Marquette's Big Apple Appearance is Spoiled Rotten

Marquette grasped for NCAA Tournament life after beating Providence on Thursday night. It seemed like the table could be set for a February run. Golden Eagles headed to Madison Square Garden in a place where they have yielded inconsistent results. Marquette fell to St. Johns, 74-59, meaning they have flip-flopped in the last 12 games with wins and losses. As Golden Eagles were down by 20 or more in this game, they officially hit rock bottom. Marquette's lackluster effort by seniors, D'Angelo Harrison taking over and the bizzaro world Buzz Williams is living in right now.

Marquette did not play well at all. There is not really one thing we could point to and say 'Hey! Well at least this happened!'  I mean this is a dumpster fire of epic proportions with the Golden Eagles getting dominated by a team whose lost seven of their nine Big East games. Sure, they could be better than their record, but at the same time, that is not an excuse for the effort shown by Marquette throughout the entire game. It felt like a team that had lost six straight games rather than one beating the hottest team in the Big East.

Jamil Wilson is probably one player where the finger points to although most of the Marquette team is at fault for this season as well as this game. Wilson only played 13 minutes, one of his lowest totals of the season, and this had nothing to do with foul trouble. I am hard on Buzz Williams, but I give him credit for sitting Wilson in the second half. He deserved it, and frequently, I do not expect him to respond well to it. I cannot believe I fell for the rouse that Wilson would be the next Marquette player to take a leap as a senior like many of the other players have before him. It is too bad Jamil could never put it together. He might be the greatest 'what if' player with Williams.

Although Wilson is not the only one at fault as Harrison, St. John's star, had a massive game against Marquette. I am not trying to rain on Harrison's parade, but he spent most of the time wide open. Harrison made six three pointers as well as shooting 43 percent from the field. This seems to be a trend of Marquette struggling against a team's number one player. Bryce Cotton is the only one in recent memory where the Golden Eagles found a way to stop him. I shudder to think what Doug McDermott might do when he comes to Milwaukee.

THERE IT IS, Buzz blamed this loss on playing on Thursday. Fun. #mubb
— Anonymous Eagle (@AnonymousEagle) February 1, 2014

I have no idea what Williams is saying here. Can he just admit they lost the game? I do not really like Jim Boeheim, but at least the guy will admit the team got their asses kicked. Jim Calhoun does the same. John Calipari just blames his players, but he does not find excuses. Williams putting a loss on playing two nights before is not something I would expect out of Williams. It is a horseshit response. I would kill for Williams to go on a complete rant that gets a million YouTube hits setting fire to everything and everyone. He loves his players, but I am starting to wonder if he cares too much about them without enough separation.

The season is officially lost. Basically, the only way Marquette gets in is if they win the Big East conference tournament. Other than that, Golden Eagles are probably heading to the NIT or heaven forbid, a CBI bid. Maybe they can put together a few wins, an upset here or there, but all in all, Marquette is just a hopeless wanderer in college basketball.

Charlie.