TBT - MU vs St. John's

[IWB]

Don't know if anyone is out there, and don't know what I can add, but I am courtside.

Marquette Alumni...

Starters
Jamil Wilson #0
Derrick Wilson #3
Maurice Acker #4
Jerel McNeal #22
Travis Diener #34

Jake Thomas #7
Trend Blackledge #21
Elgin Cook #5
Willie Atwood #2
Cinmeon Bowers #23

MU playing very early in this tourney in order to host. If they were not playing for two more weeks, they might have a very different roster.

Wojo in house, Bo Ellis in house, Dwight Buycks in house...

[IWB]

If MU makes it to 2nd weekend, they will add to the roster.

[IWB]

When I watched practice the other day Joe had them working on trapping the top corners a lot, see that early and often here.

[IWB]

Current team FYI - They had a team building exercise yesterday as the team went golfing. I believe it was a 9 hole scramble. Said that Marotta and the two Hausers had golfed before, but surprisingly the rest of them picked it up pretty quick.

I would like to see Theo John, Ed Morrow & Ike Eke on the tee box.

[IWB]

Early stats - with 2:17 to go in the first...

MU shooting 22.2% from field, 16.7% from field.

Who would have though MU's leading rebounders at this point would be Derrick Wilson with 3 & Maurice Acker with 2.

[IWB]

oddly enough, the TBT flies in the refs, not using local refs. Today's refs are Brian O'Connell, Steve McJunkins, Alfred Smith

[IWB]

At the end of one, 16-16.

MU should be rolling, didn't start hitting shots until late.

Now after one they are at 27.3% from teh field, 26.7% from three.

[IWB]

Entire MU coaching staff here, several members of the team here too.

[IWB]

Maurice Acker doing a great job running the point, sets up Jamil Wilson for a LOOONG distance three at the buzzer to give MU a 39-33 halftime lead. Wilson with three 3s to end the half. Jamil now 4-9 from three.

[IWB]

St. John's not going away. MU up 58-54 after three.

Looking at the stats...

MU now shooting 41.3% from field, 33.3% from 3pt.

Jamil Wilson 6-12 from three.
Maurice Acker with 10 assists.
Jerel McNeal with 6 rebounds.

Acker, McNeal, Diener all with 8pts, Jake Thomas with 7 after recreating the Syracuse 4 pt play.

[IWB]

Pretty wild that the Elam Ending score is 77.

[IWB]

Final Score - MU 78 - St. John's 67.

Jamil Wilson leads all scorers with 29. MU advances to play Seton Hall tomorrow at 1:00.

[Phantom Warrior]

Amy idea which players they might add if they advance after tomorrow's game?

Also any possibility of sharing an overall box score of the St. John's game?

[MKE_GoldenEagleFan]

They are gonna need a guy like DJO to go farther in this tournament. Missing DJO, and Buycks on this roster is tough.

[mcwman]

Jerel Got pick’d a lot...don’t remember handles so poor

[Nukem2]

They are gonna need a guy like DJO to go farther in this tournament. Missing DJO, and Buycks on this roster is tough.

Could use Davante as well.

[IWB]

Davante - might, Juan should - still trying to land a big.

[unclejohn]

I do not know if this is the first year that the Marquette team has had non-Marquette players on it. According to the rules, the team can have up to fifteen players. This team currently has 11, so they can add four more if they like, but at a cost of $2000 each. I am not sure how the finances of this tournament work. Somebody pays for travel from the final 16 on, uniforms, refs, and of course $2 million in prize money. I do not know what ESPN is paying to televise it. I did not see lots of people lining up to pay $25 for a team t-shirt. But if this team thought it was worth it, they could add players. At least some of them have made enough playing that dropping a few extra thousand would not hurt all that much.

This is a fun event and the rules are set up to make it fan friendly. There is an odd rule that the clock is turned off after the first stoppage of play with 4:00 or less to play in the 4th quarter, and from there, the "target score" is determined, i.e. the score of the leading team + 7 points. So today, the Golden Eagles lead 70-59 and called time-out, so the target score was 77. First team to 77 wins. It means that games do not get drawn out forever, there is some excitement to it, and fans have something specific to cheer for. Similarly, OT games are decided by first team to 7. There is some strategy involved. Just before the 4:00 mark today, the GE's had built a nice lead, so they ran down the clock until under 4:00 and called time-out. In effect, they had to score 7 before the other team scored 18. I would think that would be the way it works for most games, but teams might find an advantage to playing longer, like if they are on a scoring run. I think I figured out why the number 7. It means at least three scores. Enough to make it something to work for and still little enough to let a team with a substantial lead get the game over fast.

There are 72 teams entered, so they obviously differ in talent. The same team has won it the past three years and had about as many St. John's alums on it as the Johnnies. It is also not clear exactly how accurate the rosters are. There is a team called the Kimchi Express which seems to have originated as a bunch of Korean Americans who put together a team for kicks. Their roster this year does not seem to have many Korean Americans on it, but the past ones seem to be entirely so. They are not likely to go very far. The defending champs have played together for three years and are all pros. They're good. The GE team today was full of players with international and/or NBA experience, so it is no surprise that they won and are seeded high. One thing that struck me was how smooth they were even from early in the game. Obviously some rust to work off, but there was lots of good passing leading to open shots. Some of these guys have played together at Marquette, some probably played against each other at the rec center or something.

Now here is an interesting detail. If the GE's win tomorrow, they earn a spot in the Super Sixteen or whatever they call it in Atlanta on July 29. Since they are playing in this new Big East pod, they start today and tomorrow. Most teams do not start for another two weeks, and some do not start until the weekend of the 21st. So on the one hand, they have to start early and have less time to prepare than other teams and if they win, they have a layoff of about a month. OTOH, if they advance, they have a month to practice together and plenty of time to scout the opposition. I have to think that preparing for these first two games has to be nearly impossible. I doubt that any of the team were even watching the earlier game, which would have been their only chance to see who they might be playing tomorrow. So the schedule would seem to provide some advantages for some teams. I do not know how much practice they are likely to get in. Some of them, notably Jamil, are going to be looking for NBA opportunities, and the players playing abroad are no doubt going to be securing spots for next year as well, but I have to think that a couple practices a week would help immensely, especially if they end up going up against a team that played its first games the previous weekend.