Pro/Con: Marquette vs Haukar

PROS:

• The Golden Eagles got to compete in a real game atmosphere against an unfamiliar opponent and came out with the victory.
• Marquette showed the resolve needed to rally from a deficit at the start of the fourth quarter to pick up the win by a fairly easy margin at the final horn.
• When the chips were down late, Duane Wilson took over.  He's Marquette's leading returning scorer, and while the freshman recruiting class will be called on to play a major role this season, they're going to need Wilson to do exactly what he did here from time to time.
• Sandy Cohen hit a DAGGER of a three pointer to essentially ice the game for Marquette.  It was a big shot in a big moment for the sophomore, so we're not going to have to worry about him shying away from the spotlight.
• Head coach Steve Wojciechowski proved yet again that there are no days off when it comes to his "Win Every Day" mantra.  At one point, Luke Fischer went up strong with the ball and the ball went flying out of his two handed grip.  Wojo thought it was a clear foul, the referees thought it was a clear block, and the disagreement resulted in a technical foul for the Marquette head man.  If you can't get fired up to play for that guy who cares so much about what amounted to a glorified scrimmage, then I can't help you.
• Freshman Traci Carter got the start and appeared to have complete confidence in himself to run the floor, and I mean that literally.  He appeared to be exactly the kind of point guard that Wojciechowski would want to play an up tempo style with this team.
• Freshman Henry Ellenson finished with 24 points and 10 rebounds.  The big man from Rice Lake appears to be everything he's advertised to be.

CONS:

• Marquette looked like crap for the first three quarters.  Sloppy ball handling, missed defensive assignments, poor closeouts on long range attempts by Haukar, all of these things kept popping up over and over.  This can largely be explained by having six guys who have never played together before this game, but it still happened.
• Jajuan Johnson was essentially invisible.  I know I saw him out on the floor, but I don't remember him contributing anything, and without a box score from GoMarquette.com, I can't confirm that.
• Matt Heldt barely played.  He looked aggressive on the offensive end and active overall when he did play, but we didn't see much from him.
• Wally Ellenson burned through all of his five fouls by the middle of the third quarter.  There is a certain amount of leeway to be given here, as these were European trained referees working under the FIBA rules, but Ellenson also didn't adjust to how things were being called.