Marquette draws VCU in Maui Invitational opener
Matt Velazquez
The Marquette men's basketball team will play VCU in the opening game of the 34th edition of the Maui Invitational Nov. 20-22 at the Lahaina Civic Center.
The Marquette-VCU game is scheduled for 1:30 p.m., or 9:30 a.m. Maui time, and will be televised on ESPN2.
The tournament announced its bracket Tuesday.
"Obviously we have incredible respect for VCU as a program," Marquette head coach Steve Wojciechowski said. "I think they’re one of only a handful of teams that have been in the last seven NCAA Tournaments, they return an all-conference performer and they just have an overall tradition of accomplishment and achievement."
Marquette and VCU are joined on the top half of the bracket by Wichita State — a projected top 25 team entering next season — and California. The bottom segment of the bracket includes Notre Dame vs. Chaminade and Michigan vs. LSU.
The matchup between the Golden Eagles and Rams will be the first between the two programs since 1987 and only the third all-time. VCU won both ends of a home-and-home series in 1986 and '87.
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Marquette and VCU both earned No. 10 seeds in the 2017 NCAA Tournament, with each falling in the first round. Both will have to adjust to changes in the coming season, though the differences will be more significant for the Rams.
The Golden Eagles lost three of their top five scorers to graduation and redshirt junior Duane Wilson left for Texas A&M as a graduate transfer. Marquette will have to figure out how to integrate its five returning scholarship players — including Andrew Rowsey as the lone senior — with its four incoming freshmen and sophomore Sacar Anim, who will be returning to action after a redshirt season.
The Rams lost five seniors to graduation and three players transferred after head coach Will Wade left to take the same job at LSU. Former assistant Mike Rhoades was tabbed to take over as coach, but soon after a pair of top 100 recruits requested a release from their signed letters of intent and chose other colleges.
The result is a roster that contains only five players who logged minutes for the Rams last season. Among those five, only seniors Jonathan Williams and Justin Tillman made significant contributions, with Tillman earning all-Atlantic 10 third team honors.