Monday night, Tom Crean still wasn't completely over the lackluster performance of his Marquette Golden Eagles in a 79-64 loss Sunday at West Virginia.

But a solid day of film review and practice combined with the knowledge they'll be back home at the Bradley Center for a matchup with the Seton Hall Pirates at 8 tonight had removed at least some of the sour taste from his mouth.

“I don't think you ever feel better until you get back on the court and have success,” he said. “I think the most important thing for us right now is to understand it was our first game on the road in the Big East. We didn't respond well, most of our problems were self-inflicted, and it's just a matter of getting back to concepts, playing the right way and preparing for a game.

“We're all excited we're playing today.”

Crean thought his Golden Eagles (11-2, 1-1) were suitably prepared heading into Morgantown, including anticipating the possibility that West Virginia coach Bob Huggins would utilize triangle-and-two and 1-3-1 zone defenses in an effort to limit MU's ability to drive to the basket. But from the opening tip, the Golden Eagles just didn't execute.

They fell behind early and caught up late in the first half, then fell behind again early in the second half. A 15-4 run early in the second half gave the Golden Eagles their last lead of the day before the Mountaineers began to pull away for good.

Particularly troubling was their defensive effort, which led to West Virginia shooting a sizzling 68.2% over the final 20 minutes and a 4-for-4 performance from three-point range by gunner Alex Ruoff. That, in turn, led to MU being pounded on the boards, 22-5, over that same span, an unheard-of statistic for any Crean-coached team.

“It's very important to understand two things,” said Crean, whose team dropped from 10th to 15th in the Associated Press poll Monday.

“Our approach to the game was not what we've had. We made by far the most mental and physical errors we've made inside, and the details of the game were not followed. It was by far the most missed assignments of any game.”

Crean spent part of Monday comparing that performance to the one MU turned in against Providence in the teams' Big East opener, when the Golden Eagles put up 96 points and ruled the glass against a big, physical Friars team.

“What we've really tried to focus on is really trying to contrast our last two games in the Big East and show what our level of energy, effort and execution looked like Thursday vs. what it didn't look like Sunday, and get to the bottom of correcting that,” he said.

It appears MU will get a slight break in that Seton Hall is expected to be without guard Paul Gause - the nation's leader in steals - who is out with a broken hand.

“It affects them because he's such a great on-ball defender,” Crean said. “But at the same time Jamar Nutter has averaged 18.5 points against us the last two years, so they just put another guy out there who's coming off a 28-point day on Saturday.”

Indeed, the Pirates remain a dangerous team. They are second in the Big East in scoring, averaging 85 points per game, and also boast the league scoring leader in 6-foot-5 senior Brian Laing, who's averaging 19.6.

“We want to play fast, there's no question, and we want the tempo in our favor. But the tempo is not one where we score, they score,” Crean said. “We've got to have a lot of energy defensively. They'll be a hungry team, no doubt.”