Marquette 62 Georgetown 59 Discussion

[DanMcQ]

...

[HoyaSinceBirth]

Marquette is one of the many scrappy teams this year in the big east. They're not actually that good. But they'll hustle and make you earn everything. Box out and take care of the ball those are the keys. We're much more talented then them. If we don't get out hustled we'll win.

[idhoya]

Also they are limited in the post and small in the backcourt. Still, I agree, they're scrappy so you can't let up if you get a big lead. A 3-0 BE start is within reach.

[lichoya68]

I DISAGREE THEY ARE GOOD TOOK WEST VA TO TO THE END ALSO NOVA VERY GOOD AND SCRAPPY WE BETTER BE REALLY READY FOR THIS ONE FIRST REAL BIG EAST TEST need to be three and o going into uconn on sat go hoyas HUSTLE REBBIES BE QUICK AND TOUGH... toughness togetherness and team and trust the four teeees go hoyas

[FoHoya]

Hayward and Butler both looked good against Villanova, but hopefully we can take advantage of their lack of depth. Not saying that we're terribly deep, but that plus their lack of height makes me think we could get em in trouble if we look to the post early and often. Seems like the kind of team we'll struggle against: athletic and scrappy. We need to cut down on stupid mistakes like lazy passes at the top of the key. Think I only saw one today, but our defense is good enough that we really need to cut down on turnovers that lead to easy buckets that don't allow our defense to do its job.

What do we think about them pressing us. If I recall correctly they've pressed us a decent amount in the recent past, but if its true that they are a thin team we might not see that much this game. I'm also decently happy with how we've played against the press this year. We've always had a few troubles dealing with presses and though we haven't really played a team like Louisville with a solid, constant press we've still done decently. We still have been dribbling too much and passing too little and getting to the front court with too little time, but hopefully the modest practice we've gotten in this season will help us in the future. In any case, I'm cautiously optimistic.

[HoyaSinceBirth]

We're the first big east team marquette is facing with real post players to take advantage of their lack of interior talent. Nova is just as weak inside and WV plays 5 wings with no posts and no pgs.

[GIGAFAN99]

Jan 3, 2010 21:46:05 GMT -5 HoyaSinceBirth said:

We're the first big east team marquette is facing with real post players to take advantage of their lack of interior talent. Nova is just as weak inside and WV plays 5 wings with no posts and no pgs.

Agreed. See Washington, University of for a gameplan. Only two differences? Marquette is more patient, can shoot from the outside and they're at home. So we have to close out on shooters and it wouldn't kill us to pressure the ball just a little bit.

Meanwhile, not turning the ball over, as always, would be very good.

[michaelgrahamfan]

I have watched several of their games and taking care of the ball is critical. They have very little bench help (much like us) so it will be a war of attrition. I would be very surprised if it did not come down to the last minute.

[Big Dog]

Ken Pomeroy, who correctly flagged the ODU game to be our toughest to date at the time, has Marquette ranked 24th, thanks in large part to the 17th most efficient offense in the country. We're currently ranked 18th, and his ratings system predicts a two-point win for Marquette here. This will undoubtedly be a very close, physical, intense game, and MU boasts maybe the best home court edge in the conference. (Though we catch a break there potentially, given that its a weeknight and the students aren't around--not sure if they bus kids in from Chicago for weeknight games like they did vs. Nova).

Hayward is a talented, experienced four-year player who poses a challenge for any team. He's taken over 40% of Marquette's shots this season, the second-highest percentage in the country.

Sophomore Darius Johnson-Odom and Junior Jimmy Butler have provided a huge boost with some of the best shooting in the country.

The team is shooting 41.6% from beyond the arc so far this year (10-16 vs. WVU), good for 16th best in the country, thanks in large part to Johnson-Odom, who is shooting a ridiculous 28-48 (58.3%) from 3 this season.

Butler ranks 12th in the country in true shooting percentage and 30th in eFG% in the country.

It will be very interesting to see how they match up with our size. We'll be the team best-positioned to take advantage of that of those they faced.

This game looks a lot different than DePaul given that the Blue Demons actually had some frontcourt size to challenge us.

[blueandgray]

Marquette has been playing good ball and could easily be 2 - 0 instead of 0 - 2. They are a VERY hungry team right now.

[blueandgray]

Interesting analysis Big Dog. Hayward went for 17 and 11 against us last we played.

[guru]

Jan 3, 2010 23:00:58 GMT -5 Big Dog said:

Ken Pomeroy, who correctly flagged the ODU game to be our toughest to date at the time, has Marquette ranked 24th, thanks in large part to the 17th most efficient offense in the country. We're currently ranked 18th, and his ratings system predicts a two-point win for Marquette here. This will undoubtedly be a very close, physical, intense game, and MU boasts maybe the best home court edge in the conference. (Though we catch a break there potentially, given that its a weeknight and the students aren't around--not sure if they bus kids in from Chicago for weeknight games like they did vs. Nova).

Hayward is a talented, experienced four-year player who poses a challenge for any team. He's taken over 40% of Marquette's shots this season, the second-highest percentage in the country.

Sophomore Darius Johnson-Odom and Junior Jimmy Butler have provided a huge boost with some of the best shooting in the country.

The team is shooting 41.6% from beyond the arc so far this year (10-16 vs. WVU), good for 16th best in the country, thanks in large part to Johnson-Odom, who is shooting a ridiculous 28-48 (58.3%) from 3 this season.

Butler ranks 12th in the country in true shooting percentage and 30th in eFG% in the country.

It will be very interesting to see how they match up with our size. We'll be the team best-positioned to take advantage of that of those they faced.

This game looks a lot different than DePaul given that the Blue Demons actually had some frontcourt size to challenge us.

Marquette is never an easy place to win, and Hayward is an outstanding player. We'll know a lot about this Hoya squad from this game - it's the type of game a team that wants to contend for the conference needs to go in and win. Is the team this year for real? We'll see.

[grokamok]

As I had mentioned in the GOI thread, I think Marquette is not only a good team but also a team in a desperate position. They're facing a likely 0-4 conference start if they lose to us; they have a rematch with 'Nova in Philly next weekend. They're angry at having lost such close matches to such good teams (@wvu & Villanova, plus their OSC "neutral court" loss to Florida St in Orlando, when they let a 17-point lead slip away). We have to expect them to come at us hard at home, playing above themselves, and we'll need all of our concentration to come away with a win, even though we have a better team.

We definitely have to work to take care of the ball and limit their points off turnovers, especially at the beginning of the game. We don't want that kind of play to allow their crowd to carry them. We also have to find Hayward and Butler and put a body on each for every rebound opportunity; they're expert at the put-back.

I'd love to see us work to foul out Hayward, but he hasn't done so once this season. Still, I think if we try to run isolations for Greg, utilize the skip pass if they double (with the recipient being ready to make the additional pass on the perimeter if they recover from such a position), and knock down the resulting open 3, they may have to allow our bigs to go one-on-one and we'd have a significant advantage if we got it to them in a position where they didn't have to put the ball on the floor. I think we could also get some backdoors off of overplays on the perimeter or drifts on the baseline if we can get the ball to one of our bigs at the foul line on a regular basis.

It's likely to be a tough game, but if Chris and Austin play at their recent level and if JC keeps it under control, both with his outside shot selection and in his handling the expected press (putting Greg at center court might help with this), I like our chances.

[HoyaSinceBirth]

It depends how they react to the two close losses. I think if we can come out hard and punch them in the mouth they might fold: "We just can't win against the tough teams"

I doubt we'll get that lucky.

I expect to put jason on DJO and work to shut him down.
The stats bear out that their defense is not good on the interior: 156th at defending 2pters, 255th in blocking shots, 58.3% of opponents points come from 2pt range good for 28th

Pound it inside.

Other thing to watch out for they're 23rd in steals. They play mostly man. Use ball fakes to counter act their aggressive defense fake the pass to the pop out and go back door. We should be able to do this a lot to them based on the way they play. but we often don't take advantage of it enough.

[grokamok]

They don't have a big inside presence, but I think the stats are a bit misleading. I believe that they create a lot of turnovers on the entry passes to the inside by bringing a help-defender over. If it gets through, the opposing big man has a relatively easy time -- thus the 156th/255th/28th numbers, but also the 23rd in steals figure. That's why I'm hoping to utilize the skip pass if they commit to help on the inside. I'd love to see Greg and Julian eat them up inside, but I'd really hate to see a bunch of turnovers on forced/telegraphed passes to them (or on getting it to them in spots where they have to dribble with shorter help-defenders batting at the ball).

[daytonahoya31]

Are you guys freaking KIDDING ME?

Marquette isn't good?

Marquette doesn't have our talent?

wow. How pompus have we gotten as fans.

Marquette is more than good enough to beat us. We're more than good enough to beat them.

Hayward is one of the five best players in the league and him at the four has the potential to give us fits.

They have guards. They are quick, they play the game hard for 40 minutes.

And you know what? They're playing at home and they're desperate.

We can beat this team. But for any of you who think this game will be anything short of a dogfight?

You're kidding yourselves.

[grokamok]

Daytona -- not sure whether you're speaking to the initial comments in the thread or to the thread in general. Most of the posts have suggested that this will be far from an easy game. That said, even though Marquette might have an advantage with the home court and even though I'd be cautious not to let our ranking go to our heads (if Temple hadn't missed all those open shots, we might be on the verge of being voted back into the top 25 instead of on the verge of being voted into the top 10), I do think we have a better team than the Golden Eagles/Warriors this year.

[sleepy]

I don't think anyone saying Marquettes not THAT good or we are more talented translates into people thinking easy win. Not unless they were in some sort of coma last year that is. Just that we can win the game. Which, basing off your post, you agree with. Do you think they are more talented than us? Or that they are as good/better than WVU and Villanova(which is what HSB was alluding to I assume by saying not that good)? Otherwise, you are freaking out over nothing.

Basketball is a game of match-ups and the winner of this game will be the team that takes advantage of their mis-match the best. Can we use our post players effectively? Or will they take advantage of their shooting and speed on the perimeter and turn us over a lot?

At the end of the day, if this team wants any shot at being a contender to win the Big East, they win this game. If they want to be a middle of the pack 6-10 range Big East team who hasto win a few in the BET to ensure an Ncaa spot, they lose. We will see what kind of team we have this next three game stretch.

[HoyaFanNY]

as mentioned above, we MUST avoid being careless with the ball. i have been very impressed watching marquette their last 2 games. very well coached and these kids give everything they have on the floor. we have to match their intensity.

[lichoya68]

big dog i agree totally with your analysis these guys do have talent and do hustle and could be two and o in the big east but for a few missed foul shots WE BETTER BE READY AND ITS IN THEIR HOUSE come out fast and hustling and tough no lazy passes ie odu no being asleep and protect the ball and REBOUND REBOUND REBOUND PLEASE this will be a war need to play better than we did at depaul to win this one GO HOYAS AND HOLLIS KEEP IT UP AND HENRY MUCH MORE MEANER PLEASE ON WED PLEASEEEEEEE FOR US TO WIN . GO HOYAS