Golden Eagles in ‘must-win’ situation
DePaul game chance to exorcise demons
Ask every Big East player and coach and you’ll likely hear the same thing — the conference season is a grind where you have to be 100% focused on each game since anyone can beat anyone on any given day.
But DePaul has struggled since joining the Big East in 2005-’06. The Blue Demons have finished below .500 each of the past nine seasons and opened the first half of this year’s league campaign with just one win.
For Marquette (14-8, 5-5 Big East), a program that has won nine of its past 11 games over DePaul (8-14, 1-8) and dealt the Blue Demons their second-most lopsided loss of the season with an 83-58 victory at the BMO Harris Bradley Center on Jan. 14, there will be no overlooking Saturday’s 1 p.m. matchup at Allstate Arena.
Following back-to-back losses to Providence and St. John’s, three Golden Eagles players said their game against the Blue Demons is one of the most important of the season, each calling it a “must-win” game.
“We just, as a whole, I think
we’ve lost our competitive spirit a little bit,” freshman Sam Hauser said. “We need to really get that back for Saturday’s game because that’s a must-win now. The fact that we lost two in a row after beating ’Nova, I mean, that should springboard you, but we lost two in a row.”
Following top-10 wins over Creighton and Villanova, Marquette got off to slow starts against Providence and St. John’s and had to play from behind in both games. As a result, the Golden Eagles have held a second-half lead for just 38 seconds over the past two games.
The Golden Eagles defense, which has shifted between man-to-man and various zone looks including a 1-3-1 and 2-3, hasn’t provided positive results. Issues at that end of the court have been Marquette’s bugaboo all season, with its latest efforts dropping the Golden Eagles to a raw efficiency rating of 104.3 points per 100 possessions, ranking them 202nd in the country in that metric. That’s second worst in the Big East, just ahead of DePaul.
The difference has been the offense, which despite usually being one of the best in the country has hit a rut. Much of that has to do with the ball not moving as well, as Marquette recorded 14 assists in each of the past two losses. For many teams, 14 assists in a game would be a positive, but for Marquette, which ranks second in the Big East with 16.6 assists per game, that number has correlated with defeat.
In the eight games in which the Golden Eagles have had 14 or fewer assists, they’ve gone 1-7, with the lone win coming at Creighton. Marquette has won 13 of 14 games when it has dished out 15 assists or more, with the lone loss coming on the road against Villanova.
Marquette’s only consistent offensive production over the past two losses has come from redshirt junior Andrew Rowsey, who scored a combined 44 points and added seven rebounds and four assists against St. John’s and Providence. He also had one of his best games against DePaul earlier this season, scoring 24 points on 9-of-10 shooting, including 6 of 7 from three-point range.
“I just think ever since we beat those two teams (Creighton and Villanova) we’re looking at these other teams, like, no disrespect to any of those teams,” Rowsey said, implying Marquette wasn’t bringing the same level of intensity before trailing off. “We’ve got to get our mentality right and we’ve got to be competitive and just play.”
As hard as they were to swallow, the back-to-back losses might prove to be the wake-up call Marquette needed. Heading into Thursday and Friday’s preparation for Saturday’s game at DePaul — the Golden Eagles’ final visit to Allstate Arena before Wintrust Arena opens in the fall — every player knew that his level of focus and intensity would need to be at its absolute highest.
“I would hope so,” head coach Steve Wojciechowski said, when asked if the skid might be the jolt his team needed. “Actually, I would hope you wouldn’t need any kicks in the butt. With our group, we don’t have a lot of guys who have experienced success at the collegiate level.
“We had a week where we were pretty good and fortunate to win two big games. We haven’t been the same since that week. We’ve got to find out how to get it back.”