Media Roundup: MU in the NCAA Tournament

Lets hope MU sticks around for a while because its always fun to read the coverage for the winning team.

Today, Avani Patel of the Chicago Tribune profiles Steve Novak noting that Coach Crean and his own teammates urged him to become more selfish (how often do you hear that from teammates):

That Novak would be willing to be so prolific, though, was a bit of a revelation. Unselfish to a fault, Novak had spent his first three college seasons passing up open shots in order to get his teammates more involved. But this year, at the urging of coach Tom Crean and those very teammates, he has begun to seek his own shot more often. As much as anything, that helps explain why the Golden Eagles (20-10) are back in the NCAA tournament after a two-year absence, a No. 7 seed whose first-round game is Thursday in San Diego against 10th-seeded Alabam (17-12)."In the past, I was really concerned about shooting too much and being considered selfish," Novak said. "That has been probably my biggest flaw."

The Minneapolis Star-Tribune delivers a puff piece on the program, calling MU "the Big East surprise". Here's the article. Let's hope that MU recruit Trevor Mbakwe is reading the paper this morning.

Meanwhile, Todd Rosiak coughs up an article based on the premise that his colleague Michael Hunt delivered in a much more timely fashion after last week's loss to Georgetown in the Big East Tournament -- namely that the early exit last week "might just prove to be the most important game the Golden Eagles have played to this point". Rosiak recovers to analyze the MU/Bama matchup a bit.

Also, the Milwaukee Journal-Sentinel notes that Crean is one of the highest paid coaches in the country. What. A. Revelation.

These two articles are part of a five article package prepared by the staff at the Milwaukee Journal-Sentinel. Click here to go to the uber-landing page.

On to Alabama. The Birmingham News previews tomorrow's game. Coach Tom Crean notes some of the challenges in facing the tough, athletic Crimson Tide.

"Alabama is taller and a little longer than our wings," Marquette coach Tom Crean said. "So that's a concern. They can play both inside and outside. (Jean) Felix, probably 60 percent of his shots are 3s, but he can rebound and slash to the rim. Alabama doesn't have situational players. They've got very versatile players. "

The Hunstsvile Times looks at tomorrow's matchup and finds the Crimson Tide concerned about their own offensive efficiency -- perhaps more concerned about that than slowing down MU:

"We're having to work too hard to score," point guard Ron Steele said, "and you can't win like that." So amid all the concern over stopping Marquette's 6-foot-10 3-pointer shooter Steve Novak, maybe the Tide's greatest concern going into Thursday's first-round game against the Golden Eagles in the NCAA Tournament should be the Tide itself. "We've got to find ways to take better shots and get easy shots," Steele said, "maybe in transition or maybe on offensive rebounds - whatever it takes."