After losing in the Sweet 16 last year for the second straight season, Marquette lost its two best players (Jae Crowder, Darius Johnson-Odom) to the pros. Expectations were reset. And then exceeded.
One year later, the Golden Eagles are one game away from their first Final Four in 10 years.
The Big East’s biggest overachievers outworked and outhustled their way to a 71-61 win over No. 2 seed Miami last night in the first NCAA Tournament East Region semifinal at the Verizon Center, where No. 3 Marquette will meet the winner of No. 1 Indiana and No. 4 Syracuse tomorrow. After being picked to finish seventh in the Big East preseason poll, the Golden Eagles (26-8) are in the Elite Eight for the first time since Dwyane Wade took the team there in 2003.
“We’re so used to people not giving us credit, saying we’re not any good, it fuels our fire,” Marquette guard Vander Blue said. “If you don’t give us respect, we’re going to earn it. I feel like we work harder than any team in the country.”
The final score does nothing to demonstrate Marquette’s dominance. After two straight games inducing heart attacks on the hardwood, with last-second wins over Davidson and Butler, Marquette never left the outcome in doubt, keeping Miami (29-7) submerged under a double-digit deficit for the final 27 minutes.
The Hurricanes opened with a 4-2 lead, but would never regain it, seeing their energy decrease as Marquette’s lead grew larger. The disparity in intensity was startling. The Golden Eagles looked like they were playing for their lives. The Hurricanes looked like they were playing to win a timeshare in Siberia.
“I think we all knew we just didn’t have it,” Miami coach Jim Larranaga said. “We didn’t have the juice that you need to play great basketball. It started right from the very beginning, you could see it. It never really improved. You have days where you’re just out of sync and things don’t run smoothly. We were trying to find our way and never could get in rhythm.”
On the floor where Larranaga made magic seven years ago, leading George Mason to the Final Four, the Bronx-bred coach couldn’t help Miami reach the first Elite Eight in school history.
The ACC champions looked like the team predicted to finish fifth in the conference, the team no one ever expected would get this far. The shots were off. The decisions were bad. The effort was awful, until it was too late. Much of that was a result of Marquette’s defense, relentless and resplendent, which held Miami to one point over an eight-minute span in the first half and earned it a 29-16 lead at halftime, with Shane Larkin limited to three points and two shots.
Marquette was going to make anyone else beat them besides the ACC Player of the Year. Several Hurricanes accepted the challenge, but all failed.
“They were pretty much trapping me and trying to get the ball out of my hands, and it was frustrating not being able to attack it,” said Larkin, who finished with a team-high 14 points. “The several times I did try to attack it, they had great defense. They had a great game plan, and they executed their game plan to a tee.”
After shooting 6-of-29 in the first half, including 1-of-11 on 3-pointers, Miami fell behind by as many as 21, unable to stop a Golden Eagles attack predicated on reaching the rim.
Four Marquette players finished in double figures, led by Jamil Wilson’s 16 points, as the team shot 54 percent from the field and held a slight rebounding advantage with Miami missing center Reggie Johnson because of a knee injury.
Howard.kussoy@nypost.com