[Rosiak's Blog] Final Four team to be honored

[ToddRosiakSays]

Final Four team to be honored


Seven members of the 2002-'03 Final Four team will be in attendance for Friday night's game against Pittsburgh at the Bradley Center.

Travis Diener, Steve Novak, Terry Sanders, Scott Merritt, Andy Freund, Jared Sichting and Tony Gries will be honored at halftime. Dwyane Wade will be playing in the NBA All-Star game in New Orleans and unable to attend. Also missing the ceremony due to prior commitments are Robert Jackson, Todd Townsend, Joe Chapman, Chris Grimm and Karon Bradley.

"It means a lot, it really does," said coach Tom Crean. "I'm probably glad I'm not going to be out on the floor for that because I'd be crying like a baby. Those young men mean so much. We won't have everybody back; some are playing, some are coaching. But we're going to have enough back that people are really going to be able to look at them and be proud of what they did.

"They did something that I don't think anybody saw coming. They had a chance to win a championship, they had a chance to go to the Final Four. They really helped put Marquette basketball where it's at."

As far as Pittsburgh, the fifth-place Panthers (17-5, 7-4) are playing the same brand of basketball that MU fans have grown accustomed to seeing over the past few seasons, featuring tough defense, solid rebounding and athleticism across the board.

"They're a system," said Crean. "They have a really good system and they're going to run it, and they know exactly what they want to do. They have guards who can score, pass and shoot. They have bigs that can score, pass and shoot. They can all rebound, and they're outstanding defensively.

"You can't come down and think you're going to to get a chance to win with bad shots. You've got to make the next pass, you've got to hold your own in the rebounding game - they've been out-rebounding people all year long. The margin for error is really small."

Pittsburgh is out-rebounding its opponents by an average of 7.0 rebounds per game, third-best in the Big East. The Panthers also lead in offensive rebounding, pulling down 15 per game, and are hitting 46.2% of their shots, also ranking third-best.

Individually, junior forward Sam Young represents probably the toughest matchup for MU. The 6-foot-6 Young is a terrific athlete who's scoring 17.9 points per game, tied for third-best in the league.

Freshman forward DeJuan Blair has been a beast inside, ranking among the Big East leaders in both rebounding, offensive rebounding and field-goal percentage despite standing just 6-7.

It will be interesting to see how quickly coach Jamie Dixon turns to junior point guard Levance Fields, who is expected to play for the first time in nearly seven weeks after undergoing surgery for a broken foot.

While it's hard to believe Fields would be able to play significant minutes against the Golden Eagles, considering the fact he's practiced just twice since being given the green light to return, his mere presence will probably provide a lift for the Panthers.



http://blogs.jsonline.com/muhoops/archive/2008/02/14/final-four-team-to-be-honored.aspx