Kansas knows shot-blocking as well

Anthony Davis of Kentucky may the most celebrated shot blocker since Bill Russell as he totals 180 going to tomorrow night’s game, but Jeff Withey and Thomas Robinson have held serve in the center.

Withey blocked Ohio State center J.J. Sullinger three times in a row Saturday night in the Jayhawks’ 64-62 win over Ohio State in Saturday night’s national semifinal.  He also nailed Aaron Craft and William Buford in the lane as he served notice to the Buckeyes that KU does have a post presence inside.

“My teammates definitely look at me and see me as a protector,” said Withey, “They know if they get beat, I’m there.  I’m there to help them block shots.  When I blocked Jared, I was standing straight up.  I guess my length bothered him.”

Length and size bothered Craft and Buford as well as maybe Withey is more mobile than he gets credit.

“Against Aaron, he’s a great guard, but, yeah, he just jumped into my body and I kept my arms straight up and the ball hit that, too,” noted Withey, “So, yeah, I mean, I was just in the right place at the right time, I guess.”

Withey’s size seemed to surprise Buford on the block on him as he dribble-prenetrated off the three-point line.

“I went up and tried guarding him making it a five‑second call,” said Withey, “Buford was obviously on the post and sealed Tyshawn, was going to have an easy bucket. I turned around, jumped up, put my arm out and I hit the ball.”

Withey has nailed 134 blocks in 24.4 mpg.  He came up with a season-high of 10 two games agao in the Sweet 16 vs. North Carolina State.

“They were four‑point swings,” Kansas coach Bill Self said of two of Withey’s key blocks, which triggered fastbreaks that kept Ohio State from extending double-digit leads, “We’re down 11 and we’re supposed to switch, dribble handoff, he fakes it, we don’t make it, Craft is naked to the goal.  We got two points off of them naked driving to the basket.  That’s a big play.  The block on Buford was unbelievable.”

Withey’s matchup in the middle with Davis, Michael Kidd-Gilchrist, and Terrence Jones should be interesting.  Self is certain Withey can matchup and a lack of athleticism will not be exposed.

“Anthony Davis is the best shot‑blocker in the country,” noted Self, “But I think Jeff is probably second best.  I don’t know anybody out there that blocks shots or alters better than Jeff does.  So you’re going to have two great shot‑blockers going against each other.”

- Ken Cross

 

 

 

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Jayhawks: ‘Self-Styled’

In the nine years Bill Self has been the head coach at Kansas, he may have never embarked on a more surprising season as it was a season where most thought KU would rebuild.  He lost the Morris twins from a year ago as they were key contributors, so most thought that Kansas might struggle some in what was supposed to be a much tougher and deeper Big 12 as Self would have four new starters from 2010-11.

Well, it didn’t happen.  Self guided the Jayhawks to the regular season league championship and now they are back in the Final Four for the second time in the Self era as they have won 13 out of 14 games.  Suffice it to say that this, by far, ma be his best coaching job of his career.

“We have caught some breaks this year,too,” said Self, “So much of basketball in a season is such a long grind is staying healthy, those sorts of things and we have been fortunate in that regard.”

Self has gotten a team to mesh around the talents of point guard Tyshawn Taylor and big-man Thomas Robinson as the Kansas chemistry finally can’t be underrated going into this weekend against Ohio State and possibly next Monday night in the national championship game.

“I said before the season, and I meant it, even though I didn’t know for sure if I 100‑percent bought into it, that for us to be really good this year, Thomas was going to have to play like an All‑American and Tyshawn was going to have to be as good as any guard around, and those two things have come true,” explained Self.

Robinson has averaged 15.8 ppg. and 12.5 rpg. in the NCAA Tournament as he is the national leader in double-doubles with 26 which is a KU record.  Taylor has been scoring almost at-will through the second half of the season as he has 10 20-point games in the second half of the season.

“When people doubt you, I know myself personally, I think that’s when I perform my best, when somebody doubts me,” noted Robinson about any Jayhawks dissenters coming into the season, “And as a team together, we knew that we could do it.  But it took a lot of work.”

Self flipped the correct script Sunday as he went to a traingle-and-two for nearly the last 10 minutes in Kansas’ 80-67 win over North Carolina.  The Tar Heels missed some key open shots and never found rhythm as Kansas outscored them 12-3 to close out the game.  The comedic part was that North Carolina coach Roy Williams said afterward that he only saw the traingle-and-two on maybe one or two possessions. Self exposed Williams during that stretch which was all it took to advance the Jayhawks into Saturday’s Final Four against Ohio State.

“We were able to take the ball out of their hands and take away their two shooters,” noted Self, “The thing about it is, you got to rebound out of it.  They’re a great rebounding team and I thought we rebounded the ball as well as we have in a long time tonight.”

The Buckeyes are another formidable rebounding squad with J.J. Sullinger in the middle and surging DeShaun Thomas playing well on the inside and outside.  This is just another challenge for a squad that has been challenged in many ways since the first game of the season.

“They have so many pieces that are so good and it starts with Jared,” said Self, “But they have a stretch of four that can score. Craft is as good as any guard in the country and Burford has made as many big shots as anybody left in the field.”

- Ken Cross

 

Wildcats ‘KO’ Bears in the first

Kentucky coach John Calipari immediately asked for a timeout some 3:45 into Sunday’s South Region Final vs. the Baylor Bears as BU had jumped on the Wildcats, 10-5, right out of the shoot.  Calipari just wanted to reassure the troops that nothing was wrong and he wanted to make sure that the Bears didn’t gain any quick confidence.  He was just rebooting the Big Blue computer.

“I told them to just get out there and guard people and make easy plays; I told them ‘we’re fine,’” Calipari said.

From there the earth shattered underneath the Georgia Dome as the Wildcats’ known volcanic eruption took place.  Kentucky slapped Baylor with a 16-0 run as Michael Kidd-Gilchrist, who led UK in scoring with 19, scored six of his points to lead Kentucky to scorers on eight of the next nine possessions.  Meanwhile, Baylor was 0-for-4 from the floor with three turnvoers in that stretch before Quincy Acy broke the run with a layup and free throw.

“I’d say we were just aggressive,” noted Terrence Jones, who totaled 12 points, nine rebounds, six assists, three blocks, and two steals in 35 minutes, “I just think we got real aggressive on offense and defense and just mentally locked down on defense and just led to fast breaks on offense.”

Scoring on 13 of 15 possessions in the first half allowed the Wildcats to build a 32-17 lead en route to their 42-22 lead at the break.

“I think a huge part of that was our execution,” said senior Darius Miller, “After we got going a little bit, they threw a zone out there.  We knew exactly what we wanted to do, and we executed and got easy buckets.”

Michael Kidd-Gilcrist, who was the MVP of the South Regional lead the Wildcats with 19 points while Anthony Davis topped out at 18 and 11 boards with six blocked shots.

Kentucky’s aggressiveness in the first half took Baylor totally out of any scheme or game plan that coach Scott Drew might have tried to fashion as the tentative Bears had no answers for a transition game that racked up 17 points and 15 off 13 Baylor turnovers.

“We were getting out in transition,” noted Miller, ” I think it’s kind of a mixture of us executing the way that we wanted to and the way our game plan was set up and just how hard we were playing – especially on defense.  I think we did a great job defensively in the first half.”

Calipari noted that his defense that gave up only 22 points and 32% from the floor in the first half paced the Kentucky transition and Drew concurred.

This team’s actually better than I thought,” Drew noted of Calipari’s squad which won it’s 36th game of the season Sunday afternoon, “I don’t think we played our best game.  I’m going to give them credit for causing some of that. Definitely, we haven’t played a better team than them all year, and I don’t know in the last couple years.  When we lost to Duke, Duke was a very good team, but this Kentucky team is better in my opinion.”

-Ken Cross

 

Cats-Bears offer the ultimate in athletic matchup

Kentucky and Baylor square off at 2:20 EST today in the Georgia Dome in what might be the best battle of total athleticism on the hardwood this basketball season.

Kentucky center Anthony Davis who was in foul trouble early Friday night in the Wildcats’ win over Indiana knows that Baylor is probably bringing in the most athletic team that Kentucky has faced since it’s early December win over North Carolina.

“This team is very talented and very athletic, very long,” said Davis, “It’s a great matchup for us.  It’s about who is going to want it more.”

Kentucky coach John Calipari is concerned about the Baylor length which features five players with wingspans over 7-feet.  This factor inside a zone like this could possibly alter Kentucky’s shooting in a half court.

“I think that’s one of the reasons they’ll play zone is that they’re looking at, okay, you’re not going to get to the rim.  If you do get to the rim, there’s going to be length there,” said Calipari, “One of the things we do in our zone offense is we’re throwing a lot of lobs.  So that length has to be back, but that length is on the wings too now.”

With all of it’s athletes, leading scorer and senior Quincy Acy is probably Baylor’s most athletic player.  He had 20 points and 15 boards, including two monster one-handed dunks on inbounds passes that wowed the Georgia Dome crowd.  He is probably the most interesting matchup for the WIldcats.

“I pride myself on my work ethic,” said Acy, ” Everyday after practice I life weights.  I started that a while back and guys have started following.  I do pride myself on my physicality and to a certaine extent you can’t be too physical.”

Acy’s antithesis could be Michael Kidd-Gilchrist, who had an awakening of sorts on Friday night with 24 points and 10 rebounds after struggling so mightily in the three previous games.  When Kidd-Gilchrist wills himself to play, no one in the country can matchup him in the open floor and with his athleticism around the basket.

“He does about 10 things and he worked his butt off all week,” said Calipari, “He spent extra time.  He’s in the office at night and he’s int he gym. We’re winding it down and he is stepping it up.”

For Kentucky, a duplication of the effort from Friday night will almost assure the Wildcats a date with rival Louisville next Saturday in the Final Four in New Orleans.  For the Baylor Bears, they have to bring 40 minutes of their most intense basketball of the year.  If they do not, Kentucky marches on.

 

Ken’s High Five: The Bear facts from Baylor’s talented Quincy Acy

Baylor’s athletic Quincy Acy wowed the Georgia Dome crowd with a pair of rim-rattling dunks off inbounds passes Friday night in the Bears’ 75-70 Sweet 16 win over Xavier.  Acy was a mismatch for anyone the Musketeers tried to use to negate his athleticism and ball skills.  He would up 8-of-11 from the floor with 20 points and 15 boards in 34 minutes.  Acy gave his synopsis of the Bears, who are making tehir second Elite Eight appearance in the last three years.

On being back in the Elite Eight now as a senior: “It feels great.  We had thoughts at the beginning of the season that we really wanted to still be playing at this time.  Here we are.  Guys are doing a great job executing what Coach has for us, and I think we’ve really just come together.  We’ve willed ourselves to some wins.”

On the meaning of the win beyond getting Baylor to the Elite Eight: “It’s win No. 100 for my senior class.  That means a lot.  Who all can say they have 100 wins?”

On him and Perry Jones III turning in big game Friday night after the Bears were so quiet in the paint vs. South Dakota State and Colorado in last weekend’s round of games: “ I think we really stepped our game up because we know, in order for us to continue to win, we had to get more production from our front line.
Our guards have been consistent this whole tournament, and we had to give them more help.  So the guys on the front line really took that personally, and we need to do a better job.”

On the contrast between the Elite Eight run in 2010 and this year’s Elite Eight run: “I think the guys, the younger guys as well as the seniors, upperclassmen, we made a commitment this year that we know we have the talent.  We just have to execute and do what Coach has for us.  He always puts us in good positions to do what we’re capable of doing.  It’s just up to us to execute and get stops and stuff like that.”

On his beard, which contrasts with his being prematurely bald: “You don’t like the look?  I think it looks nice myself.  My mother likes it.  I think it might be my hairline.  That might be it.  Prematurely bald.  I’ve accepted it.  I get a lot of rag from my teammates.  It’s cool.  I’m supposed to be a junior, y’all.  I’m not old.”

- Ken Cross

 

 

 

Bears’ Jones looking for break out in Sweet 16

Tonight’s Baylor-Xavier matchup in Atlanta’s Georgia Dome features two premiere backcourts in Pierre Jackson and Brady Heslip of Baylor against Tu Holloway and Mark Lyons.  Skim down the roster and the matchups become a little more in favor of the Bears, especially in the middle where the ultra-athletic Perry Jones III will matchup with Xavier big man Kenny Frease.

Although Jones has attempted less shots and shot at a smaller percentage than last year, his frame and athletic ability could be a major difference in this game.  Jones acored only nine combined points in the Bears’ wins last week in Albuquerque over South Dakota State and Colorado.  In fact he averaged 30 mpg., but took only 14 field goal attempts in those two games.

“You can’t go back and start those games over,” he said, “You can’t redo the games.  The best thing I do is move forward and help our team break forward for the next couple of game.”

Jones has had 12 games out of the 30 he has appeared in where he scored in single digits and failed to consistently get his shot.  He has proven to be almost too unselfish, and Baylor senior forward Quincy Acy says the Bears like to see Jones at full throttle as he was in a 31-point, 11-rebound performance in the Bears’ opening with of the Big 12 Tournament.

“Since Perry’s a great player down low, it opens a lot of stuff up for Brady and Pierre to operate and our other guards,” noted Acy, “So we would love for him to score more, but if it doesn’t happen like that all the time, we’ve got other options.”

Jones noted that Baylor’s toughness had been questioned most of the season, so maybe this becomes a mental game for the Bears’ center who was bally-hooed as a can’t miss NBA prospect.  In that case, possibly pressure to produce so readily may have caused his lack of consistency.

” The NBA has it right,” said Baylor coach Scott Drew, ” They understanmd that when he is 25, that’s going to be his best basketball and they know his potential.”

Drew then refutes any notion that Jones has been besieged by pressure which has distorted his focus.

“To coach him, he couldn’t ask for anything more” noted Drew, “He’s an unbelievable teammate and he only cares about winning.  When he gets down is when he doesn’t play well and when the team loses. if he doesn’t play well and the team wins, he is the happiest guy int he locker room.”

Going forward, if the Bears are to win four more games and cut down the nets in New Orleans next Monday night, Jones needs that consistency inside.  Then, Jackson and Heslip can nail threes while Acy and Quincy Miller can create off the dribble.

“I think that’s the biggest strength of our team,” Drew said of the Baylor rebounding, “If people choose to take the inside away, and let’s credit South Dakota State and Colorado’s interior defense, I think it opened our frontline guys on the perimeter. Without the front line play, we definitely don’t get those two wins.”

- Ken Cross

 

Ken’s High Five: Big 12 coaches analyze key team issues

In this installment of “High Five,” we spanned the Big 12 and took five coaches from five of the ten schools and got an assessment of key issues of importance to their teams.  Next week, we will flip back to the other five bench bosses for their takes.

Baylor coach Scott Drew, on sixth man and point guard Pierre Jackson, who has double figures in 13 of his last 16 games and is averaging 10 apg. in his last five: “He gets places on the court that other guards can’t get.  He makes shots so you can’t back off him. Defensively, he has gotten better and he will be one of the best players when its all said and done.  He picks us up a level.  We can be going 55 miles per hour and he picks us up to 70.”

Kansas State’s Frank Martin,  on his team’s struggles since Big 12 play has commenced: “Defensively, we have slipped, outside of the Missouri game.  Our team defense is not as consistent going into league play and that has something to do with the league as well.  We have to get back to defending and sitting down and guarding and turnovers are also killing us.  The only thing that is concerning me about the turnovers is that they are coming from Jordan (Henriquez) and Thomas Gibson.  You can’t have that out of your center position.”

Kansas Jayhawks boss Bill Self, on the improvement of center Thomas Robinson, who is averaging a double-double at 17.8 ppg., and 12.3 rpg.: “He’s worked really hard and has become a gym rat.  He got some confidence last summer going against some of the top big guys in the country at some camps.  His skill set has improved dramatically.  He makes shots, is confident taking them, and has been a good passer.”

Rick Barnes of Texas, on the struggles with a young team that features three freshman starters and two others who average double figures in minutes: “I think if I could go through each possession and show you where one guy doesn’t do what he is supposed to do, it breaks timing down.  In film session, we try to point out how many times we come down the floor, and don’t execute like we do in practice.  It’s about details, sense of urgency, finishing plays and understanding how hard it is to go from offense to defense, and on reading a screen – when to cut and when to pop.  It takes all five of them to do it.”

Frank Haith, Missouri, on challenges of a first year coach in the Big 12: “First of all getting your personnel to buy into what you do is toughest; then, to get players to prepare and compete in learning each other.  We were very fortunate to have good personnel and our personnel has done a good job along with our coaching staff in meeting each other half way and developing cohesiveness.”

-Ken Cross

 

Around the nation

Most figured it would be a down year for the PAC-12, but what was once one of the nation’s mightiest three or four leagues has slipped mightily. Through games of Sunday, WarrenNolan.com had the league as the ninth-best RPI league thus far this season. According to Joe Lunardi’s Monday edition of “Bracketology,” (subscription required) just two of the league’s teams — Cal and Stanford — would get in the NCAA Tournament if the season ended today.. Part of the reason for the league’s slide is that two preseason Top 20 teams, UCLA and Arizona, have had off-years and probably wouldn’t make the tourney if the season started today. Meanwhile, Oregon State, which has big wins over Texas and Cal and looked ready to perhaps challenge for its first NCAA Tourney appearance since 1990, is now 1-5 in league play. … At least the PAC-12 can take consolation that it’s not the SWAC; that league ranks dead-last among Division I’s 33 conferences (if you group the independents as a league). The league’s 10 teams went a combined 7-96 in non-league games. … Among the teams included in Lunardi’s field of 68 is Bill Carmody’s Northwestern Wildcats, who are 24th in Nolan’s latest RPI. Northwestern is just 2-3 in Big Ten play so far, but the conference is the top-rated league thus far, and the Wildcats have scored huge wins over Michigan State and Seton Hall thus far. Northwestern has never made the NCAAs, even though it started playing basketball in 1905. … Among other teams that started the year in the Top 25 but fell out include Memphis, Pitt and Vanderbilt. Memphis is going to have to pick things up just to make the Tournament; the Tigers are 12-5, but just 1-5 against top-50 RPI opponents. Pitt has now lost seven in a row after an 11-1 start, with four defeats coming by five points or less. The Panthers remain the only winless team in the Big East. They’ve not missed the NCAA Tournament since 2001, but this might be the season. Vanderbilt, however, seems to be hitting its stride, standing 13-4 with Festus Ezeli back and in the starting lineup. VU has won seven in a row, all by double figures. The Commodores have two huge tests later this week: at Alabama on Thursday, followed by Mississippi State in Nashville on Saturday. … The three undefeated teams from last week — Baylor, Murray State and Syracuse — all remain unbeaten. Now, there are only two 1-loss teams (Kentucky, Missouri) and eight 2-loss teams. … Perhaps the most-shocking score of the season was this one from Saturday: Florida State 90, North Carolina 57, with the Seminoles getting 32 points from Deividas Dulkys, a senior who averaged 7.3 points per game last season. How out-of-the-blue (no pun intended) was that scoring outburst? Dulkys has a reputation as a practice shooter, but hadn’t scored more than six points in any of the previous nine games, and had been shut out twice in that span. This was the first really big win for FSU, which lost by 20 at 9-8 Clemson just a week before, and also fell to 8-8 Princeton on Dec. 30.

- Chris Lee, VandySports.com

 

Mountaineers redefine “Big Three” in 2OT win over K-State

After a 75-62 loss in Starkville, Mississippi to rising Mississippi State, West Virginia coach Bob Huggins said he wanted to see his veterans take control of games and make a difference.  Seniors Darryl Bryant, Kevin Jones, and Deniz Kilcli had struggled in going a combined 16-of-41 from the floor and none of the three came up big in the clutch as the game was tied at 52 with 7:58 remaining.

The group responded well on Thursday night as WVU and Huggins knocked off former assistant and long-time friend Frank Martin, 85-80, in double overtime in Wichita.

Jones, who had a career-high 30 points with 12 rebounds, led a West Virginia attack that saw all three players step up when needed and this time, they combined for 66 points and shot 25-of-43 from the floor.

Huggins’ “Big Three” is surrounded by essentially six freshmen, who are learning on the job as they are needed to complement Jones, Bryant, and Kilicli until they are totally familiar with the system and gain confidence in what they are doing.

Jones, though, may have had the biggest play of the night when he hit the tieing three off of the right baseline to force the first overtime.

“KJ said ‘Coach, I’ve got a little guy on me’ so I said, ’We’ll iso KJ,’” noted Huggins. “We we did, and he got a big goal for us.”

Bryant played a steady floor game in the first half for WVU as he kept the Mountaineers close as Kansas State edged to a 31-30 lead. Then, Kilicli went to work early in the second half with his patented hook shot as he answered Wildcats scores by scoring 10 of his 12 points in the first six and a half minutes of the period with WVU still trailing, 48-44.

The key was Jones, though, who was stellar all night in going 12-of-17 from the field in 49 minutes while Bryant scored 24 and played the entire 50.

“We can’t expect KJ to get us 30 and Truck to get us 24 every game,” explained a matter-of-fact Huggins, “These other guys are going to have to do something,”

Frehsman Aaron Brown might be one of those “other guys” that Hugs is talking about.  He had seven points in the two overtime periods to finish with 10.  He gave the Mountaineers the lead twice with his two jumpers.

-Ken Cross

 

Courtside Observations at the Jimmy V Classic

Marquette coach Buzz Willams: Honored to be in the Jimmy V

NEW YORK CITY – In the opener of the Jimmy V Classic at Madison Square Garden, Villanova opposed Missouri. The Tigers entered the game with a 126 offensive efficiency, matched by an equally outstanding 85 on the defensive end. At the half, Missouri enjoyed a 42-29 lead. The offensive efficiency numbers, quite similar to those in pre-game:

 

Missouri              124

Villanova            85

 

          Missouri came into the game forcing opponents into a 24% TO rate. A young Villanova club was playing at a 68 possession pace through their first seven games. The Wildcats TO rate was a tidy 19%. The first twenty minutes against Missouri, saw Villanova guilty of 9 turnovers, an unusually high 27% rate.

          Other notes…Missouri basically has one inside player, Ricardo Ratliffe. The 6-8 senior however, is a good one.  Marcus Denmon of Missouri can fill it up. And he’s certainly not bashful.

          A lot has been discussed regarding the Missouri style of play. Under Mike Anderson, now at Arkansas, the Tigers were fast and aggressive on both ends of the floor. With Frank Haith at the helm, Missouri isn’t as fast but not exactly walking the ball up the floor as they averaged 68 possessions through their initial seven games.

          Like the inside work of Villanova’s Mouphtaou Yarou. The Villanova big man could use some consistent help in the paint.

          Jay Wright, usually very good with the officials, is not in perfect agreement with every call tonight. Nothing inherently wrong with that. Wright is a competitor and in this game, especially with his team down double digits, the  Villanova mentor is voicing his opinion. 

          Villanova makes an impressive run the latter part of the second half. Every time the Wildcats threaten to get it to a one possession game, the turnover ’monster’ rears its ugly head.  

          They did cut down on turnovers the second half. Regardless, a glaring difference in the 81-71 Missouri victory was that turnover category. Missouri cared for the ball showing only 12% of their possessions ending in a turnover. For Villanova it was 22%.

          Denmon, led all scorers with 28 points including 6 of 10 from three.  Haith noted that Missouri shot under 40% (actually 38.5%) the first half but put up 42 points. “A lot of that credit goes to Ricardo (Ratliffe) and the work he did on the boards,” Haith said. Ratliffe paced all rebounders with 11, five of them on the offensive end.  

          Villanova (5-3) had five players in double figures with Maalik Wayns (14 points) leading the way. 

          “There was no surprise with Missouri (8-0),” Wright said. “They are a well disciplined, experienced team. We just hoped to scrap and stay close, maybe steal it at the end. They just have so many answers.” 

          Game two gave us another strong program, Washington, not seen too frequently in Madison Square Garden against Marquette, a regular visitor. 

          A relatively even first half. Both teams alternate between man to man and zone defenses. Impressed with Marquette’s ability to attack the latter defense. Good ball movement and that extra pass get Marquette inside of the zone for outstanding opportunities.

          Don’t know how many years Marquette has been the ‘Golden Eagles;. Still can’t get used to it.  Guess they will always remain the ‘Warriors’ in my mind. 

          Not really household names but Buzz Williams of Marquette and his counterpart Lorenzo Romar, are quite comfortable and competent drawing up an X and O.  

          First four minutes of the second half saw a brisk pace, nine possessions per team. Both Marquette and Washington scored eight points during that time, an offensive efficiency of  89. 

          First half was more of a conservative approach by both teams. Second half, a lot more three point shooting, transition and attack the basket penetration.  

          Jae Crowder did a lot of the ‘dirty’ work in the paint for Marquette.

          Terrence Ross, Washington’s sophomore guard, used his 6-6 size to be effective inside as well as on the perimeter.

          Remember what we said about Missouri’s Marcus Denmon   game  one? Same goes for Washington’s C.J. Wilcox. The sophomore guard is not afraid to lauch from beyond the arc. 

          A one possession affair most of the second half, the nightcap certainly entertained. 

          Kind of funny to hear fans chant ‘let’s go Huskies’ and not see Jim Calhoun roaming the sidelines.                  

          It came down to the final possession. Washington missed a last second shot, Marquette hung on for a hard fought   79-77 victory. Ironically, the deciding score was a three pointer by the inside oriented  Crowder. Ross led Washington with 19 points. Marquette’s Darius Johnson-Odom was the game scoring leader with 23  points.

          “We didn’t finish the game, that’s unfortunate,” said Washington (4-3) coach Lorenzo Romar. “We are moving in the right direction.”

          Marquette (8-0) coach Buzz Williams commented on his team’s slow start. “Our energy level was not what it has been,” Williams said. “But we were tough enough to hang in there.” 

          Williams spoke several times about the exposure of playing in the Garden, on ESPN in the Jimmy V and what it means to his program. He elaborated more on the significance of being in an event as this which raises money and does so much  for cancer research.

- Ray Floriani