Going into the game against #5 Marquette, the Friars had only lost three games by double digits. Despite one of those coming to start the month of February, the way the Friars were playing lately you felt they’d at least make Wednesday night’s game competitive.
That would not be the case as Marquette jumped on the Friars early and never looked back enroute to a 91-69 loss in Milwaukee. Kim English questioned the effort of his squad in the postgame. While the Crier doesn’t fully agree, there is no question Marquette came out the more locked in team. The loss puts the Friars at 18-10 (9-8) on the year with three remaining regular season games. Let’s take a look at how it all went down.
The Slowest of Slow Starts – On our recent Twitter Space, we said the Friars needed to avoid a sluggish start. My thinking of a sluggish start wasn’t what transpired in the opening minutes at Fiserv Forum. The Friars appeared to be still asleep on the plane.
They missed their first four shots, their first three free throws, and when they weren’t missing shots early they were turning it over. In the first 12 minutes of the game the Friars shot 3/10 (no 2pt FGs) from the floor, 1/4 from the free throw line, with 7 turnovers and giving up 15 points off those turnovers. Just like that the Friars faced a 33-10 deficit. Thats a slow start on a whole different planet of slow starts, and it would be one that’s improbable to overcome.
They say you can turn good defense into offense, which is totally true, but you can also turn terrible offense into bad defense. The lack of shot making and being precise with the basketball led their defense to unravel. The first handful of possessions they were solid on the defensive end, but not scoring points was just demoralizing for a defense facing a great offense. The Friars have figured out the offense for the most part since losing Bryce Hopkins, but they are more susceptible for dud offensive stretches or overall nights. That’s just the reality.
Blue Paint – This might be one of the first games where the play in the paint is what cost the Friars. Marquette outscored PC 32-20 in the paint, and that doesnt tell the whole story. The Friars got their first points in the paint at the 7:33 mark of the first half. That is insane given how productive Josh Oduro has been.
Early on the Friars had zero help defense on drives, and players were getting layups at the rim at will. The strategy to this was probably to stick to shooters cause Marquette can burn you from the perimeter, which they still ended up doing, but everything at the rim became way too easy. Yes, Marquette made 14 threes on a 54% clip but the Friars made 12 at 46%. The three-point line wasn’t what did the Friars in. It was the play in the paint.
Devin Carter’s Peculiar Night– Hand up, I might have jinxed it by saying Devin Carter’s game against Xavier was a “bad game” for his standards. Carter had a rough night in Milwaukee. He’d finish with a more than respectable 18 points, 5 rebounds, and 5 assists but there’s some context here. He had 13 of those points after the Friars trailed 72-47 with under 10 minutes to play. He also had 5 turnovers in this one. Credit to Marquette for sticking to him and making life tough essentially the entire night. We are asking a ton out of him and he’s delivered all year long, but he needs to clean some things up down the stretch of the season. I’m going to bet that he will.
Shout out to Marquette & Ticket Gaines– While this certainly wasn’t the Friars best effort tonight in this one, you do really need to tip your cap to Marquette. Providence was complicit in the loss, sure, but the Golden Eagles played a great game. The shared the basketball well, they shot the ball well, and they were absolutely locked in on defense the entire game. This is a team that’s playing for a 1 seed, and it shows. They have won 11 of 12 games and there’s a reason for that. They create chaos on defense and are the best team in the league scoring off turnovers. This loss isn’t the catastrophic loss some fans may think it is.
I would be reminisced if I didn’t give Ticket Gaines a shout out. He is starting to figure out how to play with the mask and he was the only one who brought the juice from the jump in this game for the Friars. He had 15 points, hit 3 threes, had some key offensive rebounds, and made some plays on the defensive end. Thank you, Ticket.
Next Up
The Friars will wrap up their final three games on Saturday when they host Villanova in the AMP at noon. They then will have a week where they go to Georgetown and finish the year at home vs Connecticut. The goal should be to go 2-1 in these final three. At 20 wins going into the Big East Tournament and with no opportunities to get a bad loss at MSG, the Friars will hear their name called on Selection Sunday.
Saturday is a big one.
Everything went wrong especially in the first half. Kudos to Shaka Smart and Marquette for a game very well played. It will be extremely interesting to see how they will fare against non conference teams in the Big Dance. Looking forward to both torneys. It has become more and more evident how we miss the presence of Bryce Hopkins! Go Friars!