Warriors Look to Bounce Back

Thank goodness there is a relatively quick turnaround from Saturday. At least now we can move on with new Marquette action instead of rehashing dear God why did the team melt down again? Frankly, today's game offers a great opportunity to get healthy.

Last year's games against DePaul were UGLY. Our first game against DPU was high comedy. Stop me if you've heard this before. The Demons broke an 0-24 slide in the Big East by rallying late and Marquette didn't get stops. The second game was a little bit better, but neither team shot particularly well and there was a lot of time at the charity stripe.

DePaul (6-11, 0-5) comes into the game having lost their first five games in conference play this year. Rosiak plays on the theme from last year and says Marquette looks to escape the Demons. Plus, DePaul has one of the Big East's best freshmen in Cleveland Melvin.

Shenanigans. DePaul isn't good and Marquette is going to roll. Here's why.

Let's give them credit. The Demons are good in two areas. First, they do a decent job at turnover margin (#67 of protecting the ball, #24 at forcing turnovers). Second, DPU guards against three pointers really well (#18 overall). In particular, the perimeter defense and forcing turnovers are very strong.

However, where DePaul is bad... they are really bad. Check these out.

• They can't shoot (#338 from behind the arc)
• Their inside game doesn't compensate for bad shooting (#260 at eFG%)
• They don't rebound (#253 offensively and #309 defensively)
• They are #329 in the country at interior defense

DePaul just isn't going to be able to keep up with Marquette. Maybe if MU is sloppy with the ball, the game will be tighter than people like, but eventually Marquette is going to pull away solidly.

In particular, here's what we're looking for:

• Except for Rutgers, Marquette has been much stronger with the ball since mid-December. Will MU stay strong against a DPU team that focuses on turnover margin?
• After getting their lunch money stolen by Pitt, MU has responded defensively by holding ND and UL (two top 25 offenses) to 0.90 and 0.92 ppp. Let's see if Marquette can play defense against a team that is #178 offensively.
• Last but not least, how will the fans react during the game? Let's face it... the Meltdown was hard to take. How will the home crowd react?

Game time is 8 pm Milwaukee time. Marquette bounces back strong.

Links

• GoMarquette.com preview of the game, including their Game Notes
• If you have the time, listen to the podcast from the Jan 17 radio show. Buzz's comments on the UL game are really interesting. Skip to the second and third segments.
• Rosiak's dead paper story today is about how Marquette is trying to shake demons, just in case you felt like re-reading about some of the crap games from previous years.