Recap: St. John's
Feb. 15, 2009
Much improved play on the defensive end coupled with an offensively challenged St. John's team wound up being exactly what the doctor ordered for the Marquette Golden Eagles, who snapped their two-game slide on Saturday night.
MU forced 24 turnovers and tied a season high with 14 steals in registering its 10th Big East victory, and the talk afterward was about coach Buzz Williams' insistence on not allowing his top six players any offensive work in practice for three days after the loss at Villanova.
"From start to finish," said Dominic James, who first spoke about Williams' approach afterward, and then was asked if he was serious. "I'm glad I had class in the afternoons because I got out of practice a couple times early. But that's what it's been all about. We know we can put the ball in the basket but when it's all said and done, we've got to play defense."
Except for a few lapses, Williams said he was happy with what he saw.
"I thought that the intensity was really good defensively," said Williams. "We definitely got back to what this team has to have. Not that we got away from it in what we do every day in practice, but I think we got away from, 'That's exactly and the only way we have an opportunity to have success."
"I think our guys are much more confident defensively, and we kind of got some mojo back in relation to how we know that we have to play."
And as far as taking the same tact in the practices leading into Tuesday's game against Seton Hall?
"I have to pray about it," he said. "Because Seton Hall is very potent offensively. They play 6 1/2 guys which is, to be honest with you, about what we play, and they match up with us from the perimeter. Everybody talks about their weaknesses in the post, and against Hasheem Thabeet, John Garcia had 23 points and I think 14 rebounds and six blocks, and he plays on one leg. You have to admire his toughness.
"But they're a different team, as far as their complexion, and we'll have to have an edge to us defensively in order to have a chance Tuesday."
-- For the first time since Jan. 4 against Cincinnati, Williams was able to play all 12 players.
It was the first playing time in three games for David Cubillan and Joe Fulce and the first playing time in six games for Chris Otule.
Williams said he wasn't necessarily aiming to get his least-used reserves some playing time coming in.
"I wasn't thinking that way," said Williams. "I think that if every day went that way I would do the same thing. The thing I was concerned about before the game is the same things that we've concentrated on over the last 2 1/2 days of practice, and that's just being much better defensively, because that's the only chance that we have.
"I'm glad that those guys were able to play the minutes that they were able to play, because I think it's important for their growth, and I don't want to stunt their growth. But at the same time, as the steward I have to make sure that I'm accountable for growth versus winning, and winning always comes before growth."
Cubillan especially appeared to have lost confidence. He didn't once look at the basket for a shot, and had one assist in seven minutes to go along with two fouls.
Fulce hit a pair of free throws, grabbed two steals and added a board in three minutes, and Otule had a block, a turnover and a foul in five minutes.
-- The one reserve who once again produced was Jimmy Butler, who had eight points on 3-for-3 shooting (and 2-for-2 from the line) and four rebounds in 22 minutes.
"We starting to get a lot of confidence in Jimmy. That's what we were talking about in the post-game," Dominic James said. "His ability to just come in and make big plays for us. He does things that don't show up in the stat sheet. With Wes getting into foul trouble, we needed that one guy that we could look into their eyes and see that type of confidence
"He's stepping up and playing quality minutes and he's providing something off the bench that no one else can do: getting rebounds, playing great defense, knocking down open shots. He had a couple pull-ups that impressed all of us. He's just got to continue to play within himself, and if we can get the other guys to do that, we're going to be in a great situation."
Butler's presence was especially needed after Wesley Matthews was sent to the bench for the final 12:45 of the first half after picking up his second foul.
"The best thing about Jimmy is he knows exactly what he can do, and you rarely see him get out of it," said Williams. "You were probably surprised tonight when he dribbled twice and shot a pull-up jumper, but he does that every day at practice. He's really created a niche, and he's creating great trust in his teammates.
"And what he's been able to do is, 54.6% of the time when he gets an offensive rebound, it either leads to a putback or two free throws. He shoots the ball well from the free-throw line. But what's happened is we really need him from a rebounding perspective now, because per minutes played, he's our leading rebounder -- him and Lazar.
"He has a distinct role and niche on our team that, as games and practices continue to progress, he continues to get better at it."
-- Matthews' absence, not surprisingly, coincided with a rough offensive first half for the Golden Eagles, save for an 8-0 run to close things out.
"We always like Wes to be on the floor; he probably touches the ball more than any player on our team just because of what he does perimeter-wise, and then when he's playing inside," Williams said. "I don't know that we were very fluid offensively. I think we had seven turnovers in the first half and I told our guys at halftime, 'All those seven turnovers were me.' It wasn't those guys -- they haven't touched a ball. So I'll handle that.
"But, like I told our guys, we haven't practiced anything offensively since Villanova and we shot 52% from the field and 74% from the free-throw line, we out-rebounded our opponent by one and we made more free throws than our opponent attempted. I think we had 34 points in the paint...and if we did that we definitely met our goal from a paint-touch perspective, and that's further evidence that our problems, our issues will never be offensive. They'll always be defensive."
Matthews finished with nine points, tying his second-lowest total of the season. He also went just 1 for 3 from the free-throw line.
-- The biggest cheers from the 18,614 on the evening might have been when walk-on Robert Frozena entered the game in the closing minutes.
The biggest groans? When he missed two free throws with 25.3 seconds left.
"I didn't say anything," said James when asked if he said anything to Frozena after the misses. "Who am I to say anything about anybody's free throws?"
Lazar Hayward did James one better.
"I told him he sucked," he said, drawing plenty of laughs.
-- All-time leading scorer Jerel McNeal was honored prior to the game for his achievement (along with 1,000-point scorer Hayward), and then followed up with his ninth consecutive 20-point game.
He finished with 20 points, seven rebounds, seven assists and five steals. About the only thing he didn't do was hit a three -- he was 0 for 5, leaving him without a make from beyond the arc for the first time since Dec. 22, when he was 0 for 3 at NC State.
And with the five steals, McNeal is now four short of becoming the all-time leader at MU in that category as well, passing Michael Wilson. McNeal's now at 269.
-- James' six assists moved him past Travis Diener and into second place all-time with 620.
-- Delivered by Feed43 (http://feed43.com/) service
http://www.jsonline.com/blogs/sports/39632182.html
Forcing 24 TOs (14 steals), we should have won by 30 points. The reason we didn't is that our offense has morphed from a very sound motion offense to a JM featured free lance affair -----we can get by with that against an injury riddled St John's team who started 5 sophmores-------but need to get back to sound half court offensive tactics of earlier in the year.
Murph is right on this one. The offense last night was terrible. At the end of the first half we would have been down by 10+ against a decent team.
Quote from: Murffieus on February 15, 2009, 07:08:12 AM
Forcing 24 TOs (14 steals), we should have won by 30 points. The reason we didn't is that our offense has morphed from a very sound motion offense to a JM featured free lance affair -----we can get by with that against an injury riddled St John's team who started 5 sophmores-------but need to get back to sound half court offensive tactics of earlier in the year.
+1. I really would like to see the flow we had at the beginning of the year again...but i'll take the win either way.
Quote from: ToddRosiakSays on February 15, 2009, 03:45:04 AM
"... and if we can get the other guys to do that, we're going to be in a great situation."
How is that going to happen is only 6 and 1/2 players play? The last two minutes of the game was terrible. Frozena should never play in a game when the coach only trusts 6 1/2 players.
Quote from: ErickJD08 on February 16, 2009, 01:32:13 AM
How is that going to happen is only 6 and 1/2 players play? The last two minutes of the game was terrible. Frozena should never play in a game when the coach only trusts 6 1/2 players.
I know Acker is short, but to refer to him as a half of a player is mean.
I just back from the 10-hour drive from MKE to Erie (watched the women play yesterday afternoon) and thought we did just enough to win. Our defense was better than it was against Nova, but St. John's still had a boatload of open looks and inside tries and just couldn't convert. DJ distributed well and Wes played a good second half but overall we played only as well as we had to. We're driving to DC for the Gtown game. Even with the Hoyas struggling we'll have to bump up our game.