Marquette had an early challenge in the season with a home game against the 19th ranked Purdue Boilermakers. Golden Eagles had a chance to get a resume-builder win in the first week of the season. Marquette hung with Purdue for about 20 minutes, but the Boilermakers continued to play their game which overwhelmed the Golden Eagles leading to 86-71. Purdue’s offense was fundamentally sound and looked very impressive. For Marquette, there is still work to do for them to be a top-tier team.

Marquette refuses to double Purdue’s big men
We can debate if Steve Wojciechowski made the right move by not double-teaming big men Issac Haas and Matt Haarms. Matt Heldt, Sam Hauser and Theo John did all that they could against these guys. I get why Wojo didn’t want to double because Purdue has dangerous three point shooters. You had to pick your poison. Do you let Purdue get easy buckets or more open opportunities for three? You probably let twos happen more than threes. Although, I think it would have been worth the occasional double.

Golden Eagles guards lead the way scoring to no one’s suprise
Markus Howard got off to a rough start without a shot attempt in the first four minutes, but he woke up finishing with 25 points and made the last seven shots of his night. Howard looked like a sophomore slump was out of the question as he played pretty well offensively. He needs to be better about fouling though. Marquette losing Howard with five minutes left in the game hurts the team’s chances to win greatly. Andrew Rowsey also had a nice night with 25 points and six assists yet turnovers are an issue for him with five of them. These two are small, but they’ll be very hard to beat when both are on.

Marquette’s depth could be an issue early on
It’s early in the season, but Marquette only playing eight guys is a bit concerning to me. Add to the fact, the two freshman Theo John and Greg Elliott only played a combined 22 minutes. Sacar Amin seems to be their sixth man, but he did not add any production off the bench. Jamal Cain must not be ready for the big-time opponents as he did not see the floor. My guess is Marquette will be 10-deep at some point of the season once Cain can give minutes and Harry Froling is on the team.

Purdue is much better than number 19
We see this with preseason rankings all of the time. A team is ranked higher or lower than they actually are as a team. Purdue is a top ten team without question. To me, this loss will not look bad at all in January when Purdue is ranked eighth in the country. They’re a really dynamic team who can beat you in a hundred ways.

Players of the Game: Issac Haas (Purdue) Markus Howard (Marquette)

Next up: Marquette heads to Maui to take on VCU in what should be an absolute shootout where 100 points to the winner is not out of the question. Rams are averaging 94.5 points through two games of the season. They have a tough game on Friday as they play Virginia, so, Marquette will be more well-rested team.

Charlie.