Saint John's 56 Marquette 86

The Marquette Golden Eagles' 86-56 victory over St. John's (Minn.) on Saturday might well have been their last exhibition for the foreseeable future at the Bradley Center.

With coach Buzz Williams finding the closed-door workouts like the one his team held Oct. 30 with Tony Bennett's Virginia Cavaliers much more valuable than beating up on overmatched Division III teams, MU is seriously looking into scrimmaging Division I opponents twice beginning next year.

“I feel like we get more out of the scrimmage,” Williams said. “The positive thing about the scrimmage is it's the only thing the NCAA doesn't legislate relative to the time. You can work as long as you want. You can play a game, two games, situations. . . . all of those things are healthy.

“For sure, we'll always play one, and I'd like to play two as long as they're the right two. We'll see. I worked on it some this week for next year. We just want to be efficient in what we do.”

The Golden Eagles had their ups and downs in their tuneup with the Johnnies, who are coached by former MU player Jim Smith (1952-'56), but were never in any real danger. St. John's pulled to within 42-34 with 15 minutes 10 seconds left in the second half, but MU rattled off 19 of the next 22 points to put the game out of reach.

Aside from Williams' plans, the story in this one was at point guard, where senior Dwight Buycks appears to have beaten out sophomore Junior Cadougan despite Buycks never playing the position last season after transferring from junior college.

In a team-high 28 minutes, the 6-foot-3 Milwaukee Bay View product struggled from the field (2 for 10, eight points) but played well defensively and dished out six assists against just one turnover.

Throw in an unexpectedly pleasant eight-point, seven-assist debut for freshman Reggie Smith in just 14 minutes, and Williams appears to have three competent point guards - including Cadougan (five points, two steals) - heading into MU's regular-season opener Friday against Prairie View A&M.

“Buycks has been really good just as a player - not specific to a position,” Williams said. “You get what you earn, and he's earned it. He's been really good.”

Junior forward Jae Crowder, last season's national junior-college player of the year, led all players with 15 points and 10 rebounds, while also chipping in with four assists and three steals off the bench. Sophomore center Chris Otule, who missed most of the last two seasons with foot injuries, got the start at center and finished with 12 points and nine boards.