MILWAUKEE — Dallas Mavericks rookie forward Jae Crowder was acting like a little kid after practice Monday when he and forward Vince Carter went and visited Marquette University.
A day later, Crowder was grinning from ear-to-ear after he scored 14 points and grabbed eight rebounds in playing one of his best games of the season and helping the Mavs defeat the Milwaukee Bucks 115-108 Tuesday night at the Bradley Center.Crowder was the Big East Player of the Year last season while playing for Marquette, and got a big ovation when he was introduced to start the game.“I knew I had to go out there and concentrate really well, and I knew I had to go out there and step up my defense,” said Crowder, who was 6 of 9 from the field. “I didn’t try to do too much off the court other than sticking to my family team.”Coach Rick Carlisle knew how much this game meant to Crowder, who played his home college games in the Bradley Center.“I thought Crowder played a terrific game,” Carlisle said. “It’s really difficult to do what he did tonight, and that is come back to your kind of hometown and play.“Usually guys get so worked up it’s hard for them to really play well. Not only did he play well, he played a complete game.”On Monday, Crowder visited Marquette coach Buzz Williams and some of his former teammates. He also took teammate Vince Carter along with him.“I got to watch about an hour of practice, and afterwards coach [Williams] gave me a chance to talk to the guys and take questions from the guys,” Crowder said. “I brought Vince with me, and you know those guys were fired up about that.“We stayed there for about an hour and let them ask questions about the league, about the (NBA) lifestyle, everything, anything. It was a great experience for me.”Crowder’s ex-Marquette teammates and college coaches did not attend the game because they left Tuesday morning for New York play in the Big East tournament, which starts Thursday.Still, the opportunity to return and play where his college roots reside made for a memorable occasion for Crowder.“It's unusual to come back and play an NBA game in your college arena,” Carlisle said. "You don't see a lot of that in this league.“Jae’s a special guy, so this will be a nice thing for him. It’s definitely exciting for him and guys in that situation.”With the shot clock winding down, Crowder fumbled the ball, retrieved it and made a long 3-pointer that put the Mavs up by 12 late in the third quarter. Then he buried a long jumper that gave Dallas a 106-98 lead with 3:21 left.“I was really happy for him coming back home,” Carlisle said. “I told him after the game I wish we could play all our games here.”Quick hookRick Carlisle said it’s his fault for starting center Chris Kaman and playing him for just over two minutes before pulling him.“Starting Kaman tonight was a mistake on my part because of the quickness of their big guys,” Carlisle said. “I decided to give it a shot because he’s been doing some good things.“But the quick pull on that, it just wasn’t his type of game, so that’s on me and I’ve already talked to him about that. He’s a valuable player for us, but this was not the right game to throw him out there at the beginning.”Dwain Price, 817-390-7760 Twitter: @dwainprice
