MU fighting through loaded Big East
The challenges never stop in the Big East.
Marquette (12-6, 3-3) finishes off a stretch of five conference games in 12 days when it faces DePaul (8-9, 1-4) at the BMO Harris Bradley Center on Monday.
Then the Golden Eagles get a nineday break before they play at Xavier on Jan. 24. That kicks off another tough stretch when MU also faces Villanova, Butler and Providence at home before playing at Seton Hall.
It will be a crucial time for a team looking to add some quality wins to its NCAA Tournament résumé.
But the Golden Eagles can't overlook DePaul, which has beaten only St. John's in conference play.
"There is no margin for error," MU coach Steve Wojciechowski said. "The Big East is the No. 1 basketball conference in the United States. That's not just an opinion, I think it is backed up by statistics as well,"
The conference has six teams averaging over 80 points per game, including the Golden Eagles at 83.8, and Georgetown is just under that mark at 79.9. Villanova (41.4% on three-pointers) and MU (41%) are among the top 16 teams in the nation in shooting from long distance.
"This league, when you look at it
analytically, is phenomenal on the offensive end and phenomenal from behind the three-point line. There's teams that are scoring at a rate that is unprecedented for the Big East and college basketball," DePaul coach Dave Leitao said. "And so it's a challenge every night to put together a defensive scheme to control or limit a team's offensive productivity."
DePaul is ninth in the 10-team league at 75.4 points per game. But the Blue Demons have 6-foot-6 junior guard Max Strus, who is being touted as a NBA prospect and is tied for eighth among the league's top scorers at 18.2 points per game.
Strus is the type of player who can cause fits for an MU defense that followed up its best performance of the season against Seton Hall with one of its worst showings against Butler.
The Golden Eagles allowed the Bulldogs to shoot 32 of 47 on two-pointers and 6-7 senior forward Kelan Martin to score 37 points.
MU poses its own challenges for defenses with sophomore Markus Howard (22.3 points per game) and senior backcourt mate Andrew Rowsey (21.3).
"Between Howard and Rowsey, I'm not sure that there's a better pair of offensive guards in America in terms of productivity," Leitao said.
The conference's top two scorers struggled against Butler with 31 combined points on 8-of-21 shooting. Sophomore wing Sam Hauser came through by tying his collegiate high with 30 points.
That trio makes up 70% of MU's scoring. The Golden Eagles likely will need them to keep up that heavy workload and also find some consistency on defense down the stretch in conference play.
"Unless you are in the wars and the battles night after night, you can't fully appreciate the level of competition in this league. It is an honor to be a coach in this league but is damn hard, too," Wojciechowski said.