Marquette hopes to learn from its many stress tests
Marquette men’s basketball games this season tend to be emotional roller coasters.
Check out the Golden Eagles’ four games in January. They were down by 18 points against Georgetown in the second half before storming back to win on Jan. 2. Three days later, they lost an 18-point lead of their own after halftime in a loss to Connecticut. In Marquette’s last two games, it squandered double-digit leads again but held on to beat Providence and St. John’s.
Such stressful games can help a team like MU that is still searching for its identity. They also expose flaws the players need to fix.
“I’m proud of them,” MU head coach Steve Wojciechowski said after beating St. John’s in New York. “Because they’ve found ways to win. It’s come from different guys but everybody that’s played for us has made big plays. Finding ways to win is huge in the Big East conference.”
The Golden Eagles (8-6, 4-4 Big East) return to action against DePaul (2-5, 0-5) at 5 p.m. Saturday at Fiserv Forum.
With games against Villanova and Georgetown this month postponed due to COVID-19 issues in those programs, the Golden Eagles found themselves with more practices than usual in the heart of conference play.
That has given MU ample time to work on its weaknesses. At the top of that list is cleaning up mistakes on offense. The Golden Eagles rank 213th in the nation by turning the ball over on 20.4% of their possessions. Against the swarming, full-court defense of St. John’s, MU coughed up the ball 19 times .
“One thing I think we need to clean up is being more assertive on offense and be more clean, smoother,” MU sophomore guard D.J. Carton said. “Whether that’s cutting harder, taking care of the ball, being just more direct with our dribbles, not dancing with it. That will lead to less turnovers and more efficient offense on our end.”
MU’s offense has been more balanced after relying heavily on NCAA leading scorer Markus Howard last season. Four players are averaging in double figures in points: freshman forward
Dawson Garcia (13.4), senior guard Koby McEwen (12.6), Carton (11.4) and senior forward Jamal Cain (10.6).
“One thing I know about our team is I think we’re really unselfish,” Carton said. “Sometimes to a fault, even in practice sometimes guys will pass up open shots. That’s the thing I love about this group is I think we’re really unselfish. That will take us far, I think. We have a lot of guys that play to win. That’s a big thing to have in the culture.”
Even with several players making clutch plays, the ball usually has found its way to the hands of Carton or McEwen at the most important moments.
Carton had the go-ahead basket with just over a minute remaining against Georgetown and then had a highlight assist for the clinching three-pointer by Cain. Carton also converted a threepoint play that helped close out the victory over Providence.
After transferring from Ohio State, Carton has endured some adjustments at MU. But Wojciechowski has shown his faith in the ultra-quick, 6-foot-2 guard and Carton’s success is vital to the Golden Eagles.
“It means a lot to have the trust from your coach,” Carton said. “He knows that I’ve worked for it, too. I think just having that healthy relationship, having a good, strong bond of having trust, it creates less things you got to worry about on the court.
“When you and your coach have full trust in each other, it makes things way more easier and smoother. So I think coach putting his trust in me has helped build my confidence and it can only help from here on out.”
McEwen has also shown he is unafraid of big shots. The senior sank the go-ahead layup against St. John’s.
“There was a lot of pressure on (Carton) to handle and attack their pressure,” Wojciechowski said. “It wears you down and I thought he was running on fumes there at the end of the game, so we wanted to put the ball in Koby’s hands. Koby did what you hope seniors do, he delivered.”
A college basketball season is never a smooth ride, but MU hopes to avoid more dramatic ups and downs the rest of the season.
“We got to continue to take better care of the ball,” Wojciechowski said. “Our execution on both ends of the floor can go up. But you’d much rather learn from wins than losses.”