Marquette Basketball: 3 biggest takeaways from Eagles win over Purdue

3) Markus Howard’s struggles vs. length

The reason McEwen needed to step up was because Howard was struggling to deal with the bigger defenders Purdue put on him – something he has struggled with throughout his career at just 5-11 – and had difficulty getting open off the ball.

Painter praised the job that Nojel Eastern and Eric Hunter Jr. did on him defensively, limiting Howard to just 12 shots and three free throw attempts. Howard only attempted 12 shots or less six times last season and five of them came when he was either hurt or the Golden Eagles played far inferior competition.

Luckily, McEwen stepped up and Howard was smart enough not to get reckless forcing the issue, but he was also complacent when he didn’t have the ball. There were very few hard cuts to get himself open – mostly drifting behind the play in an effort to get his defender to leave him. More times than not, especially in that first half, it essentially makes the game four-on-four with Howard and his defender standing closer to mid-court than the paint.

That changed in the second half – he was a bit more aggressive in demanding the ball – but he was far less effective when he wasn’t bringing the ball up the court and initiating the offense.

Not every team is going to have Purdue’s length or have the level of quality defenders they have in Eastern and Hunter. That said, this team is only going as far as Howard takes them, and they can’t afford for him to drift out of the game for any period of time.