Gloomy Video

Again, props to SoCalwarrior for shooting some footage. Filed under "sad but true."

Post-Game - Video Closure

Sorry, we at Cracked Sidewalks have been too bummed to write much about yesterday's loss to Stanford. You all watched the game anyhow. What are we going to tell you? That McNeal is a stud? That the Lopez twins are great players but need to keep their mouths shut? Like you didn't know that.

I'm sure if our heartbreak mends today, we'll write something later. Maybe a few dozen Cadbury bunnies will clear up our angst.

In the meantime..

Tom Crean didn't make it on Homer's radio broadcast, and ESPNNews didn't carry the MU press conference after the game. After Tivo-ing every news broadcast I could find, to hear something from the team, I've got this.

Here's some closure for you:

MU Ends Season with Thumping at Syracuse

Marquette, a pre-season Top 10 team, was picked to compete for the Big East Title, instead ended the season with a whimper, losing at Syracuse by fifteen, 87-72.

Marquette could not stop Syracuse's starters, two of whom hit 20+ points, and 4 hit double digits. Syracuse shot a blistering 58%. On the other side of the court, Syracuse served up a 2-3 zone that, for the 800th time, has proven to be Marquette's kryptonite.

Jerel McNeal had 22 points and 6 rebounds, the only bright spot for Marquette.

While my prediction to finish the BE season 11-7 was derided as pessimistic the time, it turned out to be spot on. Marquette returned their entire 10-6 team from last year, but the team I observed in practices and pre-season scrimmages this year appeared to have the exact same strengths and weaknesses as last year's squad. Same team = same results.

However .. while the team met my "expectations" I am disappointed, as they were low expectations. 5 of our 7 BE losses were blowout-double-digit thumpings. 9 of our 11 wins came against the lower half of the Big East. While we had no "bad" losses, we had few wins versus quality teams, winning 3 of 11 games versus Top 50, a stat that does not bode well for the NCAA Tournament.

Many thought we'd compete for the Big East Title. Instead, we ended firmly in the middle of the pack. Three years of the "Big 3" have gained us a 4th place finish, 5th place, and now 6th place. Time is slipping away.

Marquette has locked up the #6 seed in the BET, and should play 8pm CST on Wednesday, most likely versus Seton Hall, who MU beat twice this year. A second round matchup versus Notre Dame is predicted, which is much better than if we were a #5 seed, playing UConn in the 2nd round

AP Wrap / Official Box / Play by Play

MU Loses @ Notre Dame

Marquette loses another on the road.

Marquette trailed Notre Dame for most of the game, down 10 with 2:34 to play, heading for a double-digit loss. Playing inspired offense and defense down those last 2 minutes, MU nearly tied the game on a last second shot, but fell short. Final score, 86-83 bad guys.

Dominic James led the Warriors with 23 points, scoring 10 in the final 2 minutes of play, with ND playing soft. Lazar Hayward had 21 points and 11 rebounds for a double-double. One sore spot was Jerel McNeal's play, who went 3-15 and missed a layup/dunk attempt while completely unguarded. The Ooze also had a tough day, going 1-9, although he did snag 12 rebounds.

While Marquette still might have lost, the officiating was lopsided, to say the least. The refs awarded Notre Dame 31 free throws to MU's 8, and blew some obvious calls, most notably, a kicked ball that a ref called an over-and-back violation, giving ND the ball.

No one should be surprised Marquette couldn't pull off a victory at Notre Dame today. ND has a 33 game home winning streak (which began after a MU victory 2 years ago). MU was a 5 point dog. MU was 1-3 on the road in the Big East. Notre Dame, while picked to finish 9th in the Big East, is easily one of the top 4 teams in the Big East, and are #21 in the country. It was a game we were supposed to lose, and if there's a bright side, played hard in the 2nd half and weren't blown out like our other road losses.

With the loss, Marquette is solidly in the middle of the Big East, at 6-5 and is on the road to Seton Hall on Tuesday.

For the record, I am now 11 for 11 in picking BE games for CS's pre-season predictions. Let's hope that's right down the stretch, winning 6 of the last 8 games. Hope, hope, hope.

• AP Wrap / Official Box / Play by Play

Marquette Road Woes Continue

Marquette was easily beaten by the UConn Huskies today, 89-73. Don't let the 16 point gap fool you. This game wasn't close. When down by 29, Marquette scored 35 points, nearly half their total, in the final 9 minutes to narrow the gap.

Marquette's shooting woes continued for the first 30 minutes of the game, shooting around 28%. As UConn had a 20+ point lead, MU hit a number of late 3 pointers to make their final numbers a respectable 40% from the field and 47% from long range.

Road wins are tough to come by in the Big East. 43 games have been played, only 9 visitors have left the court with a victory. And 5 of those wins were against the 4 worst teams in the BE. We were 3 point underdogs, on the road, half of us predicted this as a loss, and surprise, we lost.

HOWEVER. Marquette's performance during the last two games, road games indeed, has been dismal. UL shot 49% and UConn 54%. MU has been out-rebounded 5 straight games now, with a whopping -11 today. Our game of slash to the basket hasn't worked with enough efficiency to actually win games. Ooze and Burke have a grand total of zero points, 7 rebounds, and 11 fouls between them in the last two games.

In short, while our last two games have been on the road and were expected losses, it's the way we've lost that's most troubling.

Marquette has 6 days off, then plays DePaul on Saturday night at the Bradley Center.

AP Recap / Box / Play by Play

MU Lays Powder Blue Egg @UL

Marquette rolled out its 4th uniform of the year for a big road game versus Louisville on national TV. If you like that color, it was the only bright spot of the game. The Cardinals owned Marquette tonight, with a final score of 71-51.

In short, Marquette couldn't shoot and couldn't rebound. MU hit a meager 30% from the field, and big goose-egg 0-12 from behind the arc.

UL out-rebounded MU by 13. Marquette has a serious rebounding problem, being bested by 13, 10, 4, and 12 over the past 4 games.

Finding a player of the game for Marquette is tough. McNeal had 16 points on 7-17 shooting .. but he also had a whopping 7 turnovers. Blackledge is my personal best off the bench winner. He's consistently added energy on both ends of the floor for several games now, and one wonders why he isn't getting more minutes.

To add injury to insult, Dominic James, in an off-balance attempt at a circus shot, braced his fall and re-injured his bad wrist. No report has been filed on his condition, but with the UConn game three days away, on the road, I would be surprised if DJ heals in time.

So, what does this all mean? Losing at Louisville is not surprising. None of us here at CS predicted this game as win. However, something is to be said about the way in which we lost. Horrendous shooting from long, medium, and short range, which was nearly the opposite of MU's performance 5 days ago vs. Notre Dame. Being out-rebounded each and every game, however, is more of a concern. We've gone .500 being out-rebounded, and I'd expect that to continue if it isn't addressed.

AP Recap / Box / Play by Play

Try, try again

Apologies for the less-than-timely update on last night's loss.....back to back late nights with work sandwiched in between can get in the way of blogging (sadly).

Anyway, Pitt finally broke through and topped Marquette this season with a 89-79 win in the quarterfinals of the Big East Tournament. With the loss, MU falls to 24-9 on the season and now looks to Selection Sunday. According to the Bracket Project figures, MU could be slotted as a dreaded 5 seed. Gimme a 6, please, gimme a 6!

Back to the game. Aaron Gray dominated the lane last night ending up with 22 points and 10 boards (six on the offensive end). Honestly it felt like he scored 40 points last night-- MU had no answer for the assertive Pitt center.

Pitt's efficient offense extended beyond Gray's big night -- I'd love to see the shot chart for the Panthers. I'd guess that in the first half, 70%-80% of the Panthers points came from inside the lane (or at least from within 12 feet of the basket). Things didn't seem to change much in the second half as the Panthers displayed new-found aggressiveness in attacking the basket with just about every player on the floor. For the game, Pitt shot nearly 50% from the field -- and seemed to do just about anything they wanted to do offensively.

Despite the Panthers' effectiveness on offense, MU was able to stay within striking distance for most of the night. With the Panthers overplaying every James drive, MU's offensive rhythm was choppy at best but Dan Fitzgerald's hot hand, Lazar Hayward's soft touch, and Ousmane Barro's ability to finish kept the Golden Eagles in the mix for most of the night.

Everything was labored on offense for MU. With only one player who can drive and dish, Pitt overplayed James in the lane realizing that for any kick-out ,MU had no player who could take advantage of an opening and create a scoring opportunity off the dribble. Pitt was able to rotate and recover defensively on any James move to the basket. Save a few nice layups by Barro on DJ passes or a handful of curls from Hayward, Matthews and Fitz the Golden Eagles were unable to get the Panthers' defense on its heels. In short, MU missed McNeal a ton tonight on both ends of the floor.

MU was led by the sublime play of Dan Fitzgerald who had 20 points and four rebounds. Fitz is positively dialed in from deep, hitting 50% of his attempts from downtown (4-8). With McNeal sidelined, Fitz has clearly stepped up his game. Impressive.

James recovered from Wednesday night's lousy shooting performance to score 16 points on 5-for-12 from the floor, including 2-8 from deep. Still, in two Big East Tournament games, DJ was a disappointing 2-17 from three-point territory.

A few other Big East Tournament observations:

• Pitt fans travel VERY WELL to MSG -- nice job by their fan base. I was proud of the MU contingent last night though -- the atmosphere at MSG was fantastic despite the long wait for the opening tip. While that WVU/Louisville game was an instant classic - it needed to end so that we could get to the main event.
• Pitt fans....handled themselves well last night. In general, most Big East fan bases are respectful and smart. With one notable exception which I'll get to.
  
• Cubillan is a nice player -- but he's not a PG. Still, MU has lacked an effective combo guard in past seasons......Cuby is a keeper.
• Lazar Hayward's improvement since I last saw him in-person back in January is remarkable. The kid must be a very hard worker in practice.
• First Novak, now Fitzgerald. If you were a big man with a terrific outside shot -- why go anywhere else?
• James. Look, he's in a shooting slump but I think that his shot selection in the pair of games out here was pretty good. Absent McNeal, the game is much more difficult for DJ -- nobody else on the team can get to the rim off the dribble. He played another good floor game last night, particularly when he was able to find an open man in the lane.
• Notre Dame fans are a$$holes. At least the three turds in my section. The classy Cuse fans in our section took so much abuse from a couple of Domer hoops 'diehards' -- what a joke. Act like you've been there before. Good luck to the 'Cuse next weekend.
• Wesley Matthews is darn near a defensive liability. Heck, he is when the offensive player can put the ball on the floor -- something that surprised me here at MSG.
  
• The Ville/WVU game was awesome.
• MU Alumni Office and Blue and Gold Fund -- nice job this week!
• MU fans -- we need more of you out here in NYC for this event. Keep it in mind for next year.
• As noted in one of the comments below, folks in the crowd generally like Marquette. I noticed this last year too -- the atmosphere at MSG is positive. And its a great place to see a game.
  

much more to come.......

MEDIA UPDATE

• Here's a good thread on the loss and what it might mean. Good job by MUScoop.
  
• Rosiak's recap -- focused on Aaron Gray's big night.
• Chicago Sun Times.
• Associated Press.
• box score.
• PittBlather's recap. (thanks for the outlink/kudos, Chas)
  
• PittBlather's open thread from the game.
• Newsday.
• Pittsbugh Tribune-Review.
• Ken Pomeroy on the performance of fatigued teams.

Marquette loses to Notre Dame. Buh-Bye, Bye.

Marquette lost to Notre Dame today, 85-73, officially ending MU's bid for a second consecutive bye in the Big East Tournament.

Marquette started very strong, building a 13 point lead in the first half, but due to foul trouble, faded quickly.


It was an angry game, as Coach Crean was livid about a push and non-call, needing to be restrained by Coach Rab, nearly earning a Technical. DJ later received a T, as did Fitz.

Marquette has now lost 4 of its last 5 games, heading into the season finale with Pittsburgh at the Bradley Center next Saturday.

This post will be revised later, as the sting of losing to Notre Dame subsides.

AP Recap
GoMarquette Recap
Official Box Score
Marquette Photo Gallery

Heartbreak deja vu

Each time Marquette plays Louisville, Bradley Center faithful shave one year off their life expectancy. Tonight was no different.

There's not much more to say other than we had built a 7 point lead at the exact time you want it: with a few minutes left in the game. But over the last 4:37, Marquette would only manage 4 measly points, while UL scored 13, including a last second bomb from Milwaukee native Jerry Smith at the buzzer. Heartbreak. Jerry Smith is the new Reese Gaines, killing Marquette at the buzzer.

I received a Marquette mailing today which contained the ticket forms for post-season play. I think MU might have irritated the basketball gods and jinxed itself by not including the customary NIT ticket forms, believing Marquette was headed for the big dance. With a 3 game losing streak going into 3 tough games (Nova, @ND, Pitt), Marquette needs at least one, or perhaps two to seal a bid. This was unthinkable just 8 short days ago. With 8 teams with .500+ records in the BE, someone is going to be Not In Tournament. -- We need some wins.

I have nothing more to say. It was a completely heartbreaking loss.

GoMarquette Recap -- Box Score

Game Photos I took from my seat