David Joplin, Kam Kones, and Stevie Mitchell all had their moments for Marquette Golden Eagles in their OT win against DePaul Blue Demons but they will need more support to not make thing difficult for the team, according to coach Shaka Smart.
The entire Marquette bench scored no points in that victory wherein the more favored Wisconsin was forced into five more minutes by the Blue Demons.
The game was a complete contrast for the relievers who just last month were receiving praises from their coach for their instant and reliable productions.
Against DePaul, not only that they did not score. They only shot five times in combined.
Smart said acknowledged that it is a process but he insisted that it should start with the desire to compete.
“It’s not going to be any quick-fix. But I thought tonight those guys – and I’m generalizing, but I can lump them together in this – we didn’t have enough of a mentality of competitive intensity,” the coach said post game.
Royce Parham is usually the source for points off the bench but he only shot once against DePaul.
Shaka Smart hopes bench learned ‘humility’ from the hard win
Bench having a hard time against a quality opponent is not new for Smart.
In fact, the starters that delivered for him in the last game were at the every end of this problem.
The 47-year-old coach hopes his bench will feel humiliated by this moment and do better in the next ones.
You come in here and trade baskets. We experienced that here in Kam, Stevie and Jop’s freshman year. That’s a recipe for losing. And we almost lost. And so, for us, hopefully we can gain some humility from this game. Hopefully the guys coming off the bench can gain humility from this game and we can be better in our next game. And they can play more in the next game. And then we won’t have zero points off the bench.
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