Paint Touches

It’s remarkable how quick college basketball players go through the system, arriving as high-profiled freshmen, improving as sophomores and finding their respective roles–large or small–as junior and seniors. Vander Blue’s time as a lanky first-year reserve seemed like just days ago while watching him drop 30 points on South Florida, hit clutch shot after clutch […]

Marquette senior Davante Gardner should win a handful of awards next April after his final season with the Golden Eagles is complete. But he was given his first honor Monday morning when he was one of 29 collegiate players invited to try out for the USA Men’s World University Games Team. The tryouts will take […]

For the last two seasons Paint Touches has brought you advanced statistics, breakdown of numbers and Synergy analysis. But upon reading the report Wired.com released in late April of last year–NBC’s College Basketball Talk posted it Saturday morning–on “the 13 new basketball positions,” it seems there is a whole new kind of analytics that needs […]

When Dominic James committed to Tom Crean and Marquette in 2005, expectations went through the roof. The runner-up to Luke Zeller for Mr. Indiana that year, the high school senior James averaged 31.1 points, 7.1 rebounds and 6.4 assists at Richmond, helping his school to the sectional final. As the No. 36 recruit (RSCI) and […]

The departure of Vander Blue to the NBA draft presented brand-new questions Buzz Williams must address this offseason. With their top scorer, best perimeter defender and locker-room leader gone, the Golden Eagles must once again–for the fifth straight season, in fact–find an identity while replacing their go-to player. Their best player. In his junior season […]

The last eight seasons in the Big East gave Marquette new rivalries and dozens of classic games that are now etched in history of the Golden Eagles’ program. But realignment forced the likes of Syracuse, Louisville, Pittsburgh, Connecticut, Cincinnati, South Florida, Rutgers, West Virginia and Notre Dame out of the conference. Of those, Notre Dame, […]