The Marquette game tomorrow Milwaukee is a big one. 9PM on ESPN. The ex-Warriors are having a “Gold Out” (What? You thought Pitt was the only one who could do that?) for the game. Pitt has never won at the Bradley Center. It seemed like a good time for a Q&A with Cracked Sidewalks. One of the older and best Big East blogs out there and still not assimilated by SBNation. Tim Blair and Rob Lowe provided the answers to my questions. You can find my responses to their questions here.

1. Like Pitt, Marquette lost their marquee triumvirate of Jones, Matthews and McNeal. The difference, is that despite their overpowering presence, Marquette still had Lazar Hayward coming back for his senior year plus seniors Cubillan and Acker. The emergence of Jimmy Butler and Darius Johnson-Odom is at least surprising to those outside of Marquette. Talk a little about what the strengths are of these two and whether you expected their emergence this year?

We don’t regard Jimmy Butler’s emergence as being that big of a surprise. Butler came on strong to close last season and his efficiency as a role player was off the charts good, so it’s not that surprising to see him increase his possessions and still be very efficient. Jimmy Butler’s strength is that he always stays within his role, never playing out of character. He gets a ton of offensive rebounds and draws a great deal of contact, and is generally very good from the free throw line. If anything, we’d prefer that he was a bit more selfish. However, his game-winning shot against UConn and increased focus on driving with the ball give us hope.

As for DJO, this is a total surprise. When we looked JUCO’s in the Big East we found that it was rare for JUCO players to make any sort of significant contribution. However, DJO’s ability to shoot the open jumper and drive to the hoop have been the key to success this season (IMO). The big thing that always stands out about DJO is a comment we heard from Buzz, (paraphrasing), where it was basically that DJO was the only player Buzz could ask to “go get a basket” and he’d be able to do that. Essentially, everyone else needs to have a play run or find a shot within the offense; DJO can go get one.

2. Year two of Buzz Williams. It seems that things are working out better than expected. How are you feeling about the program under his control? There’s a pretty good argument to be made that he or Jamie Dixon will be the Big East Coach of the Year.

Honestly, we see Boeheim as a more likely candidate for Coach of the Year right now. However, this year the coaching job by Buzz has been a real revelation. The conventional wisdom on Buzz was that he was a great recruiter and unknown coach. This year, I don’t see how anyone could regard his coaching job as anything but great. Marquette has been competitive in almost every game this season except for the second half of the NC State game. Plus, considering the low expectations for this season we’re pretty pumped to even be in the conversation on the NCAA tournament.

As far as the program under his control, our quibbles are relatively minor. They are things like “Is Buzz wound too tight?” “Can he develop freshmen players? “Can he sign and develop big men?” In the big picture, we’ll take good recruiting, a competitive team, and a team that responds well in the face of adversity. The future looks bright in upcoming years in terms of incoming talent and Buzz’ coaching.

3. This is the slowest tempo Marquette team since Travis Diener was around. That’s not completely surprising given the change in players, but do you see this as more of the future with Marquette, or just an adjustment given the change in players and issues of depth?

This as more an adjustment given the personnel and issues of depth. The focus is on getting a good look and many times that doesn’t develop until later in the shot clock with the offense. Last year the team played at about an average pace overall. We believe that when the team gets deeper they’ll play probably at an average pace.

(rob’s note – this gets into questions of playing a higher risk strategy, especially when coupled with threes, that might not be beneficial given the team’s positive overall efficiency margin.)

4. Having lost 7 games by 5 points or less, Marquette had been labeled one of the unluckiest teams. The Golden Eagles have now won 3 games by 3 points or less. Do you see this as part of a balancing out of things through the course of a season? A growth in confidence and improving in the season or something else?

It’s a little bit of luck and a little bit of responding to the situations. There’s definitely a view that lucky/unlucky trends tend to even out. However, part of the reason MU lost those close early games was because they frankly choked at the free throw line and/or failed to make stops in key situations late in games. What we’ve seen in some of the recent close games has been the team responding positively to pressure situations by making free throws, field goals or getting stops down the stretch. This improvement in tight games comes through repeated exposure to these situations and the maturation of a team forced to integrate a lot of new talent while dealing with a spate of early-season injuries and a player departure. Buzz’ team has proven it can take a punch and not only survive, but thrive.

5. One of the things — besides the key injuries — that seems to have hurt Marquette late in the season seemed to have been the players wearing down. It looks like Marquette is again playing a very short bench with several players getting at least 30 min/game in the Big East grind, are you concerned about that?

The short bench that Buzz employs has us concerned but more from a depth perspective. When MU was in the throes of late-game chokes earlier this year some fans cited the short bench and fatigue as a possible cause. Still, MU righted the ship in close games without amending the rotation all that much. As for wearing down late in the season, we don’t quite see it. If you’re referring to last year, that was more the Dominic James injury leading into the season’s most difficult stretch (UConn, @Louisville, @Pitt, Syracuse). Previous years (like 2007 with McNeal’s arm) are also more attributable to injuries. In our opinion, it’s more a matter of lack of depth — and the options a longer bench can give a coach — than wearing down.

Thanks again to the guys at Cracked Sidewalks for the knowledge.