Brilliant coaching by Tom Crean carries the day

Marquette's overtime road victory at Pittsburgh on Sunday afternoon was a testament to smart coaching and terrific execution by the players on the floor.

Coming into the game conventional wisdom was that Aaron Gray would create the toughest matchup for Marquette -- far tougher than any matchup that MU would throw at the Panthers.

That's where the conventional wisdom failed. With five full days to prepare for the game, Tom Crean's game plan made sure of that -- and the preparation put his players in a position to steal a road win.

Despite scoring eight of the Panthers' first ten points, Gray's effectiveness dwindled with each passing minute. Throughout the afternoon, the Golden Eagles dictated the flow of the game and ultimately forced Panthers' coach Jamie Dixon to bench the pre-season player of the year late in the second half in favor of a smaller, quicker lineup.

As effective as Gray was early on the offensive end, he was exposed as a gigantic defensive liability for most of the game. Taking advantage of Ousmane Barro's footspeed, Marquette ran a high screen at the top of the key during most offensive sets. Pitt rarely defended it well. With MU's guards and big men holding a decided quickness advantage, Pitt was unable to smother the ball and control tempo -- opening up higher percentage shots for the Golden Eagles.

Marquette's offensive game plan paid off. The Golden Eagles shot 44% from the field today and 40% from 3-point range. The Panthers had been holding opponents to just 40% shooting from the field and 31% from deep.

As I said in the headline -- brilliant coaching by Tom Crean. Rather than running his offense away from the hulking Gray, the Golden Eagles took it to the Panthers' best player and Gray was not up to the challenge. Then Jamie Dixon blinked.

Marquette imposed its will on the Panthers today in many respects. From the opening tip the Golden Eagles' quickness, acceleration and hustle forced Pitt out of its rhythm. The normally sure-handed Panthers turned the ball over 17 times against 17 assists -- a far cry from their NCAA leading A/TO ratio of 1.66. Pitt was averaging only 11 turnovers per game prior to today's loss.

Meanwhile, Marquette's defense held Pitt to just 42% shooting from the floor and an abominable 28% from deep. The Panthers came into the game averaging nearly 50% from the floor for the season and 40% from 3-point territory.

This is not the first time that Marquette's speed and quickness has turned an opponents' height advantage into a disadvantage. In the Golden Eagles' inaugural Big East opener last season, Steve Novak turned in the greatest individual performance in conference history with 41 points and 17 rebounds. That night, quickness and effective ball movement on offense negated the substantial height advantage from UConn (read: Boone, Adrien, Armstrong and Gay) as the Golden Eagles ran away with the victory.