Arizona St RPI 82
Tennessee RPI 99
Georgia Tech RPI 121
Providence RPI 21
And this team has regressed?
I can't wait until the season is over too, not because of our players who are giving their full effort out there, or because of our coach whose livelihood is Marquette basketball, but because our fans need to cut it out. I get that people need to vent. Fine. But we are undersized, we have only had 8,7, or even 6 healthy scholarship players, our veteran guys are role players at best, we have a rookie coach, our most talented guys are essentially in their first year playing college hoops, and we play in the second toughest conference in America. Who here is really surprised by what we see on the court?
I keep reading how we are not tough, how Fischer isn't tough enough blah blah blah. Have any of you guys played in the post? Do you know how tiring that is? Just going body to body with a post player tires you out. Fischer is the only guy we have on the team who can do that. Steve Taylor tries hard, but he's undersized and quite frankly, he's just a guy out there. Juan Anderson is not a post player. Everyone else on the team is small. We do not have the right kind of talent right now. We don't even have enough guys to practice 5 on 5. Who the heck does Fischer play against in practice. It certainly is not 7'2 Chukwu. That's who 6'9 Harris gets to play against. That's not counting 7' Derosiers are 6'8 Bentil or 6'7, 6'7... What exactly do you wants us to do? Do you guys know how big of a difference that is? Some are comparing this to Buzz's team that was tiny. There are a couple huge differences with that team. First of all, those were veteran guys. Second, all those guys could shoot! We don't have that.
Consider this. I am a guard. Most effective guards are able to beat a defender 1 on 1. When you play basketball, you're not even considering how you beat the guy in front of you. You locate the help defense. You think about how they are going to play you. If I am looking at Marquette, after I beat my first defender, all I have to really look for is Luke. That's the help defender who is going to change my shot or I will have problems shooting over. The thing is, Luke can't even play that aggressively because he's the only f'in big guy we have! He can't aggressively go after a block or aggressively go after a rebound. Once he's out of the game, we are a completely different team. In contrast, I am looking at a team with 6'11 and 6'11 out there as help defenders. I'm not even considering a drive unless it's off a quick ball reversal. We don't have that.
I'm watching the game right now. I've been running a tournament and giving basketball workouts all day. So, I have to watch on DVR. At halftime, I came on to check out the board and I've come across this thread. I know it has been a long season for Marquette fans but I'm going to take you through this sequence of game film to tell you what I think.
18:21 left in the second half and we are in a 1-3-1. We've got Taylor, Juan Anderson, Derrick Wilson, Carlino, and Duane Wilson in there. Just think about that lineup, guys, and let that sink in.
So, Providence swings the ball pretty easily, because we have no height on the wings. Ball goes up and we have Derrick Wilson and Carlino on the weak side trying to rebound. Taylor was effective boxing his guy out. Juan was on top closing out. Derrick was boxing out Chukwu but he's 7'2 and he jumps straight up and grabs the rebound. Some who are questioning the coaching might say, what are we doing in a 1-3-1? Well, we are changing up the defense because they already figured out the zone. We trying to make them adjust to how we are playing. Juan has to play the top, because in a 1-3-1 you want to try to cut the floor in half and the only guy we have that can do that is Juan. That leaves our midgets for the other 3 spots. Most coaches will put their point guard on the bottom because they need to close out to the corners. As for the wings, considering who we have, that's where you play them.
They reload and our guys are diving on the ground for loose balls. We're down 44-29, our Big East season has been rough, yet we still have guys flying all over the place for loose balls. That tells me that Wojo has not lost this team. That's coaching.
17:52 and after a tied up ball, we get the ball. Providence is in a zone. So, we have Juan Anderson and Steve Taylor in at post. Derrick Wilson is at point. Let that sink in. Derrick dribbles over and Carlino circles behind and gets a wide open look. Duke works on those movements in practice all the time. One of the guard breakdown drills against the zone are those same exact movements. It was a good open look, Carlino was just leaning too much and missed it. But it was a good possession. Taylor flashed high to occupy the top guy on the zone. Derrick attacked into the gamp on the left to suck in the bottom guy in the zone and it left no one to guard Carlino. Still, Juan fought for the rebound, got shoved and it's still Marquette ball. 6'6 215 Juan Anderson bodied up on 6'8 230 Bentil who had to shove him out of the way. JJJ subs in for Derrick.
17:31 Marquette ball. Ball gets reversed twice, Carlino stares down Juan Anderson in the high post and throws it away. Carlino fouls Dunn in transition which was a good foul. Now we are in a 2-3 zone. Wojo saw that we have tough rebounding matches in the 1-3-1 so he subbed in JJJ and went 2-3. Good adjustment. Juan, showing good leadership, huddles up the team. Providence is disorganized for a few seconds, gets organized, Bentil flashes to the high post and gets a shot. Taylor boxes out 7'2 Chukwu, Duane goes for the rebound, but 6'8 Bentil out jumps him and gets the reload. Neither Carlino nor Duane boxed him out. So, Taylor scraps and challenges 6'8 Bentil's shot, 6'6 tries to move 7'2 Chukwu out of the way but he doesn't budge. He has the ball underneath the basket and with a good pivot, he goes reverse and he scores.
16:51, we go on offense. Carolino has a nice ball feed to 6'7 Steve Taylor. He draws a crowd of defenders. Playing on his back is 7'2 Chukwu. 6'6 Henton is doubling him on the strong side. 6'3 Kris Dunn is digging in from the weak side top. 6'8 Bentil was digging in from the weak side bottom. So Taylor kicks it out back to Carlino which is a good pass. On the kick out, both Bentil and Dunn close out to Duane Wilson, since Duane has hit a bunch of threes on them. That leaves 6'6 Juan Anderson all alone underneath the basket on the weak side. Carolina lobs it to him. But 7'2 Chukwu and 6'8 Bentil closes the space easily. Juan pump fakes and tries to draw contact and a weak foul is called. Juan goes 1 for 2.
16:29 left. Clock goes from 16:29 straight to 16:12. That was strange. Henton flashes and seals around the midpost and scores easily over Taylor. We got caught ball watching. Taylor needs to bump Henton so that he can't flash that easily. Immediately, Fischer is sent to the scorers table.
16:04 Marquette ball. Juan screens the top part of the 2-3 zone, which is a good screen. Carlino doesn't attack, which he should have. Instead, he reverses to Duane who has a nice post feed to Taylor. The lane was open for a post feed because of the Juan screen. 6'7 Taylor can't finish over 7'2 Chukwu who just raises his arms straight up.
15:39 Providence attacks in transition. Taylor had to challenge the shot. JJJ doesn't box out on the weak side. But, he was sealed effectively by Lomomba on the drive. Offensive rebound on Providence since Lomomba tips it. Taylor challenges the 2nd shot and Carlino grabs the board.
15:32 Carlino pushes the ball in transition and gets slowed down. He reverses to Juan who was trailing who dribble handoffs to JJJ. Carlino and Duane exchange on the weak side. JJJ reverses the ball to Duane who hits Juan who flashed to the high post. He draws 7'2 Chukwu in with a nice pump fake and he rips through and drives. He throws agreat rugby pass dish off to Taylor who is in great position in the alley. Henton who is playing on the strong side bottom of the 2-3 slides over to cut him off. Plus 7'2 Chukwu is waiting. Since Taylor drew 2 defenders, he kicks it out to Carlino. Marquette passes it around the horn in a 3 pass reversal. Juan gets a wide open look in the corner. That was a pretty possession. 9 straight effective passes. Ball was reversed twice, went inside, got kicked out and reversed again. You can't ask for a better possession than that. Juan missed the wide open 3. Providence gets the rebound. Our guys are slow to get back and they score coast to coast. That's deflating. MU gets a great possession, can't score, and Providence gets an easy bucket.
14:52 Marquette ball. Juan sets a high ball screen on the zone, which is a great play. Now Duane can attack the bottom guy of the zone where you have a 2 on 1 advantage. Providence guy fights through the screen and bumps Duane. Maybe a foul but it would have been a soft call. No call and Duane turns it over.
TV Timeout