Bummer

[Bling]

UCLA beats #2 USC to end the Trojans chance for a national championship

#5 Kansas loses at Depaul one week after beating Florida.  Three weeks ago they lost to Oral Roberts at home.

November 24th, #7 Wisconsin loses to Missouri State.

This loss really really blows, but we have to give props to North Dakota State.  They absolutely own the state of Wisconsin. 

Let's face it, as much fun all this hype and press and top ten rankings are, Marquette is not very deserving.  We can't hit a three, we can't make 2 freethrows in a row, we can't defend the 3, and for whatever reason we don't deny the hot hand the ball.  How many times has a Marquette team let an opponent have a career game on us?  A few examples: That Alabama guy Felix making like 8 threes?  Last year when West Virginia sunk like 97 three pointers on us?  And now ND State's Andre Smith goes 11 for 18 for 26 points?  This is ridiculous.

There is a lot to be done before I'd start predicting Final Fours and Championships for this team. 

This loss is stunning but thankfully it brings us back down to earth.  Let's learn something from it, put it behind us, and focus on beating Delaware State on Tuesday.  There is nothing we can do about it now.

Props to ND State for upsetting a top ten team on the road.

[downtown85]

very good post.  you put the loss in the right perspective. 

[MUHoopsfan6]

I was kind of baffled by TC's substitution patterns at the game D James and Barro were played pretty sparingly in the second half.  Do any of you think that TC wanted to lose this game on purpose?  He said after the game that we had, "a little frontrunner is us."   Just an idea, I know Al used to try to lose a game before the MCAA tournament.  Maybe TC is just trying to get the team ready to play WI.

[WashDCWarrior]

NO

[spiral97]

Do any of you think that TC wanted to lose this game on purpose?

As someone once responded to one of my posts: "Are you insane?!" 

But seriously, NO.

[Nukem2]

Obviously, TC did not try to lose the game.  However, his perplexing substitution/rotation pattern in this early season game did not help the cause at all.  I guess he's trying to learn more about his team.  But, its probably better to do that when the game is in hand?

[Mayor McCheese]

Yes, some guys have had huge career games against Marquette, however, I think that happens to every team, we just notice Marquette's because we pay more attention to their games.  If someone gets hot, it is really hard to stop him without sacrificing easy buckets, last year against West Virginia, there wasn't much we could do, every player on their team decided it was a good night to hit some threes.  Felix in the NCAA tournament last year, watching that game, was just stupid, the man averaged 8 points a game, not 8 threes, how do you honestly prepare for that, I think it was a mere shock, wasn't something where we prepared for Felix's three-point capabilities(I don't think he was even a three point threat) and then just didn't execute.  Did we want to lose, to quote Herm Edwards "You Play to Win the Game", so thats out of the question.  North Dakota St just outplayed Marquette, hopefully that doesn't happen much this year, and hopefully we can say that Marquette outplayed their opponent much more.  If anything I put it as a good learning experience, to show our players that it doesn't matter about the name on the jersey, the team name or player, on any given night any team can win, thats what makes college basketball better than any other sport out there

[DanceHallPlayer]

Felix had to be considered a 3-pt threat. He had attempted at least 7 3's in 11 different games before we played them. He just probably wasn't considered a very good one -- only 31.6% shooting threes for the season. The previous year, though he shot 45.3% in more limited playing time.

I remember an Alabama poster making a very prescient comment on the Rivals Board last year before the game that how Felix played would be the key to whether they could stay with us.