Marquette crushed UWM into a fine powder tonight at the Bradley Center. After 9 years of not playing this series, Marquette showed no mercy in sending the Panthers back across town with nothing short of a mighty beat down. Marquette is 35-0 against UW@Milwaukee.There's really not much more to say. DJ lead the team with 22, Lazar with 19, Coobie with 12, McNeal with 16. MU shot a blistering 53% from the field.
Marquette had an amazing 26 assists to 7 turnovers.
Christopherson got in his first official Marquette game and scored his first bucket. Oddly, it wasn't a deep 3, but a put-back in the paint.
Dan Fitzgerald was dressed for tonight's game, but did not play. He was sporting a brace or cast on his left wrist. Marquette has not released information as to the extent of his injury, or when we can expect him back.
Attendance was excellent, at 18,300, just a few short of a sell-out. Certainly the first year of this 5 year series was worth the cash-outlay by Marquette. Large turn-out, and big-time thumping.
Large turnout? Yes.
ReplyDeletePathetic crowd? Most definitely.
There was more enthusiasm at the IUPUI game. DOn't know if that's because MU fans expected to win and just didn't care as much about the game, or the 1,000-2,000 UWM fans that were there just sucked the life out of the place.
Extremely glad we hammer the hell out UWM, but not a very fun game from a fan standpoint.
Still couldn't get over how slow and nervous Christopherson looked. Can't red-shirt him now so I hope he heals and gets his confidence back. We'll need him.
Wow that's a pretty depressiong post Gene.
ReplyDeleteRemember, we hit 100 points tonight for the first time in who knows how many games, against a "rival" that everyone in the building wanted to bury. And we did.
Just about everyone in the building stayed to see if we hit 100, and the fans erupted when it happened. It was also nice to watch different players create, something we did pretty easily tonight.
No worries about Scott, he'll be fine - again, first big game? He didn't look as bad as you say. Maybe he's not up to Big East speed yet, but he'll get there - and he's got the shooters touch to play in that league too. Time will prove this to us, I'm sure of it.
gene frenkle shows zero understanding of what it's like to play your first ever college game. Christopherson did not look slow. He surely was nervous. Acker looked completely overmatched against IUPUI. Why? Nerves! Good lord...these kids are playing basketball in front of 18,000 people. Wouldn't you be nervous?
ReplyDeleteThere is no comparison in the crowd to the IUPUI game. Suggesting that has to be simply a tweak to UWM fans. The IUPUI game was a horribly played game by both sides.
What do we think about Rob Jeter's post-game comments, i.e. implying that Crean was running up the score by leaving his starters in? Was he doing that and if so, was it because he didn't want this game in the first place? Just wondering. Love this blog!
ReplyDeleteWe don't disagree often, Geno, but today we do. I thought the crowd was as good as it could be while it was a "game". When any team builds a 15-20-25 point lead the crowd realizes Goliath is gonna smite David for a 35th time.
ReplyDeleteSo while it was a game, and for MU's big plays, the crowd was hardly "pathetic."
The student section was jammed and mostly raucous, but the upper level weak-ass students left with 10 minutes to go.
I can say my group had a lot of fun watching that game, 9 years of being called chicken played out with 40 minutes of butt kicking. How you didn't have fun watching about 20 highlight-reel moments is beyond me.
Easily the best OOC game (excluding UW) at the Bradley Center in 3 years due to the pre-text. Next year, it won't be such a big deal.
I like Rob Jeter, but quit crying. If you don't want teams to "run up the score", than play better. His comment about "getting everybody in the game" is silly - what is this, a YMCA youth league? Welcome to the big time UWM - if you want to play with the big boys, sometimes you're going to get blown out. Jeter should have ripped his own players for poor play instead of who TC had in the game.
ReplyDeleteAs for the crowd, I thought it was great in the first half, but did fade a bit in the second half. Still, much bigger and better than a typical guarantee game.
Fitz's wrist is in brace/splint, saw in the elevator on the way to the game last night..... hopefully a simple FOOSH wrist sprain of some kind, although I'm hard pressed to think that Fitz would be diving to the floor for loose balls
ReplyDeleteHilltopper, I had a blast and loved every minute of that game. My only point was that there wasn't as much electricity as a B.East sell-out (which I expected). Just an honest observation. Even when it was close, the crowd was never into it that much. I honestly think a lot of that had to do w/MU fans expecting to win big.
ReplyDeleteConsidering all the "hype" surrounding this game (public, or media generated), I guess I expected more intensity/hatred on the MU fans to be generated against UWM.
I can't stand UWM and all the garbage that was spewed MU's way leading up to the game.
And regarding Christopherson, I did mention it was his first game and I did expect him to be nervous. I also expected him to be slow and not really into it what w/his operation. Didn't mean to be hard on the kid.
Incredible game by MU. You're right H-toppper. Next year, it won't be such a big deal.
And again, I do understand Scott's nerves heading into that game. But the plays he made weren't nervous looking ones. He looked slow out there. Obviosuly, that's to be expected w/the knee surgery. My only point (which should have been made better) was that if he was that slow, why use him? Hold him out for another week or two (until Sav.State).
Incredible game.
At the same time Marquette was pasting UWM, I was in Mobile, Alabama for recruit Nick Williams and Leflore High School's 120 - 22 win (yes, no typo, a 98 point margin) win against Satsuma. Looks like Leflore will stay No. 1 in the state's largest division (6A). It was an away game, so I drove over to Leflore High School, and the neighborhoods around the school were definitely in the inner city and I think even Al would have overlooked a few small patches of grass. This is his kind of player from his kind of city setting - even way down here in the deep south! - John Pudner, Journalism '87, current resident of Auburn, Alabama.
ReplyDeleteThe "upper-level weak ass students" like myself had $1 pitchers to drink at Murphy's for an hour after the game. Sorry, sometimes $7 beers don't fit the budget. I will also remind you that these weak ass students may show up a little late and leave a little early, but that is because we are getting hammered and contributing to the overall atmosphere of the game. You may note that the student section of camp randall doesn't fill up until about halftime. The one in front are the sober nerds who would rather wait in line for 2 hours than get tanked.
ReplyDeleteAbsolutely, the students are contributing to the overall atmosphere of the game .. when they show up. If it's not a Friday/Saturday game, or not a big named opponent, half of them stay home. That's not the "Best Student Section in the country" .. it's about the 27th best.
ReplyDeleteNo doubt, about 1/3rd of the students are dedicated, wonderful fans that rival any in the country. The rest of you who show up for half the games and leave early .. not so much.
UWM needs to play in their own league. Perhaps a high school in Racine County?
ReplyDeleteLets face it Rob. We know now what we always have known. We're first rate. You're not! Go feel good and play Superior, River Falls and Plattville.