Yahoo!/Sporting News DeCourcy: Tom Crean's Club Keeps Pace in the Big East

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Marquette keeps pace in muddled Big East race
By Mike DeCourcy - SportingNews

Mike Decourcy
SportingNews.com

CINCINNATI -- It took a fair amount of ball reversal, a tricky zone defense, an uncommon effort by Ousmane Barro -- and three prior misadventures -- but Marquette at last was able to make itself at home on the Big East road.

Though several of its conference counterparts had found Fifth Third Arena to be extremely uninviting, the Golden Eagles were quite comfortable Saturday in defeating Cincinnati, 75-60.

So what, exactly, did we get out of this game?

It addressed several issues for the Golden Eagles, certainly, but for those of us following the Big East race as a whole and its place in the NCAA Tournament picture, things are nearly as muddled as they were when the day began.

They could play another month of games like this -- and, in fact, they will -- and we may be no closer to an answer than we are now.

As of Saturday morning, the Big East had 12 teams with between three and five victories, all but one hanging in the Ratings Percentage Index top 100. Afternoon wins by Marquette (now 6-3), Connecticut (6-3) and Louisville (6-3) altered the picture a little, but didn't do a lot to decrease the traffic. There's Georgetown, standing alone at 8-1, and there's everybody else. And I mean everybody.

Marquette coach Tom Crean said he looks at the conference standings periodically. "You pay attention because it's fun to look at it that way, but man, the games come so fast, and the competition is so intense in each game. Every game matters in this league.

"You don't have time to get caught up in the standings."

Although the Golden Eagles traveled to Cincinnati having won consecutive games, the memory of blowout road losses against Louisville and Connecticut created the impression of a team in a minor slump.

Part of that was the result of leading scorer Dominic James struggling with his shooting touch because of a wrist injury, which in turn damaged the offense as a whole. The Golden Eagles had averaged 66.3 points over the previous four games -- with James shooting 13-of-33 from the field.

At the start against Cincinnati, it looked like more of the same. James missed three jumpers in short order. The Bearcats spent the first 14 minutes building a 22-13 lead. The game turned after Marquette switched to a zone that featured guard Jerel McNeal pressuring the ball as it was advanced up the court. The Golden Eagles closed the half on a 15-2 surge and never relinquished control.

"When we got down on the road in the other games, we'd have maybe a couple of guys hanging their heads or we wouldn't get that lift off the bench," Crean said. "But our guys just stuck with it. They challenged shots. They held their own in the rebounding game.

"Early on in the game, there was no question they were more aggressive than us. But our guys settled in."

Marquette wound up scoring 62 points in a little over 24 minutes of game time, and the essential element of that explosion was the players' insistence on making the extra pass. The ball movement opened driving lanes, the drives forced defensive help, and that kept creating opportunities for Barro, who scored 19 points on 9-of-10 shooting. Finishing those plays required Barro only to be alert, but he played as aggressively as he has all season and wound up with 10 rebounds. Most telling, Crean trusted him for a season-high 29 minutes.

There were two baskets midway through the second half on which McNeal passed up an open 3-pointer on the left wing to slide the ball into the corner to a teammate so alone there was no Bearcat challenge the shot. First, guard Wesley Matthews hit from there to make it 43-31, and later it was power forward Lazar Hayward hitting for a 48-33 lead.

"It's the way we play here," McNeal said. "I had good shots, but I'll pass up my good shot to get one of my teammates a great shot."

It wasn't as if Marquette hadn't won on the road before. In December, the Golden Eagles got one of Division I's best road wins by taking down Wisconsin at the Kohl Center. But they needed to get one in the league if they were going to try to keep pace with cruising Georgetown -- or, at the very least, to remain among the leaders in pursuit of one of the four first-round byes in the Big East Tournament.

It doesn't take long to sneak a glance at the Big East standings, but it wouldn't be wise to linger. Marquette (16-4 overall) will return home for a Monday night game against Louisville, one of its chief competitors for a first-round bye.

"In a league like the Big East, rankings, records, all that stuff goes out the window," McNeal said. "If you come in thinking somebody's just going to hand you something, you're wrong, and you'll lose."

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