MU’s roller-coaster regular season ending
With the calendar flipped to March, the end of a trying and inconsistent season is close for the Marquette men’s basketball team.
Any hope for an at-large berth to the NCAA Tournament has been extinguished, so the only path to the Big Dance for the Golden Eagles is to win the Big East tournament next week at Madison Square Garden in New York.
But first MU (11-13, 6-11 Big East) has two more games to wrap up the regular season, starting against DePaul (4-12, 2-12) at 8 p.m. Tuesday in Chicago. That will end a stretch of six consecutive road games for the Golden Eagles.
MU will return to Fiserv Forum for the regular-season finale against Xavier on Saturday. The team will honor seniors Theo John, Jamal Cain and Koby
Where:
TV:
Marquette at DePaul
When: 8 p.m. Tuesday
Wintrust Arena
FS1.
FM-94.5
McEwen and will also play in front of its largest home crowd of the season, with up to 1,800 fans allowed to attend.
After an 80-62 loss at Connecticut on Saturday, MU head coach Steve Wojciechowski was asked what he will be looking for from his team this week.
“We’re going to prepare to win,” Wojciechowski said. “We’re looking for guys that can compete and try to win the game.”
DePaul has locked up last place in the 11-team Big East. But the Golden Eagles know they can’t take the Blue
Demons lightly.
In an up-and-down season for MU, DePaul handed the Golden Eagles probably their worst loss, a 68-61 defeat on Jan. 23 at Fiserv Forum. That started MU’s spiral of six losses in seven games.
In that dispiriting performance, MU dug itself a hole with a dreadful first half. The Golden Eagles had 10 turnovers and eight field goals in the opening 20 minutes. MU had the same first-half numbers against Connecticut on Saturday, and the Golden Eagles’ sloppiness with the ball has been their biggest issue this season.
Wojciechowski has said many times that his team is at its best when sophomore guard D.J. Carton is aggressive while also taking care of the ball. In the first matchup with the Blue Demons, Carton had 23 points but three turnovers to go with three assists. Against Connecticut, Carton had just two points with three turnovers and three assists.
The Golden Eagles also hope to get freshman forward Justin Lewis back to full speed in the remaining games. Due to an ankle injury, Lewis played only seven minutes from Feb. 2-24, sitting out six games. But he returned against Connecticut, scoring 14 points in 21 minutes.
“Our doctors said, No. 1, that it was OK for him to play,” Wojciechowski said. “And, No. 2, he said he felt good enough to play. It was good to have him back.”
Wojciechowski said there wasn’t a minutes restriction for MU’s most important bench player.
Lewis is averaging 8.4 points and 5.8 rebounds in 18 games.
“The fact is, he hasn’t practiced in quite a while,” Wojciechowski said. “So it had more to do with his shape and his conditioning than it does where the doctors are saying you’re only allowed to play him a certain amount of minutes.”
The Golden Eagles are 10th in the Big East with their postponed game against Georgetown unlikely to be played. MU can finish as high as seventh in the conference if it beats DePaul and Xavier.
“We have opportunities ahead of us,” Wojciechowski said. “And we need to put our best foot forward and try to capitalize on them.”