Nov. 17, 2008

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Postgame Notes

 
• Marquette's 106-87 victory marks the second straight game the Golden Eagles have eclipsed the 90-point mark on offense. It's been nearly 14 years since since the last time an MU scored more than 90 points in back-to-back contests. During the 1994-95 season, Marquette rattled off wins over UW-Milwaukee (W, 101-59), Northwestern (W, 94-60) and Farleigh Dickinson (W, 96-74) to open up the month of December.

• The 106 points scored tonight marks the highest Marquette point total since Marquette defeated Charleston, 106-58 in the 1980-81 season opener on Dec. 1, 1980.

• Tonight's victory marked win No. 1,399 for the Marquette program since its first year of men's basketball in 1916-17. Marquette will attempt to become the 50th program in NCAA history to reach the 1,400-win mark this Saturday, Nov. 22 when the Golden Eagles host the Milwaukee Panthers.

• Marquette's 16 made free throws in the first half equaled its total number field goals at intermission, as the Golden Eagles went to the foul line 22 times in the first stanza.

• Senior guard Dominic James surpassed Aaron Hutchins (1995-98) to move into the 14th spot among Marquette's all-time scoring leaders. With eight points tonight, James now has 1,444 total points in his fourth season with the Golden Eagles and 330 points shy of breaking George Thompson's (1966-69) school record of 1,773 career points.

• Tonight's tilt was the first of four games Marquette will play as part of the 2008 Chicago Invitational. The event picks back up on Nov. 25 when Marquette hosts Texas Southern at the the Bradley Center. Each of the eight participating schools will then play Thanksgiving weekend in a round-robin format at the Sears Centre in Hoffman Estates, Ill.

• Senior guard Wesley Matthews led four Marquette players scoring in double figures with 26 points. Matthews tallied a career-high 27 points in last Saturday's season opener vs. Houston Baptist.

• Sophomore forward Patrick Hazel contributed a career-high 10 points as the lone Golden Eagles player to come off the bench to score in double figures. Hazel is now 6-of-6 from the field this season, and 9-of-10 (90.0 percent) from the floor to begin his collegiate career.

Postgame Quotes

Head Coach Buzz Williams on Tonights Game:

Thoughts on tonight's game...

I'm not trying to be a prophet or forsee the future, but we can't allow teams to score 51 points in our building, to be honest, you can't allow a team to score 51 points [in the second half] if your playing in a park or any gym. They shot 43 percent for the game and both halves they shot over 40 percent. They had 17 offensive rebounds. Those things do not trend towards having successful games.

On all the fouls called during the game... We spend an inordinate amount of time talking about defending without fouling. I think we finished the game with four guys with four fouls. We you wouldn't want to play a guy with four fouls or three fouls. Like when Wes out in the second half, I took him out when their 10-0 run started, and when I took him out I think it was at 3-0.

We can not stop the clock and give them free points. We can't foul 27 times. We can't foul 27 times. No matter who the opponent is, no matter where the game is, we have to defend without fouling.

On Wesley's aggressiveness and how he operates within his system... I am not nearly as creative as Coach Crean was. As it relates to his aggressiveness, we don't talk a lot about offense as a staff. What we talk about on offense is having a perfect posession.

Junior Forward Lazar Hayward

On picking up Buzz's system...

I think it is really effective. With us scoring all these points it is our defense leading to our offense. Buzz reminds us everyday that we are not an offensive oriented team. We can score baskets and that will never be a problem but we want our defense to create our offense.

On MU's defense so far this season... We have to play team defense a little better. We have to remember that the ball is what scores, we lose track of that sometimes and that is where some of those baskets come from.