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Marquette Wire

The student news site of Marquette University

Marquette Wire

The student news site of Marquette University

Marquette Wire

Marquette falls on Senior Night 67-60 against Cincinnati

Junior guard Darius Johnson-Odom had 15 points in the loss.

Coach Buzz Williams entered Wednesday’s game having never won a Senior Night game.  That streak continued as Marquette (18-12, 9-8) fell 67-60 to Cincinnati (23-7, 10-7 Big East).

On a night when senior forward Jimmy Butler went off for 30 points on 7-of-15 shooting (46.67 percent) and 15-of-17 (88.2 percent) from the free throw line, it was freshman guard Vander Blue who may have taken the biggest shot of the game.

Down five, 63-58, with 1:54 left, Williams called a 30-second timeout.  What came next was a missed baseline jumper from Blue.

Williams said a 3-pointer for junior guard Darius Johnson-Odom, who went 1-of-5 from beyond the arc, was the first play he wanted out of the timeout, but that wasn’t there so the play went to Blue on the backside.

Only Johnson-Odom joined Butler in double figures offensively and no other Marquette player scored more than four points.

Butler said the team’s tendency to stand and watch the guy with the ball is part of the team’s offensive problems.

“We can’t have that happen,” Butler said of the lack of motion. “I think if we want to continue to win games, everyone has to move off of everybody.  Everybody has to be able to shoot the open shots, myself included.”

Butler’s 30 points were a career-high.  He said his teammates deserved the credit for his performance.

“They got me the ball in great positions,” Butler said. “It wasn’t just me, it was my teammates making the other team guard them and I just slipped into the open spots. I made my living at the line which is what we rely off of: paint touches and getting to the free throw line.”

Cincinnati’s size advantage, which was apparent throughout the game, helped earned it a 34-30 rebounding edge and a 34-22 edge on points in the paint.

Butler said Cincinnati’s size and length “definitely took a toll” on the Golden Eagles.

“When we got into the paint we had to score over them a lot of the times because they weren’t leaving their feet or anything like that,” Butler said.  “They can tap the ball to themselves on offensive rebounds.  But I feel like they outplayed us overall for 40 minutes.”

In the first half, Cincinnati turned up the heat in the front court, pressing Marquette into nine first half turnovers and 11 total for the game.

Williams said he wasn’t sure why Cincinnati’s full-court pressure gave Marquette so much trouble.

“That’s what we have practiced since our game against Providence. Typically speaking, we’ve always handled pressure really well,” Williams said. “I don’t think it’s necessarily anything schematic to what we were doing, I thought they were the aggressor relative to their mentality.”

In the first half, Marquette spent much of its time in a zone, even though Marquette spent much of its season playing man-to-man defense.  Butler said the team went zone because of Cincinnati’s ability to get to the rim.

“Our mentality was to keep it out of the paint the whole night and I think we did a decent job of that,” Butler said. “But when they put up a shot they got in the paint with offensive rebounds and got easy baskets that way.

“We kept the ball out of the paint, but we didn’t box out,” Butler said.

For fans nervous about what this loss does to Marquette’s NCAA Tournament hopes, rest easy.  At least if Cincinnati coach Mick Cronin is right.

“They’re in the tournament,” Cronin said of Marquette.  “Anyone who’s 9-9 in this conference or better should be in.”

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  • R

    R.W. WrongMar 3, 2011 at 11:15 am

    Dang, I must have really missed a lot these past two months, DJO went from being a junior to being a senior 😉

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