MU will face DePaul in Big East first round

Marquette didn't have to wait long to get another chance to beat DePaul.

The Golden Eagles (18-12, 9-9) finished seventh in the Big East and will play the Blue Demons (11-19, 4-14) in the first round of the conference tournament at 8:30 p.m. Wednesday at Madison Square Garden in New York.

The winner of that game will play second-seeded Villanova at 6 p.m. Thursday.

MU is hoping to add a couple victories to its NCAA Tournament résumé.

The Golden Eagles finished the regular season by winning four of their last five regular-season games.

The only loss in that stretch was a 7062 loss to DePaul at WinTrust Arena in Chicago.

It was arguably MU's worst loss of the season.

The Golden Eagles suffered a scoring drought of more than six minutes in the second half and allowed the Blue Demons to pull down 19 offensive rebounds.

Senior guard Andrew Rowsey picked up two fouls in the first 1 minute 22 seconds and played only four minutes in the first half. He finished with 16 points on 5-of-14 shooting.

Rowsey has bounced back with strong performances against Georgetown and Creighton with 54 points on 18-of-37 shooting.

MU beat DePaul, 70-52, in the teams' first matchup Jan. 15.

The Golden Eagles are 2-3 in the Big East tournament since Steve Wojciechowski became head coach in the 2014-'15 season, never advancing to the semifinals.

Last season, MU lost to Seton Hall in the first round of the conference tournament and then fell to South Carolina in the first round of the NCAA Tournament.

"I think we're learning from what we did last year," sophomore guard Markus Howard said after Saturday's win over Creighton. "We know what to expect going into the Big East tournament. We know it's going to be very competitive.

"We have to do great in our preparation. Just continue to lock in to what Coach has us doing and us continue to execute."

Wojciechowski has been steadfast in his approach the last few weeks, saying his team can't approach March like most college basketball observers with talk of seedings, bubbles and projections.

"We have to maintain our focus on our daily preparation," Wojciechowski said. "We can't get too far ahead of ourselves.

"Like I've said many times, we can't live like the rest of the world lives in March -- when you're trying to forecast and prognosticate and crunch numbers. That's not for us. What we need to do is have a good practice (Sunday). That's our goal and that's what we're trying to do."

Big East honors: Howard was named to the all-Big East second team Sunday and Rowsey was honorable mention.

Howard was third in the conference in scoring at 20.9 points per game. His season included a Big East record-tying, 52-point performance against Providence on Jan. 3.

Rowsey was fifth in the league in scoring at 19.9 points per game.

Xavier's Trevon Bluiett, Villanova's Jalen Brunson and Butler's Kelan Martin were unanimous picks for the first team. They were joined by St. John's Shamorie Ponds, Creighton's Marcus Foster and Villanova's Mikal Bridges.

Alongside Howard on the second team are Seton Hall's Angel Delgado and Desi Rodriguez, Creighton's Khyri Thomas and Georgetown's Marcus Derrickson.

Howard was on last season's allfreshman team. Rowsey was the conference's sixth man of the season last year.