"I just don't think at the end of (the 2006-07 season) we played with a great physical sense," Crean said then.,”Lost, perhaps, in the monotony of routinely handing out 20-point-plus drubbings over winter break was the edict Marquette head coach Tom Crean delivered over two months ago at the men's basketball team's media day:

"I just don't think at the end of (the 2006 -'07 season) we played with a great physical sense," Crean said then. "We weren't wimpy. It wasn't that we weren't tough. We just weren't as physical as we needed to be."

As Marquette students packed their bags and headed home for four weeks of stress-free bliss, the men's basketball team claimed a 7-1 record that included a five-point win at Wisconsin—a game in which the Golden Eagles displayed the physical sense for which their coach yearned.

But with neither a term paper nor a challenging opponent in sight, the men's basketball team breezed through the holiday season with four easy triumphs. A 47-point victory over Coppin State gave way to a 40-point win over Savannah State. Marquette even tossed aside Providence by 29 in its Big East opener.

By the time the other shoe finally dropped —Jan. 6 during a 79-64 loss at West Virginia—it appeared Crean's squad had regressed in terms of playing with that coveted physical sense. A five-point home victory two days later over lowly Seton Hall did little to squelch any misgivings.

"We still gotta get it to where it's second nature, to where it's something that we don't have to think about," junior guard Wesley Matthews said Friday after a team workout. "A couple games, we showed it. We showed that we're a tough team, a physical team, that we can play many different styles. But these past couple of games, we've been getting away from it a little bit."

Against West Virginia, the Golden Eagles never were able to get their trademark fast break operating and were flummoxed by the Mountaineers' 1-3-1 zone defense.

Marquette scored the first basket against Seton Hall—4-12 in Big East play last season—and then did not lead again until just less than six minutes remained in the contest. The Golden Eagles shot a season-low 32.8 percent from the field against the Pirates.

"I think we've shown some really good periods of time and segments of games and, really, periods of weeks where we've really shown that physical ability to hold our own, to rebound the ball, to be a presence, but we're inconsistent there," Crean said Friday. "We're inconsistent with our screening. We're inconsistent with our blocking out.

"The physical strength has nothing to do with our willingness to offensive rebound. That's a mental thing, and we've got to make sure we're doing that at a high level."

Both West Virginia and Seton Hall out-rebounded Marquette. During the team's media day in October, Crean said rebounding was his No. 1 concern for how far his squad could advance this season.

The Golden Eagles were out-rebounded again in a 92-66 home win over Notre Dame, largely on the efforts of Fighting Irish forward Luke Harangody (14 boards).

However, Marquette (13-2, 3-1 Big East) prevailed by displaying a physical sense not seen in the previous two games.

"We knew it was going to be hard for one guy to come out and beat you, especially when the other four guys on the floor are playing defense the way we've been playing," junior guard Jerel McNeal said after the game Saturday. "I think we could have done a lot better job, and I think we will need to do a lot better job than we were playing, but for right now, we'll take it."

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