Wisconsin at Marquette: how to watch, game preview and open thread

If I am being honest, I don’t think a whole lot about Marquette throughout the year. I don’t live in Wisconsin anymore and the only person I know here in the Twin Cities that went to MU is a former bar regular of mine, and I haven’t worked there in over a year. Needless to say, the Marquette Golden Eagles are not a big part of my life.

However, once a year, for about 48 hours in early December, I am reminded that I really, really don’t like Marquette’s men’s basketball team. We are currently in that time frame and I would like to say Marquette can go kick rocks!

The No. 4 Wisconsin Badgers (3-0 overall, 0-0 B1G) and the Marquette Golden Eagles (2-1 overall, 0-0 Big East) renew their rivalry on Friday night and it should be a good game. Wisconsin has started the season with a trio of teams who would be classified as, uh, less talented than them and they are ready to test their mettle against a more equal foe. Marquette has actually played two of the same teams (Arkansas Pine-Bluff and Eastern Illinois) as Wisconsin and beaten them both handily too.

However, in a matchup of talented freshmen, Dawson Garcia and Oklahoma State’s Cade Cunningham, the Golden Eagles came up short and lost their first game of the season 70-62 to the Cowboys. Garcia struggled from the floor, shooting 2-of-9 and only scoring four points. He also only grabbed two rebounds which, at 6-foot-11, is almost criminal.

This will be an interesting game for the Badgers because Marquette actually has size that matches up with UW. There is the aforementioned Garcia but also 6-foot-9 shot blocker Theo John and 6-foot-7 and 245 pound freshman Justin Lewis who comes off the bench. MU still has Koby McEwen (No. 25 below) running the show who has scored in double-figures every game, with a season-high 21 against Oklahoma State.

Photo by Quinn Harris/Getty Images

In chatting with MU fans on Twitter, they don’t seem super confident in their chances of winning but both the spread and KenPom’s win percentage predictor seem to think it’ll be close. Throw in the fact that it is a rivalry game and almost all of these guys have a history with each other? I think we’re in store for another close game where just about everyone leaves unhappy with something.

Ahhhh, rivalries!

How to watch/listen

TV: FS1, 6:00 p.m., CT, Kevin Fitzgerald, Steve Lavin

Streaming: FOX Sports Go

Radio/Satellite: 1310 AM, Sirius/XM 196; Matt Lepay, Mike Lucas; 94.5 ESPN FM (Milwaukee) is the flagship of the MU Radio Network, with Steve “The Homer” True and Tony Smith.

Live stats: Here!

Arena: Fiserv Forum, Milwaukee

Line: Wisconsin -4.5

KenPom Wisconsin win percentage: 56%

Fun facts (according to the media guides)

• The Badgers have won their first three games by an average of 28.0 ppg, shooting 50.6% from the field, 41.9% from 3-point range and holding opponents to just 55.7 ppg.
• Wisconsin owns the nation’s fifth longest active win streak (11 games) and tops among major conference teams.
• Eight different Badgers are averaging between six and 15 ppg and seven of those players have scored in double digits this season.
• UW holds a 68-58 lead in the all-time series with the Golden Eagles. The Badgers are 3-2 in their last five trips to Marquette. In Milwaukee, MU holds a 40-29 edge.

• UW and MU, who are playing in their 127th meeting tonight, have played every year but one since the 1958-59 season.
• Brad Davison (Maple Grove, Minn.) is childhood friends and prep rivals with Marquette’s Theo John (Minneapolis).
• Ben Carlson (Woodbury, Minn.) was AAU teammates with Marquette’s Dawson Garcia (Prior Lake, Minn.) since 8th grade and Steven Crowl (Eagan, Minn.) played with them last year.
• Freshman forward Garcia, the preseason Big East Freshman of the Year, led the team in scoring last week (when he won Big East Newcomer of the Week) with 17.5 points per game and also contributed 6.0 rebounds per game while shooting 55.6 percent from the field (10- of-18) and 66.7 percent (4-of-6) from deep

Probable starters

Wisconsin

• D’Mitrik Trice, 6-foot, redshirt senior, guard, No. 0
• Aleem Ford, 6-foot-8 redshirt senior, forward, No. 2
• Micah Potter, 6-foot-10, redshirt senior, center, No. 11
• Brad Davison, 6-foot-4, senior, guard, No. 34
• Nate Reuvers, 6-foot-11, senior, forward, No. 35

Marquette

• Theo John, 6-foot-9, senior, forward, No. 4
• Symir Torrance, 6-foot-3, sophomore, guard, No. 10
• Jamal Cain, 6-foot-7, senior, forward, No. 23
• Koby McEwen, 6-foot-4, redshirt senior, guard, No. 25
• Dawson Garcia, 6-foot-11, freshman, forward, No. 33