Another quality opponent, another soul-crushing loss.
Marquette continued its unenviable run of close losses to good teams tonight, falling 77-76 to 24th ranked Vanderbilt in Nashville. The Warriors battled to take a 76-75 lead on Dwight Buycks' jumper with 19 seconds left but surrendered a bucket to the Commodores with 4.1 seconds remaining to set up the final sequence. After an MU timeout Darius Johnson-Odom dribbled furiously up the floor, lost control and turned the ball over to end the game.
Surely Marquette leads the NCAA in last second shots not taken.
With the loss MU falls to 9-4 on the season and heads to Big East play with exactly zero quality out of conference wins. The Warriors host West Virginia on New Year's Day.
Marquette shot an impressive 56% from the floor tonight and held the notable Commodore marksmen to just 26% from deep and 48% overall. Yet MU was unable to create a turnover advantage, connected on only 7 of 13 free throws, and as has been the case all season the Warriors struggled to control the defensive glass in key spots.
MU was led by Jimmy Butler with 15 points. Darius Johnson-Odom added 14, Buycks had 14, Chris Otule had a dozen while Vander Blue finished with 10 points.
Todd Rosiak blogs a recap.
Box Score.
Wednesday, December 29, 2010
Commodores edge Warriors in Nashville
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2 comments:
Should we who follow Marquette basketball be surprised by this outcome? The answer is: no. Marquette has been and may well be the forever the, "almost pulled out the victory team".
MU's in ability to start off strong and ultimately close a game will always keep us in the middle of the BE pack. That is a fact. We don't build big leads and destroy teams and we don't win the close one's. What is there for other teams to fear? 0-4 in non-conference play is the resume of an NIT (if we are lucky team).
Fortunately, we have a stacked BE and can redeem ourselves, but I have hardly any confidence we can win the games we're supposed to, let alone, pull out an upset.
The players have taken most of my blame, but now I'm starting to focus the blame on Buzz. Strategy is the coaches focus - does he have one?
Who gives a shit about being 2nd or 3rd.
Geez, James, you exude optimism and confidence. Until such time as you have something constructive to say, rather than whinney negative energy that permeates your comments, suggest you give it, and all of us, a rest.
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