LOUISVILLE, Ky. –– Marquette coach Buzz Williams knows he’s in for an extremely hostile environment Saturday when his team faces Murray State, a Kentucky school playing in the state of Kentucky that is expecting to have an arena full of local fans.
“It’s been a long time since I’ve played an NCAA Tournament game on the road,” Williams cracked after the No. 3 Golden Eagles destroyed No. 14 BYU, 88-68, in a West Regional game at the KFC Yum! Center. “But we’ll figure out how to do that between now and Saturday.”
Marquette got huge games from Big East Player of the Year Jae Crowder, who tallied 25 points and 16 rebounds, Darius Johnson-Odom (20 points) and Davante Gardner (15 points, 6 rebounds).
Murray State is one of three Kentucky schools playing here — along with Kentucky and Western Kentucky. There are four total in the tournament (Louisville beat Davidson earlier in the day in Portland, Ore.).
Williams joked he would make calls to the other schools in the state to try to garner some support.
“Eastern Kentucky, Kentucky Wesleyan, Northern Kentucky — all of those schools we’ve already sent a memo out explaining to them we’ll be happy to pay for their tickets if they’ll come and support us. It will definitely be a road game.
“I would say that they’ll have more fans here than they have at home because of the arena.”
Murray State coach Steve Prohm essentially agreed after his team dispatched Colorado State, 58-41, earlier in the day.
“It was great to see the pride of the State of Kentucky and how much they appreciate good basketball,” Prohm said.
With Kentucky and Western Kentucky set to tip off later in the day, some blue-clad Kentucky fans arrived early and supported the No. 6 Racers, who improved to 31-1.
“The crowd today was great,” Prohm said. “I didn’t see many empty seats….There was a ton of gold and blue, and then there was some royal blue, whatever they call the Kentucky blue…But the Kentucky fans were terrific, and I really appreciate Coach Cal doing that and I appreciate Kentucky’s fans. But the Murray fans are the best.”
Buzz Williams better get those invitations to the other Kentucky schools out quickly.
