In reality, this headline is deceiving. I’m not practicing the art of clickbait, but the fact remains that Marquette is playing with a whole bunch of house money on Friday night. Like they are a year early in the process of the rebuild by head coach Steve Wojciechowski, and anything Marquette does in the tournament is gravy. While they’re in one of the major conferences, Golden Eagles would be a different kind of Cinderella if they made it to the Sweet 16 where they would return to Madison Square Garden. Can they get there?

Defense, defense, defense
We all know by now Marquette doesn’t play a lick of defense. In their best games this season, Golden Eagles were nails tough on that end of the floor. Still, they allow too many easy buckets and opportunities. Good teams usually take advantage of Marquette’s porous defense. To win a couple games, they’re going to need beast-like efforts on defensive side of the ball.

Fischer and Heldt Stay Out Of Foul Trouble
Marquette doesn’t have a ton of big men. Luke Fischer and Matt Heldt are the only ones. Thankfully, they get a little bigger next year. Fischer and Heldt both need to avoid getting into the foul trouble. If both big men can stay on the floor for extended periods of time, that would make Golden Eagles a much better team.

Threes Keep Falling
Golden Eagles are one of the best three-point shooting teams in the country, and we’ve seen NCAA Tournament teams in the past make runs based off their red hot shooting. Markus Howard, Andrew Rowsey, Sam Hauser and others start stroking it from deep, this could be a very fun weekend for all involved. Marquette showed in games before they can bury opponents with the three ball. There’s a saying known as ‘Live by the three, and die by three’, and that’s probably the life we’re living with Marquette.

Wojo acts like it’s just another game.
This will be his first NCAA Tournament game tonight. That’s not an easy task. There will be a lot of nerves from his players and him. He needs to approach this game and the next one like it’s a Big East conference game. I have a feeling if the second round opponent is Duke, Wojciechowski’s nerves will be far greater than Round one.

Go Marquette.

Charlie.