Marquette is keeping their season alive for another couple of days. The Golden Eagles crushed Oregon on Sunday afternoon with a dominating 102-91 victory in a win that was much more of a blowout than the score indicates. Marquette showed off their offensive skills as they were red hot from the field and from three. Andrew Rowsey had a fantastic first half with 22 points and six made threes. This is the furthest Marquette made it in a postseason tournament since the Elite Eight run in 2012. It’s good to see Marquette play such solid basketball at this point of the season.

Marquette’s ball movement deserves an A-plus
One of the things that’s very noticeable about this Marquette team is when they actually pass the ball, they’re such a better team. Marquette had 21 assists in this game. That’s a great number for this team. Obviously, this game played at a fast pace where more assists were possible, but the Golden Eagles worked for the easiest basket on the court. You have to admire that. Rowsey led the way with nine assists.

The young guns continue their development
The biggest thing about this NIT run, win or lose, is the fact the underclassmen are getting more in-game experience for next season. I guarantee you we’ll have a headline in October of this year talking about how the NIT run really helped the freshman class of Marquette. They’re all playing really well. Greg Elliott had 13 points in this one, Jamal Cain had seven with a couple thunderous dunks and Theo John finished with 10 points.

Time to put Sam Hauser on ice?
Hate to say it but it may be time to let Sam Hauser be a cheerleader for the rest of the season. He’s clearly hurt and playing through an injury. With a game on Tuesday, I’m curious if he’s going to play in this one. If he does, I hope it’s a limited role because it’s clearly effecting his shot. The very last thing I would want to see happen is Hauser get hurt more and could impact next season. That would be awful.

Next up
Many thought this would be time for the iconic matchup between Notre Dame and Marquette, but fate did not want to make that happen. Instead, Marquette will host another home game and this time, they’ll welcome in Penn State and Tony Carr. Nittany Lions gained some steam in the last few weeks, and Carr is a killer out there. Marquette will have their hands full.