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Golden Eagles' rise surprises even coach

Marquette coach Tom Crean learned as an assistant that to build a winner, you first must develop and nurture unity.

"That's such a big part of what your team is about," he said.

That's why he was ecstatic to see all his players together on and off the court for much of the summer, a first in his two-plus years in Milwaukee. That's why, despite the loss of All-Conference USA selection Brian Wardle from a 15-14 club, Crean envisioned a special season.

But nothing he picked up from former bosses Tom Izzo and Ralph Willard could have prepared him for how special. His Golden Eagles (21-3) enter today's game against Louisville with a 10-game winning streak and a No. 11 ranking, their highest AP poll position since they were No. 10 on March 13, 1979.

Crean was 12 at the time.

Senior forward Oluoma Nnamaka is the lone Marquette player who was alive then, and he was 6 months old.

"We're in unchartered waters with this group," Crean said, "and they're just trying to work their way through it. But the fact of the matter is they keep coming with great energy and lot of life every day to practice and they carry it over."

If that attitude were born in the summer, it was fortified in November. The Golden Eagles beat Tennessee, Indiana and Gonzaga to win the Great Alaska Shootout.

A defining moment came Jan. 9 at Louisville. Marquette squandered a 19-point lead to its C-USA rival and trailed by three with 2:17 left, poised to lose its fourth straight on the road. The Golden Eagles, however, rallied and eked out a 75-71 win.

"No one panicked," Crean said. "That's the greatest thing you can have when you go on the road or have close ballgames, that everybody still believes they can get the job done. ... With a young team, five of our top eight are freshmen or sophomores, that takes time for that to be ingrained in their consciousness. That was something that was really good and we've built on that from that point on."

Marquette hasn't lost since, including a 74-60 win against conference standard-bearer Cincinnati. And if folks haven't heard about sophomore guard Dwayne Ward, a partial qualifier who averages 18.7 points, 6.7 rebounds, 3.5 assists and 2.7 steals, they likely will come March.

AWARD WATCH: Duke's Jason Williams, Mike Dunleavy and Carlos Boozer are among the 20 finalists for the Naismith College Basketball Player of the Year Award. Any wonder the Blue Devils are No. 1? The No. 2 and No. 3 teams are well represented, too, with Drew Gooden and Nick Collison (Kansas) and Juan Dixon and Lonny Baxter (Maryland).

FAME GAME: Each Pac-10 school will induct one person into the league's new Hall of Honor during the conference tournament in Los Angeles. The inaugural class will include Pete Newell (California), Byron Scott (Arizona State), Sean Elliott (Arizona), Gary Payton (Oregon State), Bill Sharman (USC) and, of course, John Wooden (UCLA).

IN CASE YOU WERE WONDERING: San Diego State coach Steve Fisher has assumed the voting responsibilities for Utah's Rick Majerus in the ESPN/USA Today poll. Majerus was removed from the panel after it was discovered he had a member of his staff vote, and that person had a 6-12 Temple in the poll ... at No. 9.

MUST-SEE TV: Everyone's talking about Sunday's Duke-Maryland showdown, but fans shouldn't miss Pepperdine-Gonzaga tonight on ESPN2. The Zags (22-3) are No. 8 in the AP poll, and Pepperdine (18-6) has the nation's longest winning streak at 13 and can clinch a share of the West Coast Conference regular-season title.

- Brian Landman covers men's college basketball. He can be reached at landman@sptimes.com or at (813) 226-3347.

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