ESPN.com - C-USA's contender molded in Milwaukee

ESPN.com: Men's College Basketball

Tuesday, March 11, 2003
Updated: March 12, 5:33 PM ET
C-USA's contender molded in Milwaukee

By Pat Forde
Special to ESPN.com

The horn blew for halftime in Freedom Hall, but Marquette coach Tom Crean halted his players in mid-jog toward the visitors' locker room. Instead he corralled them into an impromptu huddle squarely at the center of the Louisville Cardinals' court.

This was unusual.

Given the fact that the Golden Eagles trailed by 11 points at the time, this was very unusual.


	Dwayne Wade, Robert Jackson and the Golden Eagles may not be done celebrating.

But this moment called for immediacy, and the savvy 36-year-old Crean rarely fails to sieze the moment. Even a 60-second run off the court would have diluted the impact of the coach's message.

"That was a little bit of a battle cry there," Crean said.

Down 11 on the road against a quality opponent, Crean told his team they had the Cards right where they wanted them. That's because the Eagles had been down a desperate 19 just moments before, then made a crucial mini-rally before intermission.

"It was more just pulling them together in the heat of the moment," Crean said. "We felt like we had gotten a real tough shot from them there, and we needed to respond and we'd gone and gotten it done."

They finished getting it done in the second half, inexorably wearing down the Cardinals and winning 78-73. That was the highlight game of Marquette's breakthrough Conference USA title run -- the game that said everything about the mettle Crean has built into this program in four quick years.

"I don't know very many teams in the country that could be down 19 points in Freedom Hall to a very good Louisville team and come back and win," said Cincinnati coach Bob Huggins, whose eight-year run as league champions was ended by Marquette. "That, more than anything else, made a statement to me that these guys are very good."

How good?

Good enough that the only thing separating them from a 16-game winning streak is a 25-foot Reece Gaines 3-pointer with five seconds left in Milwaukee. Win that epic ballgame and the only team in America running hotter would be Kentucky.

Good enough to fracture Cincy's stronghold on the league, to outdo fine coaching jobs by big-timers John Calipari and Rick Pitino, and to overcome the loss of two clutch seniors from last season's 26-7 team. Marquette looked like the best team in the league on paper, but the Top 10 seemed like a stretch.

Good enough that they seem solidly in line for a No. 2 seed -- highest for the school since the NCAA began making seeds public in 1985 -- and are widely considered the top national-title threat from a non-BCS conference.

(Hard-charging C-USA compadre Memphis is an intriguing No. 2 selection from that pool. The fact that the two teams did not play in the league's badly flawed regular-season schedule only adds to the potential intrigue of a C-USA title game matchup.)

Good enough that the best player in the gilded history of the school that brought you George Thompson, Dean Meminger, Butch Lee, Bo Ellis and many others might well be there right now in junior wing man Dwyane Wade. He's unquestionably the best player in the league, and he might be the best player in the country this season, too.

Wade ranks in the C-USA top 10 in scoring, assists, steals, blocked shots and field-goal percentage. Throw in 6.1 rebounds per game and there's nothing on the floor he cannot do.

But as good as Wade is, he's not doing it alone. The supporting cast has come through.

Sophomore point guard Travis Diener has flourished. ("I don't think we'd be champions without him," Crean said). Center Robert Jackson has provided the inside offense that takes the pressure off Wade and Diener. Freshman Scott Novak is probably the best 6-10 shooter in the league. And power forward Scott Merritt (whose development was singled out as a key to the season by Crean) is now approaching his potential in his junior season.

Suddenly, a team that looked like it would miss the toughness of departed Cordell Henry and Oluoma Nnamaka located its moxie. By season's end Marquette bore little resemblance to the team that wobbled on the road at East Carolina and Dayton. By season's end, the Eagles were back to routinely cranking opponents on the glass.and buckling down on shooters -- both trademarks Crean picked up as an assistant at Michigan State.

"He's a junior Tom Izzo," Louisville coach Rick Pitino said.

Now comes a completely new challenge: entering the conference tournament as the favorite to win it. If the seeds hold true, the league dissed by CBS analyst Billy Packer as a "mid-major" could have some of the most interesting semifinals in the country Friday.

In Marquette and Memphis, you have blazing-hot teams with marquee players (Wade and Memphis strongman Chris Massie) and legit NCAA chances. In host Louisville you have a great talent in Reece Gaines and the most accomplished coach in the conference, Rick Pitino. And if Saint Louis holds off Cincinnati and gets there, you have another team on a roll (seven straight wins) and making an 11th-hour push for an NCAA bid.

Good stuff. But it starts with the boys from Milwaukee.

Marquette has had a tendency to lose its juice at the end of the year under Crean, going out in the first round of the C-USA tournament in 2000, the second round in 2001 and in the first round of the NCAA Tournament last season.

The only thing separating Crean from the upper-echelon of his profession is a major March run. Ever since that midcourt meeting Feb. 27 in Freedom Hall, this team has played like it can make one.

Games of the Week

Western Kentucky vs.
Middle Tennessee State,
Sun Belt final, Tuesday
Hilltoppers have overcome devastating injuries to reach an automatic-berth game on their home court, but still probably need to win to get into the NCAAs. Keep an eye on sophomore point guard Patrick Sparks, whose 28 points, six rebounds and six assists keyed Western past New Mexico State in the Monday semis. Sparks plays a little like Florida's Brett Nelson -- back before Nelson lost every shred of confidence he'd ever had.
Southern Mississippi vs.
Cincinnati,
C-USA opening round, Thursday
This shouldn't be much of a game, but it's significant for its unprecedented nature: The Bearcats have never had to play a C-USA first-round game. And although Cincy would appear to be in the Dance, a bad loss here could create some unneeded anxiety until Selection Sunday.
Tennessee vs. Auburn,
SEC quarterfinal, Friday
Two teams scrambling to get off the bubble and into the big show go at it in what should be a fierce affair. Thank Jim Harrick's absence for making it happen.

SEC Scramble
Madness starts early in the Big Easy. In fact, it started before the tournament starts, with the chaos at Georgia.

Talk about a bracket buster. The Bulldogs' decision to pull out of postseason play and suspend coach Jim Harrick literally caused the SEC to reshape its conference tourney on the fly and completely bollix preparation plans for just about everyone.

But you won't hear any complaints from LSU, Alabama, Tennessee and Auburn, all of whom could be legitimately considered on the bubble heading into New Orleans. With Georgia out, one more SEC team could sneak in. (Though the coaches of all four must have aged considerably watching San Diego upset Gonzaga for the West Coast Conference championship. Suddenly the Zags have joined them on the crowded bubble.)

Tennessee -- which had its own sudden melodrama with the academic ineligibility of sharp-shooting guard Jon Higgins -- now gets a bye. That may or may not be a good thing. The Volunteers (17-10, with little non-conference success to show for it) need wins to ensure their place in the NCAAs, but they also need to avoid a bad loss. Tennessee now opens the tourney in a quarterfinal matchup with Auburn that should brim with urgency.

The Tigers' problem isn't wins (they have 19 of them). It's quality wins -- especially in comparison to bad losses. Auburn's biggest non-conference win was either Rutgers (ho) or Murray State (hum). Meanwhile, it lost by 19 to Western Kentucky, 18 to Western Michigan, 16 to Alabama, a combined 39 in two defeats to Mississippi State and a gruesome 31 at LSU.

Alabama can at least brag about non-league wins over Oklahoma and Xavier, but the conference record is a dodgy 7-9 and includes just a single road win. The unmistakable aroma of underachiever doesn't help much, either.

LSU figures to be in, given its closing five-game winning streak and landmark non-conference upset of Arizona. For a team that started league play 1-6, reaching 8-8 must feel like a great accomplishment.

The two days leading up to the Saturday semifinals figure to be wild. But the circus lost one of its primary acts when Georgia decided to stay home.

Around the South

East Tennessee State rode the back of 5-foot-9, 160-pound freshman Tim Smith to the Southern Conference tournament championship and the field of 65. Smith played all 120 minutes in three days, averaging 21.7 points, 5.7 rebounds (remember, he's 5-9) and 4.3 assists. He also shot 50 percent from three-point range (7 of 14) and made 14 of 15 free throws. The little man came on late, scoring 17 or more points in each of the Buccaneers' final 10 games of the season.

Austin Peay was the pre-tournament favorite in the Ohio Valley Conference, but the Governors had to sweat through every game. They trailed by nine against Eastern Kentucky in the opening round before winning by three on a shot in the closing seconds, then nipped Murray State by three in overtime, then beat Tennessee Tech by six in the final. Austin Peay's iron five starters all played 33 minutes or more in the final and 37 or more in the semis.

Troy State used the opposite approach in dominating the Atlantic Sun, both in the regular season and the tournament. The Trojans have played 10 men in all 31 games so far, with none of them averaging fewer than 11 minutes or more than 26. At 26-5, it's working by committee.

Who's Hot
Dennis Felton: The Western Kentucky coach overcame devastating injuries to 7-footer Chris Marcus and 6-9 Todor Pandov to put together a third straight 20-win season. A former assistant at Clemson, Felton could be a popular candidate there (among other sports) if the school dismisses Larry Shyatt.

Who's Not
Georgia: Turn in your jerseys, gentlemen.

Quote To Note
"These are not allegations. These are findings."
-- Georgia athletic director Vince Dooley, upon announcing the suspension of Harrick and the Bulldogs' withdrawal from postseason play.

Pat Forde of the Louisville Courier-Journal is a regular contributor to ESPN.com