Marquette Injury, Links, and Coppin State Quick Hits

Marquette Injury Reported

As Rosiak reported last evening, David Cubillan sprained his left ankle in practice on Wednesday. It's good news that he suited up for practice on Thursday, but he'll still be a game-time decision. Rosiak expects an increase in minutes to come from Acker and Christopherson for Friday's game against Coppin State (3-8). Marquette enters the game 8-1 overall and ranked 10th/13th in the nation. Tipoff is scheduled for 7:30pm CST, and the game will be broadcast locally in Milwaukee on Time Warner Sports Channel 32.

Let's hope that Cubillan is able to rest up and see the floor soon. With both he and Fitz out, that would obviously mean that MU is without two of their most prolific three-point shooters. Last year, the two combined for 236 attempts from three, which was 36% of total team attempts. Cubillan is actually firing at an even higher rate this year, launching over five threes a game (last year 3.3 / game).

Despite not shooting as high of a percentage from three (34.8% vs. 42.5%), Cubillan is a far more efficient offensive scorer this year. In fact, according to Pomeroy, Cubillan has the highest offensive rating (129.7) on the team, placing him #46 amongst all Division 1 players. Not only that, but Cubillan is delivering this higher rating while having a larger role in the MU offense (from 7.5% to 11% of all possessions).

Needless to say, get well soon, David.

Links

GoMarquette.com Preview

Game Notes

Rosiak has a nice story on Wesley Matthews

JS Online Preview of the game. The Coppin State coach is nicknamed "Fang". That's pretty cool.


Bring On Coppin State!

Well, it's certainly not the rallying cry that we want, but take solace that this game will mean that the Big East season starts in thirteen more days. Not only that, but it's a Friday night game, so get out and enjoy.

Top Five Numbers to Know about Coppin State

As usual, all information comes from Pomeroy's scouting report and game plan.

Six - This is the number of RPI Top 100 Opponents that Coppin State has faced

• Coppin State has already matched up with Kent State (55), Xavier (7), Morgan State (93), Arizona State (67), Ohio State (53), Dayton (17)
• Twice as many as MU, by the way (although IUPUI is right outside the top 100)
  

28.2 - The Defensive Free Throw Rate for Coppin State

• Not giving up a lot of free throws is the one thing that Coppin State does well
• They are rated 54 out of all Division 1 schools, which is still top 20%. Marquette is rated 158 on the defensive side, as we give up a rate of 35.1
  
• The equation for FT Rate is FTA / FGA - so watch if Marquette is able to get to the line a lot due to the transition game

One - The number of times that an opponent has failed to crack 50% at effective FG% against Coppin State

• That school that failed to crack 50%? Vaunted powerhouse Allen.
• Marquette is averaging 55% at eFG% - so look to see us exploit this matchup and pad the average even more
  

318 - Coppin State's Pomeroy Ranking

• It's not very good, but they do have an RPI rating of 179, which is at least better than that of UWM (199)
• Plus, they'll still play Indiana (RPI 42) and Missouri (RPI 54) after this
  

62 - Number of possessions that Coppin State averages per game

• This is one of the slowest tempos in Division 1 (National Rank 317)
  
• In contrast, we average 70 possessions per game
• Tempo is the matchup of the game

The basic summary is that we should exploit our advantages at eFG% and Offensive Rebounding %. Examine how well Marquette is able to set the tempo of the game, and pay attention to how well either team is doing in terms of getting to the line.

*edit: Added new links from Journal-Sentinel. Changed format slightly.