Friday, November 10, 2006

Marquette earns 1st victory of season .... unimpressively

Hillsdale College is known as one of the most conservative schools in the country and is ranked #1 in the nation by the Princeton Review's The Best 361 Colleges 2007 listing of colleges where students are "most nostalgic for Ronald Reagan". Of course that doesn't translate particularly well to the hardwood as the Gipper was known more for his football tie-ins then anything associated with hoops. You would expect this right leaning school might have been more concerned with the election outcomes from Tuesday then pretending to have any chance tonight against a nationally ranked squad. Think again.

Someone forgot to tell the Chargers that they had no shot in this basketball game as they led Marquette 36-32 at halftime and stayed closed until about the 6 minute mark in the game. The 16th ranked MU Golden Eagles ultimately prevailed 76-66 in a game that was surprisingly close.

Tom Crean clearly could not have been pleased.
"One game into the regular season, and we've already been taught how we have to play," Marquette coach Tom Crean said.
Pre-season All-American guard Dominic James struggled with his shot all game long, making only 3 of 15. The big three (James, McNeal, Matthews) combined went only 11 of 42 for a chilly 26.1% shooting touch. McNeal did finish game-high with 19 points on 7-22 shooting. McNeal also had a team-high five turnovers.

On the bright side, freshmen Lazar Hayward (6 pts, 5 rpg in 16 minutes) and David Cubillan (5 pts, 2 rebounds, one assist and 0 turnovers in 19 minutes) played well in their first regular season action.

Next up for Marquette are the Idaho State Bengals on Monday night as the CBE Classic at the Bradley Center.

Boxscore

Milwaukee Journal Sentinel Story

GoMarquette.com recap

The Palladium-Item recap

"Controlled Chaotic Fear" at IrishEyes.com

Sports Network Recap

AP Story



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2 comments:

  1. AnonymousSaturday, November 11, 2006 12:52:00 PM

    I was at the game last night. I was getting nervous. What do you guys think about the game? Should we worry in the future? Or was it just the first game, rusty, nervous, and got the bad out of them already?

    ReplyDelete
  2. AnonymousSunday, November 12, 2006 2:45:00 PM

    I was at the game also, and was nothing short of "shocked" as to how ineffective the entire team was. I can understand one or two players being cold, but the "big three" shot around 25%. James went 3 for 15...and in my opinion was the biggest disappointment.
    They missed 11 free throws too.

    This team is extremely athletic, but seem to lack fundamentals. Why did it take 26 minutes to hit our first three??

    I'm very concerned.

    ReplyDelete

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