Tue 3/4, Marquette (9-7) at Providence (9-7), 9pm FS1.

[Bill Marsh]

After a thrilling thrilling game I guess Jake Thomas and Derrick Wilson decided they were sick of playing. Cotton's got some iron nads on him to sink those shots but honestly we lost that game Providence didn't win it for themselves. We had it on a platter and two people showed why they don't belong in the big leagues.

Providence almost lost the game by failing to take the opportunity at the end of regulation. Cotton dribbled the ball for 19 seconds before taking a contested fadeaway shot a foot behind the three-point line. He is only an okay shooter but he's one of the fastest players in the conference with the ball in his hands; that was a really dumb play.

Dumb? You don't think he wanted to do that? Did you notice the defense Marquette was playing on him?

[Bill Marsh]

Cotton's got some iron nads on him to sink those shots but honestly we lost that game Providence didn't win it for themselves.

Game would not have gone to one OT if Fortune didn't brush the arm on the three point attempt at the end of regulation (a Cardinal Sin of a foul). Both teams gave each other plenty of opportunities to win. Plenty of terrible fouls committed and terrible errors made by both teams to allow the other team to remain in the game.

Exactly. These are college kids. They're not perfect; they make mistakes

[billyjack]

Just happy to get the win. Kinda still numb after everything. Our 4th double-OT game of the year.
When Gardner hit that 75 foot shot at the first buzzer I started mumbling jibberish to myself.
The see-sawing back and forth was unbelievable.
Tough teams. Both have brass ones. Both deserve auto-bids for tonight's game.

[XUFan09]

After a thrilling thrilling game I guess Jake Thomas and Derrick Wilson decided they were sick of playing. Cotton's got some iron nads on him to sink those shots but honestly we lost that game Providence didn't win it for themselves. We had it on a platter and two people showed why they don't belong in the big leagues.

Providence almost lost the game by failing to take the opportunity at the end of regulation. Cotton dribbled the ball for 19 seconds before taking a contested fadeaway shot a foot behind the three-point line. He is only an okay shooter but he's one of the fastest players in the conference with the ball in his hands; that was a really dumb play.

Dumb? You don't think he wanted to do that? Did you notice the defense Marquette was playing on him?

I don't think he wanted to do that but he forced himself into it by waiting too long. Yes, I saw the defense they were playing on him, but he had 19 seconds to figure out how to beat it. That was about the least efficient shot he could have taken when the goal is just to score and the number of points doesn't really matter.

[Irishdawg]

Just happy to get the win. Kinda still numb after everything. Our 4th double-OT game of the year.
When Gardner hit that 75 foot shot at the first buzzer I started mumbling jibberish to myself.
The see-sawing back and forth was unbelievable.
Tough teams. Both have brass ones. Both deserve auto-bids for tonight's game.

My wife started going nuts when Gardner hit that shot. I didn't even think he was even close to getting that shot off in time, but the replay made it look a lot closer than what it did during real-time. Great game between two teams that really wanted to win that one, and towards the end of the 1st OT when both teams just kept hitting shot after shot was a lot of fun to watch.

As a side note, I do think Bryce Cotton is an Iron Man with the way that he plays each and every night, and I wish my team had a player of his caliber, but I think either the claims by Ed Cooley or Kevin McNamara (It's on McNamara's twitter account) that if Providence wins at Creighton that Bryce Cotton should be the Big East player of the year are a bit over the top. I think in any other year, Cooley would have a great case for the kid and I do think that Bryce Cotton is an All-American caliber player, but short of McDermott completely getting shut down the next few games and Cotton carrying Providence on his back to the Big East tournament title, I think regardless of what happens Saturday it's still McDermott's award to lose.

[stever20]

Just happy to get the win. Kinda still numb after everything. Our 4th double-OT game of the year.
When Gardner hit that 75 foot shot at the first buzzer I started mumbling jibberish to myself.
The see-sawing back and forth was unbelievable.
Tough teams. Both have brass ones. Both deserve auto-bids for tonight's game.

My wife started going nuts when Gardner hit that shot. I didn't even think he was even close to getting that shot off in time, but the replay made it look a lot closer than what it did during real-time. Great game between two teams that really wanted to win that one, and towards the end of the 1st OT when both teams just kept hitting shot after shot was a lot of fun to watch.

As a side note, I do think Bryce Cotton is an Iron Man with the way that he plays each and every night, and I wish my team had a player of his caliber, but I think either the claims by Ed Cooley or Kevin McNamara (It's on McNamara's twitter account) that if Providence wins at Creighton that Bryce Cotton should be the Big East player of the year are a bit over the top. I think in any other year, Cooley would have a great case for the kid and I do think that Bryce Cotton is an All-American caliber player, but short of McDermott completely getting shut down the next few games and Cotton carrying Providence on his back to the Big East tournament title, I think regardless of what happens Saturday it's still McDermott's award to lose.

That's just stupid. It's McDermott end of story. Also- the award is done after regular season- no BET at all...

[Irishdawg]

Well then there you go. Short of the league office finding out McDermott has been punting puppies off a bridge or pummeling old women in his spare time, he's probably going to win.

[stever20]

Well then there you go. Short of the league office finding out McDermott has been punting puppies off a bridge or pummeling old women in his spare time, he's probably going to win.

yep..

Like you said- almost any other year- Cotton's the POY, and it's not even close. But, McDermott's been that good....

However- the one thing you have to wonder- will the "old school" Big East writers all vote for Cotton and ignore the new kid on the block? You'd like to think it wouldn't happen, but you just never know with sportswriters.

[Bill Marsh]

Providence almost lost the game by failing to take the opportunity at the end of regulation. Cotton dribbled the ball for 19 seconds before taking a contested fadeaway shot a foot behind the three-point line. He is only an okay shooter but he's one of the fastest players in the conference with the ball in his hands; that was a really dumb play.

Dumb? You don't think he wanted to do that? Did you notice the defense Marquette was playing on him?

I don't think he wanted to do that but he forced himself into it by waiting too long. Yes, I saw the defense they were playing on him, but he had 19 seconds to figure out how to beat it. That was about the least efficient shot he could have taken when the goal is just to score and the number of points doesn't really matter.

I understand, but Marquette was denying the penetration. There was no way he was getting in there. I'm sure the waste of time was not something he did on his own. The coach normally has something to sat about that.

Actually if there was anything I'd fault him on were the two times he shot the ball right after rebounds - the first a 3 with about 4 minutes to go and the second a two in the lane late. He had good looks on both, but especially on the first one because Cooley was trying to work the clock at that point. The 35 seconds was more important than the 3. He missed the 3, Marquette got the rebound, came down court quickly and scored. The other one also led to a change of possession.

I understand Cotton'sthinking on both of them because he's a clutch shooter and I've seen him make those shots many times before. But they were bad decisions in terms of what the team was trying to do at that point in the game. However, I'm not going to kill the kid for those because they were split second decisions and you like to see a kid with that kind of confidence who believes he can make the shot every time he gets a good look. Even though he was having a horrendous shooting night and on that basis alone should have pulled the ball out, I've seen him come up big in OT with similar clutch shots when he'd had a bad shooting night for most of the game. So, you take the good with the bad.

[dmac80]

Just happy to get the win. Kinda still numb after everything. Our 4th double-OT game of the year.
When Gardner hit that 75 foot shot at the first buzzer I started mumbling jibberish to myself.
The see-sawing back and forth was unbelievable.
Tough teams. Both have brass ones. Both deserve auto-bids for tonight's game.

My wife started going nuts when Gardner hit that shot. I didn't even think he was even close to getting that shot off in time, but the replay made it look a lot closer than what it did during real-time. Great game between two teams that really wanted to win that one, and towards the end of the 1st OT when both teams just kept hitting shot after shot was a lot of fun to watch.

As a side note, I do think Bryce Cotton is an Iron Man with the way that he plays each and every night, and I wish my team had a player of his caliber, but I think either the claims by Ed Cooley or Kevin McNamara (It's on McNamara's twitter account) that if Providence wins at Creighton that Bryce Cotton should be the Big East player of the year are a bit over the top. I think in any other year, Cooley would have a great case for the kid and I do think that Bryce Cotton is an All-American caliber player, but short of McDermott completely getting shut down the next few games and Cotton carrying Providence on his back to the Big East tournament title, I think regardless of what happens Saturday it's still McDermott's award to lose.

Well if you watched last night I could see where its ridiculous, Cotton had one of his worst games of the season, turnovers, taking contested threes that missed badly, etc.......He has played a lot better in most of our games. But if Creighton continues to fade and if PC somehow finishes strong, it wouldn't be a complete stretch. I don't think it would happen, but it wouldn't be insane. OF course that's coming from a PC homer so....