On Saturday, the trio of Dwight Burke, Ousmane Barro and Lawrence Blackledge proved that, even when their efforts are combined, they can do little to slow – let alone stop – a quality Big East big man like Notre Dame's Luke Harangody.,”It isn't hard to find the identity of this season's version of the Marquette men's basketball team. In fact, it isn't much different than that of last season's squad, and you need look no further than the Golden Eagles' backcourt.

Junior guards Dominic James, Wesley Matthews and Jerel McNeal combined for 49 points in Saturday's 92-66 win over Notre Dame, providing much-needed ball pressure and offsetting a 29-point, 14-rebound performance by Fighting Irish forward Luke Harangody.

Another Golden Eagles' trio—Dwight Burke, Ousmane Barro and Lawrence Blackledge—proved that, even when their efforts are combined, they can do little to slow a quality Big East big man, such as Harangody.

Ball pressure "has to be (part of Marquette basketball); it has to be because we're not big enough," head coach Tom Crean said. "We have to pressure the ball and be disciplined in how we were going to come in the post … we have to be putting pressure on the offense and pressuring the defense with offensive ball pressure, push the ball up."

The Golden Eagles dictated the pace of the game, using a defense predicated on high pressure and quickness to force 24 turnovers and score 20 fast break points.

"Ball pressure is one of those things we do night in and night out, get up and pressure the point guard especially," McNeal said. "After a while that wears on someone throughout the course of the game, and when they start to break down a little bit mentally, that's where you start to see a lot more turnovers, guys start getting fatigued.

"It's what we hang our hats on, hard tough-nosed defense with a lot of ball pressure."

While Harangody was scoring at will in the post, Marquette neutralized any Notre Dame threat on the perimeter, allowing Harangody to try and beat them one-on-five.

"Going into the game, we actually wanted to do a much better job of limiting (Harangody's) post touches and try to confuse him in a lot of different ways," McNeal said. "We didn't do a great job of that, but at the same time it's going to be hard for one guy to come out and beat you."

Highly touted guard Kyle McAlarney scored just eight points on 3-of-8 shooting. The junior came in averaging 14.4 points per game. Harangody and senior forward Rob Kurz accounted for 40 of Notre Dame's 66 points, and Harangody scored 18 of Notre Dame's 36 first-half points.

"Most importantly inside of the game, (Harangody) got a lot of points, but the three backcourt players got 14 between the three of them, and that might be the story of the game, defensively," Crean said. "To guard that way on the perimeter was big."

Even before the 2007-'08 season began, Matthews said the key to the Golden Eagles' success would be the ability of the so-called "Big Three" to "get it out of each other," and push one another during games.

It is an attitude that has persisted through the first 15 games of the season, and more often than not, as McNeal, Matthews and James go, so go the Golden Eagles.

"A couple of games we showed it," Matthews said before the Notre Dame game. "We have to keep bringing it out of each other, keep going hard in practice.keep letting each other know that we're physical and we've got each other's backs."

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