LINKS: No. 10 Marquette Hopes to Beat Hoyas for 20th Win

Your Georgetown Hoyas (6-19, 1-13 BIG EAST) will face the Marquette Golden Eagles (19-6, 11-3 BIG EAST) on Saturday, February 11 at Capital One Arena at noon (FS1).

Marquette, currently ranked No. 10 in both the AP and USA Today Coaches Polls, suffered a 87-72 defeat against No. 21/21 UConn on Tuesday night.

The Golden Eagles have five players averaging double-digits in scoring, with Kam Jones topping the list at 15.3 points per game. He is followed by Olivier-Maxence Prosper with 13.0 ppg, and Tyler Kolek and Oso Ighodaro each contributing 11.5 ppg.

In the loss against UConn, Kolek, the BIG EAST’s leading assist man, led Marquette with 17 points, shooting 50% from the field (7-of-14). He also recorded four assists.

Here are the links:
No. 10 Marquette seeks 20th win in visit to Georgetown | fieldlevelmedia

Facing the cellar-dwelling Hoyas (6-19, 1-13), the Golden Eagles (19-6, 11-3) will be anxious to erase the sting of Tuesday’s 87-72 defeat at No. 21 UConn, where they lost the battle of the boards 48-24.

In the wire-to-wire defeat, Marquette fell behind 32-12 and never got the deficit inside 15 points in the second half. The Golden Eagles had not previously lost a game by more than five points this season.

“We didn’t do enough all-around, offensively, defensively, to stand up and counteract them,” Marquette coach Shaka Smart said.

The defeat came as the Golden Eagles were riding a five-game winning streak and a day after they reached the Associated Press Top 10 for the first time since 2019. The loss also knocked Marquette out of first place in the Big East.

Men’s Basketball: Hoyas Set to Host No. 10/10 Marquette Saturday | guhoyas

Saturday’s matchup will be the 35th all-time meeting between the two programs dating back to 1941 with the Hoyas trailing in the series 20-14.

In their last contest earlier this season, the Hoyas fell 95-73 in Milwaukee. Four Hoyas reached double figures in the last meeting with Spears leading the way with 18 points on seven made field goals. Wayne Bristol Jr., Jordan Riley and Akok Akok all reached double figures with 16, 16 and 10 points, respectively.

This will be the third time this season the Blue & Gray has faced a team ranked among the top 10 in the AP poll.

No. 21 UConn stuns No. 10 Marquette with dominant 87-72 win | Yahoo

Marquette started out the season unranked, and with little real expectations in the Big East. Yet after a wild 26-point blowout win over then-No. 6 Baylor in November, the Golden Eagles quickly entered the rankings and climbed to first in the Big East standings.

Marquette entered Tuesday night having won 13 of its past 16 games, with a pair of close conference losses, and a three-point loss to Wisconsin as the only slip-ups along the way. The Golden Eagles jumped to No. 10 in the latest AP poll this week, too, in what was their highest ranking in about four years.

In theory, it should have at least competed with UConn. The Huskies, who were ranked as high as No. 2 earlier this season, have fallen hard in recent weeks after losing to Xavier twice, Providence and even Marquette last month in Milwaukee. That previous matchup came amid a stretch in which UConn lost six of eight games.

Men’s Basketball: No. 10/10 MU basketball faces Georgetown Saturday at 11 AM CT | gomarquette

Marquette claimed a 95-73 victory on Jan. 7 at Fiserv Forum in the first meeting this season. The Golden Eagles trailed 36-34 at the intermission, but outscored the Hoyas 61-37 over the final 20 minutes to pull away for the win. Guard Kam Jones led four players in double figures with 17 points.

Picked to finish ninth in the preseason coaches poll and without a player on the all-conference roster, MU begins February in sole possession of second place behind Xavier with an 11-3 record and is the league’s top-ranked squad in the Associated Press poll.

No. 10 Marquette, off to its best league start since 2018-19 (12-2), is in possession of its highest ranking since it was 10th on Feb. 25, 2019. MU has already surpassed last year’s total of four road victories (5), the most recent coming Jan. 28 at DePaul. Of the team’s next five outings, three will come on the road.

Marquette Golden Eagles Big East Men’s Basketball Preview: Georgetown Hoyas | anonymouseagle

Since the end of the MU/GU game in Milwaukee, BartTorvik.com says that Georgetown has been playing like the #126 team in the country. That’s miles and miles better than the #205 team that they looked like at the end of the first Marquette game on their schedule...

In the first meeting between the two squads, Georgetown led by as many as seven in the first half, largely because the Hoyas were on fire shooting the ball. They were 4-for-7 from long range, with Wayne Bristol hitting both of his attempts, and Georgetown backed that up with 10-for-19 shooting inside the arc. Meanwhile, on the other end, Marquette was having trouble getting their shots to fall, connecting on just 42% overall and going 2-for-14 beyond the arc. Had Georgetown not coughed the ball up on 26% of their possessions, Marquette might have been a lot worse off...

The mystery at the center of all of this is the fact that Brandon Murray, Bryson Mozone, and Jay Heath didn’t play in that game in Milwaukee.