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Closer Look Wade's second-half run had Marquette coach beamingPosted: Friday March 28, 2003 1:21 AMUpdated: Friday March 28, 2003 1:57 AM
By Brian Hamilton, Special to SI.com MINNEAPOLIS -- The bile rising in Tom Crean’s throat eliminated all chance that he would adhere to protocol Thursday night. His Marquette team had just defeated Pittsburgh 77-74, and it did so because Dwayne Wade injected some plutonium into his lately languid shooting touch, scorching the Metrodome nets for 20 of his 22 points in the second half. This, after three straight games in which 31 of his 51 shots from the field went askew. Those were hardly All-American efforts. Thursday's second half, however, was All-Universe. So, a reporter asked Wade, what gives? It was supposed to be a period for student-athlete answers only. Wade replied politely. And then Crean couldn’t help himself. "I know I’m not supposed to answer," he said, jumping in, "but his record since he’s been here is 52-12. So whenever he’s quote-unquote struggling, he always finds ways to make his teammates better. And I think that’s why we’re sitting here tonight. Because he totally bought into being one of the most unselfish players in America. And our whole team feeds off of that." Credit Crean for jumping to his superstar's defense, but none of this "unselfish" stuff was required Thursday night. In fact, Marquette won specifically because Wade put the team on his shoulders and carried it to a Midwest Regional final matchup against Kentucky on Saturday. Indeed, finding one spot in the second half where Wade was most important is like picking which Milli Vanilli song you like the least.
How about scoring 10 straight points on five straight baskets with about 16 minutes to go, turning a four-point Marquette lead into a more comfortable seven-point cushion? How about the bucket where Wade was fouled, and as he was falling to the ground, he tossed the ball over his head and in to spur a three-point play and a nine-point lead with 10 minutes to go? How about the fast-break dunk that put the Golden Eagles up 11 with five minutes left? Or the floater that Wade sank as Marquette clung to a one-point lead, upping the advantage to three with 21 seconds to go? "I knew I had to get to the hole -- I wasn’t going to settle for a jump shot," Wade said of the last-second floater. "I just saw the opening real quick, and I used a move that I haven’t used all year, that I used all last year. It just came to me at that moment." In all, Wade drained nine of his 14 second-half shots, demonstrating the aggressiveness and, frankly, selfishness that a player of his caliber -- especially a hot player of his caliber -- needs to demonstrate in a postseason game. The rest of the Marquette bunch seemed to realize only too well the lift their All-American guard can provide. "When he makes a couple shots, you know he’s got the ability to take over a game at any given time, so you’ve just got to find him," said guard Travis Diener, the tournament’s leading scorer entering Thursday night. "In the second half, he got on a little streak there and carried us for a while. That’s just the type of player he is. He can carry us for a whole game." "D-Wade, he came out hot in the second half, got aggressive, so we kept looking for him," forward Scott Merritt said. "He’s a great scorer, and he’s going to make things happen." Forty minutes of making things happen Saturday against Kentucky, and Wade won’t need his coach to break news-conference protocol anymore.
Brian Hamilton covers college basketball for the St. Paul Pioneer Press and is a regular contributor to SI.com.
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