#11 Marquette Men’s Basketball Big East Game Preview: At RV Creighton Bluejays

#11 Marquette Golden Eagles (18-5, 9-3 Big East) at RV Creighton Bluejays (17-6, 10-2 Big East)

Date: Saturday, February 8, 2025
Time: 13:00 Central
Location: Chi Health Center, Omaha, Nebraska

Insertation: Marquette is trying to flip a two -game ski after loss to Uconn and St. John’s. Creighton is trying to expand an eight gaming -winning row.

Marquette State leaders

Point: Kam Jones, 18.8 ppg
Rebounds: David Joplin, 5.0 RPG
Helps: Kam Jones, 6.0 Acts

Creighton State leaders

Point: Ryan Kalkbrenner, 19.2 ppg
Rebounds: Ryan Kalkbrenner, 8.5 RPG
Helps: Steven Ashworth, 6.8 Acts

Huge flashing star: If you take his 49 point excursion in the opener when no one else on his team could do a Darn thing against UTGV, Ryan Kalkbrenner is only an average of 17.0 points per Match. Still leading the team but you see the point.

Kenpom.com Location

Marquette: #19
Creighton: #29
Game Projection: Creighton has a 53% chance of victory with a predicted score of 73-72.

Last Time Out: Marquette wedges a 26-3 race between Creighton race of 10-0 and 12-0, but won the rest of the game 53-46 and defeated Bluejays in Milwaukee, 79-71, in the first game 2025 for Golden Eagles. Mu held Ryan Kalkbrenner to only 10 points in the first 37 minutes of the game, and all they had to do was continue to answer him to avert the visiting team down the stretch. A suggestion if I might, for Marquette this time: Don’t go nine first half of belongings without scoring again. Not fun!

Lastly we met: Creighton hasn’t lost.

The MU/CU game in Milwaukee was Creighton’s sixth competition since Pop Isaacs went out for the year with a hip injury that was not 100% resolved when out of season. When they got back on the plane to Omaha, Bluejays had dropped to 3-3 without Isaacs, which was the best player on the floor as they beat No. 1 Kansas at the Chi Health Center.

But either because things take time or maybe because the schedule has turned in their favor a little, they have not lost since Marquette. The only tournament team in the big east that they faced in that time was Uconn, and that competition happened To get right in the middle of Huskies and find out exactly what the heck they did without Liam McNeeley in the set -up. But when Marquette figured out on Saturday, Uconn is still good without their high-profile beginner, then credit to Bluejays for the 68-63 road victory there.

Not everyone has been picnics and fun times for Creighton. Won on butler of 4, needed a bank in the corner three-pointer (yes, it really happened) from Steven Ashworth in the last minute to beat Villanova In Finn, 62-60, there was only one at Providence with seven minutes to go Wednesday night on the amplifier, even while Ryan Kalkbrenner put together a 35 point, 12 rebound performance.

They all go in the scorebook as the winner, and Bluejays are tied to the eighth longest winning row in the country when I write this Thursday morning. Of course, they do not play again, so the number can only get better if there is a useful result between now and Saturday.

Tempo Free Fun: Obviously the first thing we need to do is see what Bluejays have done during their winning row, and So we go toward Barttorvik.com data varieties!

Over the last eight games, Creighton has played as the #18 team in the country. Their violation has been perfectly fine and comes in at No. 52 in the country, but they win in defense. Torvik computers measure the Bluejay defense of No. 12 in the country since they lost against Marquette, and that’s pretty good. As their full seasonal numbers tell you, they don’t force revenue at least, so it’s just good old -fashioned, which gets you at rebounding speed), and don’t let you get to the line (#2 in free speed).

For the sake of saying it out loud: Marquette is #62 in the country in exactly the same timeframe. It is less than ideal, but not surprising to anyone who has seen MU in the last eight games. “Inconsistently” would be the best way to put it mildly to say that.

With that in mind, we are aiming to look at how Marquette beat Creighton for the first time and see what can be replicated. I don’t think “Steven Ashworth is shooting 1-for-13 behind the arch” is on the table for several reasons, not least is the fact that he’s hit at least three triple in each of Creighton’s last four games. The rest of the team went 6-for-18 in that game, and given that CU is shooting 34% on the season, 36% in Big East Play and 35% in the last eight games, I sign up 100% for a 33 % shooting night from them without blinking twice.

One thing that can be repeated for Marquette, and is actually something they have to improve is to force turns from Bluejays. A turnover rate of less than 17% when MU average is 24% in the year and in the Big East game is an under-couple day, but you can make it work. Creighton’s kind of terrible to keep track of the ball on offense, ranking no. 262 in the country together this year per year. Kenpom.comAnd only #159 in turnover speed during the winning row of this eight match according to the Torvik filtration. Steven Ashworth can be provided to give the ball up, and he is undoubtedly worse with it against Creighton’s toughest opponents. The same thing applies to Jamiya Neal, who turns it over more than 21% of the time in Creighton’s nine games against the top 50 opponents.

Oddly enough, Marquette was able to cause problems for Ryan Kalkbrenner at the first meeting, causing him to get three revenue when he has received a single -digit revenue speed per year. I don’t know if it’s a random chance or Marquette is particularly great for timing their double teams on him in the position, but I wouldn’t trust it to happen again. As such, MU has to find a way to get the guys who are likely to cough it up to do exactly that.

One thing that needs to be replicated, but we will have to wait and see is how Marquette handles the presence of Lime Brenner in the middle. As I remember, he spent a lot of time defending Stevie Mitchell at the first meeting, which I suppose to have more to do with “Creighton will not have lime brenner, threat to get into the field if you get rid of defending him . In any case, 1) Marquette shot 50% on two-pointers at the first meeting, and Lime Brenner completed the game with zero blocks. It’s his only zero-block game throughout the season, and generally, it’s bad when you are allegedly the best defensive player at the conference since Patrick Ewing patroled the paint in the mid-1980s. Well, bad for CreightonIt’s a great news for Marquette if they have unlocked a kind of key to sliding around or past him and getting shots up that he can’t affect.

Creighton is an imperfect team, but they have done a lot of things right on this winning row. If Marquette can force them backwards to the way they played against Golden Eagles for the first time if Marquette can play the kind of game that Shaka Smart has to preach to them all season, then they can find a way to snap this two game shit.

Marquette Last 10 matches: 7-3, but comes in after back-to-back loss

Creighton Last 10 matches: 9-1 and drove on an eight-match winning row

All-Time Series: Marquette leads, 60-40.

Current stripe: Marquette won earlier this season in Milwaukee to keep the current edge in the series. Golden Eagles has won four of the last five meetings.

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