Marquette Basketball Friday Digest

Here's a quick look back at the week that was for the Marquette Warriors who now stand at 14-9 overall and 5-5 in the Big East. With eight regular season games left MU still has a puncher's chance at an NCAA bid though the lack of a quality road win remains an albatross for this bunch. The Warriors are off through next week when they travel to USF on Wednesday, February 9 followed by a trip to Georgetown on Sunday, February 13.

Let's look back on the week that was:

-- MU started the week with a National Marquette Day victory over Syracuse.

-- John Pudner noted that MU's three wins over top-25 RPI teams strengthened MU's NCAA chances while we also noted that the fun with bracketology is just beginning.

-- Dr. Blackheart joined us again for a post about pace and the rest of the schedule -- and rightly figuring that the way teams could continue to break down MU was to manage the pace better. This is something we'll look into again down the line.

-- DJO's fine performances in Big East play deserved attention -- this guy was quite a find by Buzz.

-- The MUTV Sports team rocked it out once again.

-- Heading into Villanova, Pudner figured it would take one of MU's best performances to-date in order to win. I was not confident of a victory but expected a close game. Ultimately Pudner was right, MU didn't play at a high level and fell 75-70 to Villanova.

Additional updates of note:

• Buzz Williams is aggressively recruiting for 2011 roster help through the winter. Todd Mayo, the younger brother of O.J. Mayo, is considering Marquette among a host of other schools. Details on Mayo and his recruitment are here.
• 2012 stud and local product J.P. Tokoto talks about recruiting, Marquette and Buzz Williams with Fox Sports.
  
• Buzz is also active with 2012 kids including 6'10" A.J. Hammons.
• 2011 signee Juan Anderson is featured in this article and video. Check it out.
• When in doubt MU should wear white jerseys. The team is 42-3 in the classic whites since the 2007-2008 season.
• Marquette graduate Steve Novak is looking for a fresh start in the NBA Development League.
• Marquette graduate Wesley Matthews was selected to play in the upcoming NBA Rookie/Sophomore Challenge Game during the NBA All-Star Weekend.

It's beginning to look a lot like...Marquette basketball season

As if the trailer for Marquette Madness didn’t get you excited enough for Friday, there are many other aspects of the Marquette basketball program that have people chirping about this team. I can’t speak from experience because I wasn’t really a fan of Marquette basketball during the Final 4 run and maybe it’s because Twitter and Facebook are bigger than ever, but this seems to be the most hyped team in a while.

Jimmy and DJO played a ton of minutes last season and can only get better with more experience. People are saying great things about Cadougan and we'll hopefully see why he was ranked so high coming out of high school. There's loads of hype about Vander Blue, Jae Crowder, and the rest of the newcomers. The list goes on...

Although I’m going to miss my fellow graduates, I don’t see why Buzz and crew can’t exceed expectations. Again.

With the recent news that 2012 stud recruit J.P Tokoto might also be at the AL Friday night, there is reason to believe that Marquette is getting closer and closer to being one of the nation’s top programs. Sure, just because Tokoto is coming to madness doesn’t mean he’s committing to be a Golden Eagle (he also has Duke, UNC, Kentucky, and Kansas on his radar). But to be mentioned in the same sentence with schools like that is an accomplishment in its own right.

Another positive is that our team is healthy (knock on every piece of wood you can find). Last season at this time, DJO and Cadougan were both down with injuries and were unable to complete boot camp. As far as I know, every member of this squad completed boot camp. Obviously it’s a long season, but it’s nice to have arguments about starting lineups and substitutes compared to lack of depth like we’ve had for a couple years.

To be a homer and include some close friends in this, too, Marquette’s student media features some of the best and brightest minds in terms of current college students. We’ve all seen the work Brad Galli, Todd Warner, and the rest of the MUTV Sports crew put out there. This year, Andrei Greska is the MU Tribune sports editor and will without doubt produce some great material on the men’s basketball team. Andrei kept a blog throughout this summer’s World Cup and currently has a blog about the MU women’s volleyball team. So after every game when you’ve read CS, argued with Chicos on MUScoop, looked at Rosiak’s recap, etc., check out mutvsports.com and marquettetribune.org for their game recaps and next day analysis.

This upcoming season seems to be creating the most buzz I’ve seen in recent years – pun absolutely intended.

I hope to be at madness Friday night and will provide many more updates on twitter at timkraft13.

We Are Marquette.