Pregame notes: Marquette vs. St. John's
Marquette (16-10, 7-7 Big East) will try to create some momentum heading into a two-game road as it hosts St. John's (12-15, 6-8) at 7 p.m. Tuesday at the BMO Harris Bradley Center. The two teams faced off on Feb. 1 with St. John's winning, 86-72, at Madison Square Garden. The Golden Eagles are 3-3 against the Red Storm over the past three seasons with head coach Steve Wojciechowski at the helm with all three victories coming last season.
The game will be televised on FOX Sports 1 with Justin Kutcher (play-by-play) and Stephen Bardo (analyst) calling the action. On radio, the game will air on ESPN 540, the flagship of the MU radio network, where Steve "The Homer" True and Jim McIlvaine will have the call.
I'll be tweeting some of my observations throughout the game, so check out our season-long live Twitter stream here and feel free to follow me on Twitter at @Matt_Velazquez. You can also follow the live box scores on our college basketball scoreboard page.
Below are the probable starting lineups and a few notes that will help prepare you for the game.
POSSIBLE STARTING LINEUPS
Markus Howard, 5-foot-11, G, fr.
Andrew Rowsey, 5-foot-10, G, fr.
Duane Wilson, 6-foot-2, G, jr.
Sam Hauser, 6-foot-6, G, fr.
Matt Heldt, 6-foot-10, C, soph.
Marcus LoVett, 6-foot, G, fr.
Shamorie Ponds, 6-foot-1, G, fr.
Bashir Ahmed, 6-foot-7, G/F, jr.
Kassoum Yakwe, 6-foot-7, F, soph.
Tariq Owens, 6-foot-11, F, soph.
Pregame read: Marquette is in control of its postseason destiny with four regular-season games remaining on the schedule. In order to optimize their chances at returning to the NCAA Tournament for the first time since 2013, the Golden Eagles will need to rely on more than experience,talent and skill. They're going to need to battle for every victory and Wojciechowski has demonstrated that he's going to ride the players who bring the highest level of urgency and focus to the table.
Al's night: Legendary Marquette basketball coach Al McGuire played three seasons at St. John's before leading the Warriors to a 295-80 record as well as the 1977 national championship over 13 seasons as head coach. As a program, Marquette has celebrated McGuire with "Al's Night" when the Golden Eagles and Red Storm face off.
For more about McGuire, check out the Journal Sentinel's coverage of Marquette basketball's centennial, which includes multiple links to stories about McGuire as well as quotes from the charismatic coach.
Howard honored: Marquette only had one game last week, but that was more than enough to earn Markus Howard the Big East's freshman of the week award. The 17-year-old guard dropped 34 points on Xavier — the most by a true freshman at Marquette since freshmen eligibility was reinstated in 1972 — including a program record-tying nine three-pointers on just 12 attempts.
Howard might have earned the league's player of the week honors if it weren't for Seton Hall junior guard Khadeen Carrington, who scored 41 points against Creighton last week before adding 22 against Villanova on Saturday. He averaged 31.5 points, 4.5 assists, 3.5 rebounds and 2.5 steals as the Pirates split those two games.
Butler's Kelan Martin, Creighton's Marcus Foster, Providence's Rodney Bullock, Seton Hall's Angel Delgado and Villanova's Jalen Brunson rounded out the weekly honor roll. Click here to view the Big East's release on this week's award winners.
Matt Velazquez can be reached at mvelazquez@journalsentinel.com and twitter.com/Matt_Velazquez.