In less than one week, the Marquette men's basketball team (20-4, 9-2 Big East) has realized three things.

The first realization — all good things must come to an end — was something that the team had to expect. Marquette's 20-2 start was the best since the 1977-'78 team went 22-2.

But at the same time, doubters of the Golden Eagles' play have continually said that Marquette has yet to play any elite competition. Sure, Notre Dame and Georgetown were ranked when they lost to the Golden Eagles, but they have since lost to the majority of the Big East.

For coach Buzz Williams' part, he has done a commendable job ignoring the criticism and keeping his team motivated.

"Everybody gets paid to do a job and everybody is entitled to their own opinion," Williams said. "To be honest with you, I don't pay much attention, if at all, to the TV or the newspaper.

"We've played the schedule that the Big East gave us. Whether that pales in comparison to others, how it stacks up, I don't know."

But the TV and newspapers pay attention to Williams. Which leads to realization number two — basketball is a "what have you done for me lately" business. As soon as the team fell to South Florida on Friday, the Marquette naysayers were suddenly re-supplied with ammunition.

Add a 102-84 loss at the hands of Villanova Tuesday night and Marquette is back to the place it has called home for the past three seasons — in the middle of the pack of Big East contenders.

That's the way the NCAA has worked this season. There have been five different teams to rank No. 1 in the AP Top 25 in the last seven weeks. But this pattern of parity has translated to the Big East.

The current team to lead the conference, Connecticut, lost to Georgetown, which lost to Pittsburgh, which lost to Villanova, which lost to Louisville, which lost to Connecticut. All of this makes the fact that Marquette opened with nine-straight conference wins even more impressive.

"I've never seen anything like it," South Florida coach Stan Heath said. "The quality of talent, the coaching is outstanding and just the high level of competition you face every night. It's a war. What we've told our guys is just, 'Hey guys, it is a part of history.'"

While Marquette made history of its own last night when Jerel McNeal surpassed George Thompson as the team's all-time leading scorer, McNeal said the moment was a little bittersweet.

"Not what I had in mind…the way I wanted to accomplish it," he said. "It would have been a lot better to go out with the win as well.

"I'm not really focused on the record that much, I'm just worried about getting the team back on track and doing what we've got to do to win."

That's a difficult task when the team's upcoming schedule is taken into account. And that leads to the third realization for the Golden Eagles — the Big East was cruel in its scheduling.

Marquette returns to the Bradley Center Saturday for what should be two winnable games before taking on Georgetown, Connecticut, Louisville, Pittsburgh and Syracuse in its final five games, three of which are on the road.

It's a lot to handle, but the first-year head coach thinks he knows the secret.

"Everybody keeps asking me the same questions about (our) last five games," Williams said. "I think instead of trying to focus on the future and forecast that, I think the best thing you can do is work as hard as you can today and try to prepare your team."