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[Rosiak's Blog] Wrapping up Seton Hall, again

Started by ToddRosiakSays, February 12, 2008, 11:30:05 PM

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ToddRosiakSays

Wrapping up Seton Hall, again


Newark, N.J. -- In what was pretty much a laugher from start to finish, one of the more interesting aspects to come out of MU's beatdown of Seton Hall was the ejection of Pirates senior Jamar Nutter.

Nutter was hit with a flagrant foul midway through the second half and sent to the showers early after a blatant elbow to the throat of Dominic James -- the same player he fouled flagrantly on a breakaway in Milwaukee on Jan. 8. That play resulted in James spraining his right wrist, an injury he's been dealing with ever since.

"That's what I told the referee," James said of Nutter's foul Tuesday. "I wouldn't have said anything to him if it wasn't the same guy that had almost ended my career. That's the way I look at it -- it could have been to that extreme. But if you want to play like that, then do that. But that's not the type of player that I am.

"We have a different type of system at Marquette. We make hard fouls. Blatant, intentional fouls, that's something that's not instilled in us. We play basketball, and that wasn't a basketball play."

After Nutter's foul in Milwaukee, Seton Hall coach Bobby Gonzalez went out of his way to assure everyone that Nutter wasn't a dirty player. Although I wasn't able to make it into the media room to hear Gonzalez's comments after the game this time, it'd be hard to convince most rational-thinking people otherwise at this point.

"It wasn't the right play," James said when asked if it was a dirty play. "It definitely wasn't a clean play, but I don't even worry about it. Some guys do that. I'm a better player than that, and I let my game speak for itself. If you want to take it to the physical, that's fine, too."

James said there had been no trash-talking between he and Nutter prior to the flagrant foul.

"No, nothing," he said. "If anything you would expect that type of play to come from the person that was the victim the first time. But for something like that to happen again, that shows what type of character you have and how you play the game of basketball. If that's the way you want to play, that's fine. But that's not me."

Coach Tom Crean seemed satisfied with the way the incident was handled this time around.

"You have to leave that in the hands of the officials in the game, and the Big East from there," he said. "Dominic has been dealing with the aftereffects of an intentional foul since the last Seton Hall game, and it has certainly affected him. We can slice it any way we want, but it's affected our season.

"But hey, you know what? There's a certain amount of it you have to look at as part of the game, the referees handled it and we move forward."

-- The Prudential Center is a nice, new building, with a decent setup for watching a game. The crowd was probably somewhat affected by a rush-hour snowfall that left the roads a mess, but even still, that's far too big an arena for a team that's struggling to put together a fan base.

Coach Bobby Gonzalez apparently isn't too well thought-of, either, at least among the comments I heard on Tuesday. The guy is a character; I'll give him that. Aside from the technical foul he later ripped off his suit coat and tie, and spent much of the game in histrionics on the sideline.

If I were him I'd be much more concerned with the fact none of his reserves rose to take part in a 30-second time out he called in the first half, with more than 20 minutes yet to be played.

-- James said the Golden Eagles' quick start in large part was built off the strong finish they had in Saturday's loss at Notre Dame.

"We decided that we were going to pick it up where we left off in the Notre Dame game, even though we lost," he said. "That same type of energy, intensity, sense of urgency...you've got to have that same mind set from start to finish. If we'd have done that against Notre Dame I feel like we would have won the game, but we didn't.

"So we had to come out here with the mind set where we left off in Notre Dame, and it helped us out. It was a good win."

-- This victory sets up MU nicely heading into Friday's game against Pittsburgh, which sits directly above the Golden Eagles in the Big East standings in fifth place.

Win that one, then go 2-0 next week against two cellar dwellers in St. John's and Rutgers, and MU has once again put itself back in the discussion for some big things.

As far as Pittsburgh, the Panthers are apparently targeting Friday as the possible return date for starting point guard Levance Fields, who's been out for some time with a broken foot.

"Last time we were on our court, we were embarrassed. I'm looking forward to it," said James of the return home. "We've got to prepare just like (Fields) is going to play. We know that he's the catalyst of that team, and if he's back that's going to be added energy for them. So we've got to be ready."

-- All three MU players from the New York-New Jersey area played, but it was David Cubillan who got the biggest opportunity.

The sophomore guard, who played at nearby St. Benedict's Prep, played 20 minutes and finished with 10 points, knocking down a couple of threes and all four of his free throws.

Junior forward Dwight Burke, another St. Benedict's product, didn't get into the game until well into the second half. He was passed over in the first half by Trend Blackledge, who had another short but active stint with two points, two rebounds and two blocks in six minutes.

Freshman forward Pat Hazel got three late minutes and picked up three rebounds.

-- Sophomore guard Maurice Acker also didn't see any playing time in the first half, and struggled mightily with two quick turnovers and a bad foul when Crean put him into the game in the second half.

He rebounded with a couple of late buckets, but Acker's clearly going to need to show more in the coming games to get himself back into the rotation.

-- Ousmane Barro started for the second consecutive game at center and he was once again active, finishing with eight points and seven rebounds. Six of those rebounds came in the first half, helping MU out to its big lead.



http://blogs.jsonline.com/muhoops/archive/2008/02/12/wrapping-up-seton-hall-again.aspx