Marquette Golden Eagles (9-17, 4-11 Big East) vs #17 St. John’s Red Storm (20-5, 13-1 Big East)
Date: Wednesday, February 18, 2026
Time: 8pm Central
Location: Fiserv Forum, Milwaukee, Wisconsin
Marquette Stats Leaders
Points: Nigel James, 15.8 ppg
Rebounds: Ben Gold, 5.4 rpg
Assists: Nigel James, 5.0 apg
Marquette Injury Note: Sean Jones has missed the last 12 games with a foot issue. After the National Marquette Day game against Butler, Shaka Smart said he is not sure if Jones will be able to get back on the court before the end of the regular season.
St. John’s Stats Leaders
Points: Zuby Ejiofor, 16.2 ppg Rebounds: Zuby Ejiofor, 7.4 rpg Assists:
Zuby Ejiofor, 3.5 apg
St. John’s Roster Note: Dillon Mitchell was ejected from STJ’s most recent game, a 79-69 win at Providence, for a dead ball flagrant technical foul which came as part of a scrum after PC’s Duncan Powell fouled Bryce Hopkins hard on a breakaway and then taunted after the foul. I’m pretty sure that ejection doesn’t carry a suspension like the one for fighting does, but it’s worth keeping an eye on, perhaps?
KenPom.com Rankings
Marquette: #103
St. John’s: #21
Game Projection: St. John’s has an 80% chance of victory with a predicted score of 81-72.
Last Time Out: Back on January 13, St. John’s picked up a 92-68 win over Marquette at Madison Square Garden. The Golden Eagles were in trouble nearly instantly in that game, falling behind 12-2 out of the gate. It was, however, only a six point margin at the half, and with all of that in mind, trailing by 10, 57-47, with about 11 minutes left wasn’t the worst thing ever. That’s when the Johnnies popped off a 13-0 run and MU never cut into the margin in a real way after that. That one was probably a scheduled loss when the Big East announced the slate of games back in the fall, so there’s not really much to worry about the loss itself, especially with Ben Gold sidelined with an ankle injury in that game.
Since Last We Met: Wins, lots of them. The win over Marquette moved the Red Storm to 12-5 on the year and 5-1 in the Big East. As it turns out, that was the third in what has now turned into an 11 game winning streak, which is, as of Tuesday, the fifth longest active streak in the country and the longest active high major winning streak. They’ve had a couple of close calls in there, particularly against Xavier and particularly going to overtime with the Musketeers at The Garden back on February 9th, but perhaps Xavier head coach Richard Pitino just has some insights on St. John’s head coach Rick Pitino that no one else could possibly understand.
Tempo Free Fun: The big test for Marquette here relative to the first meeting is whether or not the Golden Eagles can defend the Red Storm inside with Ben Gold in the lineup. 16 minutes of Caedin Hamilton as the starting center didn’t do much to protect the rim as the Johnnies shot 61% on two-point buckets in the game. Lots of guys did damage, but in particular, preseason Big East Player of the Year Zuby Ejiofor did whatever he wanted. 8-for-11 inside the arc in that game on his way to 22 points and seven rebounds in just 26 minutes of action is a hell of a stat line, and for the record: Only two fouls. Ejiofor was limited by STJ blowing Marquette out of the water for the final 10 minutes, not because Pitino was managing his minutes. Four of Zuby’s rebounds were on the offensive glass and Bryce Hopkins added three more second chances as the Red Storm pulled in 40% of their rare misses in the game. You can maybe figure out a way to win if you’re falling down in one particular area, but once the problems start to happen in multiple phases, you’re in big trouble.
Is Ben Gold going to be that much of a game changer? Well, Zuby Ejiofor’s 13 points and 13 rebounds in New York last year and 17 points and 12 rebounds in STJ’s overtime win at Fiserv Forum last season indicates that might not be the case, and his 33 & 9 in the Big East tournament less than a week later continues that trend. The worst case scenario is that Gold provides Marquette with a different look to throw at the Red Storm this time around. Will it be enough of a different look to pull a stunner? We’ll find out.
On the other end, Marquette didn’t play poorly on offense in the first meeting. 53% inside the arc and 33% on three-pointers are perfectly acceptable numbers in tandem, and for the Golden Eagles this season, both of those numbers are above average. However, MU did cough the ball up 19 times, six by Nigel James alone, and you can’t cause yourself problems when you’re trying to find a way to upset a team that was, at the time, hovering just outside the Associated Press top 25.
By the way? Marquette when Nigel James turns it over 3 or more times? 1-10. 0, 1, or two turnovers for James? 8-7. The Golden Eagles have problems, clearly. However, when their emerging star point guard is contributing to the problems? It’s all bad. The lone win in that 1-10? The overtime game against Valparaiso.
The other thing I want to mention is that the first meeting with St. John’s also came before Marquette’s run of better than you realize play since mid-January. The Johnnies have been rattling off wins since the first meeting, so I’m not going to try to play the numbers game and try to convince you that “actually Marquette is favored here, kind of,” or something like that. I’m just saying that it’s a slightly different Marquette than the first time around, not just because Ben Gold is available this time. It’s in Milwaukee, Marquette hasn’t lost a home game since early January, let’s see what happens, that’s all.
Marquette Last 10 Games: 3-7 with losses in three of their last four games.
St. John’s Last 10 Games: 10-0 to extend their winning streak to 11 straight games.
All Time Series: Marquette leads, 29-20
Current Streak: The Red Storm are up to four straight wins against the Golden Eagles after winning all three meetings last season as well as the contest at Madison Square Garden earlier this year.
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