Bizarro Big East continued in full effect on Friday night in Morgantown. This was a game that most Marquette fans were dreading from the get-go. Nothing says loss like: 1) Less than 48 hour turnaround for a road game 2) A desperate home team fighting for their NCAA tournament lives 3) 0-4 all-time record in Morgantown and 4) visions of Mike Gansey in his gray Hanes T-shirt raining threes.

But wait, there's more. Less than a half hour before game time, news broke via Jim McIlvaine's Twitter account that Darius Johnson-Odom, Vander Blue and Junior Cadougan were suspended for the first half and Todd Mayo was suspended for the second half. This had all the makings of a classic beat down.

Fortunately for Marquette, the first 10 minutes of the game more closely resembled an 8^th grade girls' game with numerous turnovers, air balls and bricks. Jamil Wilson led the charge with 8 points and the game was tied 13-13 at the half's mid-point.

West Virginia finally took advantage of MU's inexperience in the final 10 minutes, going on a 15-4 run capped by two 3-pointers from Truck Bryant. When all was said and done, Marquette was down 32-21 at the half. West Virginia was +8 in second chance points and had a +10 rebounding advantage.

The second half, awards and a special GIF after the jump.

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You might remember that about a month ago, our formerly fearless leader and perpetual Nattering Nabob of Negativity, Rubie Q, took his talents to the nursery. The post was too long for me to read front to back, but from the little bit that I skimmed, I gathered the following: something something twins something something busy babies diapers something something lazy something something sabbatical.

Anyway, Rubie's sabbatical started January 6, 2012.

Then, about a week later, this happened:

Danny Pudi, as you probably know, is one of the most famous Marquette basketball fans alive, in addition to being the funniest half-Polish, half-Indian actor in the history of Hollywood. He's also on Community, which doesn't really have much to do with this story, other than giving me an excuse to link to this gif of Alison Brie running.

With the news of the birth of the Babies Pudi, a couple of enterprising amateur Columbos tried to connect the dots:

• Rubie takes a break from the blog on January 6 because his wife is having twins.
  
• Rubie is a Marquette basketball fan.
• Rubie's name isn't actually Rubie.
• Danny Pudi's wife gives birth to twins on January 12.
• DANNY PUDI IS A MARQUETTE BASKETBALL FAN, TOO.

The whispers started soon after, gained some steam, and then finally reached a fever pitch: Could it be that the man behind the Rubie Q curtain is actually mega-superstar Danny Pudi?

We mobilized the Anonymous Eagle Bureau of Nonsensical Investigations to get to the bottom of things.

After the jump, the investigation continues: is Rubie Q actually Danny Pudi?

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Starters, stats, and and beer for weekday day-drinking, after the jump.

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Another game, another Jekyll and Hyde performance for your Marquette Golden Eagles. This time, the good guys showed up in the second half and absolutely blew the doors off the St. John's Red Storm.

Let's get the first half out the way first. Jae Crowder continued to find foul trouble with a foul only 24 seconds into the game. After his second foul at the 16:42 mark, it was back to the bench for the Absolut Weapon.

With Crowder on the bench, Marquette struggled to defend down low, giving up multiple deep touches to God'sgift Achiuwa and Moe Harkless. Davante Gardner was also getting lost on high screens and St John's had multiple easy looks at the bucket. Fortunately for MU, the Johnnies missed on multiple no-footers and couldn't extend the lead.

Marquette led 12-11 when Darius Johnson-Odom went to the bench with his second foul. It was officially "uh-oh" time for Marquette fans. St. John's seized the opportunity and spun off an 8-0 run to take an 18-12 before the cavalry returned.

Marquette steadied for the rest of the half, getting 14 points from Davante Gardner as Crowder and DJO rotated out of the game to protect against a third foul. When all was said and done, St. John's held a 32-31 lead at the break.

The fun second half recap and awards after the jump!

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You know the routine: starters, stats, and beer, after the jump.

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Starters, stats, and beer, after the jump.

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Marquette tuned up for Saturday's showdown in Madison with an ultimately easy 88-56 win over Jacksonville on Monday night at the Bradley Center.  Jae Crowder led MU with 27 points as MU shot the lights out from the field, shooting 58.5% overall and 56.3% from 3-point land.

YOUR Golden Eagles shrugged off a slow, and at times uninspired, start to pull away late in the first half.  Jacksonville actually held a 23-22 lead at the 5:30 mark of the first half on the strength of 5-9 shooting from three point range.  MU then seized control and closed out the half on a 15-5 run to lead 37-28 at the break.  The run was punctuated by a fadeaway three from Darius Johnson-Odom as the buzzer sounded.

The 2^nd half was all Golden Eagles.  A 17-2 run in just under 3 minutes extended the Marquette lead to 62-37 at the under 12 TV timeout.  Jae Crowder did his best DJO impersonation, scoring 10 of those points as Marquette tore through Jacksonville's putrid zone defense.  Crowder had another 8 point outburst in just over a minute, punctuated by a "Seriously, ya'll can't even feign defense?" 3-pointer from the top of the key to close out his scoring.

DJO chipped in with his standard issue 19 points on 7-12 shooting.  Todd Mayo continued to impress with 14 points on 4-6 shooting from the floor and 5-6 from the charity stripe.  Finally, we are getting used to Junior Cadougan's yeoman's work at the point.  Our favorite Canadian dished out 5 assists to one turnover and scored 9 points on 4-6 shooting.

More thoughts and awards after the break!

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Chris Otule comes into his redshirt junior season as the likely starter at the 5 spot.  The Richmond, Texas native came to Milwaukee as a big man project in the 2008-'09 season.  After missing the first 10 games of his career with a foot injury, he played in only nine games and made a limited impact.  Another foot injury ended his would-be sophomore season after only three games.

Otule was a big unknown coming into the 2010-'11 season, but delivered an improved campaign, displaying occasional flashes of defensive dominance.  Chris averaged 5.1 points and 3.6 rebounds a contest while averaging 18 minutes.  Buzz Williams clearly gained confidence in Otule as the season wore on as he averaged 20 minutes during Big East play despite frequent bouts of foul trouble. 

Looking ahead to 2011-'12, Otule should battle Davante Gardner for playing time, but will likely garner more run do to his edge defensively.  Otule can block shots and generally does a better job of making his man earn points.

Chris is more limited offensively than Davante, but showed nice progress in getting his defender on his back and earning the entry pass.  Free throws continue to be a struggle for the big man.  Improving on his career 54% FT shooting is crucial to increasing his offensive contributions.

Minimum Expectations:

Otule logs 20+ minutes a game and continues his improved defensive play.  Averaging 8 points and 5 boards a game is certainly attainable and expected.

In My Wildest Dreams:

Otule becomes a dominating force down low, leading the Big East in blocked shots.  The steadying force down low allows the guards and wings to take a few more defensive risks on the perimeter, increasing overall steal and turnover numbers.  On the offensive side, Otule consistently finishes around the basket and averages 12 and 7.

In My Worst Nightmare:

Big men with a history of foot problems scare me.  The worst nightmare is Otule going down again with another foot injury, putting all the low-post pressure on Davante Gardner.

In the land of the all-guard offense, the offensively skilled big man is king.  Davante Gardner arrived at Marquette as a relatively under the radar guy with a big body.  Around these parts, that's enough to pique everyone's interest and expectations.  

After pouring in 17 in the 2010-2011 season opener and sparking MU to a comeback win over Bucknell in the second game, the fanbase was clamoring for more and assigning a plethora of nicknames:  Ox, The Artist, etc.  Solid offensive efforts against Duke, Wisconsin and Green Bay continued the excitement. 

Run was much more difficult to come by once Big East play rolled around and Chris Otule more firmly established himself at the 5 spot.  Davante didn't log double digit minutes until the 12^th Big East game at Georgetown.  He took the most of his opportunity and scored 12 points on 4-6 shooting and 4-5 from the line before fouling out. 

Learn more about Davante Gardner after the jump.

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Why We Are Here

You can whine, you can lament or you can accept the not so new reality of college sports.  Whatever your reaction, welcome to a high stakes game of musical chairs.  Why is this music playing and why are all these schools walking around the chairs?  Television and the DVR (or TiVo if you are so inclined). 

The DVR has enabled folks to skip past all the commercials they desire.  This has lowered the value of those commercials.  Sports is fairly DVR proof, which improves the value of those commercial rates relative (oh, Buzz) to standard programming.  Sports are also fairly cheap to produce and highly dependable because there are no Charlie Sheen incidents and show cancellations.  This is why ABC/ESPN and others are willing to shell out increasingly large payments for sports rights. 

Television is the ultimate cause, but the proximate cause is fear.  Nebraska fretted about the long term stability of the Big XII.  Syracuse and Pitt rightfully fretted about the stability of the Big East.  We've reached the point where conference commissioners and schools are acting out of fear because they don't want to be Dan Beebe or Iowa State when the music stops.  This is doubly important for any football playing school.  If you are not part of the "BCS level" then you are effectively shut out of the highest level of competition and payouts.

The neighborhood has turned bad and Pitt and Syracuse are moving out.  They aren't the ones to blame.  They have mouths to feed and interests to protect, just like every other school.  And you have to hand it to the ACC.  Pitt and Syracuse are good gets.  They re-establish the ACC as the dominant basketball conference, gird ACC football in case they lose a school to the SEC, establish a geographic bridge to the previously outlying Boston College Eagles, raise the profile of the conference in the Northeast corridor and provide decent academics to appease UNC, Duke and UVa.

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As our loyal reader(s) are aware, I'm an expansion junky and certified expansion worrier.  Marquette has a great gig in the Big East, but due to the Big East's football versus basketball membership split, MU is in a precarious long term membership situation.  This is not just about football, this is also about being the new kid in the block in the league and fielding the minimum required number of Division athletic teams (before lacrosse comes on board).

The new rounds of Texas A&M-to-the-SEC rumors have spawned various potential threatening situations for Marquette.  So, let's look at the convoluted possibilities after the jump.

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• Overall record: 14-10
• First round record: 9-1
  • UW was the higher seed in 8 of those wins and upset Florida St as a 12 seed in 2009
• Record after the first round: 5-9
  • The 5 wins have come against teams with an average seed of 11
  • Highest seeded victory was against Kansas St (5 seed) last Saturday
  • 5 of these games were against a higher seed
  • 6 of the these 14 games were against double digit seeds
  • 7 of these games were played against a team that pulled an earlier round upset
• Record against lower seeds. 13-4
• Record against higher seeds: 1-6
• Opponents' average seed in wins: 11
• Highest seed defeated: 5 (two occasions)
• Average margin of defeat: 13 points
• Have lost to a lower seeded team in 4 of the past 5 years
• Have lost to teams from the following conferences:
  • ACC
  • SEC
  • Big East
  • Pac 10
  • A-10
  • Ivy League
  • Big South
  • Horizon League
  • Mountain West Conference

Xavier is a very solid offensive team, with four players averaging double figures.  Tu Holloway leads the way, averaging 20.2-5.1-5.5.  He has two triple-doubles to go with that impressive line, but also coughs it up over 3 times per game.  X's second scorer is Holloway's backcourt mate Mark Lyons.  Despite averaging 13.8 ppg, Lyons runs hot and cold and shoots a low percentage.  Big Kenny Frease (7'0" 265) and Jamel McLean round out the double digit scorers with 11.7 and 10.8 ppg respectively.

Xavier's offensive profile doesn't compare closely with any of the other tournament teams Marquette has faced this year.  Their KenPom numbers indicate that they are similar to Notre Dame with a worse eFG%.  Style-wise, they are quite different than the Irish.  They focus more on penetration and drawing fouls.  They get only 22.8% of their points from 3-point land (283^rd in the nation) and shoot only 33% from deep. 24.6% of their points come from the line (19^th in the nation).  This makes sense as they shoot nearly 75% from the stripe, with Holloway putting away 87% of his throws. 

Xavier is solid in all of the Four Factors save offensive rebounding percentage.  They rebound 33% of their offensive misses, which is 147^th in the nation.  Watch out for Jamel McClean on the offensive glass.  He averages 3.6 offensive boards a game. 

As always, I harp on turnovers and Xavier only turns the ball over on 18.2% of their possessions.  MU has been able to force some good teams into trouble with turnovers, notably UConn and Syracuse, so this is another key area to watch.

As mentioned above, Holloway is an explosive scorer.  MU has played against 9 of the top 100 scorers in the nation, including Ben Hansbrough and Marshon Brooks twice.  In nine of those 11 instances, the scorer was held below his season average in points and shooting percentage.  This success has rubbed both ways, though.  Kemba Walker was double-teamed for most of the game at the BC but he was able to involve his teammates effectively, leading to the UConn win.  The big question is how Marquette will play Holloway.  Many are calling for Jimmy to blanket him, but Tu would have a huge quickness advantage.  That plan also creates a matchup issue by putting an MU guard on 6'5" Dante' Jackson and forcing Jae to man up on 6'8" Jamel McClean.  Will Buzz throw out the zone?

My recipe, as usual, is to pack it in defensively with a man-to-man defense and force the poor shooting Musketeers to shoot over Marquette.  To me, that's more palatable than allowing them to drive for high percentage bunnies or forcing fouls on the automatic foul shooting Holloway.

Stayed tuned tomorrow for analysis when Marquette has the ball.

Today is the day, ladies and gentlemen: the most nerve wracking, anticipated day in the sports calendar. Fortunately, your Marquette Golden Eagles appear to be on solid footing heading into the bracket reveal.  We have three questions that need answering and Mr Kensington is nursing a hangover, so I will fill in.  Who?  Where?  When?  The internet gives us many people with many opinions to whet your appetite.  Here's what they have to say.

• Joe Lunardi has Marquette as a 9 seed facing off against Utah St in Tulsa.  Tyshawn Taylor and Kansas would await in the second round
• Andy Glockner has Marquette as a 10 seed playing Tennessee in Tucson.  San Diego State would be the likely 2nd round opponent
• Jerry Palm has Marquette as an 8 playing UCLA in Cleveland.  Ohio St is the probable second round opponent
• The Sporting News has MU as a 9.  They don't project opponents or locales but the 8's are Washington, Villanova, Missouri and UCLA
• Bracketology 101 has MU as a 8 against George Mason in Cleveland.  Big, bad Ohio St would be the second round opponent
• Blogging the Bracket has MU as a 9 seed facing Washington in Tulsa.  Kansas would be the 2nd round foe

• If you are into quantity over quality, The Bracket Matrix has MU as a 9 seed among the 17 brackets they have updated today.

You know the drill.  Root against teams in bold.

Friday Results

Saturday Tournament Games  

Sunday Games

 Thursday Results

Friday Preview 

The Saturday preview is after the jump.  Be sure to check back tomorrow for an updated version.  Conference tournaments have started, so I can't preview matchups that aren't set.  It will also include Sunday's games to watch.

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Well, last night sucked, so we'll keep at this bubble watch thing.  Once again, teams proved to be allergic to bubble success.  You know the drill by now.  Root against the team in bold.

Thursday Games

A recap of last night's action is after the jump.

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Tuesday Results

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Tuesday Games

Monday Result

This bubble is quite unwieldy.  It is tough to move teams definitively on or off the bubble when everyone loses.  Therefore, we have a bloated list of 31 teams to still watch out for over the next two weeks.  These 31 teams (including Marquette) are vying for a maximum of 15 at-large spots.  Before we get into the details, let's review the Marquette fan's rooting strategy for this week:

• Root for George Mason and ODU in the CAA tournament. These teams are locks and any other tournament winner would take away an at-large berth
• Root for Butler in the Horizon tournament. UWM may be a sentimental favorite, but we don't need two bids from the Horizon
• Root for Gonzaga and St. Mary's in the WCC tournament. Both teams appear to be on the right side of the bubble
• Root against Wichita St and Missouri State early in the Missouri Valley tournament. If they make it to the semifinals and finals, you should switch your allegiances and root for the Bears to win it all
• The rest of the conferences are finishing up play this week, so, as usual root against all bubble teams.

Bubble Linkage

Bracketology 101 has Marquette as a 9 seed against Old Dominion in Denver.  BYU would await in the second round.

Joe Lunardi has MU as a 10 seed in Chicago against a familiar March foe, Missouri.  Purdue is the likely second round matchup.

Andy Glockner has MU as a 10 seed in Tulsa against UNLV.  Texas is looming in the second round.

Bid thieves to watch out for from the Yahoo Dagger blog

The full run-down comes after the jump.

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