The stories for today seem to be about Marquette Coach Tom Crean puffing Pitt’s toughness or the shallow similarities of the teams — mainly expectations and how they’ve performed with a lot of youth.
No doubt everyone is surprised that it is Marquette who is doing the best job of the C-USA newbies in adjusting to the Big East. Like Pitt they were placed somewhere in the mushy middle of the BE in preseason polls with all of their new players. So naturally, it is easy to say they are similar.
They have surpassed all preseason expectations. They have a talented senior with NCAA tournament experience and three talented freshmen who have elevated their play and the play of those around them.
They play in a football-mad state where the winter weather is biting.
Sound like the Pitt Panthers?
Yes, but those very words also describe Pitt’s opponent today in the Petersen Events Center — the Marquette Golden Eagles.
Yes and know. As I hope the Q&A showed, this is not a similar team except for youth. Marquette starts the freshmen, plays at a faster tempo, is a better shooting team (especially at the free throw line), turns the ball over a lot and is weaker on defense.
Crean did talk about Pitt’s toughness in admiring terms.
A huge believer in hard-nosed basketball himself, Crean has been enamored of how hard the Panthers play ever since they took his team down to the wire in the Sweet 16 in 2003. MU won that matchup, 77-74, behind an incredible 20-point second half by Dwyane Wade.
Aside from the faces – only senior point guard Carl Krauser returns from that team – not much has changed at Pittsburgh in the nearly three seasons since.
“I don’t know if they’re the toughest team in the country – I don’t know enough about the other teams – but I’d have a hard time believing they’re not one of the toughest teams in the country,” said Crean, who spent one season as an assistant at Pittsburgh in 1994-’95.
One of the big issues in this game is the health of Marquette. Their leading scorer, Senior Forward Scott Novak has a sprained left ankle. It limited him in the DePaul game (only 5 points). Add in the fact that one of the freshmen who had been starting Wes Matthews is out with injury. While Novak will play, he will be a little limited and Crean indicated that the team is going to have to create some screens to give him chances to shoot.
Sticking with the Pitt is tough theme, more from Coach Crean.
“The system is in place, (meaning) the toughness never changes,” Crean said. “Pitt is not going to get beat in the defensive battle because they can guard and they cover for each other so well. What separates them so well right now is the pressure their guards can put on you.
“They’ve got the whole package. On offense, (center) Aaron Gray is such a great passer. He sees the cutters so well and he’s on the same page as (forward) Levon Kendall with their interior passing. They’re hard to prepare for. They have a lot of different ways to make plays.”
Crean, who has averaged nearly 20 victories during a seven-year stay at Marquette (15-5, 5-2), served under former Pitt coach Ralph Willard during the 1994-95 season, which produced a forgettable 10-18 record. He moved on to Michigan State the following year, joining coach Tom Izzo, who presently heads the 11th-ranked Spartans.
Nonetheless, Crean, a native of Mt. Pleasant, Mich., “loved being in Pittsburgh. My wife is a Pitt graduate, so it’s a chance for her to come home. Our daughter was born right there in Oakland. I never ate more Italian food in my life.
“I loved going to Pirates games and Steelers games. I regret that I never saw a Penguins game. I had a chance to go home to Michigan State, or I have been happy there. It was a really special time.”
I’ll give the local papers credit. They didn’t beat into the ground Crean’s Pitt connections — his father-in-law, Jack Harbaugh was a Pitt assistant under Mike Gottfried. His brother-in-law is former Bear/Indianapoplis/Charger QB, and now head coach of the University of San Diego Toreros, Jim Harbaugh. That would also mean that Jim played for one season under Pitt Head Football Coach Dave Wannstedt (1993).
