Darius Johnson-Odom poked his head out of the Marquette basketball offices, noticed the dozen-plus media members poking microphones and cameras at a teammate, and exclaimed to nobody in particular.
“Man, that’s a lot of media.”
It was Monday afternoon. Marquette was prepping to leave for New York City, and apparently DJO didn’t expect quite so many reportorial folks to see off the team bus. On the other end of the trip was a game against Washington in the Jimmy V Classic, not to mention a lot more media than you’ll find in Milwaukee.
Thing is, Marquette deserves the attention, and the spotlight has arrived ahead of schedule.
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| Marquette men’s basketball coach Buzz Williams has had plenty of reasons to clap. |
The trend under Buzz Williams has worked like this: The Golden Eagles start off with more questions than answers, don’t get much Big East respect, win a few and lose a few, beat a couple of Big East big boys to solidify their résumé and finally become a well-recognized story at tournament time.
This time, the nation is noticing long before brains will turn to brackets.
Marquette left for New York with a perfect 7-0 record and a Paradise Jam championship. But the biggest deal was Saturday’s win over Wisconsin in the heart of the Badgers’ den, a coup at the Kohl Center, where the Badgers had won 23 straight and hadn’t lost a nonconference game since 2008. For those who prefer extra icing on their celebratory cake, Marquette did it despite an off game from Jae Crowder and the one-game suspension of point guard Junior Cadougan.
Marquette did the Wisconsin deed with depth and defense. The Golden Eagles spent large chunks of practice devising a plan to neutralize Wisconsin’s pick-and-roll, then picked it apart in the game. Freshmen Derrick Wilson, Todd Mayo and Juan Anderson played huge rolls on the Kohl Center’s huge stage.
And Vander Blue was just fine in front of a hostile Badgers crowd still hacked that he picked Marquette over his hometown Badgers. (Maybe it helped having Williams jokingly yell “Traitor!” in Blue’s ear while he shot some practice jumpers the previous week.)
The reward for everything has been glowing reviews from national outlets. “Marquette might be the second-best team in the Big East,” Sports Illustrated’s Luke Winn gushes. “Buzz Williams might have his toughest, deepest, most well-rounded team yet,” raves Yahoo’s Ryan Greene. And the Golden Eagles are ranked 11th in both national polls, approaching the program’s highest mark under Williams (eighth in 2008-09).
It’s all quite the housewarming gift for Larry Williams, the man from the University of Portland who was introduced as Marquette’s new athletic director on Tuesday. “It’s like Christmas day, isn’t it?” he said in remarks noted by the Paint Touches blog. “Christmas comes early.” You almost wonder if he’ll be spoiled by first impressions.
Then you recall that Buzz Williams (no relation) is from Van Alstyne, Texas, where spoiled is a four-letter word.
“Where I’m from,” Buzz is fond of saying, “you get what you earn, and if you don’t earn anything, you don’t get anything.”
Right now, Marquette is earning everything. The victories. The rankings. The praise. The attention.
DJO and friends should probably get used to those crowds.
Feel free to follow me on Twitter, where I tweet as howiemag. And listen to me chat sports with Mitch Teich once a month on WUWM’s “Lake Effect.”
