The last time No. 7 Marquette men’s basketball (14-2, 5-0 Big East) played DePaul (9-8, 0-6 Big East), 11 months ago, the Golden Eagles grabbed the Blue Demons with their talons and dropped a 100 burger to win by 34 points. Though, the last time this matchup was at Wintrust Arena in Chicago, the results were a little closer, with Marquette only winning by 13.
On Tuesday, Marquette will travel to the Windy City to face DePaul. While the Blue Demons have improved their overall record from last year, their winless conference play this season stands out like a sore thumb—and Marquette’s spotless 5-0 Big East stint speaks volumes.
Marquette’s easy start to Big East play
The last time the Golden Eagles started conference play this well was in 2008-09 when they began 9-0. This season, Marquette is 5-0 and the only remaining undefeated team in the Big East. Though, it has yet to play an opponent in the top four of the conference.
The Golden Eagles have claimed wins over Georgetown, Creighton, Xavier, Providence and Butler — who were all unranked.
Shining brightest for the blue and gold stage right now is junior guard Chase Ross, who dropped a career-high 27 points and six steals in the team’s latest game against Georgetown. In a duel where the Hoyas would go on a 27-6 run and lead by as much as 14 in the first half, Ross was a saving grace to give Marquette the win.
Chase Ross is EVERYWHERE 😤 pic.twitter.com/kcWqwlPJtG
— Marquette Basketball (@MarquetteMBB) January 8, 2025
“He was phenomenal,” head coach Shaka Smart said. “A blind man could see that. He was the best player on the floor in this game, and that’s saying a lot because they had a lot of really good players out there and we had some good players out there.”
Smart also highlighted the contributors to why Ross had to step up in the first place.
“We were tentative,” Smart said. “We didn’t do a good job of getting it down the floor. We weren’t aggressive enough. We held the ball too much. We weren’t ready to shoot enough.”
Some of DePaul heats up, some stays the same
The last time DePaul was able to tally its win column in regular season conference play was just under two years ago.
To have a chance at upsetting the No. 7 team in the nation and breaking a 38-game curse dating back to Jan. 2023, the Blue Devils must be able to find holes in Marquette’s defense. This will be a tall order as the Golden Eagles average double the number of steals that DePaul does and have conditioned their defense against three ranked teams (Purdue, Wisconsin and Iowa State) this season. The Blue Devils have only matched up against one (UConn).
Jacob Meyer is the leading scorer for DePaul with 14.1 points per game. Meyer has averaged 39.2 percent (38-97) from three-point range, but Isaiah Rivera leads the team at 43.4 percent (36-83).
Rising Blue Demon star NJ Benson is averaging 8.2 points per game and 5.6 rebounds per game this season. But since taking a starter position in his last five games, Benson has bumped that up to 12.2 points and 9.6 rebounds.
Additionally, CJ Gunn, who has averaged 10.5 points per game, has notched 37 combined points in his last two outings.
Where to follow the game
Tipoff against the Blue Devils is on Tuesday, January 14 at 6 p.m. CST at Wintrust Arena in Chicago.
Watch: CBS Sports Network will house the national television broadcast, with Chris Lewis (play-by-play) and Steve Lappas (analyst) calling the duel.
Live updates: Follow @MatthewBaltzMU, @hilsontrevor and @MUWireSports on Twitter/X.
Listen: 94.5 ESPN Milwaukee, DePaulBlueDemons.com and Sirius XM.
This preview was written by Ben Hanson. He can be reached at [email protected] or on Twitter/X @benhansonMU.
