Marquette Game Thread 1/26/19

[Anti-Homer]

Unbelievable for coach to get a tech in last 2 minutes in a 2 point game. He almost got one earlier when he had to be held back by an assistant. Steele gave him a “soft elbow” to push him off. Everyone says we are getting better because we came close to a ranked team. I don’t see any improvement. We are barely above .500 with most wins against mid- majors.

I don’t see any improvement.

You're certainly entitled to your opinion, but I think this team has improved a lot since league play started, even with the higher caliber of competition. They've only played one bad game, and that was against Marquette. Keep in mind that this run has happened when Q, the director of the team has been injured. Though he hasn't had the kind of year us fans and I'm sure he expected, it did require a lot of people to adapt to new roles.

They have cut down their turnovers, and I believe have improved defensively. Of course, when you see the number and percentage of treys made by the likes of Nova & M-quette, it's easy to say it was due to bad defense. That's partly the case, but in both games, they made threes that we were accustomed to seeing Bluiett do in four years. Nova has been doing that to everybody the last few years, and M-quette has the best trio of 3 point shooters in cbb. Their shot selection has also improved, with Marshall and Q taking fewer threes than they had been taking, and hopefully, the trend continues.

Obviously, the realistic destination will be the NIT, but considering the mess with personnel Steele inherited when he took over the program, that's not a bad consolation prize. AH, his son, brothers, and nephews just want to see overall improvement and player development, which hopefully, puts them in a position to make it back to the Dance next year, especially with the very good class they have coming in.

Lastly, Steele took ownership for the bad T, which is something you wouldn't see from any other coach whose team's campus is 4.3 miles from Cintas. Still learning on the job.

LESS TURNOVERS ??? They had 18 last week against The Friars. I believe between Scruggs and Q they had 11

In the last five games excluding Providence, the number of turnovers they had were:

MQ - 10
Nova - 7
Butler 10
G Town 4

The avg. no. of T.O.s in those four games was 8. Even with the Providence game included, they still only averaged 10 turnovers per game. Before league play, they exceeded 20 turnovers in at least a couple of games. I'd say that's marked improvement.

[mumuskie87]

I agrre they were sucking wind. I noticed midway thru the first half Marquette began substituting plenty and continued to do so until about midway through the 2nd half....have not seen minutes played but im betting our starters played way more minutes. We played well and soon we will begin winning these games.....Just hope our kids continue the fight. as I said on another thread its difficult to keep your fight through continuous losses. actually I just ckd and minutes played per player was about even!

Yea. Minutes were about even
Howard played 37 and the 2 Hauser's played 38 each
Scruggs and Marshall both played 38 and Jones played 37.
Their big - John - only played 12.

[skyhops]

Xavier Simpson just got a triple double against Ohio State. Looks like we might have choose the wrong Pg

[muskieman]

Xavier Simpson just got a triple double against Ohio State. Looks like we might have choose the wrong Pg

2019
Xavier Simsons stats points 8.9 rebounds 5.1 Assists 5.9
Quentin Goodin points 12 rebounds 2.6 Assists 4.9


sipson's highest points once over 20 points 24 Northwestern
goodin 3 times over 20 points 20, 21 22

simpson's highest rebound 3 times 10 or above 10, 10 and 11
goodin's highest game 9

asists
Simpson's 8, 8 10, 12 four high games
Goodin's 8, 10, 9 , 8

simpson certainly has better TO numbers

Simpson has also not been hurt.... Q's numbers have been terrible the game before he sat out after having good numbers the game prior to that bad game

Simpsson has had 4 games where he scored 3 or less points with one of those games 0 points
Goodin has had 2 games of 3 or less and no shutouts

Simpson's three point shooting (although he doesn't take many in some games) looks as dismal as Goodin's

[Shadow]

Why in blazes do think we had a legitimate crack at him after he finished HS?
http://verbalcommits.com/players/zavier-simpson

[skyhops]

Nice try with the stats MM, Simpson is one of the best defenders in the country as well as probably the most important player on one of the best teams in the country. Q in his defense isn’t really a PG, but I think we all expected at least a little improvement and not regression from a junior. The fact that we play better with him on the bench on a depleted roster speaks volumes. He and Naji scared me to death with the ball im their hands especially the last 10 mins of the game. I will eat my words with a win out of the next two games, but I have little expectations. I do think Q has a better vertical and can bench more.

[muskieman]

Nice try with the stats MM, Simpson is one of the best defenders in the country as well as probably the most important player on one of the best teams in the country. Q in his defense isn’t really a PG, but I think we all expected at least a little improvement and not regression from a junior. The fact that we play better with him on the bench on a depleted roster speaks volumes. He and Naji scared me to death with the ball im their hands especially the last 10 mins of the game. I will eat my words with a win out of the next two games, but I have little expectations. I do think Q has a better vertical and can bench more.

I gave data because decision on a player should be a least based on data. I do remember people saying the Q shut down a number of good players this year or was that some of AH's nonsence!

[kyzrex]

If it’s any consolation (it’s not) Marquette just destroyed Butler (always happy to see that happen to Butthurt) with Howard getting 32, and the team shooting 50% from 3, and 57% overall. It’s not just X that is struggling with how to stop those guys.

[skyhops]

Howard is shooting at an insane level and is almost impossible to guard right now. We still should not have lost that game with the lead we had nor the Providence game.

[kyzrex]

Howard is shooting at an insane level and is almost impossible to guard right now. We still should not have lost that game with the lead we had nor the Providence game.

“We” didn’t...”they” did.

Actually I’m not so much thinking that Xavier “lost” it, as much as I’m thinking Marquette “took” it. Sometimes the Big Dog eats and the little dog goes hungry. Right now X is not the a Big Dog.