On Thursday night, I went out to dinner with my dad, and the TV had Wichita State-East Carolina on. I saw the East Carolina gym and had immediate bad flashbacks. Marquette had some woeful losses in that gym during the C-USA days. There are just some places that give off that aura. Same could be said for Hinkle Fieldhouse. Marquette finds all sorts of ways to lose to Butler no matter the year. Hinkle is a place where demons lay in the Big East for the Golden Eagles who drop a winnable game versus Butler, 94-83, where the defense showed work was still needed.

Butler thrashes Marquette in the paint
There were many concerning things about this game, but the most notable to me was the points in the paint number. Marquette allowed 56 points in the point. That means nearly 60 percent of Butler’s points came from inside the arc. That’s inexcusable especially after Marquette kept Seton Hall from doing the same thing on Tuesday. Teams attack the paint against this small team, but Butler did it in a very efficient manner.

Sam Hauser breaks out
Feed Sam Hauser. I don’t know how many times people have said it all year, but Hauser proves why he’s more than just the third guy on the team in scoring. Hauser is a fantastic basketball and needs to be getting the ball more. He played a huge role in bringing Marquette back to life in this game. If Rowsey or Howard found their stroke in this one, Golden Eagles may have been able to hang on. Hauser scores 30 points with six rebounds.

Did Butler create the blueprint for Rowsey and Howard?
If you want to be hopeful from this game, Marquette scored 83 points with Markus Howard and Andrew Rowsey scoring nine points from beyond the arc. That’s pretty incredible. But I worry that other teams will try to emulate what Butler did out there. Granted, most teams do not have Kamar Baldwin who was magnificent, yet my concern is others will try to replicate it as much as possible.

Next up
Marquette heads home for a Monday night matchup with DePaul at the Bradley Center. It’s not your older brother’s DePaul team. They have some guys who can really score including Max Strus, so, this could be a fight for the Golden Eagles. They cannot let down as this is a must win considering their schedule in the coming weeks.

Charlie.