Men's Basketball Set to Meet Valparaiso
12/6/2005 12:00:00 AM | Men's Basketball
Golden Eagles coming in off 35-point win over South Dakota State
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MILWAUKEE ? The Marquette men's basketball team returns to action on Wednesday, December 7, taking on Valparaiso at 7 p.m. at the Bradley Center.
Marquette heads into this game facing numerous distractions. Marquette University is in its final week of classes before finals and a date with Wisconsin is up after the Valpo contest. Head coach Tom Crean has been working hard to keep his team's sights set on Valparaiso.
"Valparaiso is the most important game on our schedule because it's the next game. We have to have that mentality," he said.
The biggest factor of an important week, both on and off the court, is controlling the players' focus while they are in basketball mode.
"What you want to do this time of year, no matter how long you are in practice, no matter how long you are in film or lifting weights, that all their focus is into that. When they leave, then all their focus is into academics," Crean said.
Doing that is easier said than done sometimes, especially with a young team. However, the players seem to be responding well to the direction and flow of practices and instructional time. But all of that is a process that builds over the course of the season.
"You don't have a mentality to win just in the games. It has to be developed in practice. It's got to be developed daily, and that's what we're still going through," Crean added.
Additionally, Marquette is coming off its most one-sided win of the season, an 87-52 win over South Dakota State. Sometimes, that can cause harm to a team by giving them too great of expectations.
"Games like this past Saturday give you a false sense of where you are," Crean added. "Thirty-five point wins are hard to come by. You love them, you don't want to turn them down, but the competition level is certainly going to go up with Valparaiso."
The Golden Eagles are aware of how difficult a team like Valparaiso can be. Valpo made it close on Marquette in their last meeting, a five-point MU win in the championship of the 2003 Pepsi Blue & Gold Classic.
Valparaiso comes into the Marquette contest sporting a 3-1 record. The Crusaders? leading scorer is Dan Oppland, a 23.3 points per game scorer. He started the year hitting for 26 against IPFW. He had 22 each against Ind.-South Bend and Tulane. He comes off a 23-point game at Iowa on Dec. 3.
A solid inside team, Valparaiso is good on the glass. They grab 40.0 rebounds per game and own a +3.5 rebound advantage. Those numbers are skewed, however, thanks to a 44-16 rebound advantage over Ind.-South Bend of the NAIA. In its three games against NCAA Division I teams, Valparaiso has lost the rebounding battle. That?s not to say the Crusaders can?t rebound. Senior center Mohmaed Kone leads the squad with 9.0 boards per game, grabbing a season best 11 in the opener against IPFW.
"We think their defense is as good as any team we've faced this year and we've already been down 19 at Nebraska and faced an SEC team in South Carolina," Crean said. "We think they are a very good team. They are going to be hungry, especially after their loss to Iowa last Saturday."
Most of the Crusaders? scoring comes from the inside. A solid shooting team at 46.7 percent, Valparaiso has struggled from long range, hitting just 29.3 percent. However their defense at the perimeter is solid, holding their opponents to 25.0 percent from three.
Valpo also brings a great intangible in legendary coach Homer Drew. Drew owns a 272-214 record in 14 years at Valpo. In 29 years as a coach, he has a 541-336 record.
"I think that he's just a real good coach all the way around," Crean said. "I think he's always had good players. They always defend. They have a strategy for everything, no matter what the situation. I just think that when you are up against a coach like him, you have to be ready for everything. "
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