Recap: West Virginia
Jan. 10, 2009 5:49 p.m.
Short-handed to begin with, the Marquette Golden Eagles have won their last three games now without one of their four key players for much of the first half.
Against Cincinnati and Rutgers it was Lazar Hayward, who was hit with two quick fouls. On Saturday, the whistle took Wesley Matthews out of the mix, and West Virginia was able to take advantage on both ends of the floor.
The Mountaineers jumped out to an early seven-point lead and led by two at halftime, 31-29, with Matthews limited to just 11 minutes and zero points. His absence not only left MU without its most consistent scorer, but also with one less big body to bang with the aggressive Mountaineers.
Matthews did make an immediate impact in the second half, scoring nine of the Golden Eagles' first 11 points out of the locker room. But again, MU can't afford to have any of its "Big Four" out for extended periods like that and expect to be in good position to win the game.
Jimmy Butler once again stepped into the breach and played well, putting up four points and four rebounds in 16 first-half minutes. He's become the Golden Eagles' most valuable performer off the bench of late.
"He just keeps incrementally getting a little better, a little better, a little better," said coach Buzz Williams. "The previous two games, Lazar's gotten into foul trouble, Jimmy's had to play long stretches, and that's probably helped him mature just as much as anything.
"And I think that he's garnered trust with the guys that he plays with."
-- Hayward, meanwhile, was suffering from the effects of what apparently was the flu.
Williams said the junior forward was in the locker room getting IV treatments until just prior to tipoff. He was well enough to play 29 minutes, however, and score seven points to go along with his game-high nine rebounds.
"I'm not sure what the right way to answer this is," said Williams when asked what specifically was wrong with Hayward. "I really didn't care what he had. I told them to get him an IV, and that he was going to play. So I didn't ask; I don't know.
"But he's in there sleeping in the locker room now, we won and we don't play again until Saturday. So he'll be fine by then."
-- Williams also said afterward that McNeal has been playing with an injured pinky finger on his (right) shooting hand.
"They thought that he broke this outside bone on his pinky finger," he said. "They got x-rays and did all the stuff and said everything was OK, but that they wanted to protect it. So at Rutgers they put some sort of tape on his ring finger and pinky. Then this morning he had some sort of sleeve that fits on both fingers.
"So I saw him before the game and I said, 'So, is that some stuff that Kobe wears, or is that in relation to your injury?' He said, 'No, Coach, I don't want to tape it.' So I said, 'Well, let's make a deal: after you miss your first three shots, why don't you take that off during the first media time out?'
"He said OK. Then I don' t think he took it off until the second media time out because we forgot about it. He came to the bench and he was rubbing it and I told him he needs to take it off."
-- After setting a school record by going 7 for 7 from three-point range in his last game at the Bradley Center, McNeal was asked what it felt like to miss his first shot Saturday on the home rims.
He was 5 for 13 overall and 1 for 6 from beyond the arc in the first half, and 9 for 19 and 3 for 9 for the game in finishing with 26 points.
"I was glad I missed it," he said with a laugh. "No pressure. No pressure the rest of the day. It was one of those games where I was taking the shots that I always take. Some of them go in, some don't. The main thing is, I'm going to keep shooting regardless."
-- McNeal and James both did it against West Virginia, becoming the first Golden Eagles in more than five years to do so. The last was Travis Diener, who went the distance in a 52-45 victory over St. John's in MU's season opener on Nov. 13, 2003.
James actually has played 42 minutes in a game previously, but that was in an overtime affair at Louisville on March 1, 2006. McNeal's previous high was 39 minutes, set against Wisconsin earlier this year.
For comparison's sake, in a 55-51, 2OT victory at Saint Louis on Jan. 29, 2005, Marcus Jackson played an incredible 48 minutes, Dameon Mason 47 and Steve Novak 45 minutes.
Williams said he learned a lesson from the game Wednesday at Rutgers.
"I think I was probably a little more hesitant than I've been in the past (to substitute) because we were up 21 against Rutgers, then I started trying to give Jerel an extra 30-second gametime break, tried to do that with Dominic," he said. "Then they out-scored us by 19 points over the next nine minutes. That was my mistake. I wanted confirm that I didn't make that mistake again."
-- On the flip side, four scholarship players didn't get off the bench: Maurice Acker, David Cubillan, Chris Otule and Joe Fulce.
It was the first DNP-CD for Acker at MU as well as Cubillan, who has played just 33 minutes in the past seven games. He did miss one game last year with an ankle injury.
-- If James isn't one of the finalists for defensive player of the year in the Big East this year, assuming he continues at the pace he's on, something's wrong.
The guy has been all over the place in the first four games, shutting down experienced point guards like Scottie Reynolds and Deonta Vaughn, and then totally flummoxing youngsters like Mike Rosario and on Saturday, Darryl Bryant.
His D on Bryant was almost comical. He coaxed the youngster into two quick fouls in the first three minutes, forcing him to the bench for the rest of the first half, and then forcing Huggins to lift him for good later in the second due to ineffectiveness.
His final line: 13 minutes, 0 for 4 from the field, zero points, one assist and four turnovers.
"I don't know if it necessarily changed anything," said Williams when asked how Bryant's absence affected the game. "What it changed was, Dominic's now got to guard (Ruoff). Dominic, he can guard whoever he wants to guard as it relates to the scouting report for us. Obviously he's undersized when he's guarding (Ruoff), but we're undersized at every other position, so just join the group."
-- Give it to West Virginia's Cam Throughman: the guy is an instigator.
From the moment he got into the game, he was slamming around, pushing, shoving and throwing elbows. At one point in the second half he got into it with James under West Virginia's basket, prompting the 5-11 James to get into the face of the 6-7, 225-pounder.
Then, on the next possession, James' pressure prompted Alex Ruoff to give James a forearm shiver on the way upcourt, which was an easy offensive foul call for the officials.
James ultimately got his say on the very next sequence, scoring on a pull-up off the glass to give MU the lead for good at 44-42 with 12:03 left.
-- Williams sure is a player's coach.
He offered a few more clues on Saturday, first throwing Hayward his headband from the bench while the teams were lined up for a free throw in the second half, and then again when James literally grabbed his coach by the arm and led him away from official Jim Burr during a time out, moving him into the huddle instead.
-- West Virginia coach Bob Huggins, who got T'd up in the second half, was asked if he saw any discrepancies between the way the initial 20 minutes were officiated as compared to the final 20 minutes.
At halftime MU was 6 for 6 from the free throw line and had been whistled for six fouls. West Virginia was 3 for 5 and had 10 fouls.
By the end of the game, MU was 24 for 27 from the line and had been whistled for 13 fouls. West Virginia waas 6 for 10 and had 23 fouls.
"I can't comment on that," he said. "You all are trying to get me in trouble. I get in enough trouble. I would
love to wax eloquently about it. But I can't."
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