A bad nightmare started to play over again with the Marquette Golden Eagles as they came down the stretch with the Providence Friars. Last year, this team blew a 12-point lead at Providence down the stretch in a loss that was one of the more disappointing ones of the season. Even with Markus Howard lighting the world on fire from deep, Providence went on a 16-2 run to take an eight-point lead late. Howard didn’t let Marquette lose as he led the team back to force overtime where he stayed hot and Marquette escaped with another big road win.

Markus Howard’s second half and overtime goes down in Marquette history
Talk about a moment for anyone who is a Marquette fan. I usually DVR games I cannot watch, and this was one of them due to podcasting. I wish I could have enjoyed this one in the moment even if the 16-2 run would have killed my insides. Howard will be remembered at Marquette as he shows continually that he’s a special player. He’s out of his funk, and the Big East is in big trouble. How exactly do you stop Howard, Andrew Rowsey and Sam Hauser on a nightly basis.

Paint protection an issue for Marquette
One of the things that is plauging the Golden Eagles is the lack of paint protection. Marquette outscored Providence 39-6 from three, and they only won the game by five in overtime. What does that say to you? It says the Golden Eagles were abused in the paint by a bigger Friar team. That’s not an encouraging sign with what lies ahead in the Big East. You wonder if a different big man rotation could be the solution.

Wojo’s final play call was magnificent
Is there any way we could get Steve Wojciechowski to talk shop with Milwaukee Bucks coach Jason Kidd about out of bounds plays? Seriously, he does it so much better than the pro team in town. The last play call could not have been better. Rowsey held the ball with Howard pestering the defender around him. They flustered the Friars enough that it left Hauser wide open for the dagger three. Lovely move.

Let’s talk about Howard and the pros
So, we will start hearing some rumblings about Howard heading to the pros. It’s the fault of Trae Young, the superstar at Oklahoma that’s taken the college basketball world by storm. Young and Howard are around the same size with the same build. They’ll get compared and trust me, I want nothing more than a Oklahoma-Marquette NCAA Tournament game. Unless he completely goes berzek for the year, Howard will still one more year at least. Sam Hauser and him are like brothers, and I feel good about saying this with no knowledge, Markus will want to play with Joey as well.

Next up
Marquette heads to Villanova to take on an angry Wildcats team who fell to Butler last Saturday. That isn’t the only thing Nova is angry about as Marquette knocked them off last year as well. This will be an uphill climb, but I’ll say this, Butler beat the Wildcats because Villanova is weak at guarding the perimeter. If the big three of Howard, Rowsey and Hauser are hot, look out.

Charlie.