Golden Eagles Alumni win in TBT
It was just like old times at Marquette’s Al McGuire Center on Saturday.
Jerel McNeal was corkscrewing to the basket. Travis Diener was bombing three-pointers. Jamil Wilson showed the deep range that makes him difficult to guard at 6 feet 7 inches. Maurice Acker displayed a toughness that belied his diminutive frame.
Yes, this was The Basketball Tournament in June and the players were a few years past their collegiate primes than when they were playing tough conference games at the BMO Harris Bradley Center.
But the Golden Eagles Alumni players take their craft and their bond seriously. They dispatched the Johnnies (St. John’s alumni), 78-67, in the “Big East pod” of the TBT.
The MU team will face Hall In (Seton Hall alumni) at 1 p.m. Sunday.
Saturday felt like a homecoming of sorts, giving the players who starred in different eras a chance to connect.
The entire current coaching staff was in the stands with their families. Former MU stars Steve Novak and Bo Ellis also took in the action and Dwight Buycks even had a seat on the bench despite not playing due to his NBA contract. Current players also dotted the seats.
“It’s awesome,” Wilson said. “Some guys played for (Tom) Crean, some guys played for Crean and Buzz (Williams). I played for Buzz personally. Some guys played for Buzz and Wojo (Steve Wojciechowski).
“So it’s like a melting pot. You take what you got from the era you are from and you blend it together. It’s a beautiful thing, when it gets going.”
Joe Chapman, who appeared in 126 games at MU and was a three-time player for the Golden Eagles Alumni, is now the head coach.
His deep roster eventually overwhelmed the Johnnies, who used only five players.
Wilson was the star, finishing with 29 points and 9 three-pointers. He is a fixture at the Al McGuire Center in the summer, working out to prolong a professional career that included a stop in the Italian League last season.
Wilson’s last three sealed the victory during the TBT’s experimental “Elam Ending.” The Golden Eagles Alumni held a 70-59 lead when Chapman called a timeout for the first dead ball after the four-minute mark in the fourth quarter. Adding seven points to the leading team set the “target score” to win at 77.
Wilson and some others on the Golden Eagles Alumni got to scrimmage against some current MU players on Thursday, extending the bond to another generation.
“We were trying some things,” Wilson said. “They kind of stomped us one game. The other two games we played were pretty good, we were trying some things out defensively, trying to just burn it out and get our cardio going.”
McNeal, the school’s all-time leading scorer with 1,985 points, tallied nine points, eight rebounds and four assists. He just finished working a basketball camp with Acker (12 points, 12 assists) in the Chicago area and didn’t have much time to practice with the team.
But it didn’t take him long to click with the other Golden Eagles Alumni.
“For me, that’s one of the big reasons why I was really excited to come back this year,” McNeal said. “Knowing we got the Big East pod going.
“Any time you get a chance to come back here and put on the Marquette colors, play with your old teammates, playing here at the Al, being back on campus the last couple days — it’s always great.”