Purdue vs. Marquette: 2019-20 college basketball game preview, TV schedule

Marquette hosts the Purdue Boilermakers as the Golden Eagles go for some Gavitt Tipoff Games redemption in an early-season test.

TV Schedule: Wednesday, Nov. 13 at 9 p.m. EST (FS1)

Location: Fiserv Forum (Milwaukee, Wis.)

A Purdue-Marquette meeting may be one year too late to truly maximize its entertainment value – Carsen Edwards and Markus Howard going mano a mano would have been one of the highlights of the year – but the 2019-20 iteration should still result in a high-quality game between two potential NCAA tournament teams.

Purdue (1-1) landed High Point grad transfer Jahaad Proctor this past offseason, and while Proctor is no Edwards, he is as good a replacement as Matt Painter was going to find on short notice. Proctor averaged 18 ppg, 4.0 rpg, and 3.0 apg in two seasons at HPU, and is posting 19 ppg in his first two games with Purdue.

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For Marquette (1-0), Howard is already ripping off records in defense of his Big East Player of the Year crown. The Chandler, Ari. native totaled 38 points in just 26 minutes against Loyola (MD) last Tuesday, doing so on 7-10 shooting from behind the arc and 9-10 shooting from the free throw line. In the process, Howard passed Jerel McNeal as the program’s all-time scoring leader. Now Howard can set his sights on the all-time scoring record by a Big East player (Boston College’s Troy Bell finished with 2,632 from 2000-03), which he will reach if he averages roughly 21 ppg over his next 30 contests.

But both the Golden Eagles and Boilermakers have shown some flaws in the first week of the season. Even without the Hausers, Marquette still hoped to flash a somewhat balanced attack in 2019-20. Howard was always going to be the focal point, and yes, he was scorching hot against Loyola (MD), but it did not appear as if Marquette’s secondary scoring options – Koby McEwen, Sacar Anim, and Brendan Bailey – were particularly up to the task of easing Howard’s load. Of course, it was only one game, and McEwen and Anim still combined for 22 points on 9-19 shooting, but in the actual flow of the game, their impact felt much more minimal than what the box score read.

One positive development from the season-opening win was that head coach Steve Wojciechowski seems committed to McEwen as the primary ball-handler, allowing Howard to conserve energy, drag defenders away from his teammates, and attempt more catch-and-shoot threes.

On the other hand, Purdue, who let a quality home win against Texas slip away on Sunday, is going to need to find a way to reliably score without the three-ball. The Boilermakers’ offense in the Painter era would never be described as high-paced, but this year, they have cratered to just 321st in adjusted tempo. Playing slow is not the whole problem – UVA just won the title operating at an even more glacial speed – but a slow-paced offense requires efficient three-pointers and a bundle of free throws to make up for fewer possessions.

Instead, nearly 40 percent of Purdue’s attempts this year have been two-point jumpers, up from 21 percent last season. PU is simply working too hard on offense right now, and finishing too many of their limited possessions from the dreaded Land of Inefficiency. Purdue lost its three best outside shooters from a year ago – Edwards, Ryan Kline, and Grady Eifert nailed 77 percent of PU’s treys in 2018-19 – and has not yet found a way to replace those gunners.

This matchup also provides a couple of interesting pregame tidbits. The Boilermakers are frequent visitors to America’s Dairyland, as Wednesday’s contest in Milwaukee will be their seventh game in the state of Wisconsin in the last five years. Purdue is 5-1 in the first six visits, including two wins at the 2017 NCAA tournament in the since-imploded BMO Harris Bradley Center, as well as a 15-point win at Marquette in 2017-18.

Marquette, meanwhile, is looking to snap a couple skids on Wednesday. MU is 0-9 against Purdue all-time, which is the program’s only winless mark against an opponent the Golden Eagles have faced at least three times. Marquette is also 0-3 in the Gavitt Tipoff Games, with an average margin of defeat of 22 points. The Golden Eagles’ saving grace may be their home dominance of late, winning 21 of their last 25 home contests dating back to February 2018 (even those four losses have come by an average of just 3.5 points).

On the court, this game sets up reasonably well for Marquette, but the Golden Eagles’ predilection for the occasional non-conference stinker paired with a Purdue team that is likely rarin’ to go after a disappointing home loss makes for a very sticky prediction. Home court plus Howard means I will lean towards Marquette, but that pick comes with very little confidence.