WINSTON-SALEM, N.C – Tick, tick, tick. Brick, brick, brick.
Imagine receiving an invitation to The Dance, and leaving your shoes home. Imagine preparing your team for four days for a first-round game in the East Regional against Michigan State, and your team shows up as the Washington Generals.
Welcome to Tom Crean’s worst nightmare.
Master beating pupil is one thing, but to go out like this was quite another.
Crean’s Marquette Golden Eagles were bludgeoned 61-49 last night by Tom Izzo’s Michigan State Spartans last night because they decided to go the first 9:10 without a single point.
They trailed 14-0 before David Cubillan drained a trey, and the Spartans were showing no mercy.
“You’re trying to beat them 50-0 if you can,” Spartans’ star guard Drew Neitzel said. “You’re trying to bury them even more.”
They trailed 30-18 at the half because they had shot 4-for-19 (21.1 percent) from the field and failed to make a single two-point basket.
Marquette made the Michigan State defense look as formidable as Bubba Smith’s old defense that had Ara Parseghian and Notre Dame playing for the 10-10 tie back in 1966. Marquette made the offensively challenged Spartans look like the Showtime Lakers by comparison.
The Michigan State lead ballooned to 47-27 before the Spartans coasted to the end, when James hit a three-ball to make it 57-49 with 36 seconds left.
“We really shrunk the gaps and forced them to take outside shots,” Neitzel said.
The Spartans’ reward is a matchup against home-crowd favorite North Carolina.
The loss of 6-11 Idong Ibok to a dislocated left elbow will cause Izzo great consternation against the Carolina big men. “It’s gonna be a problem for us,” Izzo said.
Crean appeared more bothered by other breakdowns in the Marquette game plan. He railed about his post defense, his pick-and-roll defense and the lack of communication on the floor.
“They executed their game plan defensively and we didn’t execute ours,” Crean said.
Still, 14-0 is 14-0.
“Our shots just weren’t falling,” Marquette’s Dominic James said.
“Being down like that is of course embarrassing,” teammate Wesley Matthews said.
