9. Marquette (11-2)
Eight straight wins showed us that this Marquette team was for real, perhaps standing out as the team to beat in the Big East. Their nonconference slate includes wins over Maryland, Purdue, and Wisconsin, with very tough road losses at Dayton and Iowa State. There’s a lot of potential with Shaka Smart’s roster, with a lot of these pieces in place for multiple seasons already, and we’re going to see just what they’re made of now that Big East play has begun.
That journey started at home on Wednesday night with the Golden Eagles winning 80-70 over Butler. Kam Jones had his latest stellar effort with 23 points and 7 rebounds, while Marquette survived an efficient showing from the Bulldogs’ offense. A trip to Xavier awaited on Saturday, and the Golden Eagles fought hard for a 72-70 road win over those Musketeers. Jones had another brilliant performance with 20 points and 8 assists while David Joplin added 19 points, helping Marquette to their second road win of the season.
Against a verifiably tough schedule, Marquette has played great basketball on both sides of the ball and are in a good position moving forward. As we teased, this might be the team to beat in the Big East, depending on how the chips fall for a certain recent national champion, but Marquette has the talent to win and compete every night in this league. We won’t see them again until New Year’s Eve at Providence.