Marquette Basketball: Reactions to first round win over DePaul

Marquette Basketball struggled throughout the second half against DePaul, but still advanced to the quarterfinals with a 72-69 win.

Breathe, Marquette fans. As is becoming the norm, the Golden Eagles put up a clunker against DePaul, but managed to escape 72-69 and keep their NCAA bubble hopes alive.

Here are three reactions to yet another gut-wrenching Marquette game.

The Good, The Bad, The Rowsey

After one of the best games of his Marquette tenure on Senior Day against Creighton, Andrew Rowsey managed to return to check all of his infuriating boxes Wednesday against the Blue Demons.

Let’s start with the good: Rowsey dropped 25 points (8-20 shooting), with 6 rebounds, and 3 assists. For much of the game, he was all Marquette had offensively. Rowsey went on a personal heat check with three three-pointers in the middle of the first half to buoy MU’s struggling squad and knocked down a runner as time expired to push the halftime lead to 12.

In the second half, when things got tight, Rowsey stepped up again, this time with a fading three to break the 61-61 tie, and then followed it with another jumper to push the lead to 5. Rowsey is averaging over 26 points per game in his last three contests.

But as Marquette fans have so often seen with Rowsey, he giveth and he taketh away. His shot selection and quantity throughout the game aside, Rowsey’s final 15 seconds were about as catastrophic as one could imagine. Instead of taking a foul or calling timeout with Marquette up 70-69, he dribbled into traffic and turned it over with 11 seconds remaining.

And on the next defensive possession, Rowsey failed to switch on a ball screen, which left Max Strus wide open for three. Rowsey ultimately ripped down the rebound after Strus’ miss and admitted his two mistakes immediately after the game on FS1, but he cannot still be making mental mistakes at the end of his redshirt senior season.

Markus Howard does not enjoy DePaul

Markus Howard entered the game as the Big East’s third-leading scorer, but that was no thanks to DePaul. In three games against the Blue Demons, Howard averaged just 7.7 points on just 35 percent shooting and 3-13 from beyond the arc this season. He attempted just six shots on Wednesday and none in the final 23 minutes of action.

DePaul does have solid size, which understandably makes life harder on the 5-foot-11 Howard. But it is not like Howard hasn’t made shots over bigger players before – he essentially does that every game. Just go check out the Creighton highlights for proof. DePaul clearly has some defensive strategy for Howard, and it proved mighty effective this year. Luckily for Steve Wojciechowski and co., the rest of the conference is yet to devise a similar plan for the sophomore sensation.

Moving forward

It’s clear Marquette does not fare well against DePaul, but the Golden Eagles scratched out a W, and are onto face the two-seeded Villanova Wildcats. And while Marquette gets involved with rock fights with Blue Demons, it does tend to play Villanova tough.

MU fell 100-90 in Philadelphia and 85-82 at home, but both were quality games. It’s clear that Marquette can score with the Wildcats; can they get enough stops? Big East Player of the Year Jalen Brunson averaged 29 points and 4.5 assists in the first two contests against Marquette.

MU was helped by losses to bubble foes Syracuse and Arizona State on Wednesday, but the win over DePaul may not be enough to earn an at-large berth.

Next: Big East Tournament Preview

Tip-off is scheduled for 7 p.m. ET on Thursday at Madison Square Garden. Marquette has advanced to the Big East tournament quarterfinals in every season since joining the conference in 2005-06.