2010-2011 Postseason Roundtable - Part One

As we like to do from time to time, the CS crew gathers around the virtual roundtable and discusses various issues. This will be the first part of our roundtable, where we look back at the year that was. The second part of the roundtable is going to wait until Buzz and Marquette officially ink that extension.

Part One - Looking Back

1. What was the key story of the year for you?

Alan Bykowski
The key story had to be how the Sweet 16 run silenced Buzz Williams' critics. Four non-conference losses and a .500 conference record provided all the ammo needed to criticize Buzz and his team. But Marquette's first Sweet 16 in nearly a decade showed that Buzz can gameplan against anyone and that his players are not only going to play hard, but have the talent to win. It's amazing how one good well-timed weekend can silence critics. Would wins in November over Duke and Kansas State have had the same lasting impact as March wins over Xavier and Syracuse? Not a chance.

John Pudner
The key story for me is the improvement at Center. We've always had Guards and Switchables, but to have Davante show so much potential to score at Center, and Chris Otule become such a good defensive shot blocker that we actually blocked more shots than our opponents is quite an improvement for a team that was virtually the worst shotblocking team in the country last year.

Kevin Buckley
15 losses. One has to go back to Mike Deane's final season to find a year in which Marquette's faithful went to bed weeping as many times as this season.

Tim Blair
Marquette returned to the Sweet 16 for the first time since 2003. Sometimes it is not fun watching the process -- and this year's team was excruciatingly painful to watch at times -- but in the end the players and the coaching staff delivered.

Muwarrior92
Inconsistency was the story of the year in my opinion. The talent was there to beat a UCONN on the road, a Syracuse at home and to hang tough with Duke, but we also found ourselves struggling against teams like Seton Hall, Gonzaga, Bucknell, and St. John's at home. The effort was always there, but there were moments where we seemed to lack the sense of urgency or not understanding the moment in the regular season and conference play. They obviously got this once the Big East Tournament and NCAA Tournament began.

Rob Lowe
I think the right answer is probably the Sweet 16. It's happened so rarely since the 70's that it has to outshine everything else. However, personally, the story of the year was the defense. Once we realized and pointed out that it was an issue, the defense became like a sore that just wouldn't go away.

2. What specifically surprised you most about this year?

Alan Bykowski
The biggest surprise has to be the emergence of legitimate bigs at Marquette. While Chris Otule may not be an offensive force, he's a very good post defender and showed flashes of becoming a very solid player in the post. Meanwhile, Davante Gardner was better than anyone expected, contributing meaningful minutes as a freshman. Not since Jim McIlvane and Amal McCaskill in the early 90s has Marquette had such promise in the post. We're overdue for this kind of pleasant surprise.

John Pudner
I was very surprised we did not have a stronger stretch run the final 10 games of the regular season, when I thought the kinks of working together would be worked out. However, I will gladly take the two wins in both the Big East and NCAA tournaments over a strong regular season finish.

Kevin Buckley
Making it to the Sweet 16. This is the first non-Robert Jackson Sweet 16 in 17 years. Looking back to October, I'd predicted a 9-9 season with an NIT berth. Obviously, I got one part of that right. Add in a soft NCAA field and two great NCAA wins, and it ended up being one of the most successful seasons in two decades with Marquette finally breaking through to the 2nd weekend of the Dance.

Tim Blair
Buzz and his staff trusted the kids and it showed. Chris Otule, Junior Cadougan, Davante Gardner and Vander Blue all played major minutes for the team even though Buzz had ample opportunity to give up on each in favor of a shorter rotation.

Coming into this season I had serious reservations about Buzz' ability to develop young talent as well as his willingness to trust the kids. He did convince me on both fronts this year, most notably by developing Otule and Cadougan into major contributors during the season's toughest stretches.

Blue was a constant despite the ups and downs, and I think he'll become a dominant guard as he matures. Gardner was a revelation. Early in the season he looked to be a big-time performer, only to regress mid-season. Yet, Buzz didn't let Gardner disappear. The big fella worked his way back into the rotation, an encouraging show of perseverance and faith by player and coach alike -- and representative of Buzz' patience with this group.

Muwarrior92
Several things. I was surprised early on at the struggles of Junior the first half of the season but equally surprised at the improvement he made in the back half of the year. If he can continue to improve we have ourselves a PG for the next few years. The other surprise was DJO and the inconsistency. This guy is so talented but seemed to have a sophomore slump in his junior year. To be fair, it was his sophomore year in DI. When DJO is going well, MU is going well. When DJO struggles, MU seems to struggle. Finally, defense. We seemed to put it together in the postseason sans the UNC game. Our defensive struggles all year surprised me due to our athleticism and increased size that we have lacked for a number of years. I thought it would be better.

Rob Lowe
The Sweet Sixteen! I'll flat out admit it. After years of bad/close losses, I 100% expected Marquette to lose their first game against Xavier. Then I expected MU to get rolled by Syracuse because before this year, the Cuse had our number. A close second on the surprise factor was that Marquette didn't finish 5th in the BE. That's where they finish every year.


3. What impressed you about the coaching staff / any disappointments?

Alan Bykowski
I was impressed and disappointed by the same thing, which was our defensive scheme. The way Buzz's team was able to clamp down on teams like Notre Dame, Syracuse, UConn, and Providence was really impressive. But there was also an inconsistency in that regard. The last 5 minutes of Louisville was horrifying, and other games against Pittsburgh, Notre Dame, and Seton Hall were incredibly frustrating. The silver lining is that Buzz is a young coach and as he and his team become more experienced they should be able to develop more consistency in this regard

John Pudner
I continue to be very impressed with how well MU seems prepared for opponents and how hard they play. I was disappointed there wasn't more of an effort to get Davante minutes and forgive one foul to let him get into the offensive rhythem.

Kevin Buckley
Hard to tell if player development is a coaching issue or an individual issue. I think everyone was hoping Vander, JJ, and EWill would show much more development as the season progressed. Only 3 players showed decent progress, and the remainder were pretty much the same players they were the year prior. -- While MU's defense came on strong(er) in the final few games, they struggled on that end through most of the year.

Tim Blair
I'll consider in-season player development (detailed in the previous response) as the most impressive aspect of coaching this season.

As for disappointments, the defense. There's no reason for Marquette to consistently be a middling defensive team. Offensively, MU is strong and the coaching staff made adjustments game by game to ensure the team was able to score consistently and in bunches. How was it not possible for the staff to identify an effective defensive scheme befitting a program with such talented players? Marquette has yet to establish a defensive identity in the Buzz era. The team looks unsure of itself defensively, struggling with the help side all season long, relying on new schemes only sporadically (press, zone) while failing to create a repeatable defensive rhythm.

Muwarrior92
I'm always impressed by how Buzz has his kids playing heard and they never give up. He's a high motor guy and it translates to his players. No quit in Buzz and no quit in his team. Toward the latter half of the year his timeout management and rotations improved, though I still cringe at some lineups where we have two or three guys on the floor that can't score and it shows. Disappointments would be on the defensive side, especially our 3-point defense. Whenever we were going up against a good three point shooting team you knew we were going to struggle. We made some teams shoot 3's like they were in an open gym with no one watching.

Rob Lowe
I was impressed by how the coaching staff managed to make Marquette a top 25 offense in yet a different manner than previous years. Two years ago the team was miserly with the ball and attacked the hoop relentlessly. Last year the team bombed away from behind the arc and still protected the ball. This year the team was more sloppy with the ball, but made up for it with better offensive rebounding and four factor balance. What will it be next year?

As for disappointment... sub 200 on defensive eFG% for the third year in a row. Defensive eFG% is the most important part of defense and it isn't even close. Fix. It.
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Thanks for reading!