Marquette at Butler: Three things to watch

Marquette hopes to build off its upset of Seton Hall when it plays Butler at Hinkle Fieldhouse on Friday night.

The Golden Eagles (12-5, 3-2 Big East) had their best defensive performance against the Pirates.

The Bulldogs (12-6, 2-3) swept both games against MU last season.

The game will be televised on FS1 with Steve Physioc and Nick Bahe and can be heard on AM-540 with Jim McIlvaine and Steve "The Homer" True.

Here are three things to watch:

1. Battle-hardened Butler

The Big East schedule isn't kind to any team, but Butler was front-loaded with tough games. The Bulldogs were riding high at 2-0 in the league on Dec. 30 after sinking 15 three-pointers to hand Villanova its lone loss. But the conference grind caught up with Butler, and it has lost three straight to ranked foes: 86-79 at Xavier, 90-87 vs. Seton Hall and 85-74 at Creighton, The Bulldogs will be hungry for a victory.

2. Bulldog mentality

Butler seems pretty well-equipped to defend Marquette's shooting tandem of sophomore Markus Howard and senior Andrew Rowsey. Head coach LaVall Jordan will likely assign long-armed backcourt mates Kamar Baldwin and Aaron Thompson to the task. MU coach Steve Wojciechowski called Baldwin “one of the best on-ball defenders that I’ve seen in college basketball.” However, Butler's defense has struggled in Big East play, allowing 88.6 points per game and an effective field-goal percentage of 56.1. Both of those marks are last in the conference.

3. Perfect free throws

It might not have an effect on the outcome, but it bears mentioning that Howard has not missed a free throw in 51 attempts this season. Rowsey is perfect from the charity stripe in Big East games (28 of 28) and was 5 of 5 in the Golden Eagles' last non-conference game. For the season, Rowsey is 96 of 106.