Providence head coach Keno Davis, about a half-hour after his team was beat, 93-63, by Marquette was asked by a reporter what he thought about the Golden Eagles' performance.
"That was about the best I've seen them all season," Davis said. "They played well and beat us in all areas -- offense, defense and rebounding."
Marquette coach Buzz Williams, who has watched his team start out 1-3 in Big East play by the slimmest of margins, agreed.
"We played much better on both ends of the floor," Williams said.
Idle for a week after a thrilling comeback at Villanova that came up just short, the Golden Eagles pounced early on the Friars, who didn't really know what hit them.
Shooting at a 61.4 percent clip, Marquette was downright lethal from beyond the arc, connecting on 11 of 17 to open the game and finishing with 13 in 21 attempts.
"I don't know that we took a bad shot today," Williams said.
Darius Johnson-Odom scored 20 of his career-high 22 points in the first half and was good on his first four three-point attempts.
Maurice Acker, meanwhile, put together a personal highlight reel with a team-leading 23 points. He was perfect in six three-point attempts and missed just one shot all day, a layup late in the second half.
It was quite a performance for an undersized player that almost didn't return this season. Williams credits Acker's growing maturity as a basketball player.
"I think that over the last six to eight days, he kind of got the senioritis bug, in a positive way," MU head coach Buzz Williams said. "Similar to what (Lazar) and (David Cubillan) have had since finals ended. They realize that their careers are about to come to a close, and they're not doing anything out of selfish ambition."
With the Golden Eagles rolling on offense, they also played hard on the defensive end of the court, holding the Friars to 38.5 percent shooting and winning the rebounding battle, 33-22.
In short, the Golden Eagles Sunday afternoon did all of the things that they occasionally failed to do in losing three of their first four Big East games by a combined five points.
Their last outing, at Villanova last Saturday, saw the Golden Eagles rally from a 22-point deficit in the second half before falling, 78-76. With a bye week in the Big East schedule, the team had plenty of time to study their mistakes and prepare for the Friars, and it showed.
"With not playing for a week and our last game being a loss, you want to come out with a lot of energy. We had a lot of passion and emotion in this game," said Johnson-Odom.
With the slimmest of margins separating themselves from a 5-0 record, the Golden Eagles appear to be in position to make prognosticators, who suggested a 12th-place finish in the Big East, look foolish.
Williams says it's too early for that, and points to the already-tight Big East standings to back up his point. Marquette is one of five teams with three losses while four teams have lost twice.
"We're 2-3," Williams said. "If you do the plus-minus deal where you're supposed to win at home and lose on the road, we're minus one.
"If we stay minus-one, what the coaches and media predicted will probably come true and we'll finish 12th."
NOTES: The Golden Eagles are 17-1 under Williams when shooting 50 percent or better. ... Acker will have a tooth capped after getting tangled up and hitting his chin on the floor during the game. ... Providence played the entire second half without Jamine Peterson, who was ejected for elbowing Joe Fulce in the face. Peterson was the Friars' leading scorer (17.6) and rebounder (10.6) coming into the game. ... Marquette's 93 points was the most for the program since a 94-82 victory over Georgetown and the 30-point victory was the largest since an 84-50 victory over Cincinnati, both of which happened last season. ... The victory was the 50th for Buzz Williams as a head coach.
