The Basketball Tournament announces matchups, times for BIG EAST pod

Golden Eagles Alumni’s path to the $2 million prize in The Basketball Tournament is now a bit clearer.

Marquette’s alumni team will take on the Johnnies, the St. John’s alumni team, in the first round June 30 at 2 p.m. If Golden Eagles Alumni win, they would then play the winner of Georgetown and Seton Hall’s alumni teams July 1 at 1 p.m.

Both games will be at the Al McGuire Center as part of the new BIG EAST pod. It is one of two pods in TBT. Ticket sales benefit the Midwest Athletes Against Childhood Cancer Fund.

The winner of the pod will advance to the Super 16 in Atlanta in late July. Golden Eagles Alumni have advanced past the first weekend in their first two seasons, but lost in the regional finals each year.

Men’s soccer unveils full 2018 schedule

Marquette men’s soccer has lost or tied its last five non-conference home matches, but head coach Louis Bennett will have plenty of chances to reverse that trend in 2018.

The schedule, which the program announced Tuesday, features five non-conference home matches including in-state fixtures with University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee and Wisconsin. Marquette’s 10 home games is its most since 2014.

Wisconsin will be the only non-conference home opponent that finished last year ranked in the top 100 of the National Collegiate Athletic Association Rating Percentage Index. The road schedule should be significantly more challenging, since four of six road opponents finished last year in the top 60 of RPI.

Men’s soccer will be looking for its first BIG EAST Tournament appearance since 2014, but will return its top three point-scorers from last year, including 2016 BIG EAST Freshman of the Year Luka Prpa.

Highly-touted 2020 prospect includes Marquette in top 10 schools

Head coach Steve Wojciechowski will have a difficult task in 2020: replace All-BIG EAST Second Team guard Markus Howard.

Nico Mannion could become that person after including Marquette in his list of final 10 possible college choices. Duke, Kansas, University of California-Los Angeles, Arizona, Villanova, Oregon, University of Southern California, Vanderbilt and Utah also made the cut.

247Sports ranks Mannion 23rd in the nation and second among point guards. ESPN ranks him 20th nationally and fifth among point guards.

Mannion told the Arizona Republic he is considering reclassifying to the class of 2019.

He would be the highest-ranked guard to commit to Marquette in the Steve Wojciechowski era.

Quick shots

• Women’s basketball added Montana State to its 2018-’19 non-conference schedule as part of the Preseason National Invitation Tournament. The Bobcats finished last season ranked 214th in RPI and fell to Idaho in the Big Sky Tournament quarterfinals. If the Golden Eagles won, they would play the winner of Northern Iowa and Delaware. Other teams in the 16-team field include Miami, Iowa State and New Mexico.
• Golden Eagles Alumni will have one less three-point scoring option for the 2018 TBT. Matt Carlino, who played at Marquette in 2014-’15, was initially committed to the 2018 team but could not stay on due to injury.

Summer Rundown is a weekly series recapping Marquette Athletics’ updates during the offseason.