Marquette vs South Florida Basketball Recap

Marquette 63, South Florida 52

The Big East bubble is big, wide and messy, and it will undergo many changes in the coming weeks. Two of the league's most uncertain bubble inhabitants locked horns Saturday night in Milwaukee, and while no firm sense of resolution was established, it can be said that the Marquette Golden Eagles took a step forward in their pursuit of an NCAA Tournament bid.

All is not lost - not by a longshot - for the South Florida team that fell to Marquette at the Bradley Center in this low-scoring slugfest. The Bulls still have a legitimate chance of going 10-8 in the Big East, which would likely put them on the right side of the bubble when the regular season ultimately comes to a close. However, in a bubble battle where every small piece of leverage, every poker chip in the kitty, counts for something come Selection Sunday, it's best to pile up the winnings and bank them for the middle of March. Only one team did that at Al McGuire Court, and that team came from the school the late Mr. McGuire made famous.

Coach Buzz Williams has his Marquette men at 7-5 in the Big East - two full games ahead of South Florida - as a result of this 11-point win. A Golden Eagle group that has endured some very bad losses - to North Carolina State and DePaul in particular - needs to make a strong impression in the Big East, probably to the tune of an 11-7 regular-season record, and this breakthrough against coach Stan Heath's Bulls increased the chances of just such an occurrence.

How did Marquette move upward in the land called Big East Bubbleville? Defense did the deed for MU.

South Florida guard Dominique Jones - the third-leading scorer in the Big East - is the man largely responsible for the Bulls' emergence as an NCAA Tournament contender. In the four-game winning streak that propelled USF onto the national scene, Jones averaged 35 points and 16 free throw attempts while shooting 55 percent from the field (42 of 76). Those are phenomenal numbers, to say the least, and they show just how central Jones is to USF's on-court fortunes. Marquette - as any smart South Florida opponent needs to do - threw its best stuff at Jones, and the star performer just couldn't rise above the energy of the Golden Eagles' relentless defensive pressure.

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Jones went just 6 of 21 from the floor in this game, and more revealingly, he attempted only four foul shots on the way to a disappointing 16-point evening that included five turnovers. If you shut down Dominique Jones, you cut off South Florida's head, and the Bulls' mediocre 52-point showing - with no more than 27 points in either half of action - offered clear and convincing proof of that claim.

Marquette got defensive in the best possible way on a February night in Milwaukee. If Golden Eagle fans (those 21 and older, it should be clarified) had a beer later that evening, the beverage was likely tipped back in celebration rather than sorrow.

by Matt Zemek
BigEast-fans.com Staff Writer

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