And the Marquette men's basketball team, ranked 11th by the Associated Press, wanted nothing to do with all the hoopla.
There were a few rough patches Saturday night at the Bradley Center, but the Golden Eagles kept its name out of the headlines with a 76-68 season-opening victory over IUPUI.,”Enough upsets flashed across the bottom banner of ESPN in the last couple of days.
And the Marquette men's basketball team, ranked 11th by the Associated Press, wanted nothing to do with all the hoopla.
There were a few rough patches Saturday night at the Bradley Center, but the Golden Eagles kept its name out of the headlines with a 76-68 season-opening victory over IUPUI.
With that, Marquette won its seventh consecutive opener.
"They made us work for our baskets," Marquette head coach Tom Crean said. "There were certain things we did really well against this offense, and there were things that we missed. We need to keep working on that.
"They did a good job of taking away our penetration. I thought we did a good job of shooting the ball. We hit the right kind of shots for the most part. I think our decision-making at times needed to improve, but that's part of it being the first game."
Faced with an overwhelming 2-3 zone defense, Marquette was forced to settle for jumpers.
The proof was at the free-throw line.
The Golden Eagles went 4-for-5 in the first half and finished 15 of 20.
The Jaguars, meanwhile, didn't make it to the line until the 11:16 mark of the second half.
"We just focused on trying to get the best shot offensively," said junior guard Jerel McNeal, who finished with a game-high 20 points. "We weren't able to run our fast-break like we wanted to."
Backing McNeal were junior Dominic James (12 points), sophomore Lazar Hayward (11) and junior Wesley Matthews (10).
The Golden Eagles ended up 7-for-24 from beyond the arc and finished 27 of 49 from the field (55 percent).
IUPUI took off on a 17-4 run after halftime and built its lead to 48-43. But the Golden Eagles clawed back, using a 7-0 run to pull back ahead, 50-48, on a lay-up by McNeal. The Golden Eagles never trailed again.
"We played a lot of different lineups," Crean said. "We went with the four-guard lineup for a while at the end of the game. I think it helped us. We just have to learn when we get somebody down, we've got to keep them down. We broke our lead in the second half and we just let them come right back and we've got to learn to stop that."
The Jaguars shot 24 of 48 (50 percent) and were out-scored in bench points, 26-1.
"We played the best team on our schedule," Jaguars coach Ron Hunter said.
After the game, Hayward said that the recent upsets of teams such as USC and Kentucky helped motivate the team.
"We said we didn't want to be one of those teams," Hayward said. "We didn't want to be plastered all over ESPN."
Unfortunately, Marquette's injury bug bit again.
This time it was freshman Scott Christopherson, a 6-foot-3 guard, who underwent arthroscopic surgery to his right knee Saturday morning to repair a pre-existing injury to his meniscus.
He is expected to return this season.
"We felt surgery at this time was the best option for Scott, not only for his season, but his long-term future as well," Crean said in a statement early Saturday.
The Golden Eagles lost freshman Trevor Mbakwe (left knee) less than two weeks ago. The 6-foot-7 forward will redshirt this season. If needed, Christopherson also has that option.
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