Gregg Marshall sat in his office on the campus of Wichita State on a cold January morning, his familiar eye glasses set aside, and gazed at the championship nets nailed to the wall.
Davante Gardner and Jamal Ferguson are Tidewater natives who have relocated 750 miles northeast to help one of college basketball's top programs. They are proof that Marquette, a Jesuit school of 12,000 students in downtown Milwaukee, has made some recruiting inroads in the southeastern corner of the Commonwealth – not exactly a logical geographic match.
Jim Larranaga's second year at Miami ended about as sourly as possible. The Hurricanes' 16 first-half points were a season low. They made only 5 of 26 first-half attempts. Marquette contested some with its man-to-man defense, but Miami did manage to create some open looks. Usually the result was the same.
Which is the only region in the NCAA tournament where the top four seeds advanced through the first weekend? Yep, Verizon Center is stuck Thursday night with No. 1 Indiana vs. No. 4 Syracuse and No. 2 Miami against No. 3 Marquette.
Otto Porter scored 11 of his 21 points after a momentum-shifting technical foul on Marquette coach Buzz Williams, and No. 15 Georgetown won a stop-and-start game of turnovers and whistles Monday night, beating the 18th-ranked Golden Eagles 63-55 to move into a tie for second in the Big East.
Davante Gardner made two free throws with 8.3 seconds left and Marquette had to hang on while No. 15 Georgetown missed a deciding free throw before getting a 49-48 victory Saturday.
Georgetown fumbled its date with destiny on Saturday.
The Redskins are awful, and the Capitals are disappointing. The Nationals could be a year away; Mark Turgeon's Terrapins might be two. And the Wizards will be 0-7 unless they somehow manage to upset the New York Knicks on Friday at Verizon Center.
Marquette athletic director Steve Cottingham resigned Thursday, parting ways with a program facing scrutiny for recent legal issues.
