Villanova = Marquette lite?

by 83fan on Feb 25, 2008 9:17 PM EST

I just watched some of the Marquette Villanova game and was struck by how similar the 2 teams seem. Obviously, Marquette had the advantage tonight, and seems to have a little more strength in the middle. But I haven't really seen much of Villanova this year, so other thoughts are welcome.

In any event, I thought this was encouraging because I really thought we just have the right match-up for Marquette. And while ND should be our top concern now, winning against Villanova almost guarantees us a first round BE tourney bye, and keeps us from having any bad losses in the closing weeks no matter how ND or G-town go.

The one difference might be Reynolds who always impresses me, and while James is no slouch, he really struggled against us this year for whatever reason.

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They're very similar

But Marquette's guards are an enormous step above 'Nova's. I'm not a real Scottie Reynolds guy, but he's certainly a player talented enough to go off for 30 on any given night. The problem is freshmen Corey Stokes and Corey Fisher (who starts) have been relatively disappointing (although Stokes have come alive recently), and Reggie Redding hasn't made near the jump in his sophomore season that many were predicting. On the flip side, the frontcourt trio of Clark, Cunningham and Pena is certainly more imposing than Ousmane Barro and friends.

'Nova also doesn't defend nearly as well as Marquette. They try to apply the same ball pressure, but they don't have the same level athletes.

They're still a long way from being Georgetown, but this team is a far cry from the Ray/Foye/Nardi squad. When 'Nova has won in the league, the games have generally been played in the 60s or low 70s, when they've lost the games have generally been higher scoring. They're young, they don't defend particularly well in transition, and they're prone to making stupid decisions with the ball.

I do think this is a good match for us, but I'm certainly not going to go so far as to say that I expect Sunday's game to play out like either of the Marquette wins did.

by Mike Rutherford on Feb 26, 2008 4:48 AM EST reply actions