A second-place finish in the Big East Conference is no small feat, especially for the Marquette Golden Eagles.
Marquette finished league play 14-4 (25-6 overall), the highest victory total since the Golden Eagles joined the Big East in 2005.
But now it's time to get back to work, and even though they're all but assured a berth in the upcoming NCAA Tournament, there's plenty at stake this week in New York City.
After earning a double-bye in the league tournament, the Golden Eagles return to action Thursday night against Seton Hall, which advanced to the quarterfinals after manhandling Louisville, 79-47 Tuesday night.
With former Golden Eagles standout Dwyane Wade looking on with his Miami Heat teammate LeBron James, Marquette used a 16-2 run halfway through the second half to pull away for a hard-fought, 66-59 victory.
Marquette played that game without center Davante Gardner, who suffered a sprained knee in the Golden Eagles' previous game against Villanova. The 6-foot-8, 280-pound center had been making giant strides since taking over for Chris Otule, who was lost for the season with an ACL injury.
Gardner played 15 minutes against Georgetown, scoring eight points and pulling down eight rebounds. He is expected to be back in the lineup Thursday, though it's not certain how much time he'll see on the court in the tournament as the Golden Eagles would need to win three games in three days to claim the tournament title for the first time.
Gardner admitted he felt soreness after the Georgetown game but has felt noticeable improvement.
"It's feeling better," Gardner said this week. "After the game, it was a little sore but it's feeling better after the therapy. After I finish playing, it gets sore but I put ice on it and relax it and it feels better."
Gardner's absence from the lineup left Marquette without a player over 6-foot-7, but that proved to be little problem for the Golden Eagles, who won six of their final eight games.
A loss to Cincinnati in the penultimate regular season contest in some ways served as a wake-up call for the Golden Eagles, who rebounded with an 83-69 victory over Georgetown in the finale.
"(Beating Georgetown) gave us some momentum going into New York," said senior guard Darius Johnson-Odom, who along with Big East Player of the Year Jae Crowder, was one of two Golden Eagles on the All-Big East first team. "That's always a positive thing to have.
"I'm glad we got that Cincinnati loss out of the way rather than lose in New York. We learned a lot from that loss ... I think we learn from stuff like that as a team."
Head coach Buzz Williams doesn't really see any advantage or disadvantage to playing familiar foes again in the league tournament as everybody is in the same position: win or go home.
"Anytime you get to March, it's plus one," Williams said. "Everything is plus one. One more stop. One more basket. One more offensive rebound. One more free-throw. Everything is just plus one.
"Does it become scouting report specific, because there are so many variables like you're saying? It falls back to your foundation and itinerary of your practice on a daily basis. Have you worked on the appropriate things regardless of who you're playing, that your foundation gives you support? When you get to March, it's plus one. Everything is one more. When your mentality is that you function better because you did this last time, all of that is out. It's an elimination game."
A victory Thursday would advance the Golden Eagles to the semifinals Friday night against either Villanova or Notre Dame.
