Marquette Golden Eagles faced off against the North Dakota State Bison before the Christmas holiday. North Dakota State is the kind of non-conference team you want to play. They’re not a cupcake per se, but they’re also not a team you should lose to or closely beat. This is the ideal team that helps you in March especially if North Dakota State goes on and wins the Summit Conference. Marquette needed a final push to help put away the Bison as the Golden Eagles outscored North Dakota State, 21-12 in the final 10 minutes.

Player of the Game: Markus Howard – It appears that Markus Howard is getting hot at the right time. Howard finished with 32 points, five made three-pointers. Howard’s offensive rating was 109. Howard adding four rebounds and four assists are the cherry on top. Howard made eleven three-pointers in the last two games and scored an average of 29 points. Marquette making sure that their star guard is rolling right before their Big East season starts in two weeks.

Honorable Mention: Sacar Anim – We continue to see great things from Sacar Anim. He finished with the highest offensive rating of 138 and scored in double figures for the fifth straight game. While I expect him to contribute this year, I didn’t expect him to be such a factor on offense. Anim’s three-point shooting has gone from 23 percent in 2018, 39 percent in 2019 and now he’s at 47 percent in 2020. That’s development. Steve Wojciechowski gets a lot of shit but his coaching staff excelled when it came to developing Anim.

One Thing I Liked: Koby McEwen keeps working on defense – This hasn’t been a good non-conference season for Koby McEwen. He had a good first couple of games, but it has not been good since then. McEwen did do some great things on defense on Friday night. Vinnie Shahid had been a spark plug for North Dakota State before Friday and McEwen shut him down. At some point, he’s going to break through again offensively.

Next up: Marquette gets a cupcake to feast on before their Big East season when they take on Central Arkansas. It is Markus Howard’s brother alma mater. Even though it should be a blowout for the Golden Eagles, expect a ton of points. The Bears like to run and so does Marquette. It should be a fun game.

Charlie.