Posted by Graham Watson
BOISE, Idaho -- Can Marquette beat a good team without
Dominic James? That will be the question on everyone's mind when the
Golden Eagles (24-9) take the court against Utah State (30-4), because since James suffered a broken foot against Connecticut six games ago, Marquette is 1-5.
"We're different in a sense where we lose that dynamic athlete bringing the ball up the court," guard Wesley Matthews said. "He's played four years; he's been battle-tested. He's played four years with three of us and three years with [forward] Lazar [Hayward]. There's just plays and reads that he makes that we don't have to talk about. Just that chemistry on the court that he brings and just what we know we can expect from him."
Marquette's only win since James' injury was a 74-45 thrashing of lowly St. John's in the Big East tournament. In the Golden Eagles' defense, each of their losses was to a ranked Big East team.
Utah State, on the other hand, comes into Boise riding a four-game winning streak and fresh off its second straight regular-season title. But that's where the streak ends. The Aggies are 1-5 in the NCAA tournament under coach Stew Morrill and haven't won a tournament game since 2001.
Missouri (28-6) vs. Cornell (21-9)
Missouri coach Mike Anderson has shown the national championship ring he won while an assistant at Arkansas just twice: once when he was hired and once before the championship game of the Big 12 tournament. The allure of the bling was enough to bring home Missouri's first-ever Big 12 title, and the shine hasn't faded as Missouri heads into its first NCAA tournament since 2003.
"In order to get something," Anderson said, "you've got to be able to see it."
The Tigers are heavily favored over Cornell, which made its first NCAA tournament appearance in 20 years last year against Stanford. The Big Red lost that game 77-53, but are hoping for a better result this time around. Cornell players acknowledge that won't be easy against Missouri's full-court pressure style. The Tigers' high-pressure defense tends to wear opponents down, especially in the second half. Missouri has outscored opponents 89-87 in the first half, but 132-92 in the second.
Cornell has tried to simulate Missouri's style by practicing against a sixth man on defense.
"I think it's a focus that we just have to make sure that we don't play into their hands of speeding ourselves up and rushing our style of play," senior guard Adam Gore said. "I think we kind of need to play at our own pace and realize that if we do that we'll be OK."
Xavier (25-7) vs. Portland State (23-9)
Xavier has played two teams that have styles similar to Portland State -- Butler and Duquesne -- and both resulted in losses.
The problem in both of those games was that Xavier didn't mark tight on shooters and subsequently was beat by the 3-pointer. Duquesne shot 47.6 percent from 3, including 8-for-11 in the first half, in a 72-68 win. The Bulldogs shot 40 percent from 3-point range in a 74-65 win.
"They spread us out, and we took kind of a tongue-lashing a little bit for both of those games," guard B.J. Raymond said. "I feel that we have learned from that. One thing that we learned is that we have to keep our defense tight and make sure that we close out the shooters. And make sure that we make the game hard."
Raymond noted that in both games the Musketeers jumped out to fast early leads and took their foot off the gas. They'll need to keep the pressure up against a Portland State team that averages 73.8 points per game, about a point more than Xavier averages.
Portland State has had back-to-back 20-win seasons for the first time in school history and is making its second consecutive NCAA tournament appearance. Last season, the Vikings lost to eventual national champion Kansas.
Florida State (25-9) vs. Wisconsin (19-12)
The key to stopping Florida State sounds easy -- stop guard Toney Douglas -- but few teams have been able to accomplish that feat.
Douglas averages 21.3 points per game, but in the Seminoles' past six games he has averaged 25.3 points and hasn't scored fewer than 22 points in any of those contests. He has led the team in scoring in 22 consecutive games and is the only Seminole to average double figures.
"'Contain' is a better word than 'stop,'" forward Joe Krabbenhoft said. "I think we all have watched Toney, especially this last weekend in the ACC tournament. He just put on a show and it was fun to watch. He's a great player; we respect him as much as anybody."
The biggest hurdle for Wisconsin will be playing well down the stretch. The Badgers held leads in the final six minutes in nine of their 12 losses. It won seven of their final nine regular-season games because of strong defense, and the Badgers' size and physicality will be a huge advantage over a young Florida State team that plays a lot of freshmen and sophomores.
"We're long and lean, and our youngsters have not matured to the point where they got that lower base that allows them to hold their spot while they're posting up," coach Leonard Hamilton said. "That's probably been a problem for us all year. … When [opponents] are able to push us out and be physical, it has bothered us. That is a concern of ours."
