Big East Basketball Power Rankings: DePaul, Butler exceeding expectations

Marquette might be the trickiest team to rank in the Big East right now. For starters, the Golden Eagles have only played in three games to this point and thus the sample size to judge them on is quite small. Additionally, their performances have been a complete mixed bag as one of them was an impressive come-from-behind home win over Purdue while another was an utter disappointment in a rivalry loss to Wisconsin. The jury is definitely still out on Marquette more than just about anyone else in the conference.

Markus Howard is clearly one of the best players in the entire nation but there are still questions regarding his supporting cast. Utah State transfer Koby McEwen has definitely shown that he can Howard’s sidekick offensively but they are the only two players averaging more than seven points per game thus far. That absolutely needs to change moving forward as the Golden Eagles cannot win solely on their defense and backcourt scoring.

This season is incredibly important for the future of the program as head coach Steve Wojciechowski’s seat appears to be getting warmer with each game. Yes, he has landed a stellar 2020 recruiting class that only got better this week (Dawson Garcia committed), but the Golden Eagles are used to far more postseason success than he has been able to bring in his tenure with the program. This is Coach Wojo’s sixth year with Marquette and the team has not managed a single NCAA Tournament win in just two appearances.

It is way too early to judge Marquette based solely on their double-digit loss to Wisconsin, especially when the team has already secured a win over Purdue, but the team needs to prove itself in the coming weeks. The Big East is extremely close-knit from top-to-bottom this year and while that opens up the possibility for the Golden Eagles to quickly rise back to the upper-echelon, they could just as easily slide further down.