NCAA Basketball: Arizona, UConn, Marquette, Baylor all fall in latest top 25 power rankings
By Joey Loose
8. Marquette (10-3)
It’s a season that started with a lot of potential for Marquette and it might still be a fantastic campaign, but the Golden Eagles have had a few slip-ups. A finals loss at Maui to Purdue is forgivable, but they followed that with a pair of double-digit road losses, including in their conference opener in the Big East this past week.
Their third loss of the season came in that aforementioned opener on Tuesday night, falling 72-57 at Providence. Tyler Kolek scored 21 points but the Friars outperformed the Golden Eagles, who really struggled on offense in the loss. Three days later they bounced back in a major way, winning 81-51 back at home against Georgetown. David Joplin led all scorers with 20 points and 9 rebounds while both Kolek and Oso Ighodaro added 15 points of their own.
That rough performance against Providence was quite a surprise but it’s not all doom and gloom for the Golden Eagles. This squad still has great potential with this powerful lineup, even with those losses on their resume. This was the first blemish against a team not in the current Top 25, though Big East road losses are certainly forgivable. A tough conference slate continues with a tough game at home against Creighton next weekend.