Twelve three-pointers and a career-high 21 points from Dwight Buycks sent Marquette past No. 9 Notre Dame on Monday night. It's the most threes the Golden Eagles have hit in a decade.
Marquette coach Buzz Williams says his undersized team spends 70 percent of each practice on defense and rebounding. He may be able to increase that percentage, since the Golden Eagles look just fine on offense.
Dwight Buycks scored a career-high 21 points and Marquette used an impressive long-distance shooting performance to upset No. 9 Notre Dame 79-57 on Monday.
"If it was a good shot, we took the good shot and I think everybody was making shots,'' Buycks said.
Buycks went 5 for 5 from 3-point range, part of a 12-for-17 night from behind the arc for Marquette (12-5, 3-1 Big East). The Golden Eagles shot 53 percent (26 for 49) overall.
"Offensively, I don't think we've had any issues, any questions,'' Williams said. "Sometimes we're going to shoot it great, sometimes we're just going to shoot it OK.''
Notre Dame (14-3, 3-2) gained five spots in Monday's poll to reach its highest ranking since January 2009, but it'll be tough for the Fighting Irish to move higher despite getting 15 points from Eric Atkins. Tim Abromaitis and Scott Martin each finished with 10.
"I wouldn't have wanted to play horse against them,'' Notre Dame coach Mike Brey said. "You're glad a night like this counts as one loss. It counts as one.''
Jae Crowder had 18 points, Jimmy Butler scored 15 and Darius Johnson-Odom 13 for the Golden Eagles, which came in shooting 35 percent from 3-point range.
Butler said Marquette practices shooting every day after practice, not quite games of horse but competitions that include shot after shot after shot against each other. Butler said sometimes the sessions last up to 90 minutes following two-hour practices.
"After practice, everybody stays after and puts up shots,'' he said. "Guys, after they're done making open shots, they'll compete with each other, who can make this many amount of shots first.''