(Click here for a link to the Sports Illustrated recap sent to me by Ray Gajan.)
With Davante Gardner out someone had to step up.
Jae Crowder played his usual solid all around game filling up the stat sheet with a double double, 20 points and 12 rebounds, plus his usual gritty defense (2 steals, 1 block, 0 turnovers, and only 1 foul in 38 minutes) under the basket. He definitely out played Seton Hall's much more heralded Herb Pope who started quickly but faded out in the second half.
DJO after shooting like Pat Smith in the first half (a fifteen foot AIRBALL) finally found the range in the second half and ended up with fourteen points. He was also able to contribute 7 assists and 5 boards while playing 39 minutes. Junior Cadougan was his usual self with half a dozen assists and managed to hit 5 of his 6 free throws. Jamil Wilson was OK with nine points but nothing special on this night.
The bench was basically nonexistent with only 2 points from Todd Mayo (who seems to have hit that freshman wall people talk about) and 4 rebounds combined from Derrick Wilson and Mayo. All the starters played 29 minutes or more so the biggest contribution from the bench was to give the five starters brief rests along the way.
That only leaves young Mr Blue who is one of Buzz's more highly touted recruits of recent years. Vander has been OK in nonconference play both of his first two years but has basically disappeared during Big East games especially on offense.
This night was different. Blue had the best Big East game of his time at Marquette. Scoring sixteen points on 7-10 shooting and even throwing in a three pointer when he usually puts up the proverbial brick from out there. Most of his points came during a Marquette run early in the second half when they finally took control of the game. He also took up some of the slack on the boards with eight rebounds from his guard position.
Maybe its finally time, with some confidence built up, for Blue to show MU fans why the fans at Wisconsin were upset when he withdrew his commitment to UW and came to Milwaukee to play for Buzz. He really hasn't looked like a special player so far but rather just one of the guys.
With Gardner out until who knows when Marquette will need every ounce of Blue's offensive, as well as defensive, talent to keep their winning streak going and hold onto second place in the conference.
Below is an article from Marquette's beat writer Tom Enlund about Blue.
GO WARRIORS!!
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Blue Finding a Groove
By Tom Enlund of the Journal Sentinel
Feb. 1, 2012
Sophomore guard Vander Blue thought about one thing in particular when he heard that forward Davante Gardner would not be able to play Tuesday night against Seton Hall.
Hit the boards.
As much as Gardner means to the Golden Eagles offensively, he is also one of their top men on the boards as he has averaged 6.6 rebounds per game in Big East games and 5.4 rebounds overall.
"It killed me to see Davante over there because I know how bad he wants to play," said Blue who led Marquette’s second-half rally that produced a 66-59 victory. "He’s a big part of our team. Defense and offense. So I wanted to make sure I contributed as much as I can."
"I was actually focused more on rebounding because Davante gets a lot of rebounds to go along with the scoring so I wanted to make sure I maintained the boards and just gave the team a spark when we needed it."
Blue succeeded on all those fronts as he grabbed eight rebounds – five on the offensive glass – to help Marquette to a 37-33 rebounding edge. Senior Jae Crowder led Marquette with 12 rebounds.
Blue scored 10 of his 16 points in the second half as the Golden Eagles overcame deficits of 11 points late in the first half and four points at halftime. Blue scored seven straight Marquette points – including a high-flying dunk off a lob pass from Junior Cadougan – to spark the Golden Eagles when they turned the game around in the second half.
Crowder called Blue’s dunk a momentum-changer and praised his overall play.
"That’s what he brings and that’s what we need from him night in and night out," said Crowder. "Once he does that consistently, we’ll be even better than how we’re playing right now. A lot of teams might be disrespecting him because of his lack of consistency early in the year but once he gets that down, we’ll be even better."
Blue’s rebounding drew as much attention as his other more spectacular plays against Seton Hall.
His eight rebounds against the Pirates followed up his seven-rebound game in Marquette’s victory at Villanova. Also in the Villanova game, he made all four of his free throws in the last 33 seconds to help preserve the victory. Blue had been shooting 42.1% from the foul line in Big East games going into the Villanova game.
"That’s the worst guard free-throw percentage maybe in the history of the Big East," said coach Buzz Williams. "For sure, nine games in. But for him to make four game-clinching free throws says a lot about who he is."
"Having said that, I don’t know if we’re at that point without the seven rebounds that he had. I think that was because of his activity level. He’s beginning to be more and more comfortable within what we do offensively."
"When you get eight rebounds (against Seton Hall) and five of them are defensive and you’re a guard, that changes the complexion of our team. I thought he was huge."
Blue, who is averaging 4.2 rebounds per game on the season, seems to be finding again the comfort level on the court that he had earlier in the season.
"Coming off a win on the road against a tough team like Villanova and having the opportunity to seal the game with some big-time free throws, and then coming out and getting back in a groove (against Seton Hall)… I can feel it in practice, getting back to where I was earlier in the season," said Blue. "When I play like that and play well, I think it really helps our team and takes our team to another level, instead of teams just worrying about Jae and Darius (Johnson-Odom)."
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