The Golden Eagles weren’t quite on top of their defensive game in the first half, but fixed that in a big way in the second half.
Shouts off the top of the recap to long time reader and commenter blackoutsox, as they are helping to provide an incredible amount of insight to what transpired at Hinkle Fieldhouse on Tuesday night. They were in the building for #9 Marquette visiting Butler, and that meant that we had someone with eyes on the deflections dry erase board all night long.
Why is that important?
Because Marquette had 12 deflections at halftime as reported by blackoutsox.
The goal for each game since Shaka Smart was hired as head coach is 32 or more. This year specifically, Smart has challenged his team to record a top 10 deflections total each and every time they take the court. As you can tell, 12 deflections has you on pace for 24 in the game, and that’s well short of 32, the magic number that essentially makes Smart’s teams unstoppable.
Knowing that Marquette wasn’t being quite as disruptive to Butler’s offense as they needed to be for the first 20 minutes, you’re probably not surprised to find out that the Bulldogs posted an effective field goal percentage of 66.1% in that time. You’re probably also not surprised to know that Butler led by as many as 10 points in the first half, going up 41-31 on a Jahmyl Telfort and-1 at the 2:27 mark.
It’s not that MU was playing poorly overall for the opening stanza, far from it. MU had turned the ball over just twice and they had an eFG% of over 53% themselves. But they weren’t defending the way that Smart insists that his teams defend each and every night. As a result, Butler was able to be in a comfort zone and shoot 50% on three-pointers and 11-for-18 inside the arc as well.
And then the second half started with Marquette trailing by seven. Coming out of the locker room, Marquette picked up three straight stops for a kill and had David Joplin sandwich a Kam Jones layup with a pair of buckets in the lane of his own. One point game, 42-41, 17:47 to go, and Butler called timeout. A huddle means that the deflection dry erase board got held up, and blackoutsox reported in:
16 deflections.
Marquette picked up four in the first two minutes and change, a huge shift in the pace of tipping the ball when the Bulldogs had possession. Keep it up, and things might start moving in the right direction.
A three-pointer from Kam Jones, literally five seconds after he subbed back into the game after a brief break, gave Marquette a one point lead just under the 14 minute mark, and it’s like that 10 point Butler lead never happened. And then Jones picked up his fourth foul of the game with 13:32 to go, right away on the other end of the court after hitting that three. Marquette was going to have to figure out how to get through the most critical juncture of the game with Jones sitting out.
The basketball gods immediately handed Marquette fans everywhere an omen as to how it was going to go, as Tre Norman went to the rack and drew the foul for the old-fashioned three-point play. That kicked off a 12-2 Marquette run — again, with Kam Jones shackled to the bench — that had the visitors up 61-52 with the clock winding under the nine minute mark. At that point, it goes from “how long can Marquette go without needing Jones back in the game” to “this is going suspiciously well, did Butler break a mirror during a timeout or something?”
Stevie Mitchell — on his way to 22 points to lead the team in scoring — cashed a three for a 10 point lead. Still no Jones, because why take a risk? The Bulldogs cut the margin in half, but Zaide Lowery responded by swiping it from Landon Moore and scoring on the ensuing possession. Free throws by Chase Ross got the margin back to eight points, and the clock wound down under the four minute mark.
Kam Jones checked back in at the 3:25 mark.
Marquette made it more than 10 minutes without him……. and grew the lead by seven points. Shaka Smart has made it clear that his bench guys need to step up if the team is going to achieve their big season long goals, and that’s exactly what happened here with Kam Jones on the bench. Big play after big play in that 10 minute run from Tre Norman and Zaide Lowery, and that’s what made the difference.
And then Jones flew to the rack on his first possession back on the floor for the 10 point lead.
We got to see the dry erase board late in the game on TV during a timeout. 33 deflections. They got there. 21 in the second half after just 12 in the first half. Hit the goal anyway.
What did that do to Butler’s shooting in the second half? Threw them completely off their game. Marquette held the Bulldogs to just 25.8% shooting from the field in the final 20 minutes and just 1-for-12 from behind the three-point line. 66.1% eFG in the first 20 minutes, 27.4% in the last 20 minutes. Why? Maybe for a lot of reasons, but it’s hard to ignore the impact of Marquette’s defense doing what it was supposed to be doing all along to make things harder and harder for Butler. That extra pressure makes things a little bit tighter, a little bit more nerve-wracking, and all of a sudden, shots are a little too hard or a little too light and now nothing’s going right for you and Marquette outscores you 43-27 in the second half.
The win moves MU up to 9-1 in Big East play and keeps them locked in a tie atop the league with St. John’s heading into Saturday’s big National Marquette Day showdown.
Stevie Mitchell had five rebounds, three assists, a block, and a steal to going with his team high in points. Kam Jones added 17 points in just 28 minutes of action and tied with Chase Ross for the team high assists with four. Ross added 12 points, and David Joplin kicked in 14. Ben Gold didn’t score, but he did have a team high seven rebounds.
Zaide Lowery: five points, three rebounds, two steals.
Tre Norman: five points, five rebounds, and an assist.
They don’t need to be stars every night, they just have to contribute, and that was a big part of MU’s win here.
How about some highlights, courtesy of GoMarquette.com and Fox Sports?
Up Next: Marquette returns to action as well as to Milwaukee for their next game. That will be on Saturday, as #25 Connecticut comes to Fiserv Forum for a 7pm start, and yes, it’s National Marquette Day. Should be a whole thing. UConn has to get through a Wednesday night home game against DePaul before they make the trip to the Midwest, and the Huskies have lost three of their last five games at the moment.