As fans saw Sunday night at the Bradley Center, the mettle of this Marquette men's basketball team has yet to be tested.

So are the Golden Eagles ready for their season opener against IUPUI in four days?

Head coach Tom Crean thinks so, judging from his team's 83-55 exhibition victory over Division II Northern State.

"To have a scrimmage against a really good opponent (Kansas State) and to come in against a really good opponent in an exhibition game, you can't be any better than that to start your season," Crean said. "We saw two different styles, but we saw two well-coached teams that had an inside game and guards who could shoot it. It made us play and that's what you really want."

Marquette returned all five primary starters from a year ago but had a different look Sunday night—besides the Converse-brand Wade uniforms—when Crean started junior Dwight Burke over senior Ousmane Barro, a proven post player.

Burke accounted for five of Marquette's 20 steals. He also had two points and six rebounds.

"I'm glad we started Dwight, and I'm glad he's got that under his belt now," Crean said. "I'm glad he got the five steals, and hopefully he'll have confidence from that."

Senior Dan Fitzgerald also started up front. But when Crean made his first substitutions with 16:46 left in the first half, sophomore Lazar Hayward replaced the 6-foot-9 inch senior.

Hayward made the most of his 15 minutes, scoring a game-high 17 points. Wesley Matthews added 16 and Dominic James chipped in 12.

Although Marquette had a strong offensive output, the Golden Eagles were out-rebounded by the Wolves, 38-35.

"I think we learned we still have a ways to go on defense," Hayward said. "We had a couple mishaps, which I don't think should have happened because we're a much more mature team this year."

Crean didn't think his team's free throw shooting was much of a concern, even in the first half—Marquette went 16-for-29 (55.2 percent). In contrast, it finished 14-for-15 (93.3 percent) in the second half.

"A great lesson for everybody else is that the guys who got in double figures made most of their free throws," Crean said. "The free-throw shooting doesn't worry me too much. We haven't been in here very much. It's a place we've got to get used to."

Sophomore Maurice Acker, a 5-foot-8 inch transfer from Ball State, showed court awareness by lobbing alley-oops to James and Lawrence Blackledge in the second half.

Tied 12-12, Acker gave Marquette the lead for good when he scored an uncontested layup off a Hayward steal.

"He showed good pressure and played with a lot of fire," Crean said. "We need him in attack-mode all the time, delivering the ball."

Marquette led 40-30 at halftime and blew the game open in the second half. Its largest lead was 32 points.

"In the second half, we played like a veteran team," Crean said. "That's how we have to play."

Freshman forward Trevor Mbakwe was in street clothes and would've likely been the first big man off the bench. He'll miss the entire season with an isolated fibular collateral ligament sprain to his left knee.

Junior Kevin Ratzsch led the Wolves with 12 points, but he also committed a game-high eight turnovers.

The Golden Eagles began the second half on an 23-9 run, opening up a 63-39 lead with just over 11 minutes left to play and forcing Northern State to settle for three-point shots. The Wolves shot just 9 percent from beyond the arc, going 2-for-22.

Marquette shot 42 percent from the field in the first half, including 33 percent from behind the three-point line. Northern State was content to send the Golden Eagles' post players to the free throw line instead of allowing easy buckets, committing 17 personal fouls in the first 20 minutes.