But back to the #REFSHOW that took place in Milwaukee on Thursday night. Wonder if the ticket stubs had 'Come see the Refs featuring Georgetown-Marquette!' Personally if I am a Georgetown fan, I would be more pissed than I am this morning. Not just because the Hoyas fell in a must-win game, but due to the officials fouling out two big men with two others playing with four fouls as Nate Lubick and Moses Ayegba left before the 10 minute mark of the second half. Georgetown received the worst end of the stick when it came to the officials and if I am the Hoyas, I would be livid at the officiating.
Big East needs to send out a memo if this how the officials are going to ref the games moving forward. A must-win game became unwatchable rather quickly and that's a shame. Hopefully, they can find a balance where there are some calls here and there, maybe some questionable ones, but let's have a flow to this game versus every time down a whistle appears. Related, I went three paragraphs without complaining about how Marquette missed eleven free throws that nearly cost them the game shows how bad both ways these officials were for the full 40 minutes.
With the officials fouling the Georgetown big men out, Davante Gardner saw blood in the water like an oversized shark. He ended the game with 26 points and seven rebounds. Bradley Hayes is seven foot, but Gardner made him look like a dwarf out there dominating in the lane. To Marquette's credit, they kept feeding the beast in the second half and did not waver from it minus a couple shots from Todd Mayo that would make Russell Westbrook blush. When Gardner is at his best, we see the wide array of post moves he has to offer plus he draws fouls which he did going to the line 12 times. In the last two games, Gardner is averaging 24 points, hopefully this is a sign of a big late season push from the Marquette big man.
If you read this blog, I heavily criticized Jake Thomas throughout the year with wondering why he played and why others guys were not playing. But in the last couple games, Thomas has been great. He had a career-high 22 points making six of nine from 3-point range last night. He hit all shots in rhythm plus Thomas looked confident as ever to nail down these big threes. Nothing better than to see him turn around season. I am more than happy to eat crow with Thomas. While 22 points should not be the expectation, let's hope he starts becoming a 10 to 15 points a game threat in these final games of the season.
There are couple other news and notes from this one. Juan Anderson had four points which is above his average, but he seemed more confident than he has in the past couple of games. Because of Thomas and Gardner's play, we will sort of forget how Jamil Wilson only had three points and Mayo only had six points. Even though he did not score, I liked a lot of what I saw from John Dawson in this one. Finally, 20 assists for Marquette will likely win them ball games. The ball movement was as good as I have seen it from this squad.
Marquette is still not dead for NCAA Tournament talk. They are like a zombie where Marquette keeps wavering around yet no one can seem to kill them. Golden Eagles take on their final marquee game of the season in a road trip against eighth-ranked Villanova. This is a great chance for the Golden Eagles to become more than just a zombie.
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