What would Thanksgiving be without platters of tender poultry and mashed potatoes? Burgundy blobs of cranberry gelatin shaped like the inside of the can it came in? Dick Vitale overselling his excitement for November basketball on national television?
I don’t know the answer to these questions, and I hope to never have to find out.
Aside from the tons of food everyone enjoyed, college basketball fans were treated to high-quality college basketball tournaments held across the country, from Maui to Orlando.
The Marquette Golden Eagles played in the CBE Classic in Kansas City, Mo., against the defending national champion and No. 1 team in the country Duke and No. 24 Gonzaga on Monday and Tuesday and played its intracity rivalry game with the Wisconsin-Milwaukee Panthers Saturday night.
Even though senior forward Jimmy Butler and company had a sub-.500 week and barely hung on at the Cell, there’s still plenty for Marquette supporters to be thankful for. In the still-lingering spirit of the long weekend, here’s my top four.
4. New-found inside presence
I’ll admit it: I was skeptical about freshman forward Davante Gardner as a legitimate option in the low post, even as he ripped through Bucknell and keyed the 27-4 run in the last 10:22 of that game.
His performance spawned a Twitter explosion amongst the Marquette faithful, who had started to think of post play as the Halley’s comet of basketball — a phenomenon observable only once in a lifetime.
Despite the stir, I wasn’t sure if I saw an offensive mirage created by an opponent’s foul trouble or something real that could be replicated in the future against higher-quality competition.
Gardner answered convincingly. His effort against Duke’s Plumlee brothers — nine points and four offensive rebounds in 15 minutes — showed Gardner’s ability to be a spark plug off the bench down low.
3. Darius Johnson-Odom breaking out of his shooting slump Saturday night
Going into the game against Wisconsin-Milwaukee, the three-point shots Johnson-Odom put up resulted in more clunkers than open mic night at a comedy club.
He was shooting 20 percent through six games, and the repeated clang of rubber on rim served as a death knell for the Golden Eagles against Duke and Gonzaga, who packed into a zone defense, daring Marquette to jack up jumper after jumper.
Against the Panthers, Johnson-Odom finally broke out, going for a career-high 29 points on five-of-seven shooting from distance.
No one expects 71 percent for the rest of the year, but nobody expected 20 percent to start, either. Marquette is going to need a happy medium to continue finding success.
2. Emerging as Wisconsin’s best team — again
The Golden Eagles already have victories against two of the state’s other three Division I programs — a convincing win over Wisconsin-Green Bay and the aforementioned too-close-for-comfort tilt with Milwaukee to keep the Golden Eagles perfect against the Panthers all-time.
The main event on the Wisconsin card is scheduled for two weeks from now when the Badgers visit the Bradley Center.
And while most of the national buzz is surrounding the Wisconsin football team, which still has a chance to nudge its way into the national championship game, the men’s basketball team is quietly off to a rocky start.
Badger’s skipper Bo Ryan took his team to Las Vegas and lost a close one to UNLV. A week later, they faced the Big East’s own Notre Dame Fighting Irish and lost 58-51 after putting up only 50 points against Manhattan.
Marquette hasn’t set the world on fire, but it’s definitely been better than the Badgers so far against better competition.
1. Buzz Williams
This one’s too easy.
Not only has Williams been successful on game days and on the recruiting trail, but he’s a successful motivator and forces everyone involved with the team to be the best people they can be away from basketball.
When the players talk about their coach and vice versa, there is nothing but respect and admiration going both ways.
Hearing Williams acknowledge how privileged he is to have the opportunity to coach at the Division I level is also refreshing. He also has a great basketball mind and extracts everything he can from the numbers he’s presented with after games.
Even if Marquette had nothing else in terms of basketball resources, Williams would always give the university all he had. And chances are, everyone would be satisfied with the results.
