Marquette's Ranking Among Catholic D1 Programs

With two Catholic schools in the Final Four, and potentially even making it an all-Catholic national championship, I took a look at where Marquette ranked against the other 41 Catholic Schools. Base purely on www.kenpom.com ratings, Marquette is 9th of 42, but the two teams behind them (Providence and St. Bonaventure) both won an NCAA tournament game so I'd say we really rank as the 10th best Catholic school this year.

For anyone wondering, Marist dropped the Catholic affiliation years ago - so are not the 41st team listed - but if you see any other misses let me know. I believe this is the complete list, however.

Rank	Team (42 Catholic Teams)	Catholic Affiliation	Conf
1	Villanova 1	Augustinian	BE
10	Gonzaga 4	Jesuit	WCC
15	Xavier 1	Jesuit	BE
25	Seton Hall 8	Diocesan	BE
30	Loyola Chicago 11	Jesuit	MVC
31	Creighton 8	Jesuit	BE
32	Saint Mary's	De La Salle Christian Brothers	WCC
35	Notre Dame	Holy Cross	ACC
56	Marquette	Jesuit	BE
64	Providence 10	Dominican	BE
68	St. Bonaventure 11	Franciscan	A10
76	Boston College	Jesuit	ACC
79	St. John's	Vincentian	BE
97	Georgetown	Jesuit	BE
101	DePaul	Vincentian	BE
116	Saint Joseph's	Jesuit	A10
130	San Diego	Independent	WCC
131	Canisius	Catholic	MAAC
139	Iona 15	Christian Brothers	MAAC
147	Saint Louis	Jesuit	A10
153	San Francisco	Jesuit	WCC
158	La Salle	De La Salle Christian Brothers	A10
173	Dayton	Society of Mary	A10
195	Seattle	Jesuit	WAC
202	Duquesne	Spiritans	A10
205	Niagara	Vincentian	MAAC
213	Fairfield	Jesuit	MAAC
216	St. Francis PA	Franciscan	NEC
217	Manhattan	De La Salle Christian Brothers	MAAC
218	Saint Peter's	Jesuit	MAAC
231	Loyola Marymount	Jesuit	WCC
240	Mount St. Mary's	Diocesan	NEC
272	Portland	Holy Cross	WCC
274	Santa Clara	Jesuit	WCC
290	Holy Cross	Holy Cross	Pat
293	Fordham	Jesuit	A10
302	Siena	Franciscan	MAAC
306	Sacred Heart	Diocesan	NEC
313	St. Francis NY	Franciscan	NEC
321	Detroit	Jesuit	Horz
322	Loyola MD	Jesuit	Pat
342	Incarnate Word	Sisters of Charity	Slnd

Rowsey Finished With Bang as 14th Best Offensive Player in America

We just witnessed the second greatest MU offensive season of the century behind only Dwyane Wade, who was worth an extra 10.42 points above replacement per 100 possessions in 2003. After concluding with identical lines of 29 points on 6 of 11 three-point shooting in the last two NIT games - the latter against one of the toughest defenses in the country in Penn State - Rowsey was worth an extra 9.41 points per 100 trips down the court. This was the 14th best offensive performance in the country - though some kid named Jordan Howard who I hear has a brother who is pretty good as well, finished a few spots higher.

Yes, turnovers and missed shots are counted against players, and Rowsey had almost as many turnovers as Wade, but even though Rowsey was not a great matchup on defense he still finishes as the 50th most valuable overall player among 4,068 players ranked at www.valueaddbasketball.com.

The overall Values are a bit lower overall because they measure value per game (about 70 possessions a game) while the offensive ratings are per 100 possessions - as measured at www.kenpom.com.

Player	Team	Off per 100 trips	Off Rank	Overall Value	Overall Rank
Nick Masterson #21	Kennesaw St.	11.07	1	5.74	200
Jock Landale #34	St. Mary's	11.03	2	11	2
Trae Young #11	Oklahoma	10.98	3	9.77	8
Jeff Roberson #11	Vanderbilt	10.9	4	8.81	16
Yante Maten #1	Georgia	10.56	5	10.29	6
Jalen Brunson #1	Villanova	10.33	6	9.69	10
Deandre Ayton #13	Arizona	10.32	7	11.32	1
Jordan Howard #1	Central Arkansas	10.27	8	6.63	105
James Thompson #2	Eastern Michigan	9.56	9	8.76	17
Sam Merrill #3	Utah St.	9.55	10	7.32	52
Tookie Brown #4	Georgia Southern	9.55	11	7.46	46
Devonte' Graham #4	Kansas	9.49	12	9.39	13
Juwan Morgan #13	Indiana	9.46	13	9.48	12
Andrew Rowsey #30	Marquette	9.41	14	7.4	50
Jonathan Stark #2	Murray St.	9.31	15	8.82	15
John Konchar #55	IUPU Fort Wayne	9.15	16	8.03	26
Jevon Carter #2	West Virginia	9.12	17	10.6	5
Peyton Aldridge #23	Davidson	9.09	18	8	29
Reed Timmer #12	Drake	9.09	19	6.3	131
Daryl Macon #4	Arkansas	9.05	20	7.51	44
Denzel Mahoney #34	Southeast Missouri St.	9.03	21	5.48	236
Mikal Bridges #25	Villanova	9.02	22	10.74	4
Joe Rosga #2	Denver	8.99	23	6.32	128
Tyler Seibring #41	Elon	8.96	24	5.88	178
James Batemon #5	Loyola Marymount	8.95	25	5.6	219

Quick NIT recap as we close out a so-so season

We pulled together a quick podcast to close out a fairly interesting NIT post season and discuss what we liked and didn't like about it. Talk a few other tidbits but just closing out the season with a quick reaction before we do a full breakdown in a couple of weeks. Enjoy!

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Game over man! Game over! (NCAA Tournament Edition)

Well, it was apparent to anyone other than Phil that MU wasn't going to make the NCAA tournament, so we talk through it and resolve our feelings. We also talk the NIT bracket and match-up sponsored by Arby's. We will also spend some time wondering around the national stage on various topics from the selection committee to the Selection Show sponsored by Milli Vanilli. It's a long podcast so you are just going to need to listen to the whole thing, we think it'll be cathartic. Enjoy!

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Waiting in Auburn in MU Jersey for Noon Tip-off: 13 Teams for 7 Spots

We may take an extended lunch today in the office with four people in Auburn gear, one in Alabama gear, and then me in the Jae Crowder Marquette jersey. The Auburn and Marquette interests are aligned today, as Auburn can hurt the chances of their rival Alabama and in turn help Marquette.

Tipoff is in half an hour and my preseason selection of Auburn as the No. 11 team in the country (while another sports writer picked them to go 4-14) won reviews from local press. However, the 23-3 team I predicted could go as far as the Final Four then lost one of their only players with height, Anfernee McLemore, and is 2-3 since. They are still a 6-point favorite.

If you average the subjective brackets of CBS Sports' Jerry Palm, ESPN's Joe Lunardi, the composite Bracket Matrix, and the two most accurate Mathematical predictors (ESPN's Strength of Record, and Dance Card) Marquette averages as next to last team in the tournament and Alabama as the next to last, so a win from Alabama may push Marquette down another spot:

(updates new Friday Bracket Matrix - Alabama moved up 4 spots to 5, UCLA up 2 spots to 1, MU drops 2 spots to 12 and MTSU drops 4 spots to 8). On the overall average of these 5, that leaves Marquette within one point of MTSU 6.0, Lville 6.2, Alabama 6.4, MU 6.9 prior to the Auburn game)

up to 7 bids of 13	Palm	Lunardi	Matrix	SOR	Dance	Ave.	Today
Alabama	10	5	5	11	1	6.4	Auburn Noon +6
Arizona State	9	10	7	13	11	9.8	Done
Baylor	12	13	9	4	10	9.4	Done
Louisville	5	7	6	3	9	6.2	Done
Marquette	3	12	12	2	5	6.8	Done
MTSU	8	6	8	6	2	6.0	Done
Notre Dame	11	9	13	10	13	11.2	Done
Oklahoma	4	4	2	1	3	2.6	Done
Oklahoma State	13	8	10	5	12	9.8	Done
Saint Mary's	2	3	4	7	8	5	Done
Syracuse	7	11	11	9	4	8.6	Done
USC	6	1	3	12	6	5.4	Oregon 10:30 pm -3
UCLA	1	2	1	8	7	3.8	Arizona 8 pm +3

However, while averages are nice, the fact that Marquette ranks everywhere from 2nd to 12th in trying to claim seven spots shows that we do not know - Alabama could be easily ahead of Marquette already or could be far enough behind that even another win does not get them past Marquette.

Tonight's games for USC and UCLA could also be important. Most have them both ahead of Marquette, but not all. Even Lunardi, the least favorable for Marquette, stated at the beginning of the conference tournament that either team could be eliminated if they lose in the semifinals.

Marquette fans should root for Auburn, Oregon, and Arizona tonight, and would then want Arizona to win the Pac-12 title over Oregon to avoid have the Ducks take a spot and only allow six of the 13 above make it.

Six other games cold matter today, as they three conferences that would "steal" a bid with a surprise champion are the Mountain West, Atlantic 10, and American Athletic. The nightmare scenario would be Oregon winning the Pac-12, someone besides Nevada winning the MW, someone besides St. Bonaventure or Rhode Island winning the A10, and someone besides Cincinnati, Wichita State or Houston winning the AAC. If all four of those things happened, then only three of the 13 teams above would logically make the tournament.

All the teams we are rooting for are favored from between 4 and 9 points today.

Need to win	Conf	Today
Nevada	MW	SD St 8 pm -4
Rhode Island	A10	VCU 11 am -8
St. Bonaventure	A10	Rich 5 p.m. -9
Cincinnati	AAC	SMU 11 am -8
Wichita State	AAC	Temple 6 pm -9
Houston	AAC	UCF 8 pm -8

Auburn is a disaster. About to drop to 2-4 since the injury to Anfernee McLemore.

Turning my attention to possible spoilers, I guess I see up to 5 conferences that theoretically could have one - so will root against these teams, though some still need to play each other.

http://www.crackedsidewalks.com/2018/03/waiting-in-auburn-in-mu-jersey-for-noon.html
updated Saturday after the relief over Rhode Island and Cincy rallying to stop spoilers - only one spoiler (New Mexico or San Diego State with Nevada out) and only one possible additional - Davidson if they beat both St. B's and Rhode Island.

Conf Possible Spoiler

A10 Davidson - sat vs. St. B's 2:30 p.m Sat

A10 George Mason - gone

A10 Richmond - gone

A10 Saint Joseph's - eliminated semis by RI

A10 Saint Louis - gone

Amer Memphis - eliminated semis by Cincy

Amer Temple - gone

Amer Tulsa - gone

Amer UCF - gone

MWC New Mexico or San Diego state WILL steal bid

MWC San Diego St. - see above

MWC Utah St. - gone

P12 Oregon - gone

SEC Georgia - gone

SEC Mississippi St. - gone

Nothing is set in stone, the Selection Committee could have some other team in or out, but it looks like these 12 are competing with Marquette. Thanks TAMU Eagle and wisblue for your posts on MUScoop to help me narrow this down.

The Most Bubbly Bubble Team to Ever Bubble

We'll make this summary quick, because Joe put together a great viewing guide. We talk Creighton and senior day, what our tournament fate looks like, how #mubb will play in the Big East tournament and then analyze who we want to win and/or lose for MU to get in. #noredforOwen makes an appearance as well. Enjoy!


BUBBLE ROOTING GUIDE
Note: This rooting guide did not take into account small RPI points, strength of schedule boosts and other metrics. So, there may be some slight inaccuracies for that reason. This is simply bubble teams you want to lose and rooting against potential bid thieves.



Pac-12

It is alarming how close this “power conference” league is to being a one-bid league. Arizona is the only team not sweating Selection Sunday (now, the FBI is another story).

Root for: Arizona. Arizona State is also probably in, but I’d advise them to not lose early and make it interesting. Marquette fans, you’d much prefer Arizona to win this tournament. You are also rooting for Oregon State, not to win, but to pick off a couple bubble teams.

Root against: Washington, USC, UCLA and Utah. What’s weird is that USC, UCLA, and Utah are the 2, 3, and 4 seeds, respectively. So, the odds are at least a couple of this teams will pad their resumes enough to feel safe. Oregon State can do Marquette a big favor by picking off Washington in the 7-10 game and then USC.



SEC

While the SEC may not have a team get a top two NCAA seed, it has quite a few teams that are comfortably in and Marquette fans should feel okay with winning  the SEC tournament.

Root for: Tennessee, Auburn, Florida, Arkansas, Texas A&M to win it. Root for LSU to pull a couple upsets then go down. LSU would be a bid thief if it wins the whole thing.

Root against: Mississippi State, Alabama. Pull for LSU to take down Mississippi State in the 7-10 game. Alabama may be in regardless, but having the Tide go down to A&M wouldn’t be a bad result. Even though he’s not playing, rooting for a team with Duane Wilson on it is always easy for Marquette fans.



ACC

This should be easy for Marquette fans, because there are some teams in here that Marquette would root against no matter what.

Root for: The top seeds, just to avoid a bid thief. Duke and North Carolina are fine. Even if you don’t like Virginia, the Cavs winning is also a positive result. Root for Pitt to get an upset or two, just because it would be hilarious.

Root against: Syracuse, Notre Dame, Louisville. Again, these are all teams you’d probably root against anyway. Notre Dame is definitely an interesting case for the committee due to how good the Irish have been when healthy. However, the Irish resume is less than ideal. A first round exit to Pitt would be the nail in the coffin for the Irish. Syracuse losing to 14 seed Wake would be a great result for Marquette. Louisville has Florida State in an 8-9 game. The Cardinals may be in either way, but an early Louisville exit is certainly not a bad thing as far as Marquette is concerned.



Big 12

The Big 12 is a deep league and should definitely have seven or eight teams in. Marquette, though, is obviously rooting for seven instead of eight.

Root for: Kansas winning this thing in KC is a regular occurrence, and that would be fine with us. Texas Tech or West Virginia would also be acceptable. If you’re looking at it from a Big East perspective, an early Kansas exit may increase the likelihood of Xavier and Villanova both getting 1 seeds, but we’re just talking Marquette things here.

Root against: Lots of bubble teams: Baylor, Kansas State, Texas, and maybe even Oklahoma are sweating right now. Texas losing to Iowa State would be a disaster for the ‘Horns. I know we don’t like rooting for ISU, but suck it up and do it just this once. (Although, I feel for Texas, considering Andrew Jones is battling cancer. For that reason, I’d like to see Texas dance, not at Marquette’s expense, but the Longhorns are easy to like.) Oklahoma is still probably in, but losing to Oklahoma State would be bad for the Sooners. I am on the record that, if Marquette has to go to Dayton, let’s get nuts and play the Sooners. Trae Young vs. MU’s shooters would be wild, like a 115-113 final. But for these purposes, root for Oklahoma State to take down OU before losing to Kansas. I’m pretty sure OSU is out, but let’s not get any more teams in the bubble discussion.



Big Ten

Oh wait, they’re done. Bubble teams Penn State and Nebraska are biting their nails for a week.



Elsewhere

Loyola Chicago winning the MVC on Sunday was a nice result for Marquette, as it guarantees Loyola Chicago won’t enter the at-large discussion. Even if MU may have a better resume, more teams to talk about is bad.


Wichita State is definitely the team you want in the American, but Houston or (grits teeth) Cincinnati would also be fine because they’re both locks. No one else in the American is acceptable. Temple scares me a little as a team talented enough to run through the AAC. And I don’t care how bad they are, UConn has done this crap before. So, beware.


In the Mountain West, Nevada is critical. The Wolfpack is a lock to make the dance. Boise State is on the wrong side of the bubble, and no one else in the MWC is close. I’m not sure Boise State can play its way to an at-large. Let’s keep this simple: Go Nevada!


As always, the WCC must be Gonzaga or Saint Mary’s. They’re both comfortably in the field, especially Gonzaga. So, root for the Zags, settle for Saint Mary’s. Any other result is bad.


In the Atlantic 10, pull hard for Rhode Island. St. Bonaventure is a bubble team that has a very good shot at being in. So, the Bonnies winning is something you could stomach I suppose, but seeing them go down early and sweat is a more preferable result. No one else in the Atlantic 10 is close to an at-large. Again, we’ll keep it simple: Pull for the Rams.


Finally, our old home of Conference USA. Middle Tennessee is the one you want here. Western Kentucky and Old Dominion have nice records but probably aren’t playing their way to an at-large bid. Similar to Loyola Chicago before Sunday, the Blue Raiders should be in the field but may be out with an early exit. The possibility that they could be added to the at-large field is not something Marquette wants. Fewer teams in the at-large discussion is better, so go Middle Tennessee!



Finally, the most important team in the rooting guide: MARQUETTE! Your Golden Eagles could make this very easy with a deep run at MSG. They have only reached the Big East semifinals twice since joining the league, and they’ve only won more than one game three times. Marquette has been one-and-done five times in Big East Tournament history. So, Marquette is due, right? Here’s to hoping for a run to the Big East title game, which means we just wrote all this for nothing!
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Howard's 1,016 by 19th Birthday Tops Durant, Magic, Duncan, Tisdale, Curry ... well, everyone we can find

Magic Johnson scored 511 points before celebrating his 19th birthday, Steph Curry 700 points, Wayman Tisdale 810 and Kevin Durant 903. Only five players have scored 1,000 points in one season since Sports Reference started tracking in the 1980s and freshman could not even play until the early 1970s.

We looked through the greatest freshman seasons we could find, including freshman who finished in the top 50 at www.valueaddbasketball.com and lists of top freshman seasons and discovered that the majority of great freshman seasons were accomplished by players who turned 19 before they started their freshman season. So the majority total is ZERO.

And then you have the rare player who starts playing at 17 - two years younger than most of the all-time great freshmen.

Tim Duncan showed up on Wake Forest campus as a 17-year-old in 1993 and scored 860 points by the time he turned 19, and on Saturday Markus Howard celebrated his birthday by torching Creighton to bring his total to 1,016 points. We know no one has topped that total in a single freshman season, so we will leave it up to others to find someone else who came to a campus as a 17-year-old and put up two years of scoring to get to 1,000 by their 19th birthday, but for now Howard is the best ever that we can find.

Rank	Player	19th birthday	by 19th	Team	Notes
1	Markus Howard	3/3/2018	1,016	Marquette	thru sophomore season finale
2	Kevin Durant	11/29/2007	903	Texas	full freshman season
3	Tim Duncan	4/25/1995	860	Wake Forest	full freshman and soph season
4	Wayman Tisdale	6/9/1983	810	Oklahoma	full freshman season
5	Carmelo Anthony	5/29/2003	778	Syracuse	full freshman season
6	Steph Curry	3/14/2007	700	Davidson	day after birthday added 30 in loss to MD to end freshman season
7	Jabari Parker	3/15/2014	633	Duke	37 points after birthday
8	James Harden	8/26/2008	605	Arizona St.	full freshman season
9	Bradley Beal	6/26/2012	546	Florida	full freshman season
10	Marvin Bagley III	3/14/2018	539	Duke	still counting until birthday
11	Jared Sullinger	3/4/2011	514	Ohio St.	121 after birthday
12	Magic Johnson	8/14/1978	511	Michigan State	full freshman season
13	Jordan Adams	7/8/2013	505	UCLA	full freshman season
14	Malik Monk	2/4/2017	503	Kentucky	251 after birthday
15	Patrick Beverley	7/12/2007	485	Arkansas	full freshman season
16	Anthony Davis	3/11/2012	485	Kentucky	full freshman season
17	Chase Budinger	5/22/2007	484	Arizona	full freshman season
18	Michael Kidd-Gilchrist	9/26/2012	476	Kentucky	full freshman season
19	Miles Bridges	3/21/2017	473	Michigan State	full freshman season
20	Chris Bosh	24-Mar-03	466	Georgia Tech	scored 19 more in NIT loss to Bobby Knight's Texas Tech after birthday
21	Tyus Jones	5/10/2015	461	Duke	full freshman season
22	Marcus Smart	3/6/2013	433	Oklahoma St.	74 after birthday
23	DeJuan Blair	4/22/2008	429	Pittsburgh	full freshman season
24	Justise Winslow	3/26/2015	425	Duke	67 after birthday
25	Gordon Hayward	3/23/2009	420	Butler	full freshman season