Team #86 - Jackson State

On Tuesday November 30th, 2021, I saw my 86th Division One College Basketball team. On this occasion, I saw the Jackson State Tigers take on the Marquette Golden Eagles. This was my second straight game seeing a SWAC team. Jackson State is the fifth SWAC team I have seen. Coming into the matchup with Marquette, the Tigers have a 1-5 record They are coming off a win 75-70 against Louisiana. Marquette is 6-1 in the season. A few weeks back, the expectations seemed quite low for a Marquette team that was to be in a rebuilding year. However, early season wins over Illinois, Ole Miss and West Virginia have given the Golden Eagles faithful something to look forward to. The lone loss for the Golden Eagles was in the finals of the Shriners Children's Charleston Classic against St. Bonaventure. Surprisingly, the Golden Eagles and the Tigers have already played Illinois. Marquette beat Illinois 67-66 in a thrilling game that came down to the final minute. While Jackson State lost to Illinois in their first game of the season by a score of 71-47. Jackson State is lead by Gabe Watson in this early season. Watson is averaging 15.3 PPG this season. However, he sat out this contest. Jayveous McKinnis has also had a strong start to the year averaging 12.3 PPG and 10.9 boards. Marquette has been lead by the duo from Baltimore, Justin Lewis and Darryl Morsell. Justin Lewis is average 17.3 PPG and 8.1 boards. Morsell came to Marquette as a tremendous defender but has stepped up his offensive game this season, averaging 16.3 PPG. 

This was my third Marquette game of the season. The one thing that stuck out to me about Marquette is the tendency to play down to it's opponents in the first half. Under no circumstances should a Power 5 school out of the Big East be tied with teams like SIUE, New Hampshire and Jackson State at halftime. Even when DePaul was at it's worst, they took care of business against lower level Division One teams. Head Coach Shaka Smart must have also realized this as he put Freshman Kam Jones into the starting lineup replacing Olivier-Maxence Prosper. Despite the change, Marquette still came out flat. A lot of credit should be given to Jackson State for the first half they played. They handled the press of Marquette very well. Many of their possessions lead to easy dunks or open three pointers. Jayveous McKinnis was a menace on the defense end for Jackson State. He had four blocks in the first half and did not allow many easy buckets for Marquette. Marquette also had a few silly turnovers early. It felt at times they over attacked and got themselves into trouble. Yes, they would have guys wide open for shots but either the pass would come too late or it would be a bad pass not allowing an open look. Jackson State responded nicely to every blow that Marquette gave. Nobody would lead by more than three points in the first half. At the half, the score was tied at 29. Marquette forward, Justin Lewis, appeared to give Marquette a three point lead going into the break. He would hit a three pointer at the buzzer. However, the official would go to the monitor and rule the shot was released after the first half horn sounded. After lackluster performances against Illinois and Indiana in the first half of games, Jackson State fans have to be thrilled to be tied with a program that seems very similar to Indiana. 

The second half began and it was almost like Marquette was a whole new team. Darryl Morsell came out on fire, scoring the first seven points of the 2nd half. All of a sudden, Marquette had it's biggest lead of the game. The next thing you knew there were ten minutes left in the game and Marquette led by 20 points. Many new faces stepped up for Marquette in the 2nd half. Redshirt Freshman Oso Ighodaro played by far his best game of the season. He scored many key baskets for Marquette and played great defense. Shaka Smart was loving the effort provided by Ighodaro. Many times Smart could be sen pumping his fists on the bench after a big play. The big story in the 2nd half was the bench production of Marquette. Most of Marquette's bench production this season has been the freshman trio of Kam Jones, Stevie Mitchell and Oso Ighodaro. Marquette would score 46 bench points on this night. Oso Ighodaro would finish as the leading scorer with 14 points while going six of six from the field. He also chipped in 11 rebounds. This would be his first college double double. Olivier-Maxence Prosper also had his most productive game of the season scoring 11 points of the bench. Stevie Mitchell chipped in nine points to help the cause. While other Freshman David Joplin and Emarion Ellis both finished with six points. It was overall great team performance for Marquette in the 2nd half as they coasted to a 83-54 win. The aforementioned Jayveous McKinnis was the lone bright spot for Jackson State has he finished with 13 points and 14 rebounds. This was McKinnis's 5th double double on this young season. He is certainly someone I can see throwing his name in the transfer portal at year's end. With the recent production of the Freshman from Marquette, you have to be excited about the future. 

My next game is Saturday as Robert Morris takes on Milwaukee.