Good News: Gardner only All-Big East player on court at 11 a.m.; otherwise tough game

When Marquette tips off in an hour (11 a.m. CT Saturday) at Pitt on ESPNU, the good news is that Marquette will have the only All-Big East player based on the teams I released yesterday on Breitbart Sports.  Gardner continues to move up in the ratings, and is now the 70th best player in the Country and 10th best player in the Big East to claim the last "All-Conference" spot.

Now the bad news ... today is a big opportunity because ...

1. As you can see from the table below, while Gardner is the best player on the court today, the 2nd, 3rd, 4th, 5th, 6th and 7th best player on the court play for Pitt,

2. At the outset of this season, Value Add projected Pitt as the 14th best team in the country and today as one of four times MU would lose by double digits this year (Ohio State was cancelled, at Florida was a 49-82 loss and at Louisville is still to come.

3. Both of Marquette's road appearances this year have been disasters, with the Florida loss followed-up by a embarrassing loss at Green Bay.  However, two neutral site appearances are looking good as Butler has moved up in the rankings since the last second shot to beat MU as USC is close to breakign the top 100.

4. I have been to two MU games at Pitt and they do the home court right.  The students surround the players on the lower level, one year I was the only MU fan in the sold out building and the other they let about 15 MU fans sit in the rafters.

All that being said, this game could be a season-changer, so nothing to lose.  However, staying within single digits woudl be an accomplishment.

Rnk	Player	Team	Ht	Yr	Value Add
70	Davante Gardner	Marquette	6' 8"	Jr	6.48
77	Lamar Patterson	Pittsburgh	6' 5"	Jr	6.42
78	Tray Woodall	Pittsburgh	6' 0	Sr	6.41
85	Talib Zanna	Pittsburgh	6' 9"	Jr	6.33
231	Steven Adams	Pittsburgh	7' 0	Fr	4.51
279	J.J. Moore	Pittsburgh	6' 6"	Jr	4.13
529	James Robinson	Pittsburgh	6' 3"	Fr	2.87
590	Jamil Wilson	Marquette	6' 7"	Jr	2.64
609	Junior Cadougan	Marquette	6' 1"	Sr	2.59
642	Dante Taylor	Pittsburgh	6' 9"	Sr	2.48
925	Cameron Wright	Pittsburgh	6' 4"	So	1.78
1026	Juan Anderson	Marquette	6' 6"	So	1.56
1150	Vander Blue	Marquette	6' 4"	Jr	1.35
1151	Steve Taylor	Marquette	6' 7"	Fr	1.34
1245	Durand Johnson	Pittsburgh	6' 6"	Fr	1.18
1247	Chris Otule	Marquette	6' 11"	Sr	1.18
1340	Derrick Wilson	Marquette	6' 1"	So	1.04
1415	Trent Lockett	Marquette	6' 5"	Sr	0.95
1797	Jake Thomas	Marquette	6' 3"	Jr	0.57
1984	Todd Mayo	Marquette	6' 3"	So	0.41