With a minute left, it appears Marquette Golden Eagles would have a signature road win to put on their NCAA Tournament resume. Golden Eagles went on a great run late to regain the lead against Seton Hall, a team who gave them fits last season. But then, the whole game collapsed on them like a house of cards. Multiple miscues with defensive rebounding and bad turnovers led to Golden Eagles losing by three in one of the worst losses of the last five years.

Let’s talk about the final minute
Woo boy. I’m not sure where to start here. Katin Reinhardt made a great backdoor cut to put Marquette up three with 38 seconds left. Seton Hall had a choice to either take the three for the tie late in the shot clock or extend the game. Pirates are glad they chose the latter. Marquette would foul twice including Khadeem Carrington’s layup to extend the game. Additionally, Golden Eagles would give up two offensive rebounds off missed free throws and two turnovers. Marquette puked all over their shoes. They knew this team struggled with free throws, yet still, they couldn’t be strong enough to grab a rebound. Letting Seton Hall sneak a win is such a disappointing result for this young squad.

Jajuan Johnson struggles down the stretch
I’ve always been a fan of Jajuan Johnson’s game. He’s a great glue guy for Marquette, but Steve Wojociechowski needed to bench his senior late in this one. Johnson played erratic on both sides of the ball. It’s puzzling to think why he thought that splitting two Hall defenders was a good idea especially when others on this team were rolling in the second half. Johnson needs to be more in control in these type of situations. Marquette needs him to show leadership and not look like one of the young players.

Howard and Hauser grew up in the second half
These freshman didn’t look like young pups before the final minute. Both Sam Hauser and Markus Howard made big plays in the final 10 minutes to give Marquette the lead for the final stage of this game. Howard had a great and-one three point bucket to give Golden Eagles the lead again. Same goes for Hauser who took a great charge and made a couple big buckets. Howard finished with 14 points and Hauser finished with 11.

Wojo last timeout
Marquette totally lost this game with its players don’t get me wrong. But I wonder if Wojo could have chose how he used his final timeout over? 21 seconds left, he should have called the timeout at half court and settle down his guys. They were shell shocked and needed a breather. Wojo is pretty good with out-of-bounds plays as well and might have got this game to overtime at the very least. Further, the timeout right away instead of letting Markus Howard take the ball up is another head-scratching move.

Players of the Game
Katin Reinhardt (Marquette), Ismael Sanogo (Seton Hall) – Hopefully, this is a sign of things to come for Katin Reinhardt. He made some claim about his Achilles bothering him and that’s why he’s been off of late. Marquette doesn’t get to to the final minute without Reinhardt’s 15 points in the first half. He played great. Ismael Sanogo will go into Marquette lore as the guy who kept Golden Eagles from winning this game. He had two big rebounds to prevent the team from winning.

Next up
Gulp. Marquette will take on number one Villanova on the road Saturday night. They’ll likely be a 10 point underdog if not more. My hope is for a clean game and Golden Eagles to not embarrass themselves. Recently, Cats have given this team a world of trouble. Let’s hope it’s being played at Wells Fargo Arena, and not that bandbox on campus.

Charlie.