Marquette Golden Eagles’ bench produced what they are asked of in their win against Seton Hall Pirates, leaving head coach Shaka Smart satisfied.
Smart previously called out his bench which went blank in win over DePaul Blue Demons in a game that was almost taken away from them.
“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 last week.
The relievers did score in their next against Xavier University Musketeers although they lost.
The bench was revived against the Pirates and contributed 24 points. Royce Parham, the usual bench point source, scored 8 points. Damarius Owens also had eight.
Zaide Lowery, who missed the last game due to illness, scored 5 points while Caedin Hamilton had 3 for himself.
Shaka Smart says bench should continue growing up
Smart was asked about his quote from last week about his relievers after their latest win.
He clarified that it was not meant to belittle his players. Instead, he wants them to learn how to grow up in real-time by playing.
He also shared that such mentality of his is something he learned from his former Kenyon College coach Bill Brown.
I don’t say that in a derogatory way. This is not high school anymore. This is college. If you want to play more and you want to play better, then you have to take ownership of everything that goes into that.
Starting culturally, secondly defensively, and thirdly offensively. In that order. These guys have been awesome in practice. Coach (Bill) Brown (Smart’s coach at Kenyon College) taught me a long time ago, things don’t happen when you want them too but they happen on time.
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