Great article.
March 2, 2009
No. 6 Louisville 62, No. 8 Marquette 58
Golden Eagles Lose but Don’t Panic
By PETE THAMEL
LOUISVILLE, Ky. — Marquette Coach Buzz Williams is consumed by numbers. He tracks statistics as if he were an actuary, and analyzes them in a way that would make the “Moneyball” maven Billy Beane proud.
After No. 8 Marquette fell to No. 6 Louisville, 62-58, on Sunday afternoon, it did not take a statistical savant to break down the Golden Eagles’ ugly numbers. Marquette finished with seven assists and made 34 percent of its shots; its star player, Jerel McNeal, shot 3 of 19 from the field.
But with the Golden Eagles still reeling from the loss of Dominic James, their starting point guard and four-year star, Williams had an easy time quantifying his team’s performance.
“I thought today, our guys competed their guts out,” he said.
The Big East this season has been called one of the toughest conferences in college basketball history. And its generally unrelenting nature looks particularly unforgiving to Marquette since James broke his foot, ending his college career.
The injury came against Connecticut last Wednesday, the beginning of the most difficult stretch of the season for the Golden Eagles. They travel to No. 1 Pittsburgh on Wednesday, then host Syracuse on Saturday to finish the regular season.
The confluence of a punishing schedule and a devastating injury means that Williams knows what challenges his team is facing.
“We may lose out,” he said. “But if we hang in there and compete the way that we competed today, I’ll take my chances with these guys.”
The Golden Eagles are 23-6 over all and 12-4 in the Big East. They had emerged as one of the best stories in college basketball, with the anonymous Williams emerging as a leading candidate for Big East coach of the year and McNeal as a contender to be the conference’s player of the year. All season, Marquette compensated for its lack of size with speed and its lack of depth with verve. It survived its coaching transition to Williams from Tom Crean with aplomb.
But with James out, the chemistry of the team is inextricably altered. The feel-good vibes have been replaced with some frayed nerves. And there is little time to change course.
“The hardest part is that when the injury occurred, there were 11 days left in the regular season,” Williams said. “At a rapid pace, as best we can, we have to learn to be as efficient as we can. We had a small margin to begin with. Now we have no margin. That’s not just offensively, that’s on both ends.”
Staring at distinct disadvantages in height, talent and depth, Marquette managed to go toe-to-toe with Louisville (23-5, 14-2). Four Cardinals scored in double figures, led by Andre McGee’s 16 points, to help Louisville outlast Marquette.
The Golden Eagles’ best opportunity in the waning minutes was negated by a referee’s whistle, when a 3-pointer by McNeal with 2 minutes 39 seconds remaining was wiped out because Lazar Hayward was called for an illegal screen.
If the basket had counted, it would have been a 1-point game. Instead, Louisville stayed ahead by 4 and made just enough free throws to stay comfortably in the lead.
“We should have won,” said Marquette’s Wesley Matthews, who led all scorers with 19 points. “That’s how we feel.”
Perhaps the best window into how much Marquette had to scrap came in the final minutes of the second half, when the Golden Eagles played a triangle-and-two defense. They were clearly fatigued, and the quirky look stymied the Cardinals for a bit.
Williams said scrapping to get by has always been a reality for Marquette. The new reality is fighting through fatigue. Williams said it looked as if McNeal and Matthews would end up playing every possession for the rest of their games.
“By no means are we pushing the panic button right now,” Matthews said. “We’re not worried or intimidated by anyone. We’re not panicking; we’re not stressed. We’re still going to fight. We’re a group of fighters.”
With the Big East tournament starting in a little more than a week, Williams is clinging to the wheel as his program negotiates this hairpin turn. But what he learned Sunday in a gutsy loss is that he did not need to check his statistical data to know that he liked his team’s odds the rest of the way.
“I thought that the character of our players was revealed again,” he said. “I’ve said that maybe about 43,000 times, and it’s been written zero times by any person employed within any function of the media. That’s what I believe. Whether that’s good enough or not good enough, I don’t know.”
