Its about to get a lot tougher

[Jockey]

We do have a target on our back. But the dudes on our team are playing wonderfully and, Brother Not, just enjoy the ride!

I agree with your whole post but really liked this part.

It is good to have a target on your back. Other teams should see us as a team to beat to make their season better.

[nyg]

Let say they go 4-1 in remaining home games, and 3-3 in remaining road games.  There will be losses, so in that scenario, they end up 13-5 in BE play prior to BE Tournament.  Probably most would except those results and consider it a successful pre-tournament record.  Win an additional road game and its 14-4 and that should exceed any expectations.  The team is in a position to please many fans.

The two teams worried about are Butler, with Jordan Tucker playing well and Nova, both home and away.   
 

[mu03eng]

Yes, from a competition standpoint the schedule gets harder (from a timeline standpoint its certainly easier) but no one on our remaining schedule is tougher than teams we played in non-conference. We've got plenty of talent and grit to go win the whole league, so sit back and enjoy it and don't let a loss here or there get ya down.

[Goose]

This team has defied the odds in close games and I think the trend will continue. Other than 'Nova, there is not one team on the remaining schedule that should scare the boys. From what I have seen of the competition, they should fare very well the remainder of the season. I thought BE would be soft, but it is really soft. Barring injury I would think 7-4 would be the worst that could happen.

[GooooMarquette]

I completely disagree, and don't understand the panic.

MU's going to get everyone's best effort, that's the sign you're a good team. Will MU get tripped up by someone other than Nova? Probably, it's conference play, it happens. Is MU going to fall off the map (barring injuries)? Not a chance.

Are you guys worried about Xavier on Saturday? I get winning on the road in the Big East isn't a picnic, but MU's a far better team than X.

After MU goes to Butler, do you realize they don't get on a plane again for 3 weeks? That's unheard of in the middle of conference play. This is the friendliest conference schedule MU has gotten in the Big East that I can remember. First 4 games in February: revenge game with the Johnnie's at home, Nova at home on a Saturday afternoon, a tricky quick turn around Tuesday night game at DePaul (that's the trip up game people should be looking at), and then a 8 day break before Butler comes to Milwaukee.

Enjoy the ride, wins like last night are MU cashing checks and building equity. Time to deposit another check Saturday afternoon.

Yep.

Road games are always tough, but we are definitely better than both X and Butler. And both are quite beatable on their home courts. Butler has lost home games to Dayton (lol) and GTown, while X has home losses to both Hall and PC.

We will very likely lose a couple here and there, but this team shows no signs of going on a tailspin, home or away.

[TAMU, Knower of Ball]

Something I've noticed is that I don't get as anxious as I used to. At the beginning of the season I always had this sense of dread that we were going to blow a lead. I think it was just the reality that if this season didn't go well, it likely meant another multi-year rebuild. Was not looking forward to it. Over the last few games, I don't get anxious anymore. Even when Providence took a lead or DePaul cut it to 4, I never felt like the game was in jeopardy. In our two blow out losses, you could tell from the opening bell that it wasn't our night. Every other game besides Kansas? Our team takes care of business during winning time.

[GooooMarquette]

Something I've noticed is that I don't get as anxious as I used to. At the beginning of the season I always had this sense of dread that we were going to blow a lead. I think it was just the reality that if this season didn't go well, it likely meant another multi-year rebuild. Was not looking forward to it. Over the last few games, I don't get anxious anymore. Even when Providence took a lead or DePaul cut it to 4, I never felt like the game was in jeopardy. In our two blow out losses, you could tell from the opening bell that it wasn't our night. Every other game besides Kansas? Our team takes care of business during winning time.

Agree, and I suspect it has something to do with our two best players being juniors. Cuts down on the out of nowhere head-scratchers....

[wadesworld]

We have a second Hauser.  They know how to win games, and other players are figuring it out too.

[connie]

I am worried about the poor first half offense and epidemic of turnovers-------but:

This team has had many different guys step up when needed----a huge improvement.
This team plays pretty good defense----a huge improvement.

We may stumble for a game or two, or our sloppy play may jump up and bite us for a game, but I am much more confident in our chances in any game this year rather than having to hope for a crazy barrage of threes.

[Loose Cannon]

Maybe if we get tougher with our TO rate that might wash the tougher schedule.

[Cheeks]

Nova remains the team to beat, nothing has changed. 

[Goose]

I think this team is about 90% of what I thought they would be this season. On the upside, Theo has outperformed my expectations by leaps and bounds, Matt has been seat belted to the bench and Wojo is playing the guys that give MU best chance to win big minutes. On the downside, I was expecting more from Morrow/Bailey and their half court offense is worse than I expected it to be.

To me, all I care I about is winning. I do not think the record matches the talent level, but I do not care this season. I'll enjoy the ride and hope they keep winning.

[wadesworld]

I think this team is about 90% of what I thought they would be this season. On the upside, Theo has outperformed my expectations by leaps and bounds, Matt has been seat belted to the bench and Wojo is playing the guys that give MU best chance to win big minutes. On the downside, I was expecting more from Morrow/Bailey and their half court offense is worse than I expected it to be.

To me, all I care I about is winning. I do not think the record matches the talent level, but I do not care this season. I'll enjoy the ride and hope they keep winning.

I actually think our half court offense is pretty good with the exception being some turnovers.  I think where we're a lot worse than I thought we would be is in transition.  I'm not a numbers nerd so I don't know if the numbers support this, but we seem to be awful in transition.  When commit to slowing things down to take care of the ball and get into a half court game rather than trying to speed up and turning the ball over a lot I think the offense has been pretty good.  Getting to the free throw line has been a much bigger part of the half court offense than I expected.

[MUMountin]

Something I've noticed is that I don't get as anxious as I used to. At the beginning of the season I always had this sense of dread that we were going to blow a lead. I think it was just the reality that if this season didn't go well, it likely meant another multi-year rebuild. Was not looking forward to it. Over the last few games, I don't get anxious anymore. Even when Providence took a lead or DePaul cut it to 4, I never felt like the game was in jeopardy. In our two blow out losses, you could tell from the opening bell that it wasn't our night. Every other game besides Kansas? Our team takes care of business during winning time.

The wins in the noncon helped a ton—once we had the wins over UL, KSU, and UW in hand, my anxiety has gone way down, as we had a cushion that meant that if we dropped a game here or there it wouldn't be the end of the world.  That might be the result of lower standards based on the last few years, but it has made it easier to stomach when they are down.

[MomofMUltiples]

After all, Wojo has never been able to win 7 Big East games in a row...

[tower912]

Marquette is 17-3, bit the record does not match the talent.  90% of your expectations .  What were your expectations?  How good do you think the talent is?

[MUBigDance]

OK, when do we take the mantle from Nova....where we expect to beat everybody road or home. I want that.
Nova didn't beat everybody but for the past few years, for any given BE game they were expected to win...because they were GOOD!
I want that at MU. King of the hill...dare you to knock me off.

So maybe next year?   or maybe...by the end of this year?? 

[muguru]

Marquette is 17-3, bit the record does not match the talent.  90% of your expectations .  What were your expectations?  How good do you think the talent is?

I for one, do not think they are playing above their talent level at all...I have been beating the drum for awhile that this team is VERY talented. To be honest(and yes losses happen), looking back at how they got their doors blown off at IU and at SJU and with the way those two teams have performed since, makes me even more angry than I was originally. I get maybe losing one of those games, but they should have never lost both. All in all, there isn't much to complain about with being 17-3 and not(yet...hopefully not this year) having one of those WTF games where MU loses to someone they have no business losing too in conference.

Cut down on the turnover's...and this teams potential is limitless.

[Jockey]

Something I've noticed is that I don't get as anxious as I used to. At the beginning of the season I always had this sense of dread that we were going to blow a lead.

I feel the same. Even when the last two teams came back on us following halftime, I had zero doubt we were going to win.

Never had that feeling the last 4 years.

[Goose]

Tower

The record surpasses the talent pool by a wide margin. I felt, and still feel, in a normal year that this a bubble team. As for my 90%, that was not 90% of meeting expectations, it was how I feel about the talent. One guy surprised me on upside and couple on downside. I never felt PT was going to be an issue. Some thought too much talent and not enough minutes, I did not have that concern.

To sum it up again, I felt and feel, a decent, not great talent level on the squad. On the bright side, their record is all that matters. They stole some games and I love that. That said, I still am not making travel plans for second week of NCAA just yet.

[DoctorV]

I like that it's about to get tougher, bring it.

One thing I've noticed this year that seems a lot different than years past is that everytime Marquette seems to be in trouble it doesn't feel overly concerning or insurmountable. I've rarely gotten very nervous that they won't come back and win the game (obvious exceptions apply). The team just appears to have that quiet confidence- when it gets rattled it seems to find a fairly quick way to bounce back and take control again.

Maybe that's due to lesser competition (DePaul and Providence games for example) or hopefully it's due to the much improved defense. There have been offensive droughts, but every time a bad scoring stretch happens I look at the score and think to myself "boy we aren't behind by as much as we should be, the other team is in trouble soon" or "the lead is shrinking but we will pull away real soon." It happened in the second half v Providence and again late in the depaul game most recently, but feels like it's been happening all year

[CTWarrior]

I feel the same. Even when the last two teams came back on us following halftime, I had zero doubt we were going to win.

Never had that feeling the last 4 years.

I'm not there yet.  Hopefully I will be soon.

[Goose]

muguru

This teams potential is limitless? I am excited with record and ranking, but also realistic. I do not think you would be saying that if they were 14-6 right now. Honestly, we are 17-3 and I love it, but probably could or should be 14-6. I'm jumping on the record bandwagon, but still keeping tabs on how the talent stacks up against the top teams in the country.

[MUMountin]

I'm about as pleased as you can be with their record, but also think we have a lot yet to prove.  Still feel like talent-wise we are closer to a 5/6 seed than a 3/4, but having eked out a few games we probably shouldn't have, think we could still get to that upper limit. 

I'm expecting us to drop a few games over the next few weeks, which is fine.  We've eliminated most of the really damaging potential losses, so a few Ls shouldn't hurt.

On the other hand, we've gone a few games without fully clicking on both ends, so I also think we are due for a couple laughers in our favor at some point. 

[tower912]

Goose, I thought you were saying the same thing as guru.  Thank you for the clarification.   I was expecting  22-24 wins, top 3 in the Big East, 5 seed.  The difference between your expectations and what has happened is mental toughness.  An unexpected ability to grind out wins in close games.  And improved defense.  Which is great.  But I agree that there are still clearly weaknesses.