and try to write off any success to actually sit back and enjoy it. No skin off my back. Pretty entertaining to be honest. You just look dumber and dumber, and scream louder and louder about how smart you are when it comes to basketball. I’ve come to learn that almost anytime someone proclaims how smart they are, they’re usually not very smart. They are, however, always very insecure.

The fact that you’d rather pick the metric we’re ranked lowest in and cry about that rather than admit you were wrong and Wojo has this program right where the slurping band members predicted all along is pretty sad. But that’s alright. You still have VT to root for!

I enjoyed the win tremendously Wades.  I don't want to see MU fail.  This is the first time in Wojo's tenure I'm legitimately encouraged and optimistic.  I've been complimentary of late.

This does not change my opinion that he'd done a mediocre job at best up to this season, nor that he didn't make numerous mistakes his first few seasons.

We stand a chance to be really good next year.  Things are looking good.  It does feel great to be excited again about MU basketball.

[wadesworld]

I enjoyed the win tremendously Wades.  I don't want to see MU fail.  This is the first time in Wojo's tenure I'm legitimately encouraged and optimistic.  I've been complimentary of late.

This does not change my opinion that he'd done a mediocre job at best up to this season, nor that he didn't make numerous mistakes his first few seasons.

We stand a chance to be really good next year.  Things are looking good.  It does feel great to be excited again about MU basketball.

Fair enough. Wojo has not been perfect, but to me there was nothing suggesting he wasn’t building to this point.

[Cheeks]

I knew Chico had multiple personalities here but I didn't know "Wadesworld" was one of them. This explains everything!

Nice try....nope.  You are a great poster and a smart guy, but you looking bad on this one abkut IU and claiming I am Wades.  Take the loss, fight another day.  We get it, you love Buzz.  He gone.  New coach, doing pretty damn well without the drama off the court.  Let’s get behind the team.

Merry Christmas

[Floorslapper]

Fair enough. Wojo has not been perfect, but to me there was nothing suggesting he wasn’t building to this point.

Fair enough. Those of you who have been most supportive have always preached patience and the 5-year Power Point/plan.

I just felt we could have been better/should have been a little better than what we’ve achieved thus far, and that the inherited situation was not as dire as some in your camp felt.  Wojo has improved as a coach without question since Years 1&2.

Have a nice Christmas.

[brewcity77]

Fair enough. Wojo has not been perfect, but to me there was nothing suggesting he wasn’t building to this point.

I think it's worth noting that while this is the team that should be able to compete, the emergence of the star power in the 2016 recruiting class has made this year an inflection point and next year a peak.

86.1% of minutes played and 93.3% of points scored thus far returns next year. To me, this season has a 2001-02 feeling and next year looks like 2002-03.

It's hard to look at how quickly this season has turned for the better and not be excited that this is essentially the first 12 games of hopefully 75-80 with a virtually unchanged roster.

[mu_hilltopper]

Come on topper. Really?

The mods on this site are amazing. And everyone has their opinions. But why criticize this thread? Any loss or close win and the fire Wojo talk gets going.

Are we not allowed to say “hey for the last 3 years a constant 15 posters only post and Bitch and complain and talk about how much we suck!” But those of us who have always had faith or atleast more optimistic than not can’t have a positive thread?

Agreed, the whiners are long gone. But when we lose to a solid butler game or something later it’ll be fire Wojo all over again.

Firstly .. clearly, editorially the policy is to allow all things MU.  As for having a "positive" thread .. it did start that way .. but comments about the "chicken littles" and "fire wojo crap" appeared quickly.  That's not positive, that's recrimination from people who have been waiting for the day they could express their greater faith over others.

[MUBigDance]

I think it's worth noting that while this is the team that should be able to compete, the emergence of the star power in the 2016 recruiting class has made this year an inflection point and next year a peak.

86.1% of minutes played and 93.3% of points scored thus far returns next year. To me, this season has a 2001-02 feeling and next year looks like 2002-03.

It's hard to look at how quickly this season has turned for the better and not be excited that this is essentially the first 12 games of hopefully 75-80 with a virtually unchanged roster.

Yes, it’s very exciting to see the promise for next year given this year. We could lose Markus if he gets consistent...but in general new guys and Greg fill gaps in this years group and we only lose Matt otherwise. It could be a great year next year.

But I’m generally not a next year guy. I know we’re all enjoying this ride.

[Slim]

Yes, it’s very exciting to see the promise for next year given this year. We could lose Markus if he gets consistent...but in general new guys and Greg fill gaps in this years group and we only lose Matt otherwise. It could be a great year next year.

But I’m generally not a next year guy. I know we’re all enjoying this ride.

And Chart.

[theBabyDavid]

Lol always love the tough guy.

People whine and cry and then when they’re proven wrong they can’t take it.

Laughable? The team got smoked in their first true road game playing in a top 3 toughest place to play in the country

Pure horsesh1t. The only thing laughable is your “analysis.” 

[Herman Cain]

Last year I felt we were going to be 3rd in the Big East and make it to the second weekend of the tournament.  We got to the second weekend but just the wrong tournament. I felt this year we would have a similar trajectory. So I am delighted to see where the team is right now. The team is playing well and we control our own destiny now that we got through the non conference in good shape.  Kudos to the coaching staff . Hopefully we can continue this pace the rest of the season. 

[wadesworld]

Pure horsesh1t. The only thing laughable is your “analysis.”

Lol. Your analysis is always amazing keefer.

Hilarious.

[Lennys Tap]

Nice try....nope.  You are a great poster and a smart guy, but you looking bad on this one abkut IU and claiming I am Wades.  Take the loss, fight another day.  We get it, you love Buzz.  He gone.  New coach, doing pretty damn well without the drama off the court.  Let’s get behind the team.

Merry Christmas

1. I'm looking bad saying it's BS that Assembly Hall isn't and hasn't been one of the three toughest places to play for at least the last 20+years? LOL. Look at the facts (where IU's home record ranks among the majors over that span) and get back to me.
2.I didn't claim you were Wades. Pakuni said Wades and I had been arguing about Buzz for 57 months. I assume he meant you and me. My joke about it should have been obvious.
3. WTF? I never mentioned Buzz. Pakuni did. And you did. Cheap shot.
4. Let's get behind the team? I've never been anywhere but firmly behind all Marquette teams since my freshman year in 1966-67. Your the one who called our players choking dogs, not me.

Merry Christmas.

[DegenerateDish]

In before the Christmas lock.

[rocky_warrior]

I'm not sticking up for anyone's numbers, but since I think defining home court advantage is an interesting topic.  Kenpom has Indiana ranked 19th (or tied for 12th with 4.0 HCA).  Marquette at 72 (tied for 64th at 3.6, but @ BC).

Most interesting is the top 4 though...Hawaii (travel time, teams think it's vacation) - makes sense.  Denver (altitude) - makes sense.  LSU, huh?  West Virginia, huh? 

Following on, Arkanasa, Missouri, Iowa, Alabama, Baylor.  BENNY!  Get on this to make sure they thunderdome has whatever makes these places HCA's.  Weber State (Dee Dome #89 / 3.5 HCA) is below even the BC!

https://kenpom.com/blog/mining-point-spread-data-home-court-advantage/

[jesmu84]

Last year I felt we were going to be 3rd in the Big East and make it to the second weekend of the tournament.  We got to the second weekend but just the wrong tournament. I felt this year we would have a similar trajectory. So I am delighted to see where the team is right now. The team is playing well and we control our own destiny now that we got through the non conference in good shape.  Kudos to the coaching staff . Hopefully we can continue this pace the rest of the season.

You sticking with your stance that wojo cannot motivate his pLayers?

[Lennys Tap]

I'm not sticking up for anyone's numbers, but since I think defining home court advantage is an interesting topic.  Kenpom has Indiana ranked 19th (or tied for 12th with 4.0 HCA).  Marquette at 72 (tied for 64th at 3.6, but @ BC).

Most interesting is the top 4 though...Hawaii (travel time, teams think it's vacation) - makes sense.  Denver (altitude) - makes sense.  LSU, huh?  West Virginia, huh? 

Following on, Arkanasa, Missouri, Iowa, Alabama, Baylor.  BENNY!  Get on this to make sure they thunderdome has whatever makes these places HCA's.  Weber State (Dee Dome #89 / 3.5 HCA) is below even the BC!

https://kenpom.com/blog/mining-point-spread-data-home-court-advantage/

Kenpom says 19, Wades says 1, 2 or 3. Science vs a random number. Hmmm...

[wadesworld]

Kenpom says 19, Wades says 1, 2 or 3. Science vs a random number. Hmmm...

Science. Lol.

Hawaii, Denver, LSU, Arkansas, MIZZOU, Bama. All better than Kansas and Duke hey? Some science there!

Maybe Trump is right. Global warming is fake news.

Good stuff as always Lenny. Your knowledge never fails to entertain. LOL!

[Mr. Sand-Knit]

We really stunk at IU, but the guy who scheduled our only true away game as the 2nd game of the season  must have been asleep at the wheel. Even good teams struggle early in the season, but to throw our guys into the deep end of the other guy's pool that early in the season was an epic schedule fail. The difference between that game and this game was that both teams had 11 games under their belts and both were ready to play. We saw the real MU tonight.

Was at the IU game and while not great it was not terrible after the first 5 minutes.  Unfortunately Markus threw the ball to tge wrong team about 6 times in a row to start the game.  Also the game was part of the Gavitt Games the rest of the BE and much of the B10 had the same incompitent scheduler

[wadesworld]

So here's some Lenny's logic for us all.  IU, in season 1 of a transition to a new coach and playing in the Big Ten, lost 6 games at home last season so it can't possibly be a top 3 toughest place to play in America.  In fact, there's no debate, it's exactly the 19th toughest place in the country to play.

But, as factually proven by science, Hawaii is THE toughest place in America to play.  You know, Hawaii, the team that lost SEVEN home games last season while playing in the Big West Conference.

You cannot make this stuff up.  Never change Lenny.

[Cheeks]

The Ken Pom analysis is based on betting lines.  Thus, if a team is favored to lose by a bunch, but able to not lose by quite as much as the spread, or covers on the other side, that’s how he determined home court advantage.  Wow, lots of holes with that and he even says there are many ways to do this, he just chose that approach.  Betting lines.  Yikes.

Toughest place to play doesn’t mean always winning either.  Rutgers is notorious as a crap program, but playing at the RAC is a tough place to play.  Same for at Carnesecca at SJU, doesn’t mean they win all the time, but it’s a tougher place to play.  Why is this so hard for people?

As for IU, I’ve had the privilege because of my job to probably be at 100 arenas in the last 25 years....Duke, KU, UL, IU, UCLA, UNC, Georgia Tech, MSU, MIchigan, and so many others.  Yes, I would say IU is one of the toughest places to play.  Top 3?  Who knows.  I do know from roughly 2012 to 2017 they were second in the nation in beating ranked teams, the vast majority of which were at Assembly Hall.  Even when they lost you were usually in a dog fight. The last 20 years comment somehow escaped the fact that they had the second most wins over ranked teams in 6 of the last 8 years.....kind of a strange comment LT. 

St Mary’s is a tough place to play at, they don’t always win at home.  Utah State, the same.  At Wisconsin the same.  Tough places to play.

[Cheeks]

1. I'm looking bad saying it's BS that Assembly Hall isn't and hasn't been one of the three toughest places to play for at least the last 20+years? LOL. Look at the facts (where IU's home record ranks among the majors over that span) and get back to me.
2.I didn't claim you were Wades. Pakuni said Wades and I had been arguing about Buzz for 57 months. I assume he meant you and me. My joke about it should have been obvious.
3. WTF? I never mentioned Buzz. Pakuni did. And you did. Cheap shot.
4. Let's get behind the team? I've never been anywhere but firmly behind all Marquette teams since my freshman year in 1966-67. Your the one who called our players choking dogs, not me.

Merry Christmas.

Yes, you did.  It’s ok, Buzz was a great coach, but he’s gone.  You guys used to get on me for defending TC, the irony as so many of you do the same damn thing with Buzz.  Do you not recognize it?  Seriously, move on.

Amen. We have some awesome shooters but we ONLY look like a good team when our shots are falling. To me that's not the mark of a well coached team. Buzz had some clunkers (all coached do) but his teams won a lot of games a lot of different ways. Comical when folks try to compare his coaching acumen to Wojo's.

And Merry Christmas to you to....seriously.  I mean that to all of you. Life is short.  Have fun, let’s enjoy what we have.

[ZiggysFryBoy]

Arguing the same point forever isn't my idea of a good time.....was just looking for away to move on to other topics without either of you having to admit fault......

Oh well I tried....

^^^^ban dis guy

(Too much logic for this gun joint)
IBTCL
Festivus is so played out and stupid.  F::k festivus.
Merry christmas... for 4 or 5 years.
Bo Ryan molests collies.
ND sucks.

[real chili 83]

That's why I have already secured a spot on Chili's foldout couch.   

And I hear JB is turning his house into a brothel for the weekend.

$150/night if you bring your own cot. Garage is heated. $155 if you want to snuggle with JB.

[ducs]

Arguing the same point forever isn't my idea of a good time.....was just looking for away to move on to other topics without either of you having to admit fault......

Oh well I tried....

<applause>

[dgies9156]

This team is probably going to enter conference play at 11-2.     I do not expect the rest of the season to be seashells and balloons.    MU is 1-2 away from the Fiserv Forum.    MU has to play 9 games on the road in conference.    The Big East is not the gauntlet it has been the last few years but I still think that expecting >4 road conference wins is a stretch.   
11-2 is where a lot of people thought this team would be.   No need to gloat.    If it had gone south, I would have criticized Wojo.    I just did not think that a loss at Assembly Hall or a neutral floor loss to Kansas was so traumatic and dramatic to require torches and pitchforks.    If MU had gone 0-fer against the high majors, I could see it.   

While I was concerned after Indiana and Kansas and pleased after Loserville, K-State, Wisconsin and Buffalo, I haven't yet ordered my tickets for MSP -- yet (and I have a sister in the cities in whose house I can crash for free). I truly hope we get there and that Wojo has turned the corner with this team. But....

We have yet to win a road game. While I'll acknowledge that the BEast is down this year, winning at Providence, New York, Philadelphia, Omaha, Washington, DC, Indianapolis and even Chicago has not been a sure thing for our Warriors in recent years. Until we go out and kick some Hoya, Friar, Johnnie etc backside, Ill be somewhat researved in my judgment. As, frankly, is the national media.

We will win some we don't expect to win and inevitably lose some we aren't expected to lose. People's Exhibit #1 -- DePaul. We've laid a few eggs against them in recent years and they inevitably are up for us. People's Exhibit #2 -- Butler. We're 0 for history at their barn in Indianapolis. And, we haven't always looked good against them in Milwaukee either.

Finally, the national media is down on us because, reading a box score, we're one-dimensional. To some degree, we are. Marcus has had an incredible season so far this year. He's probably going down in the annals of Marquette basketball with Dean Meminger, Butch Lee, Glenn Rivers and DWade as the best of all time. But for us to go deep come March, our team will have to be more balanced. Defenses will find a way to make Marcus' life miserable. That's why I was excited at the first half of Buffalo, when the Hausers came out and took control. Then Marcus got hot.

Look, I'm happy as can be Marcus had the game of his life against Buffalo. Heck we won and we had a team effort in all other phases of the game. But only DWade of the legends group had nights like Marcus consistently. We need to make sure we're not "just letting Marcus do it."