Previewing Marquette's Schedule

Marquette's full schedule has been announced. That means that basketball season is getting close. Beginning next Monday, Cracked Sidewalks will release our opponent previews. These will start with non-conference opponents release over three weeks, followed by conference opponents released over three weeks. Today we're going to preview the preview with some quick thoughts on opponents, the schedule structure, and what you can expect from Cracked Sidewalks in the coming weeks. Bear in mind the order for Big East previews hasn't been determined, so we will instead just provide dates and general Big East schedule thoughts.

September 22: Albany Preview - Marquette opens the season with a visit from the Great Danes and a couple familiar faces on the sidelines.

September 23: Southern Preview - This team is the favorite in the SWAC according to T-Rank and could be the best metric team from the SWAC of the analytics era. The Jaguars are a very good buy game opponent.

September 24: Indiana Preview - Marquette's first high-major contest takes place in Chicago against the new look Hoosiers. Indiana has some highly productive players but need that talent to translate up to the high-major level.

September 25: Little Rock Preview - This is an excellent buy game opponent. The Trojans are loaded with all-league talent and have Quadrant 3 or higher upside.

September 29: Maryland Preview - Marquette welcomes Buzz Williams back to Milwaukee. The Terps look like another tough defensive unit that plays bully-ball offense, but may need time to gel.

September 30: Dayton Preview - Most outlets are down on the Flyers, but some of their offseason departures may be addition by subtraction and they have a big man anchor with NBA upside.

October 1: Central Michigan Preview - The Chippewas are trying to replicate Drake's success by hiring a star Division 2 coach. Few coaching staffs have as many coaches that won national titles, but none of them have done it at this level.

October 2: Oklahoma Preview - It's another trip to Chicago, this time against Porter Moser and the Sooners. This is a team with NCAA Tournament talent but will need a number of guys to bounce back from injury to realize it.

October 6: Valparaiso Preview - It could be a tough year for the Beacons, who lost a lot in the transfer portal and had to plumb mostly outside Division 1 to replace those losses.

October 7: UW-Madison Preview - Bucky brings in a mix of returning stars and solid transfer performers. Making the Tourney will be the goal but can they compete once again for a protected seed?

October 8: Purdue Preview - Marquette closes out non-conference play at Mackey against a Purdue team with National Championship aspirations. The offense will be elite, but will the defense be good enough to play into April?

October 13, October 14, October 15, October 16 - Big East Week 1

October 20, October 21, October 22, October 23 - Big East Week 2

October 27, October 28, October 29 - Big East Week 3

I feel like the Big East season really breaks down into three mini-seasons. Let's look at them in order:

Season 1: The Imbalance (Games 1-7)

Georgetown, at Creighton, Seton Hall, at UConn, Xavier, Villanova, at St. John's

Marquette opens their season with what should be four very winnable home games mixed with the three most difficult road games. Of Georgetown, Seton Hall, Xavier, and Villanova, maybe at most one of those teams on paper looks like they will be in the hunt for an at-large bid. Obviously Marquette lost to Xavier last year at home, so upsets happen, but this is a stretch where Marquette should be able to get off to a winning start at home. But in between these games are trips to Creighton, UConn, and St. John's. Those are the three teams most frequently picked at the top of the Big East and getting even one win out of those three would be considered an achievement.

Personally, I love this start. Even if Marquette only wins the home games, they will still have a winning record through the first third of the schedule and will have their hardest games all out of the way. It really sets the team up well for success in the rest of the season as long as they don't stumble at home.

Season 2: Playing the Favorite (Games 8-13)

at DePaul, Providence, at Butler, Creighton, at Seton Hall, Butler

Anything less than 4-2 in this stretch would probably be considered a disappointment. Granted, there are three road games, but Marquette should be favored to win all of those. Creighton is tough on any court, but getting them at home in a first chance at a marquee conference win comes right in the middle of the schedule. The spacing of these games is a plus. Four days off instead of three when we go on the road to Butler and Seton Hall. A full week of rest before we take on Butler again for National Marquette Day, so the team will be fully focused on that game.

After those tough opening road games, this is a chance to get a long winning streak going. Marquette should be able to improve their position both in the league and moving up NCAA Tournament seed lines.

Season 3: The Gauntlet (Games 14-20)

at Villanova, at Xavier, St. John's, at Georgetown, DePaul, at Providence, UConn

The final stretch is a mix of road games and tough home tests. Villanova and Xavier don't look like they'll be tourney level this year on paper. Georgetown and Providence both have at-large upside, and those could be resume moving games in the final weeks (for good or bad). This is also a great chance to get some marquee wins at home with both St. John's and UConn coming to town right before the Big East Tournament. Don't count out DePaul as having more value that usual either, I don't think home DePaul is the easiest game in this stretch (testament to Chris Holtmann).

This is the toughest part of the schedule. The winnable games are mostly on the road, which is never easy, and the home games are not gimmes. This is where we'll determine if Marquette has enough to shock the Big East like they did in 2023 or if they are just fighting to stay on the right side of the bubble.

Closing Big East Schedule Thoughts

I would really like to have more home games on the weekends. The Bucks don't play a single Saturday home game in December, January, or February, but Marquette only ended up two Saturdays in that three-month stretch. But there's no shortage of Tuesday/Wednesday games in that same stretch. In terms of drawing big crowds and getting both students and families into the building, that's a disappointment.

But in terms of schedule structure, this is fantastic. Marquette only plays consecutive road games twice, and never has to play three straight on the road or four out of five. Having a week off ahead of National Marquette Day is excellent and really lets fans get excited for that game. The schedule structure, with the three toughest road games early sets up so that if this team could break through and compete at the top of the league, the schedule will only aid that. The closing stretch will be difficult, but it will be a good measure of where this team is at come March. If this team is ready to continue at the level of the past three years, those final games will be a chance to earn a top seed in the Big East Tournament. If not, it'll still be a chance to earn an NCAA bid. I also like that Marquette plays all 10 Big East teams once before playing any of them twice.

Stay tuned, previews will starting soon and carry us right up until the week before the 2025-26 season tips off. Don't worry, we'll have you primed and ready to Ring Out Ahoya, starting next week.