"My rule was I wouldn't recruit a kid if he had grass in front of his house.
That's not my world. My world was a cracked sidewalk." —Al McGuire

Saturday, January 31, 2009

Georgetown learns: You can't hang with MU for 40 minutes

This just in: Jerel McNeal is pretty good.
This just in: Wes Matthews is pretty good.
This just in: Dominic James is pretty good.
This just in: Lazar Hayward is pretty good.


Marquette stayed perfect in the Big East with a 94-82 beat down of #25 Georgetown that just wasn't that close. While Georgetown had a 10 point lead after the first 7 minutes, MU stormed back to tie it with 6 to go in the first half. The remainder of the 1st half was a gutty battle between the two teams, hammering on each other with abandon, and few whistles.

The game continued like that until the 2nd half, when MU started pulling away, and with 10 minutes left, had built a 10 point cushion, then +16 with 5 to go. Georgetown was playing so slowly, the game was over at that point, as it was just impossible for them to win with how much time they took per possession.

It's hard to describe Jerel McNeal's game. The word "nuclear" might come close. A double-double the hard way. 26 points, 11 assists. Oh, and throw in 5 steals and 6 rebounds.

It was a good game for Jerel to "go nuclear" as scouts from the Clippers, Timberwolves, 76ers, Hawks, Bulls and Bucks were in attendance.

Wes and Lazar "only" chipped in 23 each. Lazar notched his 1,000 point as a Warrior.

That's what makes Marquette so hard to beat. They've got four guys on the court who can score 20, 25 points. You just can't stop that much talent over 40 minutes.

Marquette won despite letting Georgetown hit 56% of their shots .. to MU's 51%. How'd we win? Free throws. MU made 30 of 38, with GTown getting a paltry 8 points by FT.

Something should be said about the crowd at the Bradley Center. The house was "filled to the corners," raucous, and packed with 19,041 .. just some 40 shy of the record set last year (again, versus Georgetown.) The crowd "went to 11."

Marquette improves to 8-0 in the Big East, next up are games versus hapless DePaul, and nearly-as-hapless South Florida, who between them are 2-14 in conference play.

One item that will be talked about by watercoolers everywhere is an incident that occurred during the post-game radio interview between Coach Williams and Marquette color-man and former player, Jimmy McIlvaine. (Transcript here.)

Mac asked what the coach was doing to keep the team focused, with Marquette's top-10 ranking. In the next 90 seconds, which could only be termed "surreal," Coach Williams savaged Mac for asking the question, and questioned his loyalty to Marquette. -- Parenthetically, it's a shame this odd event will overshadow Marquette's great victory this afternoon, in many circles.

In Rosiak's report, Mac says: "I think it was just a misunderstanding .. I've already forgotten about it."




14 comments:

The Chuter said...

Jerel played like he, not that dope from South Bend, is the Big East player of the year, and it was a great atmosphere at the BC. But I too was shocked by Buzz jumping on Jimmy Mac for a very innocent question. I thought he was kidding, but apparently not. What a shame.

muwarriorsfan said...

Buzz Williams must be certifiably insane to go off on Jimmy Mac like that. He owes Mac a public, on-air apology.

Buzz, you are a first class JERK.

Championships Matter said...

Hey, wonder if Traitor Tommy Crean still thinks he's better off in Indiana?

Face it, Buzz is getting more out of this team than Traitor Tommy ever could. They're playing as a unit and they're playing well. And they have the endurance to go the distance.

It's onward and upward. The sky is the limit.

Unknown said...

Hard to believe that he would do something bizaree considering the extensive coaching search we went through.

Gene Frenkle said...

C'mon Dick. I didn't like the hire at all, but...c'mon. The guy's doing an awesome job with this team. I'm thrilled with what Buzz is done. Let it go.

I too was shocked. I would assume there's gonna be an apology from Buzz at some point. The guy's definitely wound up pretty tight for this team. Which, isn't a bad thing.

Gene Frenkle said...

I do think what we heard (and have seen of Buzz post-game) is him on a learning curve being a first time coach of a big-time program.

I love his fire and focus he's brought this year. He's done a great job. But, I just hope he doesn't burn out. He's looked absolutely spent following games and I think he was just super-intense and hyped up today and just took Mac the wrong way.

Butch said...

This guy is the most high profile individual at our university. With his "credentials" he should be bowing before Homer and McIlvaine after every game and thanking MU and all the listeners for giving him the gift of a lifetime.

Does he not realize that about 80 percent of the 18K at the game yesterday were listening to that radio show? Is he absolutely insane?

Unknown said...

I just listened to his clarification in the postgame and it makes zero sense. There's something amiss here. I'm not sure the elevator reaches the top floor.

muwarriorsfan said...

The "clarification" clarified nothing. Williams has shown himself to be a real a##hole. My guess is that there will be no public apology.

Packer Pat said...

I agree there better be a public apology by Buzz. Everyone wants a winner and he's done a great job but that was just wrong for so many reasons.

Unknown said...

If Buzz offers a private apology to Jim MacIlvaine and he accepts it the matter should be over. I don't see why he needs to ass kiss up to a bunch of third party trolls.

Oliver said...

Buzz needs to publicly apologize. He is the coach of our team which includes delivering a winner, representing the university, and a high moral standard. You could also add respect to tradition.

That may seem like a lot, but this is not the NBA and this is not UNLV. I expect both class and success. It's a hard job.

Unknown said...

Olly, if it was a dying issue with the University, why wouldn't the University force him to do a public apology? Please get off your soapbox.

TB said...

Buzz will be on Mac's radio show today at 2:40pm ... at Buzz' request.