The Marquette Golden Eagles bench has received praises from their coach Shaka Smart and teammates over their past few games. It is not by luck but by design.
Smart said he has been turning to his bench in the past games to set a standard. That is something they were able to afford as they faced teams that somehow allowed them to experiment on the line-up.
He explained that it is something they need as they enter a new phase of the college basketball season.
“Obviously we’re subbing a lot, playing different lineups, getting young guys a lot of minutes, but whoever we have out there in a Marquette uniform, the standard is the standard,” he said.
“This is obviously the last game like this for us, competition goes way up.”
Marquette took care of business against the visiting Western Carolina and Stonehill Skyhawks and this is where the bench showed their reliability.
Caedin Hamilton and Royce Parham led the way for them against WCU while Damarius Owens got his turn when they faced the Skyhawks by scoring 10 points.
Golden Eagles’ competition is getting tougher
Smart is not satisfied yet despite the production from the bench.
“I thought our guys had some moments where we really executed the way we wanted to be,” he told reporters on Monday.
“But then we had other moments where we weren’t as sharp or aggressive as we needed to be.”
David Joplin and Kam Jones will continue to be the anchor of the team and they will hope that the young guns from the bench will not get rattled as they now enter a more difficult phase.
The AP no. 5 team stake their 8-0 record as they face Iowa State on Wednesday.
They then confront Wisconsin rivals Badgers on the weekend.
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