I'm very nearly on the edge of just full-on forgetting about Marquette for the season. I have tickets to Friday night's game against Pitt and I think that may be my do-or-die moment.
This team could not be more frustrating to watch. They show flashes of brilliance, which makes the all-the-more-frequent flashes of disaster that much more hard to take.
The only spark of life Marquette showed Saturday against a Notre Dame team they absolutely dismantled earlier in the season was in the final two minutes and it was too little too late. A 13-2 run near the end of the game was certainly impressive. The Golden Eagles were down double-digits for most of the game and just missed a last-second 3 to tie the game and send it into overtime, but a final 2:00 push isn't how you win games.
The plan, apparently, was for Dominic James to make quick layups and then foul the poor-free-throw shooting Irish. But, as was noted in the SI.com roundup of the game, ''At Notre Dame, we're halfway smart, so we can add up and trading two for two is all right,'' Irish forward Luke Zeller said."
The past two weeks it has looked like MU can't buy a basket. Shots are going in and out, layups are missing. Free throws are bricked. Clearly, some of this is on the team, but I'm beginning to think that they're just plain unlucky, as well. For my very uneducated basketball mind, it seems impossible that some of these shots somehow don't find the bottom of the net.
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MU needs to find a way to get out of this slump. James had his first double-digit scoring game in almost a month, so maybe that's the impetus this team needs.
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I must of remarked at least 4 different times Saturday night that the Wisconsin basketball team was playing just like Marquette. Ill-advised threes, no penetration, missed layups and plays that take just a few seconds off the clock and score no points. As both teams played on Saturday, I felt like I was having a serious deja vu moment watching Wisconsin be flat and try to make a last ditch, final 2:00 run to try and be in the game.
