Marquette basketball gets underway tonight at the Fiserv Forum. It’s the first regular season game tonight pitting the Golden Eagles against the NCAA Tournament darlings, University of Maryland-Baltimore County. Before the season gets started, we should look at the team. There is a great deal to like about this team. They added a few pieces with freshman Brendan Bailey, Joey Hauser and transwers Ed Morrow and Joseph Chartouny. This should be a fun year for Marquette, and an important one for Steve Wojciechowski. Let’s look at the five things.

1. Get on board the hype train – We talked about this last week, but Marquette has a great deal of hype around them. It’s one of the most talked about teams in college basketball. Why? They’re exciting as hell. They profile more like an NBA team than a college basketball team with the way they shoot the ball. We’ll see where the hype ends up by the time Big East play starts in January. Marquette’s schedule isn’t easy to start the year with matchups against 1. Kansas, an emerging Kansas State team, sleeper Indiana and Wisconsin.

2. Sam Hauser is the most underrated player in college hoops – Sam Hauser gets no respect. I cannot tell you enough how good this guy is at playing basketball. He is the glue to the Marquette team, and Hauser is one of the best pure shooters I’ve seen. Howard is fun when he gets rolling obviously, but I almost like when it happens with Hauser more. He could win Big East Player of the Year this season. I would not be shocked. Remember in 2011-2012 how Jae Crowder turned out to be the player of the year when all of the attention surrounded Darius Johnson-Odom? It could happen again this year.

3. Year 3 for Markus Howard is exciting – Despite my love for Hauser, Markus Howard is the man as well. He did not have a sophomore slump. It didn’t exist for him. Howard flourished in his sophomore season. Raising everything from his average, two point attempts, three-point attempts, three-point percentage and had a usage rate of 30 percent. Howard did this all with Andrew Rowsey playing next to him who could be a microwave and at times, a selfish player. Now, it’s Howard-Hauser who are best friends and great teammates. Trust me, all of his stats will continue to rise this season.

4. Marquette is bulkier team than years past – For years, Marquette is a team without size. Golden Eagles do not have that problem this season. Matt Heldt is back for his Van Wilde year, Ed Morrow is a beefy dude that can grab boards, Joey Hauser can be physical even as a true freshman and others too can play down low when needed. Marquette has eight guys that are 6’7 or taller.

5. Welcoming the new guys – What makes this Marquette team more exciting than the recent teams they have are the new additions. Morrow is a transfer from Nebraska who can score and rebound. Younger Hauser is a stud and one of the top recruits in the country. Chartnouy is going to help Marquette from a ball distributor and defense perspective. Not entirely new, but Ike Eke is another big man who put on size in his redshirt year. Bailey is a 20-year old freshman who will prove to be wise beyond his years. THey’re loaded, folks.

Prediction: Using T-Rank which is an awesome tool that I played around with only slightly, I have Marquette going 22-8 this season with a 12-6 record in the Big East. That might win the conference or come damn close. This is a good team and think they’re going to show it all season.

Charlie.