The game is more important than 47 points. Marquette must beat Louisville Thursday to salvage its downtrodden conference season. The Golden Eagles have yet to beat a team in Conference USA that is currently above them in the standings.
Of course, the Golden Eagle players will not soon forget the 99-52 thrashing — sans senior guard Travis Diener — they endured at Louisville Jan. 26, the worst loss in school history.
In the three games without Diener, Marquette was out-scored by a combined 70 points in losses to Louisville and Alabama-Birmingham and won by four in overtime at Saint Louis.
"When Travis got hurt, our whole key was to be a better basketball team when he got back," Marquette head coach Tom Crean said.
Since Diener's return from a foot injury, the Golden Eagles ground out wins against Southern Mississippi and East Carolina in addition to losing at Texas Christian in between.
Louisville has a point to prove as well, after losing its all-conquering aura in last week's capitulation at home against Memphis. By the time the ball tips off five minutes before 6 p.m. (at the request of ESPN), Louisville will be sharing first place with Charlotte.
Even Francisco Garcia, whom the press always praises as the consummate team player, has slipped as of late. In Garcia's last eight C-USA games, he has averaged just 12.5 ppg, and he shot a combined 3-for-15 from the field in his last two.
The late-season fade has been the modus operandi of head coach Rick Pitino's first three seasons at Louisville. An 11-3 start became 19-13 in 2001-'02, an 18-1 start turned into 25-7 before Louisville won the C-USA Tournament in 2002-'03 and last season's 20-10 record came after a 16-1 start.
But here's one fact from the present season: all five Louisville starters average double figures in scoring.
"They have excellent spacing," Crean said. "They can create on inside-out threes. It's going to be very important that we keep the dribbler in front of us."
Louisville sunk 17-of-30 three-pointers in the first meeting, including six from guard Larry O'Bannon who finished with a game-high 30 points.
Marquette hosts DePaul Sunday afternoon in a rematch of the Blue Demons' 85-72 triumph Jan. 20.
This article appeared in The Marquette Tribune on Feb. 17 2005.