For tonight's Marquette game against Louisville, I had to go to a local Eau Claire establishment because the game was on ESPNU and like a bunch of communists, the station is not for all of us to see. The worried level, which I described in my last Marquette post was at about 9.5 to start this game. I have seen Reece Gaines, Francisco Garcia, and Jerry Smith hit game-winning three-pointers at the buzzer in the Bradley Center. The Smith three sucked more than the others just because he played for rival high school Tosa East and memories of him destroying Tosa West were still very fresh.
This is probably why the Warriors 68-49 victory felt so sweet today. I love beating the shit out of Rick Pitno who has won the last seven of eight games against Marquette and I love sending Edgar Sosa, a nine year senior with a defeat. Overall, there were a lot of good things I took away from this game.
I love the fact Marquette found a way to keep a huge lead without Lazar Hayward and Jimmy Butler for long durations of the game. In addition, Zar was only 2/14 and Jimmy was 2/4, poor nights from both of them and they still won by 21! This is something that I do not think the Golden Eagles would have been able to do in the month of January. This something that can prove to be important in the coming weeks. I will also let you know the big reason why this happened?
Defense. Marquette played probably one of their best defense games in the last two to three years. I cannot remember off the top of head when the Golden Eagles played this strong on defense. Some stats for you from the game... shot 37% from the field, only shot 2 free throws all game, 17 turnovers, and NO Cardinal had double-figures. Just a fantastic effort by the boys from Milwaukee.
Player of the game had to be Darius Johnson-Odom who I am starting to get that feeling I got with guys like Dwyane Wade, Jerel McNeal, Wes Matthews, and Dominic James at certain points of their careers. I feel like every shot is going in and trust he will make the right the decision for the team. DJO has another couple years left at Marquette and the combination of Vander Blue/DJO next year is just scary. Scarier than James and McNeal in terms of potential-wise.
I had to call my buddy Mach after the game and asked how good this Marquette team is? He didn't really have a correct answer for me and I didn't expect him to. But honest to Al McGuire, I think Marquette could make a Sweet 16 run in the tournament with the right formula of teams in the first and second round. I believe they are a lock in the tournament. Even if they lose against Notre Dame, and somehow lay an egg in the first round, it's pretty hard to keep out a top 5 team in the Big East. I personally would like to avoid 8 and 9 seed, rather have them play at either 7 or 10 therefore playing a 2 in the second round. Wherever the pieces fall, I am excited to see Marquette in the round of 64 especially when I never expected them to be there.
-Charlie.
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