Letdown games are a thing in all sports. They’re never fun. You have a big win against a rival or a top opponent, and you need to keep that focus for the next opponent who isn’t as good. It’s not an easy task. Then you add in the letdown, look-ahead sandwich game. Where not only are you coming down from a big victory, but you’re also trying not too look ahead to the next big game later that week. Case in point, the Marquette Golden Eagles. They needed to keep their focus against Green Bay last night by not thinking about Wisconsin and not looking ahead to their matchup with UCLA. Marquette was able to do just that winning 82-68 over Green Bay. Golden Eagles are 4-1 to begin the year for the second straight year due to a big effort from Koby McEwen.

Player of the Game: Koby McEwen – I had a buddy who texted me that he was concerned about Koby early in the game. Koby must have read his text message because he went off after it. McEwen finished with 28 points, and five made threes. He only missed two that were attempted from beyond the arc. The Canadian native was too much for the Pheonix defense. He could get everything he wanted on the basketball court. This is the fifth straight game where McEwen’s offensive rating is over 100. He finished at 172 for the game.

Honorable Mention: Dawson Garcia – It is good to see Dawson get going again. He finished with 18 points and seven rebounds. Garcia seemed to have a nice flow to his offensive game finding open shots and getting to the rack. He is only going to get more comfortable in this offense. He also knocked down a couple of threes. Honestly, this is the type of game you want from Garcia. Trying to determine if he or Koby is the number one guy in this offseason is still left to be known.

What went right for Marquette – The door closed when it was needed: All of a sudden, Green Bay started to battle back and looked like they were going to make it a game. The lead went down to eight points around the eleven-minute mark of the second half. Marquette quickly closed the door after that though. They pushed the lead back to 14 and didn’t look back from there.

What went wrong for Marquette – The defense didn’t come to play: Awful defensive effort for the Golden Eagles in this one. They gave up way too many easy buckets to a bad Green Bay team. This team likes to run up and down the floor, so, I do think some of that is the style of the Phoenix yet still, Marquette should have done a better job of shutting them down.

Next up: Marquette goes west for a showdown with UCLA that only one percent of the population will likely be able to see. The game is on PAC-12 Network which is so stupid. I have no idea why this isn’t an ESPN game or with FOX having both Pac-12 and Big East basketball, why this isn’t on FS1. KenPom projects it to be a three-point loss for Marquette, but UCLA hs been allowing a lot at the rim thus far which could be to Marquette’s advantage.

Charlie.