Kansas State Wildcats vs. Marquette Golden Eagles: Lineups, time, TV and prediction
The details
When/where: 8 p.m. Saturday at Bramlage Coliseum in Manhattan, Kansas
TV/radio: ESPN2; KKGQ (92.3 FM) in Wichita, KCSP (610 AM) in Kansas City.
Projected lineups
P | No. | Marquette | Ht. | Yr. | PPG |
F | 4 | Theo John | 6-9 | Jr. | 5.4 |
F | 1 | Brendan Bailey | 6-8 | So. | 7.3 |
G | 2 | Sacir Anim | 6-5 | Sr. | 11.8 |
G | 0 | Markus Howard | 5-11 | Sr. | 26.0 |
G | 25 | Koby McEwan | 6-4 | Jr. | 10.6 |
P | No. | Kansas State | Ht. | Yr. | PPG |
F | 11 | Antonio Gordon | 6-9 | Fr. | 5.6 |
F | 14 | Makol Mawien | 6-9 | Sr. | 8.4 |
G | 20 | Xavier Sneed | 6-5 | Sr. | 15.0 |
G | 00 | Mike McGuirl | 6-2 | Jr. | 6.6 |
G | 2 | Cartier Diarra | 6-4 | Jr. | 11.4 |
About Marquette (5-2): The Golden Eagles defeated the Wildcats 83-71 last season at Fiserv Forum behind a whopping 45 points from Markus Howard. The elite scoring guard is back as a senior, but the rest of Marquette’s roster looks a bit different following the departures of brothers Sam and Joey Hauser. One transferred to Virginia and the other is now at Michigan State. Marquette has solid wins this season against Purdue, Davidson and Southern California, but it has also lost by double digits against Wisconsin and Maryland away from home. Sacir Anim will be K-State’s top defensive priority after Howard, assuming he is able to play after missing Marquette’s last game with a concussion.
About Kansas State (5-2): The Wildcats bounced back from their first two losses of the season with a home victory over Florida A&M earlier this week. It was their most complete effort of the year but still far from a perfect outing for K-State. The Wildcats turned the ball over 20 times and allowed 10 offensive rebounds. They will hope for a better game against Marquette Saturday. This is an important home matchup for them. Power teams from outside the Big 12 rarely visit Bramlage Coliseum. This is arguably the biggest nonconference home game K-State has played since Virginia Tech way back in 2010. Freshman forward Montavious Murphy is unlikely to play in this game as he continues to recover from a knee injury.
Prediction: If these two teams played each other seven times while both were at full strength the Golden Eagles would win the series. But there is some uncertainty surrounding Marquette star Markus Howard and the Wildcats should be highly motivated in front of a big home crowd. As long as Howard doesn’t go crazy for 40-plus points, K-State can win this game.
K-State 68, Marquette 65.