The last five times No. 8 Marquette men’s basketball (11-2, 2-0 Big East) have travelled to Providence, Rhode Island, to test their luck against the Friars (6-7, 1-1 Big East), the Golden Eagles have come up empty handed. Whether it’s going 20 percent from beyond the arc or facing a scoring drought of six minutes, the blue and gold have suffered from kryptonite inside Amica Mutual Pavilion.
On New Year’s Eve, Marquette will make the trek to the home of the Providence Friars and try to snatch its first Rhode Island win during the Shaka Smart era.
Marquette’s relying too much on a good thing
Despite a close call in their matchup against Xavier, the Golden Eagles remain undefeated in Big East play.
Though, its tendency to go on tremendous scoring droughts isn’t doing Marquette any favors. It’s what made the game against the Musketeers close and caused then-unranked Dayton to grab a second-half win. Against Xavier, it was a five-minute 14-0 scoring run and against the Flyers it was a 13-2 trot over four minutes.
Contributing to these lulls was senior guard Kam Jones’ below-par shooting— especially against Xavier.
“He can be better. He can be more efficient,” head coach Shaka Smart said after Jones’ 8-for-20 shooting from the field and 0-of-3 from deep against Xavier.
“He has to understand that if he doesn’t have an angle, he has to get to two feet and he’s gotta be strong with the ball because teams are going to converge. He had a lot of assists today, but I thought he could have had even more.”
When the team’s leading average scorers, Jones (20.3 ppg) or senior forward David Joplin (14.6 ppg), are struggling to get a bucket, there’s no offensive substitute—especially from the bench. In the past three games, the backups have only mustered a combined 24 points.
The bench was a lot less silent at the beginning of the season. First-year forwards Royce Parham and Damarius Owens dropped a combined 28 points with Parham’s 17 leading the team against Iowa State. Bench players have been an offensive asset before, they’ve just lost their touch recently.
Royce knocks down his second three of the night #MUBB | #WeAreMarquette pic.twitter.com/kt4Zi11Fk9
— Marquette Basketball (@MarquetteMBB) December 5, 2024
Live and die by the paint
After starting out the season 5-0, Providence has lost six of its last eight matchups—the two wins coming from DePaul and BYU. Four of those losses have been within six points.
The Friars have been missing senior forward Bryce Hopkins for the majority of the season because of a torn ACL suffered last January. He has played in only three games this season (BYU, Rhode Island and DePaul) and hasn’t logged any minutes in the team’s previous two. Even though he’s had 21 days to rest, his availability for this matchup is still unknown.
One of the biggest advantages that Providence will have over Marquette is a big man option. The Golden Eagles have been bullied in the paint at times this season. Dayton put up 46 points down low against the blue and gold—one of the main contributors of the upset. If Marquette’s big man, junior forward Ben Gold, isn’t bale to shut down Hopkins’ and 6’10” forward Oswin Erhunmwunse’s action in the paint, it could spell upset possibility.
In his three appearances, Hopkins has averaged 17 points and 7.7 rebounds on 30.7 minutes per game. When his ability is combined with Oswin, who has been averaging 4.8 points and rebounds per game on 13.7 minutes, the Golden Eagles will be looking to ramp up their paint defense.
In Providence’s overtime win against DePaul, Oswin dropped 10 points, 8 rebounds and 3 blocks in 15 minutes of play.
Oswin getting it done on both ends ✋➡️🔨 pic.twitter.com/UqcwfTh7ZG
— Providence MBB (@PCFriarsmbb) December 11, 2024
With the help of big men and Hopkins, the Friars average 40.9 rebounds per game while Marquette has only notched 33.9—another reason this game will be won and lost in the paint.
How to follow the game
Tell your friends you’ll be late to their New Year’s Eve party because tipoff against the Friars is on Tuesday, December 31 at 5 p.m. CST in Providence, Rhode Island.
Watch: FS1 will carry the national television broadcast, with Emmanuel Berbari (play-by-play) and Vin Parise (analyst) on call.
Live updates: Follow @MatthewBaltzMU, @JackAlbrightMU and @MUWireSports on Twitter/X.
Listen: 94.5 ESPN Milwaukee, The Varsity Network and Sirius XM.
This preview was written by Ben Hanson. He can be reached at [email protected] or on Twitter/X @benhansonMU.
