The men's basketball team will try to beat Pittsburgh tonight for a third time this season. And unlike last Saturday, when the Golden Eagles held serve at home with a 75-71 win, the heat will be on the Panthers at Madison Square Garden.,”
Marquette fans could not have asked for a juicier game entering the Big East tournament.
The men's basketball team will try to beat Pittsburgh tonight for a third time this season. And unlike last Saturday, when the Golden Eagles held serve at home with a 75-71 win, the heat will be on the Panthers at Madison Square Garden.
If Pitt (25-6, 12-4 Big East) beats Marquette (24-8, 10-6), it likely will secure a No. 3 seed in the NCAA tournament. If Pitt loses to the Golden Eagles, though, the NCAA tournament committee would be forced to determine whether the Panthers, despite having a better record, deserve a higher seed than the Golden Eagles.
The Panthers will not be the only team playing with NCAA tournament seeding implications on the line; Marquette probably can do no worse than a No. 6 seed after beating St. John's 76-67 Wednesday night. However, the Golden Eagles can play their way to a No. 5 seed or better depending on how they fare the rest of the Big East tournament.
"We're confident," said junior Dan Fitzgerald, who scored a career-high 20 points against St. John's, on the 1290-AM ESPN Radio post-game show. "When we get stops and move the ball on offense, we feel we can beat anybody."
Three wins against Pitt would be an astonishing résumé credential.
Expect a different Pittsburgh team from the one that struggled during the majority of Saturday's game at the Bradley Center.
The Panthers' three best perimeter shooters – Levance Fields, Antonio Graves and Ronald Ramon – shot a combined 6-of-30 from the field Saturday. Each player shoots better than 42 percent on the season, and the likelihood that all three simultaneously will struggle again is not high.
Marquette likely will be without its second-leading scorer, Jerel McNeal, for the third straight game. So far, role players like David Cubillan (20 points vs. Pitt Saturday) and Fitzgerald have filled the void capably.
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