The Marquette student section roared with approval two minutes into the second half Wednesday night because 5-foot-11 Dominic James had just swatted away the shot of Valparaiso's 6-foot-8 Dan Oppland.
It was ironic that the essentially meaningless block — even James said, "It wasn't that exciting" — drew such a loud reaction, for the most promising development from the Golden Eagles' 69-54 win over Valparaiso at the Bradley Center was the way they played without their star freshman point guard.
"We have a lot of confidence," McNeal said when asked about the team's attitude when James is not on the court. "We're pretty deep at the guard position. The great thing about all of us is that we have a lot of versatility."
The team certainly needed to adjust after James picked up his second foul at the 12:54 mark of the first half and was subbed out soon after for the remainder of the half. Marquette, which had scored eight consecutive points to recover from a slow start and cut the deficit to 12-11, responded rather well.
"There were probably 20 times that I thought that we should maybe put Dominic back in," said head coach Tom Crean. "… He was certainly lobbying to get back in, but with the score the way it was, and with the confidence our guys were playing with, it was a risk."
The confidence was evident immediately.
On the Crusaders' ensuing possession, Marquette freshman guard Jerel McNeal blocked — now this block meant something — a shot at the top of the key and raced in for an easy layup to give Marquette its first lead at 13-12.
McNeal scored a team-high 12 points as did James, who, after sitting out for such a prolonged period, played 19 minutes in the second half.
"It's not great sitting on the bench. I don't really like being on the bench; it's kind of frustrating," James said. "It excites me to know that my teammates are doing well. They did a great job extending the lead. If Coach is trying to protect me from fouls, and the team's doing well, that's fine."
The team did fine, and built its lead to 42-29 by halftime.
McNeal led a stellar defensive effort that included senior Steve Novak's containment of Oppland, who entered Wednesday averaging 23.3 points per game. Marquette held Valparaiso to a 35.1 percent field-goal percentage. To be fair, that was due in part to the Crusaders' own shooting woes. Valparaiso shot a paltry 6-for-23 from behind the arc.
Neither team shot well in an uninspired second half in which Valparaiso never got closer than nine points.
The final minutes did, however, contain a moment that Marquette fans should hope to see many times in the future. McNeal spotted James' backdoor cut, delivered a perfect pass and then watched his teammate dunk the ball as the crowd roared.
Even the fans finally figured out that Marquette basketball is more than just Dominic James.