2023-24 Marquette Basketball Thread

[patrickgpe]

4 hours ago, HarryDoyle said:

Kolek will miss tonight's Big East Tournament opener and is most likely out the entire weekend. We really need him back healthy for March Madness. That would be a huge blow not to have him and would suck for him to end his college career that way.

Smart expects him to play in the tournament. Its no biggie if he misses this weekend. Even if they somehow lose to Nova they are a 3 at worst.

[LouisEly]

The tournament committee has been good about understanding when teams have been missing star players and how that has affected their records.  The biggest threat to them dropping to a 4-seed would be the teams immediately below them in the rankings (Duke, Auburn, Illinois, Baylor) sweeping through their conference tournaments with ease.  Illinois has looked like that lately, but all four of those teams are in different conferences so it could be possible.

If Kolek is healthy it might be good for him to get a few minutes to not get rusty, but there isn't a need for him to play if he isn't ready. 

[HarryDoyle]

Creighton goes down. Take care of business tonight and we get Providence.

[patrickgpe]

41 minutes ago, HarryDoyle said:

Creighton goes down. Take care of business tonight and we get Providence.

If Marquette can win tonight, the case for a 2 or 3 is strengthened with Creighton losing 

[HarryDoyle]

Great job to weather the storm in the second half. Give Providence credit, they played great defense to get back in the game and had us playing frantically. I tell you what though. Providence must have the worst hair in college basketball.

[folly412]

Nice to win these two without Kolek against desperate teams that both may have needed to win to get in.

We never even made it to a single Big East Tournament championship game before Shaka.  Now back for the second year in a row.  Ending the long-standing tradition of Marquette crapping the bed in the conference tournament is one of his nicest accomplishments.  There's something about getting that Saturday night game in the Garden.

[HarryDoyle]

So it's Western Kentucky with a potential second round matchup with Florida. I feel good about a Sweet 16 berth.

[nate82]

19 minutes ago, HarryDoyle said:

So it's Western Kentucky with a potential second round matchup with Florida. I feel good about a Sweet 16 berth.

As long as the offense doesn't do its normal 6 minutes of no scoring.  Though both of those games look to be an easy match up.  But this team at times decides to go in an absolute funk offensively and you can't do that in the tourney. 

[patrickgpe]

My initial reaction is that Marquette got a very favorable draw. Last year getting Michigan State in the 2bd scared me. I think they should get to the sweet 16. Kentucky is a tough prospective sweet 16 matchup. I’m glad UCONN and Purdue wasn’t the 1 in their bracket as well. 

[HarryDoyle]

Game is Friday 1:00 on TBS. Kevin Harlan is the play by play man, which is a big positive.

 

[RedStickBrew]

I’m pretty happy with the draw if I’m Marquette. Should be pretty smooth sailing until the elite 8 IMO. Florida had a big injury today and the potential matchup with Kentucky favors Marquette. The only question is Kolek’s health but he should be well rested by now

[nate82]

25 minutes ago, RedStickBrew said:

I’m pretty happy with the draw if I’m Marquette. Should be pretty smooth sailing until the elite 8 IMO. Florida had a big injury today and the potential matchup with Kentucky favors Marquette. The only question is Kolek’s health but he should be well rested by now

He is reportedly suppose to be ready to go for Friday. 

[patrickgpe]

Marquette has been a 2nd half team all season and today was no different. Move on and advance somehow is all you have to do. 

[HarryDoyle]

Not sure what happened that first half since I didn't get back from work until halftime, but it was good to see them buckle down and take care of business in the second half.

[RedStickBrew]

Solid start for Marquette today. Playing well on both ends so far

[HarryDoyle]

The offense is playing out of it's mind today. How refreshing to see.

[HarryDoyle]

Credit to Colorado for keeping it within six or seven points most of the half until that last spurt. This almost feels like this should be a blowout, but I don't expect Marquette to continue to shoot 70%.

[HarryDoyle]

This turned into an exciting game. DeSilva has went off and Marquette has given up too many offensive rebounds. Hope we can hang on to this one.

[HarryDoyle]

Nice gut check win. NC State next. Hopefully they'll finally come down to Earth.

[RedStickBrew]

1 minute ago, HarryDoyle said:

Nice gut check win. NC State next. Hopefully they'll finally come down to Earth.

I think NC State is an easier matchup than Colorado. Iggy will need to show up on D. I think they’ll get it done

[Joseph Zarr]

Gotta feel good about this Sweet 16 matchup regardless of how NC State has been rolling. This is an incredible opportunity to get to the Elite 8. Love it for Marquette and the Marquette faithful. Love it for Shaka Smart and his team.

[Cool Hand Lucroy]

Big congrats to the MU fans. FUN team, grab another 4-5 days for Kolek. 

Rooting for them to come out of the South. I'll take a Big East tourney in the FF just to stick it to all the football schools.

[patrickgpe]

All 3 teams making it through would be awesome and isn't far fetched. 

There has been criticism that the BE hasn't played any schools ranked lower than 8 seed, but its not there fault obviously. And since all 3 teams that got in got top 3 seeds, they were going to get a high seed in R1 and in R2 Creighton and MU's opponents were upsets in R1.  Obviously things get harder in the Sweet 16, but I am happy with NC State as MU's opponent. 

[stoutdude04]

Im in first in a 20$ 86 person pool - I have Marquette going to the ship against UCONN.  I would really like for them to play well. :)

[HarryDoyle]

4 minutes ago, stoutdude04 said:

Im in first in a 20$ 86 person pool - I have Marquette going to the ship against UCONN.  I would really like for them to play well. :)

So you didn't pick them to beat UConn then?