Really Good Day for the Future of Marquette Basketball

[wadesworld]

Freeman is barely seeing the court, but also responsible for Creighton's defensive struggles?
Could the loss of the four-time Big East DPOY have something to do with it as well?
And you'll never guess who leads Creighton in defensive box plus-minus.

As for Iowa, that might have something to do with Ben McCollum vs Fran McCaffery.

So he barely plays but his stats are relevant? But I do agree. Going from a great defensive center to an awful one has greatly hurt Creighton's defense. Good point!

He's been an absolutely terrible defender his entire career.

But yeah let's get another awful defender. That'll fix this team's problems.

[BCHoopster]

If you want to see soft, Freeman is right up there

[MU82]

Vanilla Soft Serve II?

[Pakuni]

So he barely plays but his stats are relevant? But I do agree. Going from a great defensive center to an awful one has greatly hurt Creighton's defense. Good point!

I'm really not sure what the point you're making here is. If your'e still arguing that Owen Freeman is the reason for Creighton's defensive problems, that's not supported by any data. In fact, at least one data point - DBPM -  indicates Creighton plays better defensively when Freeman is on the court.

He's been an absolutely terrible defender his entire career.

But yeah let's get another awful defender. That'll fix this team's problems.

Ben Gold, who gets glazed around here for his defensive improvement, has a career DRtg of 105.7.
Freeman, who's "been an absolutely terrible defender his entire career" has a career DRtg of 104.7.
And in case anyone is curious, Oso's career DRtg was 101.0.
Things that make you go hmmm.

[wadesworld]

I'm really not sure what the point you're making here is. If your'e still arguing that Owen Freeman is the reason for Creighton's defensive problems, that's not supported by any data. In fact, at least one data point - DBPM -  indicates Creighton plays better defensively when Freeman is on the court.
Ben Gold, who gets glazed around here for his defensive improvement, has a career DRtg of 105.7.
Freeman, who's "been an absolutely terrible defender his entire career" has a career DRtg of 104.7.
And in case anyone is curious, Oso's career DRtg was 101.0.
Things that make you go hmmm.

What's making you go hmm? Is that supposed to be some insignificant difference? Freeman's is closer to Caedin Hamilton's career defensive rating than he is Oso's. I'm not sure why you're trying to convince people Owen Freeman is some elite defender. He's an awful defender that rebounds well.

Ben's defense isn't the team's problem. He's also not some elite defender. So congrats to Owen for being close to a mediocre defender whose stats are skewed playing on this atrocious defensive team this year.

[Jay Bee]

"I was hard...like a fastball pitch..."

[brewcity77]

If Marquette is interested in a Freeman they recruited out of high school, Owen wouldn't be the one I'd want.

[Pakuni]

What's making you go hmm? Is that supposed to be some insignificant difference? Freeman's is closer to Caedin Hamilton's career defensive rating than he is Oso's. I'm not sure why you're trying to convince people Owen Freeman is some elite defender. He's an awful defender that rebounds well.

Well, now you're just making things up. Nobody is trying to convince anyone Freeman is an elite defender. Just pushing back on the nonsense that he's been "absolutely terrible his entire career" - he's hasn't been - or that he's to blame for Creighton's poor defense this year - he isn't.

[wadesworld]

Well, now you're just making things up. Nobody is trying to convince anyone Freeman is an elite defender. Just pushing back on the nonsense that he's been "absolutely terrible his entire career" - he's hasn't been - or that he's to blame for Creighton's poor defense this year - he isn't.

There's a reason he's playing 12 minutes per game on a team that is worse defensively than Marquette is (not a good thing!). It's certainly not the 62% from the floor he's shooting, I can tell you that much.

Maybe in year four next year a team of his will be in the top 120 in the country defensively.

[Pakuni]

There's a reason he's playing 12 minutes per game on a team that is worse defensively than Marquette is (not a good thing!). It's certainly not the 62% from the floor he's shooting, I can tell you that much.

Maybe in year four next year a team of his will be in the top 120 in the country defensively.

Marquette sits 102nd in defense this year, by far the worst of Shaka's tenure.
Clearly Nigel James' fault.

[1SE]

If only there were some meaningless games where we could see some extended run for Clark to figure out if he's soft and only gets the easy rebounds.

And he might be soft and only get the easy rebounds and we should Shakaxe him- or he might be a serviceable situational back up big. Who knows, let's see. But unless Shaka has already decided to give him the boot, I can figure out for the life of me why we aren't finding out the answer to those questions ont he court - so we have a slightly better chance at losing 20 games instead of 21? Who cares...