Jae Crowder Is the MVP of Marquette's Amazing Season by Al Kelly

Marquette's amazing season continues to surprise me and probably most of its fans. Nationally MU is up to #7 in the Coaches Poll, #8 in the AP Poll, and#8 in CBSSports RPI rankings.  These are the kind of rankings we took for granted in Al McGuire's days as our coach in the '70's.

Picked to finish in the middle of the conference Marquette now needs one win to clinch 2nd place alone. Even two losses this week (@Cincinnati, Georgetown here) and we'll finish in a tie for 2nd place with any combination of teams from Georgetown, Notre Dame, and South Florida. I don't know what the tiebreakers are so a 4-way tie could result in a #5 seed for any one of these teams.


Here are the possible results:
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South Florida (2-0) wins at Louisville and beats WV at home (13-5)
Georgetown (1-0) wins at Marquette (13-5)
Notre Dame (1-0) beats Providence at home (13-5)
Marquette  (0-2) loses at Cincinnati and at home to Georgetown (13-5)
4-way tie for 2nd place-Tiebreakers ??
Marquette's seed anywhere from #2 to #5
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South Florida (1-1) loses at Louisville or at home vs WVU or loses both (12-6 or 11-7)
Georgetown (1-0) wins at Marquette (13-5)
Notre Dame (1-0) beats Providence at home (13-5)
Marquette  (0-2) loses at Cincinnati and at home to Georgetown (13-5)
3-way tie for 2nd place-Tiebreakers ??
Marquette's seed anywhere from #2 to #4
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Marquette wins at Cincinnati or at home vs Georgetown or wins both (14-4 or 15-3) and clinches 2nd place alone and a #2 seed in Big East Tournament.
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Key games
Marquette at Cincinnati (Marquette win clinches 2nd place alone)
South Florida at Louisville (Louisville win eliminates South Florida from top four finish)
Georgetown at Marquette (Marquette win clinches 2nd place alone)
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After Saturday we'll have all the answers as the regular season ends and the postseason begins.

But why has Marquette been so successful this season? They're not very big and don't have any McDonald's All Americans or Preseason Player of the Year types. Their two senior leaders are just juco guys.

The key ingredient in this team's success is the outstanding season of Jae Crowder. He was the Big East player of the week for the second time this week. No one else has won it more than once.

On ESPN's Monday night telecast of Georgetown's win over Notre Dame two of their more respected analysts, Jay Bilas and Bill Rafferty, picked Jae as their Big East conference player of the year.

In MU's Friday night win over West Virginia Crowder definitely outplayed Kevin Jones from WVU the conference leader in scoring  and rebounding averages. Jae filled the stat sheet as usual with 26 points, 4 rebounds, an assist, 2 steals, and 2 blocks. He also helped hold Jones to 12 points which is 8 below his average. DJO has had a very good senior year also but Crowder is the engine that makes this train go, the heart and soul of the team, the key piece, the mvp, or whatever cliche you'd like to call him that means Jae Crowder is MU's leader and Most Valuable Player.

The best example of Crowder's value in his exceptional senior season came Friday night at WVU.

Consider all these negatives and we still won the game:

3 starters including MU's leading scorer,DJO, suspended for the 1st half.
MU's top bench player,Todd Mayo, suspended for the 2nd half.
MU shoots 18.8% from the 3-point line.
MU shoots 50% from the free throw line.
MU(Junior Cadougan) misses 2 free throws with 13 seconds left and a 1 point lead.
Only 3 players(Crowder, Mayo, J. Wilson) score in the 1st half.
Only 4 players (Crowder, DJO, Blue, Cadougan)  score in the 2nd half.
Only 1 player(Crowder) scores in both halves.
Only 2 players score in double figures (Crowder-26 and Blue-10)
Only 2 players make a free throw (Crowder 6-11 and Blue 4-4)
MU got outrebounded 42 to 29.
MU had no offensive rebounds in the 1st half and only 6 for the game.
WVU had 16 offensive rebounds for the game.

We won this game because of the play of Jae Crowder and some good "D".  As a 6'6" player you can't call him a center but thats where he often plays since the injuries to Otule and Gardner.  Is he a forward, a guard, a tweener, or as Buzz probably calls him a baller? Whatever you call him just make sure he's on the court when Marquette has a basketball game. He'll do his part to get his team the win.

GO WARRIORS!!