Marquette

GameNight: Dayton at Marquette

Blake Hofstad — Sat, 29 Nov 2008 15:17:33 -0500

Start: Nov 29 2008 - 8:00pm

Preview & Prediction: By Blake Hofstad

Dayton (5-0) is one of a slew of teams in contention in the Atlantic-10. Xavier has emerged as the top dog with wins over Memphis and Missouri, but a win over #15 Marquette (5-0) would send a message to the Muskies and the rest of the conference that the Flyers are a force to be reckoned with. To get to this game, Dayton had to survive a terrible shooting night (0-24 from 3-point, 20-72 overall) to knock off Auburn in overtime. If they shoot like they did on Friday, Marquette will make them pay. Chris Wright’s injury was a big reason why they missed the NCAA Tournament last year. He is back, and his Flyers look good. Dayton plays tough defense, and if they can contain Marquette’s guard trio, they have a good shot at this one.

The Golden Eagles are led by their three guards, Wesley Matthews, Jerel McNeal and Dominic James. All three can shoot, defend and pass. In the paint. Marquette features Lazar Hayward, who is always a double-double threat. After that, there is a drop-off in talent for the Eagles. There are a lot of solid role players, such as forward David Cubillan, but no real scoring threats. Marquette needs to rely on their Big 4, Hayward, McNeal, James and Matthews, to get it done against a very good defensive team in Dayton.

Ultimately, Marquette has too much talent, with their backcourt proving they are one of the nation’s best. But it won’t be easy, as Wright and Marcus Johnson go off. Dayton regains their shooting touch and makes a furious comeback late.

Winner: Marquette Margin: 1-4

Big East Coach Ranking: Sweet Sixteen

Dan Daitchman — Thu, 20 Nov 2008 12:17:50 -0500

The 2008-09 Big East season should bring as much excitement as any. Commonly regarded as the toughest conference in college basketball, it has the potential to put 9+ teams into the NCAA tournament come March.

At the backbone of a great team comes a great coach, and the Big East has plenty of great coaches. But which coaches are the best? Let's just say that a well-padded résumé is not enough to give a coach top honors in this conference.

1. John Thompson III (Georgetown) - Like father like son, JT III has brought Georgetown back to national attention. His teams display great hustle regardless of score, and perennially sport a top-5 defense. The other mark of a great coach? Winning close games. Last year, Georgetown won six Big East games by 3 points or less.

2. Jim Calhoun (UConn) - Truly one of the elite coaches in college basketball. He's got the hardware to support his hall-of-fame status, and puts impact players in the NBA (See the careers of Ray Allen, Ben Gordon, and Emeka Okafor for further details).

3. Jim Boeheim (Syracuse) - When your signature is a decal of the court you coach on, you know you've done well. Nobody runs a better 2-3 zone defense than Jim Boeheim. He recruits great talent and has never missed the NCAA tournament 3 years in a row.

4. Rick Pitino (Louisville) - Not enough can be said about the Godfather. He's the only coach to take 3 teams to the Final Four. His squad always plays well as a team, and nobody mixes zone and man-to-man defense better then the Cardinals.

5. Bob Huggins (West Virginia) - Regardless of his off-the-court antics, this guy can flat out coach. He brought the 21^st century version of phi slamma jamma to Cincinnati, a perennial top-15 team. He gave K-State a great run at the NCAA tourney in his short term there, and left a full cupboard of talent in Michael Beasley and Bill Walker. Huggins silenced a lot of critics last year when the 7^th-seed Mountaineers knocked off 2^nd-seed Duke to reach the Sweet 16.

6. Jamie Dixon (Pitt) - Pitt has become a familiar name in the NCAA tournament thanks to this guy. He's moved up a rung in the recruiting latter by getting big-time local talent in Dejuan Blair, who grew up a mile from the Petersen Events Center. Dixon is an Elite-8 away from becoming a premier coach in college basketball.

7. Jay Wright (Villanova) - He's the classiest coach in basketball. He's brought Villanova back to playing their best basketball since the '85 championship. Some of the best guards in the country have stopped through Philadelphia as of late. The future holds similar high hopes, as Villanova's 2009 class is ranked in the top 5 by Scouts Inc.

8. Mike Brey (Notre Dame) - As Dick Vitale once said, nobody fits a program better than Mike Brey at Notre Dame. He's created a very balanced attack that will continue to give a lot of teams fits this year.

9. Keno Davis (Providence) - Out with the old, in with the new. Davis led the Drake Bulldogs on a magical run to the NCAA tournament last year and was a buzzer-beater away from making the second round. Keno inherits a program full of disappointment from last year and hopes to turn things around.

10. Mick Cronin (Cincinnati) - Cincy hasn't been the same since Huggins left, but Cronin has been steadily building his alma mater into a contender once again.

11. Jerry Wainwright (DePaul) - One quality about all of Wainwright's teams: they play tough. The Blue Demons have knocked off a ranked team each year for the past three years.

12. Buzz Williams (Marquette) - Buzz hasn't had much time as head coach yet, and will try to remove the sour taste Tom Crean left in fans' mouths. One thing is true: he's a great recruiter. Three of his recruiting classes in the last 8 years have been in the top 50, all at mid-major or high-major schools. He helped Texas A&M in becoming a top-tier program, and his 2009 class for Marquette is ranked 5^th by Scouts Inc.

13. Stan Heath (South Florida) - Football gets more hype than basketball these days in Tampa, but Heath's Bulls have shown they're a sleeper team. Last year featured wins over Syracuse and Florida State, and a 1-point loss in overtime to 17^th-ranked UConn.

14. Fred Hill (Rutgers) - Hill has done nothing but lose games since he's shown up in New Brunswick, but he's brought in two top-tier recruits in Mike Rosario and Gregory Echenique, who he hopes will help the Scarlet Knights climb out of last place.

15. Norm Roberts (St. John's) - This is not Lou Carnesecca's Redmen of the 80s. Norm needs to quickly rebuild a team that's in danger of losing court time at Madison Square Garden.

16. Bobby Gonzalez (Seton Hall) - This is a team that's won 3 Big East road games in the last 2 seasons. That won't cut it anywhere, especially in the toughest conference in college basketball.

Marquette Announces Top 20 Signing Class

Press Release — Wed, 12 Nov 2008 23:02:21 -0500

Milwaukee - The Marquette University men's basketball program has compiled a consensus top-25 recruiting class for the 2009-10 season, first-year head coach Buzz Williams announced Wednesday evening.

Marquette's five-member class includes three student-athletes ranked among the nation's top-100 players and another who has been tabbed a preseason junior college All-America honoree.

"Recruiting is the lifeblood of any program and although every year is critical, I believe year No. 1 must establish what your program is going to be about," Williams said. "Losing the four seniors, three of which have become the face of our program throughout their career, forced us from a recruiting perspective to not only address their loss, but to insure we had balance within our roster. Thus far in our tenure here, we have preached the importance of toughness on both ends of the floor and our class is reflective of that."

Williams and his staff have assembled a group that consists of: DWIGHT BUYCKS (Milwaukee, Wis./Indian Hills CC), JUNIOR CADOUGAN (Toronto, Ont./Christian Life Center Academy), JERONNE MAYMON (Madison, Wis./Memorial HS), BRETT ROSEBORO (Quakertown, Pa./Quakertown HS) and ERIK WILLIAMS (Houston, Texas/Cypress Springs HS).

"In many respects, they are Big East ready and will all have to make an impact from the first day they arrive," Williams added. "It is rare when you take over a program to have four commitments prior to the completion of the summer and we were able to do that this year, and that is because of the daily commitment from our staff to develop trusting relationships with the best players in the state, and the best players in the country.

"I am not deserving of all the credit, because the assistants have been tireless in working to find the perfect fit for what we want our program to be about not only on the floor, but more importantly off the floor," Williams said.

MU's first recruiting class under Williams is currently ranked second in the nation by both Hoopmasters.com and HoopScoopOnline.com. The group is No. 5 on ESPN.com's list, 13^th on PrepStars.com, rated 14^th overall by Rivals.com and owns the 15^th position on Scout.com's top-25 ranking.

2009 Marquette Men's Basketball Signing Class

NAME POS. YR. HT. WT. HOMETOWN/HIGH SCHOOL/LAST SCHOOL

Dwight Buycks G Jr. 6-3 185 Milwaukee, Wis./Bay View HS/Indian Hills JC

Junior Cadougan G Fr. 6-1 195 Toronto, Ont./Christian Life Center Academy

Jeronne Maymon G/F Fr. 6-6 215 Madison, Wis./Memorial HS

Brett Roseboro F Fr. 6-10 230 Quakertown, Pa./Quakertown HS

Erik Williams F Fr. 6-7 200 Houston, Texas/Cypress Springs HS