The Marquette Golden Eagles take their 19-2 record into suburban Chicago tonight, where they will face DePaul, a team who has yet to win a Big East game this season. Considering that MU handled the Blue Demons once this season, it would not be a stretch to say the Golden Eagles will likely get their twentieth win when things are all said and done tonight.
Thanks to their win over Georgetown last Saturday (coupled with a win over Notre Dame in South Bend earlier), there are some who believe Buzz Williams' club, still undefeated in Big East play at 9-0, stands a very good chance of being a Number One seed when Selection Sunday comes in a few weeks.
Those are pretty heady expectations. Maybe it's the realist in me, but I do wonder whether or not the Golden Eagles can live up to the hype that suddenly surrounds them. I wonder whether or not this team can indeed make a deep run into March.
So, in order to come to a conclusion about this MU team, rather than just make a rash judgment, I decided to list the reasons why MU can and why they can't make a deep run into March Madness.
Why MU Won't Make it Deep Into March:
1. They Haven't Faced the Big East's best Yet: The 9-0 record in the Big East is great, but beating the Hoyas (who have now lost five in a row) and Notre Dame (also on a five game losing streak) don't come anywhere close to the gauntlet the Golden Eagles will have to run through at the end of the regular season - UCONN, Louisville, Pittsburgh, and Syracuse. If the Golden Eagles can get through that stretch with even a couple of wins, then even the doubters will have to admit this team is for real.
2. Depth Could Be an Issue: MU is a four man team. Granted, the four - Jerel McNeal, Dominic James, Wes Matthews, and Lazar Hayward are formidable, but they are the only four MU players averaging double figures in points. They are also the only four players who average more than twenty minutes a game. If any one of these four players goes down, the Golden Eagles will be hard pressed to replace them.
3. Their New Coach: So far, it's been all good for Williams, but what will happen when the intensity gets turned up in March? How will Williams react? What happens when Buzz has to match wits with some of the game's best coaching minds in Jim Calhoun, Jamie Dixon, and Rick Pitino? That's the one thing we just don't know yet.
Why MU Can Make it Deep Into March:
1. Senior Leadership: There aren't many teams that can match the experience that the Golden Eagles have. McNeal, James, and Matthews are all seniors. They also just happen to be MU's top three scorers. How many schools can say they have that kind of experience on the floor? Not many when you consider that players who stay for four seasons are the exception, rather than the rule.
2. MU is Tournament Tested: The Golden Eagles, as currently constructed, know a thing or two about March basketball. They have made the tournament three years in a row, and even though they only won one game, the fact that they've been there so many times together gives them a leg up on a lot of other schools.
3. Improvement Across the Board: Take a look at the numbers from last year to this year. These Golden Eagles are shooting better (nearly 47% from the floor, 72% from the free throw line and over 36% from behind the arc) than they did a year ago. Not only that, but MU's assist to turnover ratio has improved from where it was a year ago (14.7-12.9) to 16-12 this year. They are taking care of the ball, and the results are showing up in their record.
4. Wesley Matthews Is Finally Living Up Tp the Hype: Matthews is enjoying his best season as a Golden Eagle. You don't want to say he came out of nowhere, but there weren't many who thought Matthews would be averaging over 19 points per game, not when you consider that his career best was 12.6 points per game during his sophomore season. With Matthews benefiting from Williams' high octane offense the most, MU now has four scorers it can depend on, when last year it only had three (McNeal, James, and Hayward).
5. Coach Williams' System: The first year MU head coach took what Tom Crean left him and spiced it up a little bit. This team will flat out run you out of the gym if you let it. And it has to, when you consider its relative lack of size. This team isn't big, so it has to do other things to win. They say that speed kills, and so far, to MU's benefit, that statement has been true.
So there you have it. The reasons why MU can make a long tournament run outweigh the reasons they can't. And, even though they haven't faced the big dogs of the Big East just yet, I think they will more than hold their own when it comes down to those last four regular season games.
Depth could become an issue, but MU has a lot more to work with in front end players than most teams do.
Are the Golden Eagles worth the hype? Right now, the answer is a resounding yes.
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