#10 Marquette at Cincinnati
7:00 ESPN
7:00 ESPN
First a few quick hitters....
Davante Gardner: Sources are saying Davante still isn't ready, but he can't sit out much longer. This would be a perfect game to ease him back in, will we see Davante tonight? I would say yes, but I was wrong when I said that about the WVU game.
Jae Crowder is gaining momentum for Big East Player of the Year, and also National Player of the Year. DJO is still being mentioned too. Here are two great videos put up by MU to promote the seniors.
Buzz has met a firestorm over his John Denver two-step. Look, he was already in the locker room, and he came back out. The only fans left there to see it were those trying to get on tv. As I said before, they lost their right to complain when they announced for the Big XII. Buzz - stop apologizing, you did nothing wrong.
Marquette has their national ranking up to #7 in Coaches Poll, #8 in AP Poll, #7 in RPI and Pomeroy has the SOS at #17.
On to the Bearcats....
The last time these two teams met it was all Golden Eagles at the Bradley Center, but expect a much different Cincinnati squad tonight. Why? It's in Cincinnati, they are fighting for their lives in regards to the NCAA tourney, and it is their senior night. Tonight they will be honoring the careers of Dion Dixon and Yancy Gates. It is always tough to play against a team on their senior night, but with everything these guys have been through this year, the fanbase has rallied behind them and this will be a wild crown. Head Coach Mick Cronin and many UC fans have been all over Twitter today garnering support for their seniors.
They are also having a "white out", and I assume it will be better than MU's "gold out".
On the surface it seems as if Cincinnati is struggling of late, but they do come in with a 20-9 record, which is still a pretty darn good record considering they have gone 3-2 against the top 25.
While they can go 9-12 deep, Cincinnati primarily focuses on a 6 deep rotation with four guards, 6-8 F Justin Jackson and 6'9 Yancy Gates. (I always mistakenly call him Thigpen). Kilpatrick leads the way for the Bearcats in scoring, but those top six are pretty balanced, with Jackson being the only one that isn't a real serious scoring threat. With Gates Cincinnati can be a force on the boards, but surprisingly they have been out-rebounded on the defensive end, which is also where MU has struggled, so it is possible that the Golden Eagles find their offensive rebounding form tonight.
Two areas where MU is known to take an advantage is in their pressure defense and their attack offense, forcing turnovers and drawing fouls. Cincinnati will try to eliminate those advantages as when it comes to controlling the ball they don't turn it over very often, and they are probably close to the bottom of Marquette's opponents when it comes to fouls. The Bearcats average only 15 fouls per game.
If Davante Gardner can't go again tonight, expect Crowder and Jamil Wilson to switch up often on Gates, trying to force him out of the lane on both ends of the court - keep him running and keep him chasing and Cronin will be forced to tap into the bench.
Here is the tale of the tape...
| PPG | FG% | FT% | 3P% | RPG | ORPG | DRPG | APG | TPG | SPG | BPG | FPG | |
| MU |
76.4 | 46.4 | 72.2 | 34.6 | 35.2 | 11.5 | 23.7 | 17.3 | 12.7 | 8.9 | 3.6 | 17.7 |
| Cincinnati | 68.9 | 42 | 64.1 | 35.8 | 35.8 | 13.7 | 22.9 | 13.1 | 10.8 | 7.8 | 4.6 | 15.3 |
| MU | Cincy | |
| RPI | #7 | #76 |
| SoS | #29 | #110 |
| Overall | 24-5 | 20-9 |
| Conference | 13-3 | 10-6 |
| Home | 14-1 | 13-4 |
| Away | 6-4 | 6-5 |
| Top 25 | 2-3 | 3-2 |
| RPI Top 50 | 6-4 | 5-4 |
| #7 Marquette |
|||||||||||||||
| Player | GP | MPG | PPG | FG% | FT% | 3P% | RPG | ORPG | DRPG | APG | TPG | SPG | BPG | FPG | |
| J. Crowder | 29 | 32.4 | 17.4 | 51.6 | 73.0 | 38.0 | 7.6 | 1.8 | 5.8 | 2.0 | 1.2 | 2.4 | 1.0 | 2.6 | |
| D. Johnson-Odom | 28 | 32.1 | 18.4 | 45.3 | 77.6 | 40.0 | 3.3 | 0.6 | 2.6 | 2.8 | 2.4 | 1.1 | 0.1 | 1.9 | |
| J. Cadougan | 28 | 28.0 | 6.5 | 41.4 | 70.6 | 26.7 | 2.0 | 0.3 | 1.7 | 5.5 | 2.4 | 1.1 | 0.2 | 2.0 | |
| V. Blue | 29 | 25.6 | 8.6 | 43.1 | 68.6 | 25.9 | 4.4 | 1.6 | 2.8 | 3.0 | 2.1 | 1.2 | 0.2 | 1.6 | |
| J. Wilson | 28 | 23.5 | 6.9 | 45.2 | 72.9 | 30.4 | 3.8 | 1.6 | 2.3 | 1.3 | 0.9 | 0.8 | 1.3 | 2.7 | |
| T. Mayo | 29 | 20.6 | 8.1 | 41.4 | 79.5 | 30.0 | 2.6 | 0.9 | 1.7 | 1.2 | 1.5 | 0.5 | 0.1 | 2.1 | |
| D. Gardner | 22 | 19.8 | 9.8 | 57.7 | 74.2 | 0.0 | 5.3 | 2.6 | 2.8 | 0.8 | 1.2 | 0.9 | 0.2 | 2.6 | |
| D. Wilson | 27 | 10.1 | 0.7 | 40.0 | 47.1 | 0.0 | 1.3 | 0.4 | 0.9 | 0.8 | 0.3 | 0.7 | 0.0 | 1.7 | |
| J. Jones | 25 | 9.1 | 1.8 | 36.4 | 20.0 | 21.7 | 1.4 | 0.2 | 1.2 | 0.4 | 0.4 | 0.3 | 0.0 | 0.6 | |
| C. Otule | 8 | 17.8 | 5.0 | 60.0 | 52.6 | 0.0 | 4.4 | 1.6 | 2.8 | 0.1 | 1.6 | 0.9 | 1.6 | 2.4 | |
| J. Anderson | 19 | 5.2 | 0.7 | 40.0 | 66.7 | 0.0 | 1.0 | 0.4 | 0.6 | 0.2 | 0.4 | 0.2 | 0.1 | 0.3 | |
| Cincinnati | |||||||||||||||
| Player | GP | MPG | PPG | FG% | FT% | 3P% | RPG | ORPG | DRPG | APG | TPG | SPG | BPG | FPG | |
| S. Kilpatrick | 29.0 | 33.9 | 14.8 | 42.9 | 74.7 | 37.8 | 4.9 | 1.6 | 3.3 | 1.9 | 1.5 | 1.2 | 0.3 | 1.3 | |
| D. Dixon | 29.0 | 33.7 | 13.2 | 37.0 | 71.0 | 28.2 | 3.6 | 2.0 | 1.6 | 2.2 | 1.8 | 1.6 | 0.5 | 1.0 | |
| C. Wright | 29.0 | 30.8 | 11.1 | 41.5 | 64.8 | 40.0 | 3.7 | 0.9 | 2.8 | 4.5 | 2.2 | 1.8 | 0.1 | 2.0 | |
| Y. Gates | 23.0 | 31.6 | 11.9 | 46.7 | 57.1 | 66.7 | 9.3 | 3.3 | 6.0 | 0.7 | 1.1 | 0.6 | 1.0 | 2.4 | |
| J. Jackson | 29.0 | 21.9 | 5.3 | 51.2 | 55.6 | 0.0 | 4.5 | 2.0 | 2.5 | 1.2 | 1.4 | 1.0 | 1.3 | 3.0 | |
| J. Parker | 22.0 | 24.0 | 8.3 | 41.2 | 70.6 | 41.7 | 5.0 | 1.7 | 3.3 | 1.1 | 0.9 | 0.6 | 0.1 | 1.7 | |
| G. Guyn | 25.0 | 11.1 | 2.9 | 41.5 | 64.3 | 30.0 | 0.8 | 0.2 | 0.7 | 0.7 | 0.6 | 0.5 | 0.0 | 1.3 | |
| C. Mbodj | 20.0 | 11.1 | 2.2 | 36.7 | 38.9 | 100.0 | 2.6 | 1.2 | 1.4 | 0.2 | 0.3 | 0.1 | 0.9 | 2.1 | |
| J. Sanders | 24.0 | 8.9 | 1.7 | 37.1 | 50.0 | 37.5 | 1.3 | 0.5 | 0.8 | 0.5 | 0.4 | 0.0 | 0.0 | 0.4 | |
| J. Davis III | 24.0 | 8.7 | 2.8 | 39.4 | 44.4 | 38.7 | 1.0 | 0.2 | 0.8 | 0.6 | 0.7 | 0.5 | 0.0 | 0.8 | |
| K. Gaines | 17.0 | 8.5 | 0.8 | 40.0 | 33.3 | 0.0 | 2.2 | 0.6 | 1.6 | 0.1 | 0.5 | 0.3 | 1.4 | 1.6 | |
| O. Ellis | 4.0 | 6.5 | 1.8 | 40.0 | 75.0 | 0.0 | 1.3 | 0.3 | 1.0 | 0.3 | 0.8 | 0.5 | 0.5 | 0.3 | |
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