With the bubble games not breaking in Marquette’s favor on Thursday afternoon, a part of me thought it was all part of the master plan. Marquette would do this their damn selves and finally climb over the hump versus Villanova, a team who they’ve came close to beating this year. Marquette knew that if they get one marquee win that’s going to be enough to probably put them in the NCAA Tournament. It was not meant to be. Villanova kicked the door in the second half with a dominating performance beating Marquette by 24 points and blew them out by 17 just in the second half alone. Nova could not miss and now, Marquette will have to wait to see about their bubble fate.

Needed more than Howard and Rowsey
Marquette stayed close in this game due to Andrew Rowsey and Markus Howard being red hot early on in this game. Marquette had 28 points of their 34 in the first half from their two guards. It was a masterpiece, but you knew Jay Wright would adjust in the second half. He did just that, and the other Marquette players did not step up. Sam Hauser might have been banged up, but they needed more from him in this game. Wright did a great job of funneling the offense to Howard and Rowsey early on then clamping up defensively all over the court

Will Marquette ever have a defense?
I’m not a fire Wojo guy like some people are in the Marquette fan base. I do think next year is extremely important, and Marquette needs to show some progress as a program. that said, it would be nice if Marquette figured out how to play defense again. It’s been lacking the entire time Wojciechowski has been here. You wonder if he could add an assistant coach that might be a defensive wizard because right now, they need some help in this category. With Rowsey gone next year, it should improve slightly.

Bubble drama
I’m thinking about exactly how I want to approach Sunday. I feel like at this moment, I want to see how the dust settles and see if any team like an Alabama or Kansas State moves past their tough games today. I also think it would really help open up an at-large if USC or UCLA were to win the Pac-12 tournament. There are still a ton of variables to grow through from Friday to Sunday. It’s going to be a tricky one. My one word of advice is don’t listen to Joe Lunardi.

Next up
Who knows? It could be an NIT game on Tuesday or Wednesday. Could be a First Four game in Dayton. Could be an NCAA game on Thursday or Friday. We shall see.

Charlie.