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Author Topic: [Rosiak's Blog] Wrapping up the first round  (Read 1070 times)

ToddRosiakSays

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[Rosiak's Blog] Wrapping up the first round
« on: March 13, 2008, 02:15:05 AM »
Wrapping up the first round

Written by: Todd Rosiak


New York -- Jerel McNeal had just finished pounding down some food in the hospitality room when I spoke to him in the hallway of Madison Square Garden on Wednesday night.

With the night of work he'd just put in, it was no wonder he'd worked up an appetite.

McNeal was once again sensational, putting up not only a game-high 21 points but also holding Seton Hall's Brian Laing, a matchup problem for many teams as a 'tweener on the wing, to just six points on 3-for-10 shooting in what could very well have been his last game as a collegian.

Limiting Laing was a big reason the Pirates managed to shoot just 33.9% as a team for the game, and were never able to mount much of a challenge despite the Golden Eagles struggling just as badly against yet another zone. 

"He did a great job," said coach Tom Crean. "Jerel had the matchup, but the way we were switching a lot of different guys guarded him. We had David Cubillan on him, Maurice Acker, Dominic James a lot of times.

"But (Laing's) such a key, such a true warrior with the way that he plays, and a great example of what happens with perseverance. He averaged, what, three points as a freshman? And the last two years he's been one of the top scorers in the league. He's a big-time matchup, a hard matchup, and our guys rose to the challenge."

McNeal said defense was a must, considering how badly MU was struggling offensively.

"It was one of those nights, and you're going to have those nights -- especially this time of year," he said. "Great teams are going to come back and find ways to win, and that's what we did tonight. Nobody shot the ball great from the field, especially from deep, jump-shot wise, and we did a good job of just attacking the glass, trying to get to the foul line and get extra possessions."

-- As McNeal said, rebounding was a huge factor.

MU grabbed a season-high 56 for the game, including 25 on the offensive end. Its previous high was 50, set against IPFW on Dec. 17. Aside from Lazar Hayward's game-high 10, McNeal and Ousmane Barro had nine apiece, Wesley Matthews six and James five.

"It was hustle, heart and a sense of urgency," Crean said. "We did not play with a sense of urgency this past Saturday at Syracuse, especially in the second half when they made that little run, and our guys knew that. They have a lot of pride. We're obviously not a big team, we don't have tremendous size up front so we've got to have great speed to the backboards, tenacity, and that toughness to finish." 

-- There were no incidents between James and Seton Hall's Jamar Nutter, which wasn't much of a surprise considering what was at stake in the game.

It was interesting to watch the interaction between the two as the teams made their way through the perfunctory handshake line afterward, though. Once Nutter and James met, James appeared to offer only a halfhearted shake, and after the two passed they continued to exchange words with one another.

I asked James about it, and he just laughed it off.

"We're all friends, hugs, and all that good stuff," James said with a smile.

Nutter went into more detail in the post-game presser, though.

"I mean, I guess like the other two games...that wasn't a foul to hurt him," Nutter said, referring to his first flagrant foul on James on Jan. 8 that resulted in a sprained right wrist for the MU guard.

"And the game at home, I might have took a shot at him. But I didn't mean it in that way; I was just trying to get myself open. But...at the end of the game, he didn't want to shake my hand. So I just kept walking, and I just said it's fine with me."

-- At least MU was consistent offensively -- it hit 11 of 32 shots in the first half (34.4%) and 11 of 32 shots in the second half as well in finishing at -- yep, you guessed it -- 34.4% for the game.

-- As far as dealing with Seton Hall's 2-3 zone, Crean said he thought his team fared better than it did against Syracuse's 2-3, although the final numbers were just as ugly.

"The biggest point was when we got the ball into the middle of the zone Saturday, we did good things. We just didn't get it there enough, and tonight we did," he said. "I thought Jerel did a great job of flashing. We wanted to get a lot more random flashes to the middle of the zone.

"We expected more press from them but they didn't; they sat back in the zone more. But we felt we could get it in the middle. We ran more man stuff against them than the last time we played them."

-- Hayward bounced back in a big way from back-to-back poor performances in MU's final two Big East games, putting up his fifth double-double of the year with 15 points to go along with his 10 boards.

"He didn't have a great first half, and he did a great job bouncing back," said Crean. "He was challenged at halftime and he did a great job of responding to it. That's the process that he's got to go through. That's as much to do with your experience as anything else -- when you have a bad half, can you turn around and bring it at a higher level?

"When you're young and inexperienced it's hard to do that. But he took a major step toward that tonight."

-- How about Trend Blackledge?

He brought a ton of energy off the bench for the Golden Eagles, playing 13 minutes in finishing with four points, four rebounds, a block and a steal.

Underscoring his aggressiveness were his eight free-throw attempts, most on the team and three more than he had attempted all season. He was also whistled for a goaltend, and went to the ground hard several times as he attacked the basket.

"Trend did an excellent job setting the tone for us the last time we played Seton Hall," Crean said. "If he'd have made his free throws we would have had another double-figure scorer, and that's the reason I didn't play him at the end.

"But he did a great job changing the tempo of the game with his length. He needed to come in with a mind set that he was going to absolutely go after whoever we asked him to guard. I've really been proud of the way he's done that the last few days in practice. He came in with a real edge tonight that way, and that helped us."

Expect to see even more of Blackledge tonight against Notre Dame. Although Barro did a good job on Luke Harangody the last time the two teams met, Blackledge did a good job in both games frustrating the Big East's player of the year with his length and leaping ability.

-- Speaking of Notre Dame, it's no surprise that the preparation should be markedly easier with such a quick turnaround since the teams have already seen each other twice.

"The advantage they have is they had a chance to practice this week," said Crean. "This'll be one of those games where we've got to come out and understand personnel as well as we have all year. We've done a pretty solid job of that with them, and understand, again, that defense and rebounding are going to be huge. Because if you come in and allow them to get 80-85 points, it's very hard to win.

"With that being said, we're not going to slow down our pace; we're not going to slow down our tempo. We want to run as well. But we really have to defend at a high level."

-- Acker played a quiet 19 minutes, but hit two killer shots -- a three-pointer with 5:36 left in the game that gave MU a 57-53 lead, and an 18-foot leaner with the shot clock expiring at the 2:38 mark that pretty much sealed the deal for the Golden Eagles.

-- Interesting to note that Dwight Burke was the first big man off the bench, but he wound up playing just those three first-half minutes. Trevor Mbakwe played nine.



http://blogs.jsonline.com/muhoops/archive/2008/03/13/wrapping-up-the-first-round.aspx

 

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