NCAA Basketball Power Rankings: Duke rises, newcomers snag spots

Marquette quietly went about its business during the opening week and therefore belong firmly in these rankings. Behind the high-scoring play of Markus Howard and the interior emergence of Theo John so far, the Golden Eagles are 2-0. And while their opponents (UMBC and Bethune-Cookman) were far from the most challenging, they flashed the ability to win with either offense or defense, a rare sight during the Coach Wojo era.

If Marquette’s defense can be legitimately solid this season, then there should be no question that they will be one of the top teams in the Big East. The offense will surely be there due to Howard and Sam Hauser (among others) and the defense we saw this week (50.5 points per game allowed) will hopefully carry over into the rest of the season. On the whole, Marquette’s performances this week were extremely encouraging.

Perhaps the only disappointing part of the season so far has been Ed Morrow‘s role. Praised as one of the top transfers joining the Big East this year because of his rebounding/defense, Morrow only played 12.0 minutes per game in Marquette’s two contests. This may, though, simply have to do with the idea that MU’s starting bigs have been solid defensively so far.