MubbCap: Marquette’s Lack of Urgency Leads to Another Loss

Things aren’t well at Marquette. They’re a bigger mess than most couples on Netflix’s new show ‘Love is Blind.’ Marquette laid an egg against DePaul when they had no eggs left to be laid. Last week against a depleted Georgetown team, Marquette went out and laid the hammer down. They should have done the same thing against DePaul. Instead, they looked disinterested to play basketball. Usually, when something like this happens in sports, you lose the game. And that is exactly what happened to Marquette last night. As DePaul once again puts a major black mark on Marquette’s resume heading into March. The Golden Eagles fall 69-68 and the seat has never been warmer for Steve Wojciechowski. Here are four things to think about for the rest of the week.
1. Marquette never woke up from their slumber – To me, this is the most frustrating part of the game. If you lose to DePaul, but they couldn’t miss from three or Marquette couldn’t hit a shot, I would find a way to make peace. But the issue here is that they did not give a shit out there. Markus Howard turned 21 yesterday. This is spicy to say, but it had the feel of a group of guys thinking about the birthday celebration after the game. I know 18-23 year-olds and the excitement of a 21st birthday. Minds appeared elsewhere.
2. Is that the fault of the players or the coaches? – Players do deserve some of that, but the lack of urgency can also signal a team that is done with their coach. For the second straight year, Marquette crumbled like a house of cards in the waning moments of the season. A week ago, I explored the reasons for why that’s happening. Without knowing, this could be a team that has been pushed too hard, and they’ve had enough.
3. Would Marquette fire Wojo? – The seat has never been hotter. Many Marquette fans watched this game in person last night. With it being the Chicago area, I’d assume some prominent ones at that. The phone calls to the AD are likely not pleasant in the coming days. Wojo needs a win badly on Saturday then if he can add a Big East win (Barring it’s not the 7/10 matchup), things will settle a bit. But if he loses out again, Marquette will need to fire him or ask for him to completely change how he’s doing things with the team. Something is wrong.
4. Is Marquette screwed for the Big East tournament? – No, not really. The good thing for Marquette is they swept Xavier and Butler who are ahead of them. Butler and Xavier play each other on Saturday. One of those teams will have a guaranteed nine losses. As long as Marquette wins, they will probably be the six of the five seed. That’s the one bright spot in this pile of shit.
Next up: Marquette will get ready for St. John’s on Saturday afternoon at Madison Square Garden. This is the biggest game in Wojo’s career. All eyes on him, not just local, and if they lay another egg, I shudder to think about the reaction from the alumni, fans, and boosters.
Charlie.