Closer Look

Diener knew who to get the ball to in overtime

Saturday, March 22, 2003 Tournament Central | Live Scoreboard

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• Brackets: Main | Experts' picks

• Mandel: Close calls can't be avoided

• Tourney Pickoff: Sunday

• Closer Look: Gonzaga-Arizona

• Closer Look: Tulsa-Wisconsin

• Closer Look: Missouri-Marquette

Saturday's Games

West

No. 5 Notre Dame 68, No. 4 Illinois 60 No. 1 Arizona 96, No. 9 Gonzaga 95, 2OT No. 2 Kansas 108, No. 10 Arizona State 76 No. 3 Duke 86, No. 11 C. Michigan 60

Midwest

No. 3 Marquette 101, No. 6 Missouri 92 No. 5 Wisconsin 61, No. 14 Tulsa 60

East

No. 1 Oklahoma 74, No. 8 California 65

South

No. 5 Connecticut 85, No. 4 Stanford 74

Sunday's Games

East

No. 4 Louisville vs. No. 12 Butler, 2:20 p.m. No. 3 Syracuse vs. No. 6 Okla. St., 2:40 p.m. No. 2 Wake Forest vs. No. 10 Auburn, 4:30 p.m.

South

No. 3 Xavier vs. No. 6 Maryland, 4:30 p.m. No. 1 Texas vs. No. 9 Purdue, 4:50 p.m. No. 2 Florida vs. No. 7 Michigan St., 7 p.m.

Midwest

No. 2 Pitt vs. No. 7 Indiana, 12:10 p.m. No. 1 Kentucky vs. No. 9 Utah, 7 p.m.

Complete Daily Schedule

By Seth Davis, Sports Illustrated

INDIANPOLIS -- No words were needed, just a look and a nod.

That was the gesture exchanged between Travis Diener and Steve Novak as Marquette broke its huddle for the start of overtime Saturday afternoon in the RCA Dome.

Without having to say a word, Diener was telling Novak that he would be looking to get the 6-foot-10 freshman forward the ball right away. Novak understood.

Sure enough, he took his point guard’s pass and buried a 3-pointer just 20 seconds into the extra session to give Marquette an 83-80 lead.

After Missouri’s Jimmy McKinney answered with a 3 of his own, Novak was about to throw the ball inbounds when Diener nodded again. He then fed Novak on the ensuing possession, and Novak nailed another 3.

Later, at the 2:03 mark, Novak curled around a screen on the left wing, caught a feed from Diener and dropped in a fallaway trifecta. That put the Golden Eagles up 93-89, and they won going away.

"My job is to get Steve the ball whenever he wants it," Diener said later. "That last one was unbelievable. He didn’t even have his feet set."

Novak had taken (and made) just one shot during the previous 40 minutes, but it was his hot hand during the OT that sent Marquette to the Sweet Sixteen and the Tigers back to Columbia. As a team, Marquette made all six of its field goal attempts in the extra session, which is a strong testament to the team’s poise and resilience.

The Golden Eagles had led for almost the entire game. They were up by 10 at halftime, by 11 with 8:16 to play and by eight with 5:22 remaining, and they could have easily sulked their way to defeat. That’s what they did back in early January, when Marquette had blown a lead at Dayton and went on to lose 92-85 in overtime.

"I think we learned a lot from the Dayton game earlier in the year," Diener said. "When that overtime started, we didn’t want to be there. This time, we were still very calm and energetic."

They also made shots at a clip that bordered on ridiculous: 56.5 percent from the floor, 66.7 percent from 3-point range, 95 percent from the foul line. The Tigers needed career performances from juniors Ricky Paulding and Arthur Johnson just to keep things close. Paulding, who made 9 of 15 from behind the arc, scored 36 points, and Johnson added 28 points and 18 rebounds, but the rest of the Tigers were ice cold. Junior guard Ricky Clemons was 2-for-15 (1-for-10 from 3-point range), and sophomore forward Travon Bryant, who had become an invaluable glue guy for Mizzou the last month of the season, went 0 for 6 and fouled out in just 27 minutes.

On Friday night, Marquette ended a shoot-around by lightheartedly practicing game-winning shots.

Novak sank one from halfcourt during the exercise, but ironically he missed all of his three-pointers. When it came time to try it for real on Saturday, however, Novak was as unflappable as he was unstoppable. Diener had looked -– and nodded -– to the right person.