Sunday, December 9, 2007

Marquette 81, Wisconsin 76

Even the biggest Badger homers knew they would struggle with Marquette's quickness and athleticism...but struggle with their Bigs? How about a combine 21 points and 13 boards from Dwight Burke and Ooze Barro?? I thought the Badgers had the size? Burke was especially effective with 12 and 9 (7 offensive) in only 17 minutes! Then again, outworking Butch in the paint is as easy as Matt polishing off a gin and tonic. Actually, Butch played an outstanding first half. I've never seen him play better, in fact. Then....what's this, Crean with a halftime adjustment? Butch was quieted in the second half.

You saw the good Dominic on Saturday. He did nothing but make plays...and talk junk with Trevon, who seemed to be out of sync all day. MU is just deeper (UW only plays like 7 guys), more athletic, and more experienced at the point guard position. I'll bet no visitor has scored 81 at the Kohl Center in the Bo era. Heck, even go back through the Bennett/Sodaburg era too.

Alas, Butch seemed happy with the improvement the Badgers made since the Duke debacle. Sounds like he's counting on moral victories this year...got to be happy with that Badger fans. What a ninny. From the WSJ:

"Even though it's a loss, we realize that we made some steps," Butch said. "You even look back at the Duke game, we didn't really compete that game. We competed, but it wasn't a strong effort. Here, we were making steps forward and that's a nice thing to see. You can see that guys are playing harder and we're getting smarter with some decisions. We still need to get a little bit better with them."

9 comments:

Anonymous said...

The Josh Howard-led Wake Forest team won 90-80 at the Kohl a few years back. I believe this is only the second home loss under Ryan where the Badgers scored more than 70 points.

Anonymous said...

I'm pretty sure Burke and Barro were not the reason that Marquette won. Nice try though.

If Bucky makes free throws, its just another ho-hum win over the Gold. They're young at a key position (PG), but they'll be OK by tournament time.

Anonymous said...

How about the Gold getting more offensive rebounds (21) than UW had defensive (18)?

Anonymous said...

"If Bucky makes free throws" If UW wasn't in the double bonus with 12 minutes left, they wouldn't be shooting these free throws. How does Marquette end up with 5 more fouls than UW, even though UW had to foul left and right the last 2 minutes?

woziszeus said...

Refs were clearly favoring Bucky in that game. Nothing like being in the double bonus with 12 minutes left.

What happened to Butch in the second half? Did he get hurt?

Travon Hughes has a lot of growing up to do...

Anonymous said...

The Gold gets called for a lot of fouls because that's how they play defense - reaching and grabbing and guessing and gambling.

Anonymous said...

How come nobody was in foul trouble vs Duke...for either side. Even though both teams gamble and reach and play pressure D?

Anonymous said...

Matt, there is no point in trying to rationalize with Marquette fans.

Anonymous said...

If you want to talk about bad officiating, check out the end of the Bucks game yesterday.

Most people know that I don't like Marquette. I really dislike them one game a year and the rest of the year, could rellly give a crap about them.

This year, they are a superior team to Wisconsin. The key was the Badgers inability to stop the penetration. This got the defenders inside all out of position, leading to easy layups and easy opportunities for put-backs for Marquette.

Marquette was much quicker and came up with every loose ball.

I thought the Badgers looked decent and as guys start to find their niche, this team will be a solid 7 seed in the NCAAs.

I thought the game really turned with about 5 minutes to go and Stiemsma turned the ball over on back to back possessions.

In terms of the fouls, how many of those Marquette fouls do people think were not fouls?

Seriously, watch the two teams play. Wisconsin uses their bodies to defend and gain position while Marquette pressures the ball more and goes for steals.

Refs are going to call more fouls when the see hands reaching in than when the see people bumping each other.