THE VITALS: #7 Marquette Golden Eagles (12-19, 7-13 Big East) vs #10 Xavier Musketeers (14-17, 6-14 Big East)
THE DATE: Wednesday, March 11, 2026
THE TIME: Approximately 5:30pm Central, but really 30 minutes after the end of #8 Butler vs #9 Providence, which starts at 3pm Central.
THE LOCATION: Madison Square Garden, New York, New York
THE TELEVISION: Nope. We’ve been over this.
THE STREAMING: Peacock, with *sigh* John Fanta, Donny Marshall, and Caroline Pineda calling the action
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THE RADIO: 94.5 FM/ESPN Milwaukee, available online via The Varsity Network.
THE LIVE STATS: Stat Broadcast
THE LINE: Marquette -4.5 according to our friends at FanDuel.
THE PROJECTION: KenPom.com gives Marquette a 55% chance of victory, with a predicted score of 79-78.
THE EXCITEMENT LEVEL: KenPom.com gives this game a Thrill Score of 57.3, making this the 13th most potentially exciting game out of the 38 Division 1 games scheduled for the day. #1? SMU vs Louisville in the ACC Tournament second round with a score of 75.2.
MARQUETTE PROBABLE LINEUP
- Nigel James (16.4 ppg, 3.5 rpg, 4.8 apg, 1.9 spg)
- Adrien Stevens (8.0 ppg, 2.5 rpg, 1.5 apg, 1.5 spg)
- Chase Ross (14.2 ppg, 4.1 rpg, 3.4 apg, Big East best 2.3 spg)
- Royce Parham (12.2 ppg, 4.8 rpg)
- Ben Gold (8.1 ppg, 5.6 rpg)
IN CASE YOU WERE WONDERING: Nigel James is the second freshman in Marquette history to ever score 500 points, as he currently has 508. The record is 561, scored by Henry Ellenson in 2015-16. Needless to say: Nigel James will need at least a quarterfinal appearance to break that record. That said, James needs five field goals to break Ellenson’s record for most buckets by a Marquette freshman.
XAVIER PROBABLE LINEUP
- All Wright (7.7 ppg, 1.6 rpg, 2.0 apg)
- Malik Messina-Moore (10.9 ppg, 2.9 rpg, 3.9 apg, 1.1 spg)
- Isaiah Walker (4.6 ppg, 2.7 rpg)
- Filip Borovicanin (10.5 ppg, 7.6 rpg, 4.2 apg, 1.2 spg)
- Jovan Milicevic (12.3 ppg, 4.0 rpg, 1.4 apg)
XAVIER INJURY NOTE: Tre Carroll played four minutes in Xavier’s home finale before taking a spill and landing on his hip. He did not return to that game, then was listed as Questionable for their regular season finale before not playing in the 91-78 loss to Villanova. Carroll is Xavier’s leading scorer at 18.0 points per game overall and 18.6 per game in the league slate, even after lasting just four minutes and not scoring at all against Seton Hall in his last appearance. He also chips in 5.7 rebounds, 2.6 assists, and a team high 1.2 blocks.
YOUR 90s ALTERNATIVE SONG OF THE DAY: Take The Power Back by Rage Against The Machine
Big East First Round Schedule
All games streaming exclusively on Peacock
3pm Central: #8 Butler vs #9 Providence
5:30pm Central: #7 Marquette vs #10 Xavier
8pm Central: #6 DePaul vs #11 Georgetown
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