When Buzz Williams was interviewed after Marquette's 57-55 victory against St. Johns, he basically said that they wouldn't have had this game go any other way. He recognized that his team had a pretty awful second half, but these tight games are pretty much all that Marquette knows this season, and they are comfortable in that moment. It wasn't pretty, but it was a victory the way Marquette knew how to get one, and it's kept them alive in the Big East tournament.Marquette still would have likely made the NCAA tournament even if they lost, but going into the dance with a loss like this wouldn't have been a good thing. I'm not saying that St. John's isn't a worthy opponent - they showed they were with a waxing of UConn the other day - but MU did have a 14-point lead at one point in the first half and it would have been embarrassing had they let this one slip away.
They live to fight another day however, mostly with thanks to Lazar Hayward. I haven't seen as many Marquette games as I would have liked to this season but I don't even want to guess where this team would be without him. Hayward lead the way with 20 points and 9 rebounds, especially coming through in the clutch at the end of the game with huge plays on both ends. For lack of a better phrase, he's pretty good.
Next up for Marquette is a game against Villanova, a team they lose to twice this season by a combined total of four points. It was during that stretch that I said hopefully Marquette can learn from playing in this close contests and use that experience to have a successful tournament run down the road. We'll see on Thursday if that will indeed be the case.
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