In an outcome that is really not a surprise, Marquette beat Texas Southern last night by a score of 85-68. Although the fan base was hoping that MU would top 100 for the third consecutive game, it just wasn't in the cards last night.
Last night, Marquette did worse than expected on both their offensive efficiency (AdjO) and defensive efficiency (AdjD). In the team's previous three games, they were averaging an AdjO of 123.8 and an AdjD of 90.3. On offense, the primary culprit dragging down the offensive efficiency was the (relatively) poor eFG%. Considering the team made a season-high 10 three-pointers and was still below the eFG% average (53%), we can see how poorly the team shot. Also, Marquette was really sloppy with the ball. However, the team achieved a season-best at Offensive Rebounding percentage (OR%), and did a great job getting to the line yet again.
On defense, Marquette lost on one of the Four Factors for the first time all season in eFG%. As noted by Buzz, Texas Southern shot 64% overall in the second half. They managed to be even looser with the ball at turnover percentage, however, and lost by a sizeable margin on OR%. Now, if you listen to the Buzz post-game podcast (link below), he talks about how the offensive rebound numbers are skewed because Texas Southern didn't miss much in the second half. Well, Marquette still crushed on the offensive boards.
Moving onto other coverage, here is Rosiak's blog entry from last night. Lots of good little nuggets, as he talks about Burke's lack of contribution, DJ's overall floor game, and positive contributions last night from Butler and Acker. Also, Rosiak rightly notices that a player wore black shoes last night for the first time in seven years.
Rosiak also filed a full story for this morning's paper, calling last night's game an educational experience for Marquette. Indeed, Marquette looked ugly for long stretches last night against the TSU zone.
Here is the official GoMarquette.com story. On top of the photo gallery and box score, I recommend checking out the postgame notes for lots of quotes, as well as the Buzz Williams podcast. I've come to really enjoy the post-game comments from Buzz, and I appreciate that they're now available online.
Finally, once again Marquette is no longer in the running for Jamil Wilson. The comments from Jamil paint Marquette in a pretty poor light. However, since this has been a fairly weird recruitment in general, we tend to give Marquette the benefit of the doubt here. These are the Days of our Lives.
Wednesday, November 26, 2008
Marquette Defeats Texas Southern
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5 comments:
All hope is lost. Dwight Burke is worthless. We need Otule back. Like, now. Burke could break Dan Fitzgerald's record fewest minutes (seconds) played before picking up a foul. Unreal.
I'm pretty sure Wes wore black shoes for the first few games this season before Zar rocked 'em last night. In the exhibition game, I turned to my wife to comment on Wes' shoes. At the very least, Wes was in different shoes than the rest of the team...
Anyways...ugly game. What is it about this group of players and zone defense?
Buzz needs to get Burke involved offensively to get him mentally into the game. Once a player feels involved in the entire gaem plan, then that player will typically focus better. Being a senior, Burke should be able to play solid minutes without fouling.
Dwight Burke is the modern day Craig Butrym. For those of you under 50, Butrym was a 7'0" center who had troubled discovering which way was up in the 1970s. He was quickly replaced in the starting line-up by Jerome Whitehead.
Craig was good for a few minutes a game to spell Jerome, who did the work.
Dwight is good for a couple minutes a game to spell someone else who does the work.
The fouls tell me he's being beaten inside and has to foul to cover for what he can't do.
What's problematic is that the teams to date are what Al used to call "cupcakes." The first time we run into a real team with a real game that can shut off one or more of our guards, God help us.
Looks like our after-game parties need to be at Gesu asking for divine intervention.
If only Otule could be to Burke what Whitehead was to Butrym we'd have a championship! However, I do think that's too harsh on Dwight. Butrym's best year by far was the 49 pts/35 rebounds he put up in 1975 before Whitehead arrived. Dwight was much better than that last year at 87/101, which would indicate he could have been close to 200/200 if we hadn't had Barro last year. I really think that's all we need out of the position with the Fab 4. I know his 8/10 through 4 games won't cut it, but once Mbakwe left and Otule went down, it fell on his shoulders and we have to hope the breakthrough game is coming.
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