Hinkle Fieldhouse has not been kind to Marquette. Since the realignment of the Big East, Marquette has not won there. The last time, the Golden Eagles beat Butler at Hinkle, they were still called the Warriors. While your suburban dad might still call them that, it’s not their name in the Year 2019 but they finally got a victory at Hinkle. It was the first road conference game of the year where Marquette did not have to grind it out. In fact, they blew out Butler winning 76-58, and the Bulldogs suffered their worst at Hinkle since 1992.

Player of the Game: Markus Howard – It seems like Howard is back to his usual ways. Howard went off in the first half scoring 19 points and being the offense for Marquette as they struggled to get the ball in the basket. He finished with 31 points and played the role of the closer with some devastating shots late in the game. He did get in slight foul trouble early in the second half, and if he didn’t, I think this is a 40-point for him.

Silver Star: Sacar Anim – If you asked me to choose between who do I love more, Sacar or Theo John, I probably cry for hours before making a decision. Anim played fantastic in this game. He had 14 points and seemed to find open lanes to cut directly to the basket. He also played 39 minutes accumulating one foul in a tightly called game and held Kamar Baldwin to 5-of-15 shooting. Great night all around for Anim.

Positive: The defense finally traveled! – Marquette has been fantastic at home defensively. So good that they’re a top defensive team in the Big East. But on the road, it’s been a different story. Not last night, Marquette found their defense in a major way. They held Butler to only 58 points for the game, but the first half is where things stood out for me. Marquette did not have it offensively, and when that happened in years past, teams would build big leads against Marquette. Didn’t happen this year as the Golden Eagles held them to 23 points. Great effort.

Negative: Sluggish start yet again on the road – One thing that Marquette has been unable to do on the road is start fast. Each road game this year it seems Marquette needs at least 10 minutes to wake up. Now, their defense was good enough last night to mitigate any sort of problem. But they need to find ways to start quicker on offense.

Next up: Looking for revengeeeeeeeee as that one Drake song says because Marquette plays the only team that beat them in the Big East this season, St. John’s, at the Fiserv Forum on Tuesday night. It’s nice the Golden Eagles get nearly a week off for the Johnnies who have to play Duke on Saturday before coming to Milwaukee. I’m thankful there’s a revenge element to this game because I would be deathly afraid of a lookahead game.

Charlie.