Marquette is a bubble team for the NCAA Tournament yet again this year. We usually see with bubble teams they have a wide-range of wines and losses. They tend to get blown out from time to time as well. That happened with Marquette last night as Xavier pounded the Golden Eagles, 89-70, in one of the Golden Eagles’ worst loss of the season. Xavier did not want this team winning for the second straight year at the Cintas Center, and Marquette ran into a buzzsaw as Xavier is playing really good basketball of late.

It’s not time to panic
Some might be looking at this and saying ‘Man, we’re not in the upper tier of the Big East and maybe not the tournament.’ Maybe, that’s the case, but I’m not buying this was a ‘must-win’ for Marquette with what’s upcoming on their schedule. Sure, they have Villanova on Sunday afternoon, but after that, things start to lighten up a little bit for them. Just as long as the team handles their business, they should be fine for the month of March. I’m not anywhere near the panic button.

Steve Wojciechowski needs to adjust his offense
If you want to put yourself in doom and gloom, there might be some reason for what’s happening at the three-point line. Marquette suddenly lost their mojo like Austin Powers and haven’t been that great from deep lately. Markus Howard had 30 plus points last night, but he only made three from deep. Andrew Rowsey continues to be in a funk. My concern is Butler developed a defensive blueprint to slow down Marquette’s offense. Teams like Xavier, Villanova and others have the bodies to make it work. Wojo is going to need to adjust or the same thing will happen versus Nova.

More frustrating that it wasn’t Bluett and Macura?
If you were to tell a Marquette fan who was completely in the dark that J.P. Macura and Treveon Blueitt had a combined 20 points, they’d think the Golden Eagles were in this game until the end. They didn’t need to score with the linkes of Quinten Goodin and Kerem Kanter getting buckets in the paint. Both players did not have to be the catalyst for a blowout. If anything, this should show you how Xavier can be a Final Four team.

Next up
It doesn’t get any easier for Marquette as they head home to host Villanova on Sunday afternoon. Marquette will look for their second straight season of knocking off the number one team in the country. This isn’t a must-win by any stretch of the imagination, but a win versus Nova would vault Marquette’s tournament chances to new heights.

Charlie.