Maybe, just maybe, the Marquette Golden Eagles can reverse the current trend and come out of the blocks fast against Louisville on Monday afternoon at the Bradley Center.
It sure would be beneficial to their cause if they could.
The Golden Eagles (14-4, 3-2 Big East) have dug first-half holes in each of the last three games. They have fallen behind Pittsburgh by nine points, St. John's by six, and Syracuse by 23. Marquette rallied in the second half to defeat Pittsburgh and St. John's, but its second-half rally against the Orange came up short.
Why the slow starts by the Golden Eagles?
"I don't know what it is," said sophomore forward Jamil Wilson. "Maybe everyone needs to wake up and splash some water on their face before the game. We definitely can turn it around. It's not a switch that we flick on and off. I really can't call it. Maybe some guys just need to get loose and get into the rhythm of the game. Some players need to get into a rhythm before they can really get going."
Turnovers were the problem early against Pittsburgh as the Golden Eagles coughed the ball up five times in the game's first 7? minutes and the Panthers jumped out to a 17-8 lead. Marquette ended up with nine turnovers in the first half and 15 for the game. Darius Johnson-Odom, who led Marquette with 18 points against Pittsburgh, had four turnovers in the game and Vander Blue had three.
Addressing his team's turnovers, Marquette coach Buzz Williams said, "You have to get the ball below the free throw line. It doesn't matter if it's man or zone. If they're in zone when the ball gets below the free throw line it's going to collapse. Like I told our guys (during a first-half timeout in the Pittsburgh game), we've played like the last 90 out of 100 minutes against a zone. Everything's fine, get the ball below the free throw line.
"We have all of those live-ball turnovers and all of them are occurring above the free throw line. Some of it was our guys trying to be too unselfish. Drive it. Force help, and they're trying to dump it in the alley and the guards are collapsing and getting those."
Marquette is averaging 13.5 turnovers per game compared to 17.3 for the opposition.
"When you look at our offensive numbers, we're in the top 20 nationally in assist-to-turnover ratio, and 65% of our baskets are assisted, which is outstanding," said Williams. "All of our offensive numbers are really good.
"We force teams into 17 turnovers a game. That's not great, but it's above average. The thing we have to minimize is our turnovers. Some of our turnovers are too careless. So if we could shave two or three off of that, that would definitely help us."
It's didn't help matters against Pittsburgh that point guard Junior Cadougan was playing with an illness that Williams had been unaware of going into the game.
Before Marquette's 13-0 run that turned the game around, Cadougan was sick in the huddle and had to leave for the locker room for a short time. Williams had tried putting Cadougan in the game but had to take him out 12 seconds later.
Williams said that he was made aware of Cadougan's condition in a timeout by sophomore forward Jamail Jones.
"In a timeout, (Jones) is hollering at me, 'Coach, Junior is throwing up'. I can't hear him and I'm like, 'What?' He's like, 'Junior is throwing up.' I looked at Junior, and Junior was throwing up. Horn sounds and I go to the official and say, 'The kid's throwing up, we've to sub.' I guess he had an upset stomach that I was unaware of."
Cadougan returned and contributed two steals, an assist and a layup to Marquette's decisive run.
"I thought we played more minutes of 'us' than we have been playing," said Williams. "I didn't think we started great. We had too many live-ball turnovers early. Their first seven field-goal attempts, they offensive rebounded. But after that sequence, I thought the rest of the way we played much better. In the second half we were really good in a lot of ways. I'm pleased that we played more consecutive minutes the way that we have to play."
It sure would be beneficial to their cause if they could.
The Golden Eagles (14-4, 3-2 Big East) have dug first-half holes in each of the last three games. They have fallen behind Pittsburgh by nine points, St. John's by six, and Syracuse by 23. Marquette rallied in the second half to defeat Pittsburgh and St. John's, but its second-half rally against the Orange came up short.
Why the slow starts by the Golden Eagles?
"I don't know what it is," said sophomore forward Jamil Wilson. "Maybe everyone needs to wake up and splash some water on their face before the game. We definitely can turn it around. It's not a switch that we flick on and off. I really can't call it. Maybe some guys just need to get loose and get into the rhythm of the game. Some players need to get into a rhythm before they can really get going."
Turnovers were the problem early against Pittsburgh as the Golden Eagles coughed the ball up five times in the game's first 7? minutes and the Panthers jumped out to a 17-8 lead. Marquette ended up with nine turnovers in the first half and 15 for the game. Darius Johnson-Odom, who led Marquette with 18 points against Pittsburgh, had four turnovers in the game and Vander Blue had three.
Addressing his team's turnovers, Marquette coach Buzz Williams said, "You have to get the ball below the free throw line. It doesn't matter if it's man or zone. If they're in zone when the ball gets below the free throw line it's going to collapse. Like I told our guys (during a first-half timeout in the Pittsburgh game), we've played like the last 90 out of 100 minutes against a zone. Everything's fine, get the ball below the free throw line.
"We have all of those live-ball turnovers and all of them are occurring above the free throw line. Some of it was our guys trying to be too unselfish. Drive it. Force help, and they're trying to dump it in the alley and the guards are collapsing and getting those."
Marquette is averaging 13.5 turnovers per game compared to 17.3 for the opposition.
"When you look at our offensive numbers, we're in the top 20 nationally in assist-to-turnover ratio, and 65% of our baskets are assisted, which is outstanding," said Williams. "All of our offensive numbers are really good.
"We force teams into 17 turnovers a game. That's not great, but it's above average. The thing we have to minimize is our turnovers. Some of our turnovers are too careless. So if we could shave two or three off of that, that would definitely help us."
It's didn't help matters against Pittsburgh that point guard Junior Cadougan was playing with an illness that Williams had been unaware of going into the game.
Before Marquette's 13-0 run that turned the game around, Cadougan was sick in the huddle and had to leave for the locker room for a short time. Williams had tried putting Cadougan in the game but had to take him out 12 seconds later.
Williams said that he was made aware of Cadougan's condition in a timeout by sophomore forward Jamail Jones.
"In a timeout, (Jones) is hollering at me, 'Coach, Junior is throwing up'. I can't hear him and I'm like, 'What?' He's like, 'Junior is throwing up.' I looked at Junior, and Junior was throwing up. Horn sounds and I go to the official and say, 'The kid's throwing up, we've to sub.' I guess he had an upset stomach that I was unaware of."
Cadougan returned and contributed two steals, an assist and a layup to Marquette's decisive run.
"I thought we played more minutes of 'us' than we have been playing," said Williams. "I didn't think we started great. We had too many live-ball turnovers early. Their first seven field-goal attempts, they offensive rebounded. But after that sequence, I thought the rest of the way we played much better. In the second half we were really good in a lot of ways. I'm pleased that we played more consecutive minutes the way that we have to play."
