After snacking on 5 cupcakes, Marquette faced its first real competition of the year, facing up against the Dayton Flyers. Buzz Williams' Warriors fell behind in the first few minutes and were destroyed by the A10 Dayton Flyers by 14 points.
MU was out-scored, out-rebounded, out-hustled.
Depending on your prescience, the loss either exposes or confirms Marquette's weaknesses. No production from our 5, terrible shooting beyond the 3-point range (4 for 20=20%), poor defense (giving up 89 points -- the most UD has scored this year.)
Oh, and our bench scored 5 points .. to Dayton's 50. That's 5 to 50. Think about that for a minute.
If you take away Matthew's 14/17 at the FT line, the rest of the team shot 47% from the charity stripe. Forty-Seven Percent. That's drunk Pop-a-Shot-in-a-bar like shooting.
Our bench's 5 was matched by Lazar's 5, who grabbed 8 boards, but fouled out after 24 minutes. If our 5 isn't scoring, and our 4/5 isn't either, we're going to lose. That's not to say Burke and Lazar are the reason we lost. Jerel chucking up 8 three-point bombs and missing 7 isn't going to help. And poor defense is a team effort.
Dayton is no slouch team, of course. But the Big East has at least 10 teams that are as good as Dayton, and they just spanked us.
And someone check my math .. but aren't we 1-3 with those Baby Blue uniforms? They might look cool, but they've got mighty bad ju-ju.
Smoke 'em if you got 'em. This could be a long season. Is it too late to amend my 25-6 prediction?
Official Box Score
Saturday, November 29, 2008
MU Massively Fails First Test of Year: Dayton Wins 89-75
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8 comments:
I agree with Kevin entirely, but I would like to point out that we are without two young players that we desperately need on the interior: Fulce and Otule. I know these guys are young but Fulce is very athletic and Otule is very big. We will continue to get worn out very easily and if Lazar gets in foul trouble that will affect his offensive play. Dwight burke will never be an offensive threat, but we need him to rebound and play D. This next week is a huge test for Buzz to beat Wisconsin on Saturday, and then the following week in Tennessee. He needs to rally this team and get them to play harder and better team defense. MU is a very good team and should win 20 games.
"He needs to rally this team and get them to play harder and better team defense." Seriously? A senior laden team ranked 15th in the country and they need to be convinced to play "hard?" At least now we can answer all those comments from last Spring in reaction to the reports that Brian Gregory was a potential coaching candidate, stating that he would be a "step down" for the program. With only one senior on his roster, Gregory had the better disciplined team and the better coached team, hands down. 20 wins, really? I hope that you are right, but I'm certainly not betting the kid's college fund on that. I see losses easily into the double digits with our remaining non-conference and Big East schedule, and even more so if Saturday night was anywhere near an accurate depiction of the team.
Let's not go too crazy just yet. That said...
Is it just me, or has our defense gone to the wayside this season so far? Sure, I love a run-and-gun offense that thrives off of miscues and such, but if you aren't playing good D straight up, you're going to lose against decent teams. That falls down to coaching style and what his areas of preference are. For all of those that were sick of Crean's offense, you're trade off is this defense.
Yes, I realize that we are without Otule and Fulce, but this was Dayton...on a neutral court. This game should have been ours. The one thing I haven't liked by MU is all the threes they've been chucking up in the first halfs of games. If you don't have rebounders in there, stop all the chucking. We aren't that good of a team. When we drive/dish to an open guy, sure. That game reminded me of the two seasons ago.
Bo Ryan - as much as I hate Wiscy - is a HELL of a coach. It will be interesting to see what he does against Buzz this weekend. Will the better talented team win-out (MU), or will better coaching trump out (Bo will pound the ball inside). We'll see. I still say MU.
Not ready to p!ss all over the season yet guys. But with a senior-laden team, that was a bad, bad loss.
Panic from fans after one loss? Weird.
So is Louisville going to go to double-digit losses, too, after losing to Western Kentucky?
Let's relax and remember the season is young. That's not to say that the team's weaknesses are at critical positions, and you can't do much damage without a productive 4/5. I firmly believe that this team is somewhat overrated to begin with based on the fact that this is basically the same core group that has regressed each season since entering the Big East — while the BE competition has improved. NCAA tourney is likely, but few teams have as much tested talent as we do, so few teams have as much evidence from which you can draw conclusions, and what has the data set shown over the course of nearly 100 games? A solid squad with speedy guards, no true point guard, inconsistent outside shooters, below average interior contributors, and an inconsistent defense. I have MU pegged for 22-9, but I had them beating Dayton. Panic, no, but perhaps a good reality check for some starry-eyed fans. For what it's worth, double-digit losses (10, 11, or 12) with a few quality wins will still get MU in the tourney.
And yes, Hilltopper, let's dump the baby blues.
I (MU '71) attended the game with my son (UD '95), partially to keep him away from the TV while USC was dishing it to his other alma mater (ND '00). It worked, as Sonny thoroughly enjoyed the licking UD administered to MU.
Post-game, why did the MU squad depart before the awards? Sportsmanship dictated at least a couple players remain as team representatives, to acknowledge the winning team and the invitational sponsors.
We cannot agree that The Blackburn Review is "as good a blog as you'll find on any college program." The blog's reliance on bathroom humor and sex organs to make its points, as well as comments on a person's physical features/ appearance is, simply put, churlish and an absolute bore. Please, more basketball, less smack, Mr. Blackbird.
The Dayton game exposed another Achiles (sorry about the spelling)Heal. The Warriors are plying with 8 players on the team (9 if you include our walk on). This is bad luck since injuries are part of the game, but the Warriors are going into battle without all their weapons.
Let's hope Guards R Us can put the ball in the hoop against Bo's Big Slows.
Changing subjects, with Marquette's association with Converse, can someone explain to me how Lazar gets away with a Nike head band (yeah, he wears it backwards, but the Swoop is still there). He even was color coordinated on Saturday with a powder blue head band.
Does Converse not make a head band?
Nike owns Converse for one thing. So from a brand perspective, maybe that's one area they are turning the other cheek on.
One thing's for certain...the baby blues are atrocious and have to go. They look bad and they play bad in them too.
Anybody catch McNeal jawin' at Buzz during a timeout in the Dayton game? It was on the arena jumbo screen. Seemed pretty heated, and McNeal was in his face pretty good. Couldn't figure the problem - other than getting whacked on the court.
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