Bracketology Winners: NC State, Kentucky land resume-building wins

NEW YORK, NY - DECEMBER 08: Myles Cale #22 and Myles Powell #13 of the Seton Hall Pirates reacts after Powell's basket putting Seton Hall ahead of the Kentucky Wildcats in the final seconds of regulation of a college basketball game at Madison Square Garden on December 8, 2018 in New York City. Seton Hall defeated Kentucky 84-83 in overtime. (Photo by Rich Schultz/Getty Images) /

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MILWAUKEE, WISCONSIN – DECEMBER 21: Hauser #10 and Howard #0 of the Marquette Golden Eagles react. (Photo by Dylan Buell/Getty Images) /

Marquette Golden Eagles

Marquette is the real deal as the Big East favorite. During this past week, the Golden Eagles protected the Fiserv Forum in back-to-back wins over North Dakota and Buffalo. Most notably, though, point guard Markus Howard dropped 45 points (40 in the second half alone) to put on an absolute show against the Bulls. In total, Marquette’s high-powered offense was on complete display against Buffalo while putting up 103 total points.

Now at 10-2, Marquette has a legitimate shot at jumping into the top-15 of the AP rankings. With an improved defense to go along with their usual elite-level offense, the Golden Eagles have plenty of potential to be a second-weekend team come March. They have now won eight consecutive games and have one cupcake matchup (home vs. Southern) prior to the start of Big East conference play.

Thanks to this impressive week, Marquette has finally started to rise up the predictive metrics (KenPom, Sagarin, etc.). Despite clearly passing the eye test over the first month of the season, the Golden Eagles eventually needed to see their play rewarded in the statistics. And now that that has occurred, Marquette should rise up the early seed lists at long last.

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