By Paul Imig
FOXSportsWisconsin.com
March 5, 2011
Buzz Williams never did make his way to a scheduled post-game press conference following Marquette's 85-72 loss at Seton Hall in the Big East finale on Saturday.
According to reports, Williams kept the locker room closed for 75 minutes. Then, instead of talking at the podium as scheduled, he talked with reporters in the hallway.
The loss concludes the Golden Eagles' regular season with two consecutive defeats and a 9-9 conference record. This earned the team a No. 11 seed in the Big East tournament and a first-round matchup with No. 14 Providence on March 8.
This is the first Marquette team to not win at least 10 conference games since joining the Big East in 2005.
Following the loss at home on senior night to Cincinnati three days earlier, senior forward Jimmy Butler talked about the importance of that streak to him and his teammates.
"It means the world to me," he said. "We don't want to be that team to break that streak. Nobody does."
Regardless of the result between the Golden Eagles and Seton Hall, Cincinnati Bearcats head coach Mick Cronin believes that Marquette should still be a lock for the NCAA Tournament.
"It's not even close," Cronin said on March 2. "Are you going to penalize Buzz because he went and played in Kansas City and played Gonzaga and Duke? He could've played other games and maybe they would've won. They lose a couple tight ones there. At Vanderbilt they lose by one and had the game right there.
"Anybody that goes 9 and 9 or better in this league should be in. Period. End of story. I don't think you can question it. I think it's over for Marquette. They're in the tournament."
It will be one more week until Williams and his players find out whether the tournament selection committee agrees with Cronin.
Until then, the Golden Eagles can greatly increase their chances with a strong showing in the Big East tournament.
Marquette defeated Providence in Milwaukee by 24 points on Feb. 27 in the only meeting between the two teams this season.
With another win over the Friars on Tuesday, next up for the Golden Eagles would then be West Virginia 24 hours later.
Marquette opened up the conference regular season on New Year's Day with a win at home over Bob Huggins' team.
But it will take a performance stronger than the one they had against Seton Hall on Saturday to beat both teams for a second time.
The Pirates led for the entire game and had the lead up to 19 late in the game.
One game after scoring a career-high 30 points, Butler had a team-high 20. Darius Johnson-Odom and Dwight Buycks also each scored in double-figures, but Marquette allowed 11 first-half 3-pointers. That is more than they had allowed all season for an entire game.
Jae Crowder had only one point and three rebounds, both season-lows. His 21 minutes on the floor was also the least he's played since beginning conference play.
