One of my favorite hashtags of all-time is #ZoneIsForCowards by Bomani Jones. It is true. I hate zone defense in basketball. It is a coward way to play basketball. It is a shame that a team that runs strictly zone defense, Baylor, is the best team in the country. But sometimes, you have to admit to yourself when a zone works against a team. Case in point, the Marquette Golden Eagles on Saturday afternoon. They started to work in a zone against DePaul Blue Demons in the final five minutes of the games. It paid off and allowed Marquette to finally claw back to win this one, 76-72. I’ve been hard on Steve Wojciechowski, but he did a great job on Saturday with that adjustment.

Player of the Game: Markus Howard – The masked avenger as MUBB Twitter called him, had an up and down game. He is the reason that Marquette didn’t get ran off the floor in the first half against DePaul. No one could score for Marquette and Howard had to be the catalyst. Then in the second half, he struggled mightily to get his shot going plus looked timid to the lane. But when the game was on the line, Howard came up with the big shots. He hit a clutch step-back (Or pull-back as the announcer said) to take the lead at 72-70. Howard ended up with eight clutch points on Saturday.

Honorable Mention: Jayce Johnson – I’ve adopted Jayce and he’s now my large son. Why? Well, Jayce plays a similar style of basketball to mine back in the mid-aughts before I retired at Tosa West. Never forget the head coach, not wanting to offend me since my mom ran the booster club, offering me a spot as a fucking manager of the team. The top five asshole moves done to me in my life. As for Johnson, he had a great game. The Utah transfer finished with 11 points, six rebounds. Johnson played a huge role in this one and deserves to be starting at center for Marquette.

One Thing I Didn’t Like: Stop benching guys with two fouls – Part of Marquette’s first half struggles were due to Kobe McEwen riding the bench for 16 minutes because of two fouls. Sacar Anim also saw limited minutes due to foul trouble. Steve Wojciechowski cannot seem to trust his guys with two fouls. He is hellbent on keeping them on the bench. I get taking them out for a bit, but especially when things weren’t going well, McEwen and Anim needed to be int here. If Howard is off or DePaul is better, this game might have got out of hand.

Next up: Marquette gets a week off and plays Butler on Sunday morning for National Marquette Day. It is weird that National Marquette Day is on a Sunday, but Butler is a premier opponent. Marquette owns Butler an ass-kicking after the debacle finish a few Fridays ago. The status of Aaron Thompson will be key for this one.

Charlie.