Golden Eagles faced a pretty tough task on Saturday night. They had to beat Villanova on the road with the Cats having a week off to stew about their loss to Butler last week. Nova came out with a fury and never really quit from the start. The Wildcats were victorious, 100-90, as Marquette begins the year 2-2 in the Big East although both losses are against top ten teams in the country. The depressing thing about Saturday night for Marquette fans is the Golden Eagles are still light years away from being at the same level as Villanova.

Andrew Rowsey picked a bad time for his worst outing of the year
Tough game for Andrew Rowsey who went 2-for-12 from the field with only six points scored. He only played 26 minutes in this one which is a season-low. Steve Wojciechowski kept him on the bench down the stretch as Marquette tried to come back in this game. Rowsey tried to heat himself up multiple times in this game only to have to go nowhere. Let’s hope Nova didn’t deliver the book in how to shut him down, or Marquette is in trouble.

Marquette gets demolished defensively early on
You never want to give up 100 points in 40 minutes like Marquette did, but Villanova came out with a fury going 62 percent from the field including 6-for-12 from deep. That’s a pretty solid way to start a game for the Wildcats who jumped out to a 12 point halftime lead. Marquette needed to have a better strategy out of the gate. It makes no sense why Wojo didn’t have a little more preparation for this one. Golden Eagles looked pretty disinterested in playing defense for the entire evening including the haphazard start.

Greg Elliott comes up big for Golden Eagles
Another game where a freshman has a big performance for the team. Greg Elliott had his best game as a Golden Eagle with 13 points and four rebounds. Elliott appears to be getting more comfortable in the offense, much like we saw with Jamal Cain last week. Marquette’s bench could be the difference for this team in the Big East season. My guess is you’ll see that end of the game rotation that attempted a vaillant comeback to be used again by Wojo.

Next up
They return home to play Seton Hall who has been a recent thorn in the side of the Golden Eagles. Pirates have won four of their last five versus Marquette, and I shudder to think what Angel Delgado will do to Marquette’s front line. Seton Hall is also on quite the heater beating Butler on the road in a thriller on Saturday afternoon. This could be a huge win for the bubble if Marquette could pull it off.

Charlie.