The Athletic: MU is a defensive team now

[jesmu84]

https://theathletic.com/2245109/2020/12/10/why-marquettes-defense-is-for-now-its-identity/

I don't have a subscription, so no idea what it actually says

[CountryRoads]

To sum it up: Defensive is more of a focus and the team's identity than offensive this year.

[Dr. Blackheart]

Paint protection

Moving toward a more disruptive defensive approach would be justifiable in any year. To that end, a subtle but salient shift in Marquette's ball-screen coverage philosophy is a bit of a reflection of the priority shift on the whole. In years past, Marquette mostly "iced" ball-screens, meaning it funneled the ball toward the sideline or baseline. This season it has defaulted much more to "blacking" ball-screens; generally speaking, the big men hedge harder as the opposing guard comes off the pick and are then responsible for sprinting back to the roll man while the on-ball guard recovers, all of which is intended to push the action away from the rim more forcefully.