After Last Second Loss to St. John’s, Can PC Bounce Back Against #9 Marquette?
Robert McMahon, Sports Columnist
After Last Second Loss to St. John’s, Can PC Bounce Back Against #9 Marquette?
Up next is #9 Marquette on Tuesday, New Year’s Eve, at home. Tip off time is 6 PM.
Marquette was a pre-season pick by Big East coaches to finish #4 in the league. The Golden Eagles have not disappointed. They are off to a 2-0 start in the Big East, have an 11-2 overall record, and are ranked #9 in the country. At this point, it looks like they could challenge UConn for the title of the Big East regular season.
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Gone from Marquette to the NBA is Cumberland native Tyler Kolek.
Marquette, however, has not missed a beat with Kolek’s departure. The other outstanding guard on that 2023-24 Marquette team, 6’4” Kam Jones, has taken over as the leader of this year’s Golden Eagles team. Jones is scoring 20.3 points/game, is dishing out 6.4 assists/game, and is pulling down 4.8 rebounds/game. He also has a lofty 54% FG/game average.
The Golden Eagles’ leading rebounder is 6’8” senior forward David Joplin, who is averaging 5.4 boards/game and is the second-leading scorer on the team with 14.6 points/game. He is joined in the frontcourt by sophomore 6’11” Ben Gold, who chips in with 3.9 rebounds/game.
The Friars do have an advantage on the boards, averaging about 7 more per game.
Here is how the Friars and Marquette match up in terms of the numbers:
Marquette’s superior shooting stands out—both FG% and FT% are higher than PC’s numbers, enabling the Golden Eagles to score at almost 81 pts/game. The other significant numbers are steals and turnovers. The Golden Eagles, under coach Shaka Smart, are a disciplined team.
PC still appears to be a work in progress. The Friars are often rattled by the opponent’s defense, as witnessed in the second half of the game against St. John’s. Twelve of PC’s seventeen turnovers in the St. John’s game came in the second half when St. John’s coach Rick Pitino switched to a tight man-to-man half-court press. PC suffered twelve turnovers and an unbelievable three 30-second clock violations.
Marquette’s only two losses this year have been on the road—to Iowa State and to Dayton. Perhaps the home-court advantage for the Friars will produce some New Year’s fireworks and a much-needed win. The wild card in this game is, of course, the availability of PC’s Bryce Hopkins. If he is available, PC could make this a tight game at the AMP and find a way to get an upset Big East win.