UPDATEDDan Fitzgerald hit a career 20 points, and Mike Kinsella hit two 3-point bombs to lead Marquette over St. John's 76-67. With the win, Marquette improves to 24-8 on the season. Fitzgerald was moneyesq.
Kinsella picked up 5 rebounds and 3 assists in only 14 minutes. Gotta love how Mike has played his last two games in the Blue and Gold. I admit it, I've always had a bit of a man crush on Mike Kinsella, wishing he'd get more PT and take care of business. Now that he leads the team in 3-pointer% (80%), I imagine others will jump on the Kinsella bandwagon.
Dominic James had a horrific shooting night, going 2-14, and one of those was a layup in the first 2 seconds of the game. He dished out 8 assists and distributed the ball well.
Marquette faces Pitt for the 3rd time this year, Thursday night at 8pm.
With two of the Cracked Sidewalks team at the MSG tonight, you can expect some first hand reports of tonight's game and the MU events in New York.
Official MU Box Score
AP Recap
GoMarquette Recap - Notes
Paladium-Item Recap
NewsDay (NJ) Recap
Rosiak Recap - Rosiak Blog on Game
Chicago Sports Recap
This comment has been removed by a blog administrator.
ReplyDeleteI won't shy away or act like I've been Kinsella's biggest fan. I haven't. That's an understatement. He's been my kryptonite. That said...
ReplyDeleteIt appears that MU/Crean finally realized after three years, maybe giving a 7' center with an outside touch a crack at making an attempt or two a game to stretch out the defense and open things up down low is a good thing. That is exactly what's happening. Kinsella is forcing guys to come out. Hopefully it carries over throughout both tournaments. As a kid in college, I'm thrilled for him, especially considering his injuries. Loved even more his assists and rebounding tonight. He absolutely MUST be a factor coming off the bench the rest of the season and is a total X-factor to any game.
As for James. That wasn't Dominck out there tonight. That was George Costanza, aka "Chucker" (the nickname Keith Hernandez gave him). He's distributing the rock, which is great, but unlike the other night, he took wayyy to many threes tonight and cost the team dearly. You can tolerate off nights, but not when it's killing your team. And definitely not in March. His shooting must either be curtailed, or he must start hitting 40% for a game minimum.
Fitz did awesome shooting the rock and was huge. Still managed to make two Fitzgerald-esque fouls in the final two minutes but you take the good with the bad. You could put a 25 minute video together of Fitz' Greatest Hitz' and it would be 15 minutes of bad fouls, and 10 minutes of clutch threes.
Don't forget Hayward. I'm really looking forward to what he'll be able to do next year. He has a nose for the ball and that can only improve w/another summer of seasoning and weight gain.
Pitt tomorrow. Can we beat them three times in one year? It'll be tough. Getting one post-season win is good, though, for the psyche (and will get the fans off Crean's back for not winning one in years).
I may be a contrarian, but I still feel if DJ has a good open shot, for him to take it. But if the shot isn't there, he is guarded, being off balanced, rushing, forcing, to just pass off. We definitely need DJ on the court. I am happy for Dan, Mike and the Team. Go Marquette!
ReplyDeleteThe only problem is I don't think DJ knows what a good shot is and what isn't. The only good thing to come of this is that it is hard to believe he would try and go to the NBA next year. With such a strong field coming out (all the freshman who were required to go to college for one year) it is hard to believe he would even be a first rounder. Last night is how Marquette is going to go deep into the tournament. Relying on the hot hand and spreading the offense around.
ReplyDeleteThe last 3 years we didn't need a 7 foot guy to take 3 pointers, we had some of the best in the country taking them.
ReplyDeleteKinsella's shots have been great. He still struggles mightily on defense and has trouble grabbing a rebound, which for a 7 footer is difficult to grasp.
Kinsella seems to be making big strides in his rebounding. He pulled down a number of nice ones last night. Be great to see him continue the trend. GO Big Mike!
ReplyDeleteJames needs to continue taking GOOD shots if he gets an open look. If he misses, it sucks. But he still has to take the shot. He can't allow the defense to simply pack it in and wait for him to drive and dish.
ReplyDelete