I've been surprised at the number of people who believe MU did not have a good defense in 2019, and turning it into one of the "unfair" attacks against Wojo. I lined up a comparison of Marquette's defense against a mystery team so you can do a blind test.
I know the table is not that easy to read, but the overall top number is Ken Pomeroy's master calculation - adjusting how many points are allowed per 100 trips adjusted for the opposing offenses.
Clearly from the outset MU was much better than the other team, and in fact the mystery team played in an era in which fewer points were scored, so MU was the 45th best defense in the land compared to a very mediocre 109th.
MU was elite on the most important stat, holding opponents to only 46 percent eFG% (effective Field Goal percentage, which gives teams and extra half "shot made" for 3-pointers) - so Wojo had excellent defense. MU was also a very good defensive rebounding team at 81st in the country while the mystery team was one of the worst. MU was the better shot blocking team.
The only place the mystery team was better was at steals due to one player being very good at steals, though other than that both teams had very few steals (often the trade off when you shut down opponents' shooting like MU did this year or Wisconsin does many years).
So anyone going into a game would much rather have Wojo's excellent defense than the very poor defense of Team A. And Team A is ... (go below chart)
| Category | Team A | MU | |
|---|---|---|---|
| Adj. Efficiency | 99.2 109 | 96.7 45 | Team a much worse than MU at overall defense, adjusted for opponents. |
| Four Factors | |||
| Effective FG%: | 47.3 75 | 46.3 18 | MU much better at denying opponents shots. |
| Turnover %: | 18.1 306 | 16.6 297 | Both teams terrible at forcing turnovers, MU a few spots better. |
| Off. Reb. %: | 34.3 251 | 26.1 81 | MU way above average on defensive glass, while Team A much worse than average when they played. |
| FTA/FGA: | 32.5 75 | 35.9 252 | Only thing Team A better at is not fouling, and slightly better at steals. |
| Misc | |||
| 3P%: | 33.2 85 | 32.4 65 | MU slightly better at denying 3-pointers. |
| 2P%: | 45.9 76 | 45.1 19 | MU much better (19th) at stopping 2 pointers, though Team A played when 2-pt % much lower. |
| FT%: | 69.2 146 | 67.9 38 | The one we joke about - FT defense - teams shot terrible free throw percentage against MU :-) |
| Block%: | 9.1 126 | 11.2 81 | MU much better at blocking shots. |
| Steal%: | 8.8 249 | 6.9 325 | Both terrible at steals, though Team A better due to one player who was great at steals. |
... the awful defensive unit of the 2003 Final Four Marquette team.
I realized just how bad that defense was when playing the game I invented with 42 great teams, and realizing how bad MU's 2003 defense was compared to other great teams and then realizing they were just bad compared to most major conference teams.
Obviously having the No. 2 offense in the country and the most dominant player in the tournament in Dwyane Wade covered up a very poor defensive team, but to those who keep pretending Wojo did not put a very good defensive unit on the floor are simply deniers.
Those who say watching Ja Morant, the likely No. 2 pick in the upcoming NBA draft, destroy MU's defense proves the former National Defensive Player of the Year Wojo is not a good defensive coach should go back and look at Kansas running a first half track meet against MU in the Final 4. Did that one game prove that MU 2003 really wasn't a great team and that the wins over three of the top 6 teams in the country culminating with the win over No. 1 Kentucky did not really mean anything.
If you are willing to look at facts, Wojo put the most improved defensive unit in the country on the floor last year, and this is a sign of good things to come.
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