"My rule was I wouldn't recruit a kid if he had grass in front of his house.
That's not my world. My world was a cracked sidewalk." —Al McGuire

Saturday, November 23, 2024

Marquette beats Georgia in Atlantis

David Joplin had a great morning in The Bahamas
 Photo from @MarquetteMBB

If you're a normal Marquette fan, you probably didn't watch Marquette take on Georgia in their neutral site game in The Bahamas today. That's because it was only available on Flo Sports, which either meant you needed to fly to The Bahamas, subscribe to Flo for the hefty tag of $20 for the one game you're interested in, go to a watch party, or find an illegal stream. Personally, I bit the bullet and subscribed for a day, but I'm sure fans used all of those methods and possibly others as well.

As mentioned on the Scrambled Eggs podcast, this is a stretch where Marquette played Georgia on Flo Sports, Stonehill and Western Carolina on FS2, and Iowa State on ESPN+. That means there is a decent number of fans that will probably go from watching Marquette overwhelm #6 Purdue on November 18th, then not get to watch their team again until they take on Wisconsin on December 7th. While it might not be the game itself, we here at Cracked Sidewalks want to give you something to take away, so here's a breakdown of the Georgia game.

The game started sloppy, with Marquette turning it over on their first two possessions, but in the process they got out of the gates with a Kill (three straight stops) before Kam Jones found David Joplin at the arc to open the scoring. The good news is that David Joplin made threes would become a theme of the game, the bad news is that sloppy play was another hallmark of this outing.


Early on it was a game of runs. Marquette got out to a 6-0 start (Ben Gold making the other three, another game theme), Georgia answered with a 12-4 run to take the lead. Marquette came back with a 10-0 stretch, Georgia hit back with a 7-3 run. Every time Marquette opened up a little separation, Georgia was right there to reel them back in. They did it largely by hitting the offensive glass hard and getting to the line, two things that were expected going into this one as the Bulldogs ranked #4 and #6 nationally in those two of the four factors.

One of the biggest problems of the first half was foul trouble for Marquette's back court, which led to those aforementioned free throws. Kam Jones, Stevie Mitchell, and Chase Ross all picked up two fouls in the opening half. Kam also had a play where Tyrin Lawrence stepped on his foot and Marquette fans quieted as he left the court. Kam went off under his own power and went to the locker room. It was painfully evident that the offense just didn't flow as well with them on the floor, especially when Kam came off. Thankfully, Kam was able to return shortly thereafter and was able to play most of the rest of the game. The positive for Marquette was shooting from the front court. Coming into the game, Ben Gold and David Joplin had combined to go just 16/69 (23.2%) from beyond the arc. For two guys who take more than twice as many shots from deep as they do on the interior, that's a problem. But they were scorching nets in the first half, combining to go 5/11 in the half.


Despite the hot shooting, it was Georgia who had the last big run of the half. After Marquette took a 31-23 lead, the largest of the game, the Bulldogs answered with a 14-2 run to reclaim the lead as the game drew close to halftime. On the final possession, Chase Ross found a trailing Joplin who pulled up from the logo and buried another three to give Marquette the 36-35 halftime advantage.


Fans who cut their Marquette teeth in the Wojo era might be forgiven for getting nervous any time a game is close at the half. As we acclimate to Shaka, it's time to recognize just how good this staff is at halftime adjustments. Marquette trailed George Mason at halftime, then outscored the Patriots by 20 in the second half. Marquette trailed Maryland at halftime, then outscored the Terrapins by 8 in the second half. Marquette led Purdue at halftime, but outscored the Boilermakers by 11 in the second frame to put it away. This staff does very well adjusting to the opponent and coming back out in the second half better than they went in. To start the second, Marquette made some clear adjustments. The first was to attack inside. Marquette went more aggressively into the paint, which not only resulted in scoring plays but also opened up looks at the perimeter.


Marquette also started to use more zone. This took Georgia out of their offense and helped key a 19-5 run that looked like it would put the Bulldogs away as Marquette stretched the lead from just one at halftime to a commanding 55-40 less than 8 minutes into the second half. In that stretch, Georgia went 2/8 from the field while turning the ball over 6 times. It looked like the dominant Marquette defense we are getting used to combined with an offense that thrives in transition.

I want to take a moment to single out Ben Gold for his performance in this game. A cursory look at the box score will tell you he had a good game. 14 points fueled by 4/9 shooting from deep with 6 rebounds to go along with it is certainly a fine outing, but it doesn't put into perspective just how good Gold was on the defensive end. He held Asa Newell, who looks like a future NBA first round pick (ESPN, Sam Vecenie, and NBA Draft Room all have him in the top-20), to just 3/9 from the floor and 9 points. Newell, Somto Cyril, and R.J. Godfrey have feasted on the offensive boards, averaging 8.2 offensive rebounds per game coming in, but combined for just 1 against Marquette. Gold's sharp elbows and ability to secure and clear defensive boards certainly helped. Gold has developed excellent positioning, is much better at staying vertical, has far better recovery speed when he's beaten off the dribble, and all in all has become a positive factor on defense. One of my biggest worries coming into this season was interior defense, and Gold has done a great job answering that problem.

Back to the game...remember what I said about Georgia always being able to reel Marquette back in? The second half was no exception. In this case, it was largely Marquette staying in zone a little too long. Georgia finally figured out they could get open threes and as long as they got them to the right shooters, could make them. That led to a 17-5 Georgia run in which Blue Cain and Dakota Leffew combined to go 4/5 from three to cut the lead down to 60-57. Kam answered with a basket of his own, then Marquette's defense turned the Bulldogs over again and Stevie found Chase for the hammer dunk in transition. It was one of 13 second half turnovers for Georgia, an incredible 36% turnover rate for the half.


The teams exchanged baskets for a few possessions, with another Blue Cain three cutting the lead to 69-66 with just under 5 minutes to play. At that point, Marquette finally closed the door. Joplin stretched the lead, then a combination of Marquette's defense and poor free throw shooting turned the water off. Stevie had a steal that led to a Tre Norman layup. Marquette got another defensive stop, then Chase Ross hit a top-of-the-key three to push the lead to 10. After another empty Georgia possession, Chase whipped a pass in to Stevie for another score.


After the Blue Cain three cut the lead to 3, here were the offensive possessions for Georgia:

  • 4:58 - Cain made three
  • 4:23 - Turnover
  • 3:42 - Missed front end of one-and-one
  • 3:00 - Missed layup
  • 2:18 - Turnover
  • 1:51 - Missed front end of one-and-one
  • 1:25 - Turnover
  • 1:04 - Missed three
  • 0:49 - Lawrence made layup

Marquette's 9-0 run pushed the lead to 78-66 and killed any chances of a late Georgia comeback. The icing on the cake was a foul that sent David Joplin to the line where he sank two free throws to push his total to a game and career high 29 points for the game. Marquette came away with the 80-69 victory and moved to 6-0, their best start since the 2011-12 season powered by Jae Crowder and Darius Johnson-Odom as Marquette went to the Sweet 16. We'll wrap up with the Marquette highlight package and the kenpom box score for the game. If you weren't able to watch, we hope this helped a little bit.





Written by Alan Bykowski at 2:02 PM

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