Marquette Golden Eagles should not be a mediocre team in the Big East. They should not at all. The excuse of them being a young team is bullshit. They’re too talented. When D.J. Carton, Justin Lewis are both projected late-first round NBA players, it’s hard to buy into that. Sure, this team doesn’t have Markus Howard. But I watched this team beat Wisconsin early in the season and hold it close against a very good UCLA team. Marquette is doing the similar things that they’re accustomed to under Steve Wojciechowski. Maybe this is the year that people’s eyes finally open up that Marquette is rudderless without any signs pointing upward.

Marquette lost to Providence on Wednesday night. They did not play well in the first half. Marquette came out and scored 18 points total. Now, this is a team that got embarrassed on their home gym by DePaul last weekend. You would think they come out with a little aggression and a little piss and vinegar to do something. But instead, they carried over their poor performance from Saturday. This is not just on coaching, it’s the players too. But it seemed like Marquette’s players let the loss of Saturday linger versus saying ‘Fuck it, let’s kick Providence’s ass.’

The indication of that would be the second half. Marquette woke up, took a lead at one point, and pushed it far enough to force overtime. That was an inspiring half of basketball with good defense. Now, they ran out of steam in overtime which happens with comebacks. But the point remains that it shouldn’t have taken Marquette a half to flip the switch. They’re not a fucking team that can flip the switch. They’re the furthest thing from it. A coach is supposed to make their guys forget about the last loss and move on to the next. That didn’t happen in the lead up to this game.

Marquette gets the weekend off before hosting Butler next Tuesday. They’re a beatable opponent. So was DePaul and Providence too. Maybe no one should be considered beatable until further notice. And maybe this will finally open the eyes of the program that they have a coach stealing money from them.

Charlie.