Miserable Marquette Season Ends with a X

Marquette did not make an appearance on the bubble. Nobody talked about how the Golden Eagles 'needed one or two wins' to make the Big Dance. A team picked to win the Big East had become irrelevant in absolutely no time. Although with Villanova falling earlier in the door, the door was open a touch for Marquette to make a run. It did not happen as Xavier beat Marquette, 68-65, where they took control early on in the second half and Golden Eagles could not get their heads back above water.

This game really became a microcosm of the season. A game where Marquette plays competitively in spots, disappear at different occasions and a Buzz Williams decision that makes your head spin. Golden Eagles really played to their season's worth which is about lower than low. It is like praising an alcoholic for not having a drink in a week or so. Marquette did some nice things, but once again, they could not close out a basketball game

One of the more encouraging things about Marquette's season in October was the massive recruiting class coming in for 2014. Duane Wilson, Deonte Burton and JaJuan Johnson were all hyped up to be the next great players for Marquette. Wilson got hurt, Johnson never really made it off the bench and Burton finally got a chance to start on Thursday. He had a career-high 23 points in an aggressive performance where he showed a will to get to the lane and make shit happen. Marquette did not have enough guys this year that wanted to make shit happen. Burton might not have much of an outside shot yet, but he can entirely fill up the tin. The mind-boggling thing is he stayed on the bench for most of the final seven minutes of the game. Buzz Williams told Andrew Gruman and others, it was due to his defense and then you see this from Paint Touches.

Xavier scored on 11 of its 14 final possessions. Good thing Deonte wasn't in to make it worse.
— Paint Touches (@PaintTouches) March 14, 2014

The fact Williams used his lack of defense as an excuse is a fair one for why Burton did not start all year, but to keep him bench when he is playing the best game of his career is absolutely maddening and disappointing. There are times where you need to sacrifice defense for good offense. Marquette has enough players that can fill it up and if they have to play in the eighties, so be it. It is also a complete and utter joke given Davante Gardner cannot guard a statue, Todd Mayo's closes like a 21-year-old kid at the bar, Jake Thomas is a disaster (He did make a really smart play last night though) and basically, none of these guys really play concrete defense. I know Marquette's numbers show they are better than most, but we see mirages all the time. Burton needed to be out there, and the fact, Williams kept him on the bench is such a timid, feeble move. Change scares Williams, let's just all admit that about the coach. He cannot handle freshman being the leaders of this team especially when he kisses the collective asses of all the seniors.

Heavy criticism of Williams feels completely wrong honestly. Many critics would say 'Look at DePaul, they are praising just winning a Big East conference tournament game, and you have coach that got you three Sweet 16, how ungrateful.' It is not ungrateful, just concerned how Williams handled this roster and what the team will be like moving forward. A great coach like a Tom Izzo, Billy Donovan, Jim Calhoun, Roy Williams, tends to find a way to make things work with a roster and rarely do they get defeated like Marquette's head coach did all season with trying to figure out this roster.

Even though Todd Mayo is about as reckless as anyone in college basketball, but he stayed engaged throughout the game. I did not realize Mayo had 21 points on 8/13 shooting, but he tried his best to keep Marquette in the basketball game. Twice, the Golden Eagles trailed by six points and Mayo nailed a three-point jumper (Worth nothing, Mayo found his three-point shot again at the end of the year). In the last six games, Mayo is averaging 17.1 points and in the last three, he had 20 or more points off the bench. Could a generally troubled player become a leader next year? I have high hopes which might be naive, but I am optimist that Mayo will stay in check knowing he is the man of the 2014-2015 team.

Mayo and Burton give me hope that this could be a one bad year and things might head back to normal. The trio of the two and Luke Fischer midway through the season could be real special. Not to mention, Duane Wilson will get the keys and it could be real special. Even though Williams mishandled this season, I still hold out hope it was an aberration and things will be back to normalcy next season.

The best part of the game yesterday was Jamil Wilson missing two free throws as Marquette down three with under two minutes left. If you wanted a clip to describe Marquette's season and Wilson's career, that would be the perfect one.  Happy, it is over and would not mind making a little noise in the NIT.

Charlie.

An Unlikely Duo of Thomas & Wilson Powers Marquette

Marquette basketball season has been one where not much went right. But in the last couple weeks, it seems like the Golden Eagles are finally starting to figure things out. They have now won three straight games after beating Xavier, 81-72 in front of a packed house at the Bradley Center, and the team appears to be rounding into form. Golden Eagles received great effort from Jake Thomas, Derrick Wilson's continued strong play and Marquette once again being able to close out a victory.

If you read this blog or follow me on Twitter, there is no one I am harder on than Jake Thomas. The reason I harbor this anger towards Thomas is I feel he takes up time from other guys whom could be contributing in more ways than what Thomas does for the team. But on Saturday, he served me and the rest of the Marquette fan base a heaping pile of crow. Thomas drilled six three pointers as well as going 5-5 to begin the game and became the difference for Marquette. In their short time of being conference foes, Thomas has a personal ownership over Xavier with eleven threes and scoring 35 points in two games against them.

Let's hope this is not a blip on the radar for Thomas. Maybe this jump starts him a bit for the final part of the season. The expectations are not 15-20 points honestly, rather Thomas making a couple threes for Marquette to add some outside scoring. It becomes frustrating when he does not have even an attempt midway through the second half. Thomas' ability to make threes makes Marquette's offense more open than it is when the threes are not falling for this team. This also means I need to keep quiet on Thomas for at least a couple games unless something terrible happens with him. Thomas showed his worth on Saturday afternoon.

Another player whose been heavily criticized throughout the year, Derrick Wilson, put together one of his better games of his career.  Wilson had nine points, four assists and a career-high six steals. Also not showing up in the box score is how well he defend Xavier star Semaj Christon holding him to 10 points. Chirston was the difference in the first game these two teams played as he had 28 points, and Wilson along with other Marquette guards shut him down.  Wilson's last five games have been a revelation of sorts with him doing enough to fill up the box score in one way or another. For the second straight season, the point guard is justifying his head coach's decision by the end of the year.

A couple things that might get lost in the shuffle with how good Thomas and Wilson were on Saturday was Jamil Wilson having a quiet 16 points which is his third straight game with 15 points or more. Wilson continues to put together a strong February after the St. John's disaster. Additionally, Marquette once again took care of business from the free throw line making 24 of 27 meaning in the last two games, Golden Eagles have shot 61 free throws only missing seven of them. That's how you win basketball games. Another way to win basketball games is a turnover differential ratio of 19 to five. Marquette took care of business in all facets of the game.

Many people want to have NCAA Tournament aspirations after this game, but as Anonymous Eagle points out, it is way too early to have that conversation. Even if they beat Creighton, it seems like it could be too early to start talking that way. I agree with the usual great AE, but what I found interesting is Todd Fuhrman, a Las Vegas sharp, has Marquette in as an eleven seed playing UConn in the first round with Kentucky being the three seed in the bracket. This system is not a typical bracketology rather looking at all of Vegas' numbers.  One thing I have learned through my formative years is Vegas always knows better than all of us.

Instead of worrying about the bubble, why not let's just have fun for the first time this season with Marquette. In a couple weeks if the winning continues, we can get things bubbling.

Charlie.

X Marks the Marquette Struggles

It is hard to say a game in early January is a must-win for a college basketball team, but for Marquette, it
seemed like this was the case. They yet to have a marquee win on the year, and Golden Eagles could have achieved it on Thursday night by getting a road win against Xavier. This did not happen with Musketeers getting their eighth straight win beating Marquette, 86-79 in a game where Marquette once again struggled in late game situations, continued rebounding issues and Jamil Wilson disappeared again putting Golden Eagles' back entirely up against the wall.

This feels like a broken record at this point, but Marquette showed great fight in a losing effort. They were down double-digits at the early stages of the second half, and Golden Eagles found ways to battle back with hitting 3-pointers as well as playing tough defense in stages. The game was tied with a little under five minutes left to play yet from there but Xavier took any dreams of stealing a win by going on an 8-0 run with two big threes from Semaj Christon. The most frustrating part of this is Christon only shoots 1.5 threes per game and he nails two big balls threes in the biggest moment of the game. He took the top dog spot late when it was needed for Xavier, if only Marquette had that sort of thing.

For the first time in awhile, a team annihilated Marquette on the glass. Xavier did a complete glass cleaning against Marquette by outrebounding them 39-20.  The fact Marquette only grabbed 20 defensive rebounds is absolutely incredible in the sense they still had a chance in this basketball game. It comes from Davante Gardner's inability to rebound the basketball. Despite being the biggest guy on the court usually (Xavier's Matt Stainbrook was a behemoth inside and I would love to see Gardner-Stainbrook-Joshua Smith in a steel cage), Gardner does not really seem to care about rebounding the basketball. In the last five games, Gardner is averaging 3.8 rebounds a game as a power forward. That is entirely unacceptable. There is no reason why he cannot throw his ass into somebody and pull down at least five boards a game, do not let his average fooled you.

Another big problem in Marquette's defeat was Jamil Wilson struggling to be a true threat  to score. He had his worst game of the year. Wilson only had five points only shot five times and fouled out with five minutes left in the game. Looking at Wilson's games this year, he is turning in a very inconsistent season without any defining moments. In some of the marquee games, Wilson seemed to shoot more even if he did not make many (Wisconsin game where he went 7/19) or he just did not become part of the game. He needs to go Keyshawn Johnson at some point and just demand the damn ball. There is nothing wrong with being selfish and taking control of the scoring. It will open up the middle for Gardner, and there is no reason to think Wilson cannot find seams in an opposing defense.

Marquette has seven losses. They are virtually nowhere near close to the NCAA Tournament therefore no real reason to talk about it. Golden Eagles probably need to win all of their games for the rest of the month winning at tough environments like Butler and Georgetown even if both teams are having rough years as well as beat the Big East leader Villanova at home. Additionally, a strong February with no bad losses is probably needed for Marquette to be in the conversation of the tournament come March. It is straight uphill from here and it does not seem like Marquette has enough to climb the mountain.

Charlie.