MU's Jimmy Butler fighting for a loose ball.

The Marquette Golden Eagles are entering the 2009-2010 basketball campaign projected to finish 12th in the Big East and are going to have to replace one of their best classes in school history of Jerel McNeal, Dominic James and Wesley Matthews. While critics seem to be sour on Marquette, those surrounding the program think they can do better than 12th, based on a strong freshman class, among other things.

That said, I saw the team play for the first time last night and here’s what I took away from the MU-Centenary game.

What I liked:

-Jimmy Butler- played a great all-around game scoring a career-high 27 points and 13 boards. He created his own shot and hustled all-around. He was MU’s best player by far in this game and has matured a ton since his first game last year. He went from a 8th man last year to the #2 guy this year based on situation and his development.

-Jeronne Maymon’s aggressiveness- He got the ball in the post a decent amount of times, and drove a couple other times drawing some fouls. He didn’t finish at the basket the way I would have liked, but he’s a freshman, with time to grow and develop. He played against a much smaller team, but he reminded me of Lazar when he played his rookie season at MU.

-Darius Johnson-Odom- This isn’t based on anything but the eye-test, but he looks like the best newcomer on this team. His shot looks really natural and smooth, he is very fluid on offense and I’m excited to see what he can do when he’s out on the floor. He has been fighting some injuries of late, but looks like he could be a solid player on this team.

-David Cubillian/Mo Acker- These seniors will be running the point for Marquette and both played like veterans. They didn’t make any major mistakes and know Coach Buzz Williams’ offense as well as anyone. They both made good decisions with the basketball and didn’t force the shots they took.

Distribution of the ball- MU moved the ball around a lot and got plenty of good looks as a result. Three players had four or more assists, DJO, Dwight Buycks and Cubillian. This team plays unselfish and with a variety of weapons on offense, they aren’t afraid to get everyone involved.

What I didn’t like:

-Lazar Hayward- In addition to him getting in foul trouble early, which has been a knock on him for a while, he struggled to get any offense going. He missed all three of his 3-pointers and didn’t dominate the way he could have. He is MU’s best player and he needs to find a way to stay on the floor

-Chris Otule- I keep hearing how much he has improved from last year and to be honest, he doesn’t look anything special. Granted it was one game, but his hands didn’t look too good, two turnovers and two fouls in six minutes. He needs to be more aggressive on the boards. I’m not sure what to expect him from, but I’m not expecting him to provide any significant contributions.

-Fouls- Marquette committed 12 team fouls in the first half, and Hayward picked up his 4th with 12 minutes left to go in the game. They were lazy at times and out of position other times, resulting in the volume of fouls called

-Team Defense- Marquette looked poor on defense, especially on rotations and back screens. They allowed too many layups and reached way too much. Buzz has preached about the importance of defense since day 1 and MU still has a bunch to learn before getting to where they need to be.

-Offense vs Zones- MU faced a 3-2 defense and it was tough for them to move the ball around, and when they did it was around the perimeter. They didn’t get much dribble penetration against the zone.

What I do like about the non-conference schedule is that it allows coaches to experiment with different lineups and I’d like to see what Buzz does with a lot of new faces.