Unconvincing Victory: Marquette 75, Valparaiso 72 (OT)

Back in 2007, Michael Bisping and Matt Hamill fought in the light heavyweight weight class at UFC 75. Both men were undefeated at the time, although Bisping was the more experienced fighter and had come out victorious in the same weight class in The Ultimate Fighter 3 in the summer of 2006. The fight went the distance at the O2 Arena in London, which is in Bisping’s native England. That’s important to the story here, because when Bruce Buffer announced the fight as a split decision victory for Bisping (29-28, 29-28 for, 30-27 against), the English crowd very clearly expressed their displeasure in the result given how it had appeared that Hammil had controlled the fight for the majority of the 15 minutes of action. Yahoo’s Kevin Iole had it 30-27 for Hamill. He said “most” of the media covering the fight had Hamill winning, one way or another. UFC President Dana White thought Hamill had won, two rounds to one.

Why am I telling this story?

Because for the last 18 years, I have attached the phrase “unconvincing victory” to that fight, and it’s become an inside joke with my wife in my house. My memory is that UFC play-by-play man Mike Goldberg said it, but I can’t necessarily confirm that. It’s a phrase we use to joke about something that is declared to be one way, but no one who actually experienced it thinks it went that way, much like the 16,000 people in the O2 Arena didn’t think Michael Bisping won the fight.

That same phrase, “unconvincing victory,” applies to the 75-72 overtime victory by YOUR Marquette Golden Eagles over Valparaiso on Tuesday night.

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Why? Well, for starters, Marquette shot 29% from the field in the first half and just 1-for-13 from behind the three-point line. That helps explain why MU never led by more than five points in the first 20 minutes, and didn’t lead at all in the final 3:20. An 8-0 Valparaiso run had them up six late in the frame, and two very late freebies from Owen Dease had the visitors up by four at intermission.

Okay, so, that sucked, head coach Shaka Smart will strip the paint from the walls lighting into his team in the break, they’ll figure this out. Ben Gold opened the scoring for the second 20 minutes with a three-pointer, one of three long makes in the game for him on the way to 17 points, okay, nice start.

Six straight for the Beacons, they led by seven for the first time.

Two free throws from Royce Parham tied the game at 38 with 14:40 to play, and now, after Marquette was stacking up kills and deflections in the first half, the Golden Eagles could not get a stop. The offense was still broken, and now the defense was broken, too. Five straight from Valpo, a three from Rakim Chaney, a three from Brody Whitaker, another five in a row from the Beacons…. and they led by eight with 7:03 to play.

A three from Chaney made it a six point game with 3:40 to go…. and Marquette turned out the lights on Valparaiso. Six straight points for the Golden Eagles, with the sixth kill of the game other other end, and Nigel James found Ben Gold at the rim to turn and lightly bank in a bucket, all tied at 65 with 55 seconds left. MU got the stop they needed on the other end on a bad baseline jumper by Whitaker, and after Shaka Smart waved off Chase Ross thinking coach might want a timeout with 20 seconds left, Marquette’s star went to work with a hero ball possession.

He lost the ball in the lane with two seconds left, and for the third time this season, Marquette didn’t get a shot off at the end of regulation with the game available to be won.

Luckily, Valparaiso also forgot to shoot it with two seconds left to go when they gained possession, so five more minutes. Five more minutes that none of the nowhere close to the announced attendance of 13,486 people in Fiserv Forum wanted to see when the game tipped off two hours earlier.

MU got freebies from Parham for their first points in OT to tie the game at 67, and Ross scored MU’s only field goal of the extra session with 2:27 to go to put the Golden Eagles up. After a three from Dease, the two sides traded free throws down the stretch, and Nigel James put Marquette back in front, 73-72. Marquette got a stop, James got the rebound, he was fouled, he sank two, Marquette by 3 with 16 seconds left.

After a Golden Eagles timeout, Marquette was content to let Valparaiso’s Mark Brown calmly dribble the clock down. As the clock hit five, James moved forward to foul while up three, Brown rose and fired….

…and for the sixth time in the game, he missed from long range. 1-for-7 on this night, 24% on the season. Not quite sure I agree with him being the guy to fire it, but that’s what Valpo did, and that’s why Marquette won, in an incredibly unconvincing way.

Highlights, such as they are, courtesy of GoMarquette.com and ESPN+:

Up Next: And now, a Marquette team that appears to be completely unemotionally bothered by their 5-4 start to the season with lousy looking performances against Central Michigan and Valpo will head to Madison to face Wisconsin on Saturday. Tipoff at the Kohl Center is scheduled for 1pm Central, and FS1 will have the broadcast. The Badgers are 5-2 on the season, but they lost to TCU by 11 points in their most recent contest as of this writing. They’ll host Northwestern for their Big Ten opener on Wednesday before MU comes to town.

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