Marquette opened the second half with a 20-6 run and never looked back, burying the Rutgers Scarlet Knights 78 - 48 in Milwaukee this afternoon. With the win, the Golden Eagles moved to 20-6 on the season and 10-5 in Big East play. Marquette has won at least 10 conference games in each of its first three seasons in the Big East.
Jerel McNeal was electric all afternoon, scoring efficiently and defending with the vigor MU fans crave. McNeal finished with 16 points, 7 rebounds, 7 assists and five steals.
The Golden Eagles' offense was terrific, with crisp passing and off-the-ball movement creating open looks throughout the game. Marquette shot an impressive 56% from the floor, and had a remarkable 21 assists on 32 made baskets. Dominic James, hampered by a sprained ankle sustained late in the first half, finished with 13 points and six assists. Wesley Matthews dropped in 12 and Lazar Hayward had 13.
The Golden Eagles inspired second half play was keyed by trademark defensive pressure. The Scarlet Knights struggled to score, needing more than 12 minutes of action to score in double-digits in the second stanza.
Marquette led at the half 35 - 29 despite a poor defensive effort that allowed Rutgers to shoot an uncharacteristic 52% from the field. McNeal led MU with eight points and five assists at the break.
Next up for Marquette is a Big Monday matchup in Philadelphia against the Villanova Wildcats, who defeated UConn today 67-65. Tipoff is scheduled for 6pm on ESPN.
By the way, can somebody at ESPN mute Dickey Simpkins' microphone? He's atrocious. Is he the best that the WWLS can offer?
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Saturday, February 23, 2008
Marquette blitzes Rutgers to win fourth straight
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11 comments:
Dicky was bad...but its still 10 times better than listening to Homer!!!!
Love Homer. The best around!!
Just great all around effort by everyone today. I've been tough on James in the past but today, he totally f-ing manned up and played hurt and played really well. Gotta give him props.
Also, McNeal did everything today. Playing like days of old again. Bring on 'nova and G-town.
And...Homer is awful. His show should be called "The World's Worst Sports Talk Show".
Dickey Simpkins is doing color on ESPN? Seriously?
Great game!!!
You want awful for sports talk radio? How about those clowns in Madison on AM-1070? Homer is much, much better than those clowns.
As an aside, I wonder what happened to all the anonymous "Crean sucks", and "this team sucks" people?
Give it up to James - the silent leader in this run. He's making the team click; mainly improving his assist/turnover ratio significantly (didn't realize it until I read the ESPN Rutgers game recap...where you at CrackedSidewalks?!?!). Leadership despite the headline numbers...love it. Ring Out Ahoya!
Homer, who the heck is Homer? Down here in Chicago (the flatlands to you who live north of the cheese curtain), we no more get Marquette games on radio than we get 70 degrees in February.
Taking Marquette off WISN was a mistake -- at least we got day games in our car. Now all we have is the internet or ESPN.
Last I remember, Homer was an obnoxious, overly loud sportscaster with bad manners and a limited following.
As for yesterday, settle down folks. It was, after all, Rutgers. If we beat 'Nova and/or Georgetown this week, then start screaming. Then you'll have a reason to scream.
Is the "working in" of Trevor going to be at the expense of Oooze and his cofidence/ego? The "working in" window is pretty much narrowed based on the strong play of the next three teams.
I think that Hazel has gotten the short stick this year.
Absolutely no retraction on the criticism of TC because of a flurry of wins againt weak competition. You make his bucks and the fans deserve consistency with quality winS.
Nice win, but agree with a previous post: at $1.65 million per, TC better beat Rutgers and St. Johns. They stink.
Personally, I found his passionate defense of Sampson from IU to be crap. Sampson is a twice convicted cheater, and deserves to be shunned, not praised as a great human being.
Jack 82
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