With the rest of the world looking forward to the big football game today 21.000 Cardinal fans dressed in white had basketball on the brain. It is Super Bowl Sunday but it was super basketball being played in the Yum Center today as the Cards rolled past the Golden Eagles 70-51. Cards are now 18-4 on the season and 6-3 in the Big East.
The Cards played about as good today as I’ve seen them play all year long. The offense was patient taking good shots throughout hitting 51.9% for the game. The focus was also evident at the free-throw line as they shot 10 of 14 for 71.4%. The Cards had 16 turnovers on the day but with 6 of those coming from Peyton Siva the team as a whole did a great job at holding on to the ball and they had 17 assist giving them a 1.1 assist/turnover ratio. With almost a week to prepare for a team it is a guarantee that Rick Pitino will have them well scouted. Pitino mentioned one example of this in his post-game comments talking about the steal by Montrezl Harrell that resulted in a monster dunk. He said that he had told Montrezl previous to that play that when Marquette swings the ball around that they would pass the ball into the post almost every time. He told Harrell that if he timed it out and set his man up that he could make the steal. And sure enough the next play it happened just like Pitino said it would. Pitino said of the Harrell steal: “I was really proud of him for that, he listened and got it done.” The rest of the team must have listened to their coach as well. The Cards would force 17 turnovers, and get 11 steals on the day. They held the 3rd ranked scoring offense in the Big East to 51 points on 35.8% shooting from the field and 23.1% shooting from the 3 point line. The Cards would score 32 points off of turnovers. Marquette came into this game having one of the best benches in the nation, but it was the Cards bench who would have the big day outscoring the Golden Eagles in that area 19 to 10. Blackshear would return to action in a big way coming off the bench to score 9 points, Harrell was the spark plug today when he came in scoring 6 points, and Van Treese came up with some quality baskets scoring 4 points. The Cards also got after it on the boards out-rebounding the Golden Eagles 38 to 26.
It really was a super effort by the Cardinals today. And when these guys are playing like this they are without a doubt one of the best teams in the country. They have now won two big games in a row and beaten two very good teams doing it. The Big East race is neck and neck like it always is this time of year. The Cards must keep winning to stay in the hunt for that regular season title. The next two games are on the road starting with Rutgers at the RAC on Wednesday night.
