Marquette Basketball: Takeaways from Golden Eagles so far in 2020-21 season

1. Marquette’s Offense Desperately Needs to Figure Out How To Operate Against Zone Defense

Firing on all cylinders with everything clicking on both ends against Oklahoma State, the Cowboys call timeout down 15-4. Down 17-7, OSU goes zone, and the momentum of the game completely flips.

Marquette looks flustered, constantly turning the ball over, forcing contested shots at the end of the shot clock every other possession, and looking lost in a stagnant offense that no longer has any rhythm. OSU slowly dominated an 8-point win, forcing 24 Marquette turnovers in a second-half where Marquette went 8/31 (26%) from the field.

2 weeks later, Creighton throws a 1-3-1 zone at Marquette down 12 with about six minutes left to play. Creighton easily finds themselves back into the game, cutting the lead down to 1 with nearly  2 minutes left before Marquette finally knocked down the shots and free throws necessary to earn a 5 point win. Seton Hall opens the next game in a zone and 3/4 court press, which leads to Marquette coming out flat, down 15-5 at the U16.

Skipping the Xavier game momentarily, Villanova took away any rhythm Marquette had when they switched to a 2-3 zone in an ugly game where Villanova ultimately ran away in the second half with a convincing victory.

Okay, so first things first, Marquette *has* improved against zone defense since the OSU game, but not by as much as they should. Marquette’s offense was very solid against Xavier’s defense all-game, including when they went zone. Marquette had a great start to the Villanova game when the Wildcats were in a 1-3-1, leading 16-11 with made 4 threes before a Villanova timeout.

Marquette has moved the ball around more against the zone, looked for more shots on the elbows for Dawson Garcia, post-touches for Theo John (who has developed a great hook shot by the way), Carton has attacked the middle of the zones effectively, and there have been fewer shots at the end of the shot clock like I mentioned was an issue in the OSU game.

Having said that, there have been a couple of stretches where Marquette becomes turnover prone against the zone and overall isn’t as fluid as it should be. Simply put, the offense needs to do a better job facing a zone defense and the team reaches an already high potential that becomes much higher. This wasn’t really a glaring issue in past years, so hopefully, Marquette can figure it out, even if they should have already by this point in the season.