Marquette Golden Eagles are a mess right now. They cannot close the deal on games. Marquette reminds me of myself in college where I could talk to girls until about 12 or 12:30 at night then I start slurring my words or acting real anxious with the hopes of a girl going home with me. That’s Marquette right now. We all knew when Marquette tightened up in this game. The tweets started to come in, the crowd sensed it, Georgetown knew it. Marquette loses four straight to end the year in what is one of the most disappointing finishes to a season in recent memory. Golden Eagles will hope to find their mojo when they head to New York City this week.

Player of the Game: Brendan Bailey – What a game from the young freshman. Brendan Bailey has been one of those guys where you like what he does on defense but had not fully got his offensive game together. Well, Bailey finally saw a couple threes go down in a game. He had a career-high eleven points with six rebounds. He has established himself as a go-to player off the bench for the Golden Eagles. If this scoring can be sustained, that makes Marquette very dangerous. He is going to be very good for this team in the future.

Silver Star: Joey Hauser – Another freshman getting the honors as Hauser looked out of sorts in the last couple of games. He seemed to figure out whatever was going on in his head. He scored 16 points with three 3 pointers. Hauser did his damage at the line with seven made free throws. He is a beast when it comes to attacking the rim. He was one of the only players doing that down the stretch for Marquette. Good to see him bounce back.

One Thing I liked: Turnovers were a non-issue – Golden Eagles turned the ball over five times all game. To put that in perspective, Marquette had five turnovers against Seton Hall in the first five minutes of the game. Despite the tightening at the end, this is a major win for MU. After all of the turnover problems, they come up with five total, that’s pretty good. Hopefully, the protection of the ball can travel to New York.

One Thing I didn’t like: One stop, that’s all Marquette needed – The tightness of the Golden Eagles went from turnovers to no defense. Marquette could not stop James Akinjo and Mac McClung. Akinjo hit some incredible jumpers that no one could really defend better against. But McClung should have been stopped. Someone needed to step in front of him and draw a charge late. McClung might be more hesitant if he gets a charge call or at worst, flip the possession. Golden Eagles defenders could not do that against either player.

Next up: Marquette will await the winner of St. John’s and DePaul. Marquette will likely be rooting for DePaul, but the Johnnies will be the favorite. This is on their gym, and they might need a win to be safe in the tournament. If it’s St. John’s-Marquette round III, you can expect Steve Wojciechowski do something a bit different than what Golden Eagles’ fans have expected. I do like the idea of a Big East revenge tour this week.

Charlie.