Huskies, Golden Eagles find themselves under the gun — again

  • By Scott M. Johnson Herald Writer
  • Wednesday, March 17, 2010 11:26pm
  • SportsSports

SAN JOSE, Calif. — The do-or-die nature of the NCAA tournament has killed many a dream over the years, but it’s nothing new to the two teams that will square off at HP Pavilion late this afternoon.

The University of Washington Huskies and Marquette Golden Eagles have been under pressure for months.

Both teams followed strong preseason performances with early-conference thuds at the turn of the new year, and they’ve been trying to play their way off the proverbial bubble ever since.

“If you look at our last 14 games, all of those games — to an extent — were bubble games. They weren’t called that, but that’s what they were,” Marquette coach Buzz Williams said Wednesday, just before his team took the court for its final practice leading into this afternoon’s game against UW.

“We weren’t even in contention to play in any sort of tournament, much less the NCAA tournament. So every game in and of itself had many implications on us being here today.”

If dealing with pressure is the X-factor in tournament games, then both the Huskies and the Golden Eagles are way ahead of the competition. Both teams overcame slow starts to conference play and finished strong heading into the NCAA tournament.

But after today, one of them will be finished for good.

“We’re going to be ready,” UW junior Venoy Overton said. “Everyone’s not rowdy rowdy, but believe me: when this team hits the floor, we’re going to be ready.”

Both the Huskies (24-9) and Marquette (22-11) have been ready for just about challenge thrown their way as of late. Each team sported a sub-.500 conference record at the midway point, only to get hot down the stretch and play its way off the proverbial bubble.

UW won 12 of its final 14 games, including the Pacific-10 Conference tournament, to get into the NCAA field. The Golden Eagles went 11-3 down the stretch, scrapping out three consecutive overtime wins on the road along the way, to get an at-large bid.

Huskies coach Lorenzo Romar is particularly impressed with the way Marquette willed its way to victories when the Golden Eagles needed them most.

“When you watch them play, it seems like they’re definitely playing for something,” Romar said this week. “They’re not out there for fun. It’s not recreational when they’re out there playing; they’re getting after it.”

One of the biggest keys to the Golden Eagles’ run was learning how to win the close games. Through Jan. 20, Marquette was 1-5 in games decided by three points or less. Since then, it has gone 7-0.

“For us to just be able to experience that as a team early on, I think those certain situations will hopefully transpire to this tournament and give us a little bit of an edge,” said Marquette senior Lazar Hayward, “because we’ve been in so many close games, and we finally learned how to stay in those games and come out with a win.”

The Huskies spent most of their season playing in blowouts, many of which were home wins or road losses. But UW had to grind out a seven-point win over Oregon State in the quarterfinals of the Pac-10 tournament, then the Huskies closed out strong in a 79-75 win over Cal in the championship game.

“I think we’ve been able to get a few down the stretch here,” Romar said. “It was a great game against Cal — that was definitely a close game with 22 lead changes — and we were able to come out on top. I think our guys are confident in a game like that.

“The thing with Marquette is it’s hard for them to go away because they’re so mentally tough, and they shoot the ball so well.”

Both teams have shown plenty of mental toughness as of late, as evidenced by their combined 21-5 record since Jan. 30 — when both teams were essentially left for dead.

Along the way, the Huskies and Golden Eagles have learned how to play with the constant pressure of knowing that the next loss might mean the end of a dream.

“There’s always pressure, every time you hit the floor,” UW’s Overton said. “We knew we had to grind it out to make the end-of-the-season run. We knew we might have to win the Pac-10 tournament to get in.”

Now that they’ve made it this far, the Huskies don’t plan on stopping anytime soon.

“The bright lights are really on,” sophomore Isaiah Thomas said. “Everyone’s been watching across the country. And if you don’t bring it in the NCAA tournament, I don’t know why you’re here.

“It’s a feeling you can’t really explain. Last year, being so close to winning that second-round game, it still haunts me to this day. I want to go further than that and go as far as possible.”

Thomas isn’t the only one still motivated by last year’s second-round loss to Purdue. If the Huskies can get past a scrappy Marquette team today, they plan to keep it rolling into their third Sweet 16 since 2005.

“We know that feeling when you lose, (and) it’s over,” junior Justin Holiday said. “We don’t want that. We want it to be over when the last game is there, and we’re the champions.”

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