The student news site of Marquette University

Marquette Wire

The student news site of Marquette University

Marquette Wire

The student news site of Marquette University

Marquette Wire

Repeat of last season will not come easy

If it were not for the 10 practices granted to the basketball team due to their tour of Costa Rica in mid-October, Crean said the team would be a lot more behind than he said they already are.

“I don’t even want to imagine where we would be without that,” Crean said.

Last year, at the beginning of the 2002-03 season, Crean had the entire team sign a giant poster of the Superdome in New Orleans where the Final Four would be held to give the team motivation to get there. They took the signed picture with them everywhere they went, keeping it in the locker room as well. This season, he might have to pull out another method from his bag of psychological concepts to keep the ball rolling at Marquette.

“I don’t think anybody realizes how hard it’s going to be to be Final Four Marquette this year,” Crean said after his team’s win over Team Nike Thursday.

Story continues below advertisement

“I watched UConn on film and they played (Team Nike) on Monday night. Though we were outscored by only two in the second half, and this team outscored Syracuse by two in the second half Tuesday, we don’t play as nearly as hard or nearly as aggressive as UConn does right now.”

UConn is the No. 1 team in almost every preseason poll and will be one of the teams Marquette will have to compete against in the 2005-’06 season.

“The glass is half full and that’s a bar we are going to have to raise ourselves,” Crean said.

The team will begin their season against St. John’s today at 7 p.m. on ESPN2. St. Johns returns this season with sophomore Elijah Ingram and seniors Kyle Cuffe, Grady Reynolds and Willie Shaw, a group that helped coach Mike Jarvis win the National Invitation Tournament title last season.

While Jarvis may be looking to a better season and an NCAA tournament birth, Crean is more focused on just making the team understand how to win.

“There’s a lot of things we need to get back in our mindsets and everyday we are communicating and keep being clear with it and rewards goes to understanding,” Crean said. “Until that time comes you’ll see some guys who will never take their warm-up jackets off.

“I’m more concerned now with us understanding how hard it’s going to be to play this year with all the accolades and all the things that we’ve done the past couple of years, especially when you tack on those very important two words, ‘Final Four,’ to your team.”