Box scores, often, don’t tell the whole story.

It is true that the raw numbers, the statistics, are what athletes are measured by, and largely how they are evaluated when games, seasons and careers are all said and done.

But, how they arrive at those numbers help provide context.

Take a look at Marquette University guard Duane Wilson, for example.

He started Wednesday night’s Golden Eagles loss to Seton Hall 0-for-6, and finished 3-for-13 for nine points. This after a 26-point effort against Georgetown. Which came after he scored just seven points at St. John’s.

Wednesday night wasn’t just about the off shooting. It was about what Seton Hall was doing to him, to force the issue.

"We really tried to shade him tonight, as much as we shaded (Matt) Carlino," Pirates coach Kevin Willard said. "We tried to shade him just as much as Carlino because he was shooting the basketball so well."

It was a statement that reflected not only Seton Hall’s scouting of Wilson in that Georgetown game, but in Big East play – a time when Carlino, a senior, pulled the freshman aside to tell him to dial back, that there’s such a thing as "wanting it" too much.

"I have been there, where he’s at," Carlino said. "He wants to play well so badly because he cares so much. I tell him sometimes that’ll get you because you’re thinking about wanting to play well and that’s what he wants to do, he wants to help the team, he wants to play well. I told him just focus on doing the little things that’s going to, in the long run, be the best thing for him."

Wilson said it’s the best advice he’s been given, and has taken it to heart. The result has been steadier performances, even if it doesn’t always reflect in the raw data.

"You could watch the first five games of the Big East, up to the Georgetown game, I was really impressed with the maturity he was playing with in this offense," Willard said. "He was taking good shots. He was getting good shots."

Being scouted for, and learning how to deal with that and excel despite it, is just another step in the process for the redshirt freshman, who is learning how to navigate the peaks and valleys of his first college basketball season, one in which he is being counted on not just to develop, but to make an impact.

"I feel like I’ve dealt with them very well," Wilson said of those swings in performance. "I have my teammates, the senior leaders that will be there to pick me up, like Matt, Juan (Anderson) and Derrick (Wilson) when I have a bad game. They’re always there to give me words of advice, to keep on playing hard and coach is always on me telling me it’s going to be OK, telling me to keep working hard."

And working hard, to head coach Steve Wojciechowski, is about defense, and that turning into offense.

Like this moment against Seton Hall: With about six minutes to go in the first half, and with Marquette trailing by two he was still without a point, Wilson nearly picked Pirates guard Jaren Sina’s pocket in the backcourt, and as Sina spun away Wilson nearly slid into the scorer’s table.

Sina quickly got rid of it to Sterling Gibbs, and Wilson recovered quickly enough to nearly strip him at the top of the 3-point line, forcing another quick pass, and eventually, a missed Seton Hall jumper.

Marquette then went down and scored, tying the game.

"When he lets the game come to him, and he focuses on the defensive end, just competing, playing hard, and lets the offense come, that’s when he has his biggest scoring outputs and the offense comes to him," Marquette assistant coach Brett Nelson said. "Like a lot of young guys, sometimes he presses and he tries – not that he’s selfish or anything – but he wants to help the team."

Such defensive effort, ideally, helps Wilson avoid pressing. Because the aforementioned play won’t be in the box score. It’s not in the in the play-by-play. But it’s what Wilson has been working on that allows the box score to fill up, even if it happens in fits and spurts.

"They’re all trying to find an identity," Wojciechowski said. "For most young players, the way they feel they can best find their identity on the offensive end, so when things aren’t going as well on offense, it affects younger players much more so than it would affect an older player. I think you can see that on a number of our guys."

"This is Duane’s first reason of college basketball. He’s had some really bright moments and he’s had some other moments where he hasn’t played as well. That’s a typical freshman. But I think he’s got to fight through it and when you’re, maybe when you’re struggling and pressing offensively, the best thing you can do is just throw yourself into winning and be consumed with winning, and the offense will happen."