Wrapping up Sacramento StateOne of the more interesting items to emerge from coach Tom Crean's post-game news conference was his take on his team's performance, specifically in the second half.
Now, MU was never in any danger of losing to Sacramento State (which was one of the worst Division I teams I've seen in my six seasons on the beat, by the way) nor was it even slipping into that category of complacency that it's been prone to over the past few seasons. But you never had the sense the Golden Eagles were 100 percent focused in those final 20 minutes on knocking the stuffing out of the Hornets.
"We have to learn how to play with a substantial lead," Crean said. "As I said to my coaches at halftime, as I said to the team during one of the time outs, I think we're making progress because if this was a year ago and we got up to a lead like that we probably would have come into the locker room up 10 or 12, been a little flat, then come out in the second half and not been nearly as good. Well, we closed out the first half; we've just got to learn to play the second half at a higher level.
"One of the hardest things for any team to do, whether they're up or down, is to not play the scoreboard. You have to keep playing with an incredible sense of purpose and urgency; you almost have to play desperate."
Board game: After beating both UW-Milwaukee and a much bigger Wisconsin team on the glass in back-to-back games, MU struggled against a team it probably should have pounded in that area.
The Golden Eagles beat the Hornets, 35-33, but Sacramento State entered the game giving up nearly eight more rebounds per game and having surrendered at least 40 in six of their nine previous.
"The lack of blocking out did (concern me). That's got to improve," Crean said. "A couple of them, I think we'll watch the film and see they bounced the wrong way. But probably the No. 1 thing we want to take away from the next few weeks outside of winning games is are we preparing to win in our league. We don't want to get caught stepping up on penetration, leaving shooters in the corner.
"The kid (Loren) Leath, he's averaging 18.9 points, he goes 1 of 8 and gets two points. I thought Dominic did a fantastic job, he really did, and the other guys that guarded him like David and Jerel as well. That was the key. When you look at that, it's real good. The rebounding? Not so good. Stuff to improve upon."
Reece's pieces: For the first time since arriving at MU, sophomore guard Maurice Acker reached double figures with 10 points on 3-for-6 shooting from both the field and the free-throw line.
He also had two assists without a turnover and a steal in 17 minutes, but got a rise out of an otherwise quiet Bradley Center crowd in the second half by bird-dogging Hornets ballhandlers down the court on a couple of occasions.
"That's the best defense he's played since he's been here," said Crean. "That's what we've envisioned. The way he pushes the ball. We're really focused on running better after breaks and certainly running after free throws. I thought the guys did a very good job of that. Maurice has a lot to do with that. We don't call a lot of plays when the ball's in his hands, pushing it up on the break.
"But his defensive intensity was very good, and I think he, like the rest of the team after the drama, got a little more riled up and we started rolling. Defensively, anyways."
Plug away: When Crean was asked about the sequence that led to his technical foul in the second half, he drew a few chuckles with his initial answer.
"I wanted to tell the referees, I don't know if they're spending the night but the Calderone Club in downtown out in Mequon has got incredible Italian food," he said, tongue firmly planted in cheek before offering a more straightforward answer.
A follow-up question raised his ire a little, though, when it was suggested the Golden Eagles had been 'going through the motions' prior to the technical.
"That's your opinion, going through the motions. That's why I don't like talking about that stuff," he said. "Those guys are playing a lot harder than going through the motions, OK? We practice at a really high level. Now I didn't say it's great practice all the time, but they practice at a high, high level. You're not beating teams by 31 going through the motions. Were we playing at a high rate, as good as we can play? Probably not. Does it help? I don't think it had a lot to do with the intensity level. Probably a little bit naturally, but we've just got to learn to not play the scoreboard. That's part of it.
"I hope we're learning for a long time, continuing to work through those things. When I watch this team I watch a team that's bringing their practice game to the court pretty much when we're playing here. There's going to be drama inside games, but they're getting better. These guys are getting better. They work at such a high rate. That's kind of what I'm focused on, and what I want them to be focused on."
From the jump: Crean said he was pleased with how the Golden Eagles got out of the gate against the Hornets, scoring 14 unanswered points to open the game. Sacramento State never recovered from the initial onslaught, and never posed any threat to MU over the 40 minutes as a result.
"We've had a long week. It's been like football; we've had three straight weeks and three games. That's a tough deal," he said. "We had guys taking finals all the way to late yesterday afternoon. To come out and play with that kind of intensity after having some really full, emotional games every since Maui, I think that's invaluable. There was a while there where we were outstanding. I'd rather be that way and build on it than try to figure out how to get to that point."
Junior guard Wesley Matthews agreed.
"That's just a sign of we're different from last year, we're different than two years ago," he said. "Two years ago we might not have come out like that; last year it was a tossup. But this year we're older, we're wiser and we're just ready to play. And after three weeks straight with just one game in between, that's not cool. We were just excited to get on the court again and play against somebody else."
Almost, but not quite: MU was two Dominic James points away from placing six players in double-figure scoring, which would have been a first for the season. As it was, Jerel McNeal (13), Matthews, Lazar Hayward and Ousmane Barro (12) and Acker (10) all did so, marking second time this season the Golden Eagles have had five players in double figures.
"Really wanted (James) to get into double figures," Crean said. "Maybe our assists weren't where we would want them but at 18 that's still pretty good. The balance is good because we're reversing the ball. We're not wasting dribbles, we're reversing the basketball and we're moving on penetration. That to me is what the key to our whole offense is. It doesn't matter if we're in a set, on the break, in a shot-clock situation - we have to have movement, and the movement's not any good if we're not moving the ball. And they are.
"There's a lot of people that are sharing the wealth right now, which is good."
Looking ahead: Here's what Crean had to say about Monday's opponent, IPFW:
"We'll get ready for an IPFW team that's coached by Dane Fife, who I think is a great young coach, great guy," he said. "When I was at Michigan State we saw Dane as one of the longest recruiting things I've ever been through. Saw him play more 7-on-7 football and open-gym basketball and things like that, and he broke our hearts at Michigan State to go to Indiana. But I look forward to playing his team; they're very well-coached, they have some really good scorers on the perimeter, some good inside guys."
IPFW (4-5), by the way, gave No. 9 Michigan State a run for its money Saturday night before the Spartans pulled away in the second half and won, 79-57.
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