2008-'09 Big East opponents released
Written by: Todd Rosiak
Home-and-home series with DePaul, Georgetown and Villanova, road games at Louisville, Notre Dame and Pittsburgh and home games against Connecticut, Syracuse and West Virginia highlight the Marquette Golden Eagles' 2008-'09 Big East schedule, which was released in part today.
In all, nine of the Golden Eagles' 18 league games will feature opponents that advanced to the NCAA tournament last season. Dates and times for the games will be released later in the summer.
"When you look at the overall strength of our league from top to bottom, I'm sure that every coach has his own opinion as it relates to their schedule," said coach Buzz Williams. "It's the best league in the country and every night, whether you're home or on the road, every possession will be critical."
MU's 'mirror' opponents will have a decidedly different look in that it played Georgetown, Villanova and DePaul only one time each last season.
Only DePaul would be considered a natural rival, because of its close proximity to Milwaukee in suburban Chicago and the long history it has with MU. The Golden Eagles have also had some memorable games with Georgetown since joining the Big East in 2005-'06, including a heartbreaking 70-68 overtime loss to the league's eventual regular-season champions at the Bradley Center on March 1.
The Golden Eagles are 2-1 against Villanova since joining the Big East, including an 85-75 victory in Philadelphia last year.
MU's mirror opponents last season were Louisville, Notre Dame and Seton Hall.
"I don't know that I have a vantage point because of my newness to the league but I completely understand from a fan perspective wanting to play mirror games with your rival schools," Williams said. "I understand that. Notre Dame was obviously one of those from last season. DePaul will be one of those this upcoming season. I think the conference does a really good job when you look at the entire 16-team league."
The road portion of MU's schedule will once again prove daunting.
In addition to the games at DePaul, Georgetown and Villanova, MU's visits to Louisville, Notre Dame and Pittsburgh figure to be especially daunting. All three teams are projected to be ranked in the top 10 in the nation in the pre-season polls, and considered to be the early front-runners for the Big East's regular-season crown, along with Connecticut.
The Golden Eagles will also play games at Providence, Rutgers and South Florida.
"We're playing at Louisville, at Notre Dame, at Pittsburgh -- that's three of the top four teams according to the media in the league," said Williams. "You can flip that around and say, ‘Well, you're playing at South Florida.' Look who South Florida's had success against at home. ‘Well, you're playing at Rutgers.' Look at what Rutgers has been able to do in recruiting and the success that they've had in the games that they've played at home.
"So you can flip it around and turn it around and skew the numbers however you want, but the bottom line is it's an unbelievable league with unbelievable depth. It's strong. Every night it's strong, whether you're on the road or at home."
The home portion of MU's schedule will feature a number of high-profile Big East opponents.
Connecticut, which MU routed in its first-ever Big East game at the Bradley Center in January, 2006, once again is expected to feature one of the most intimidating frontcourts in the country. Syracuse will again be strong, as will West Virginia, which lost star forward Joe Alexander to the Milwaukee Bucks in last week's NBA draft but will welcome a couple of highly talented replacements.
The Golden Eagles will also host Cincinnati, St. John's and Seton Hall, in addition to DePaul, Georgetown and Villanova.
"Is there any way we could put together the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel YMCA team and play them?" asked Williams with a laugh. "Depending on what you read, UConn's picked to win the national championship, Georgetown, look at the success they've had since Coach (John) Thompson has been there. Syracuse, look at what they've done. I think Villanova's really good, personally.
"What Coach Huggins did in his first year at West Virginia...that's part of our home schedule. That's not all of it."
(http://blogs.jsonline.com/aggbug.aspx?PostID=288666)
http://blogs.jsonline.com/muhoops/archive/2008/07/02/big-east-opponents-released.aspx
BIG EAST Conference Announces League Matchups for 2008-09
Golden Eagles will play DePaul, Georgetown and Villanova twice during the 2008-09 season.
http://onlyfans.cstv.com/schools/marq/sports/m-baskbl/spec-rel/070208aaa.html
HOME GAMES: Cincinnati, Connecticut, DePaul, Georgetown, St. John's, Seton Hall, Syracuse, Villanova, West Virginia.
ROAD GAMES: DePaul, Georgetown, Louisville, Notre Dame, Pittsburgh, Providence, Rutgers, USF, Villanova.
Wow. Tough roadies. I wonder if CUSA would take us back?
Whole schedule:
http://wiki.muscoop.com/doku.php/men_s_basketball/2008
Four years in a row at ND--brutal place to play.
I do not understand. Shouldn't ND be coming here?
The optimist in me thinks we can go 7-2 at home and 6-3 on the road for a 13-5 BE record. The pessimist is 6-3 at home 4-5 on the road for a 10-8 BE record.
Quote from: stasiu4life on July 02, 2008, 11:30:40 AM
I do not understand. Shouldn't ND be coming here?
That would be the natural assumption, since the last time we played them in a non-mirror year was at their place. Pretty stupid if you ask me.
Quote from: MUfan2 on July 02, 2008, 11:38:06 AM
That would be the natural assumption, since the last time we played them in a non-mirror year was at their place. Pretty stupid if you ask me.
The unbalanced schedule causes all kinds of problems with this type of stuff.
That is a serious schedule. The BE is just loaded and if we can pull out one or two of those tough road games (Louis, ND, PITT, Vill) it will be great for RPI. Love the mirror games with Georgetown.
Not bad for MKE / CHI fans:
Easy road trips to ND & DePaul.
Easy flights to GT, Rutgers & Nova
Plus my Grandpa winters in Tampa at this retirement community called Mons Venus, I'll have to see if he has an extra room for that USF game.
Is that near Del Boca Vista Phase 2?? ;D
I'd like to know how many teams in the country will play a tougher road schedule. There are NBA teams (the Knicks, for one) that wouldn't go unbeaten on a trip to Gtown, ND, Pitt and Louisville and Villanova.
Damon---I already booked the last room at Mons Venus, sorry:)
Quote from: DamonKeysContactLens on July 02, 2008, 11:52:04 AM
Not bad for MKE / CHI fans:
Easy road trips to ND & DePaul.
Easy flights to GT, Rutgers & Nova
Plus my Grandpa winters in Tampa at this retirement community called Mons Venus, I'll have to see if he has an extra room for that USF game.
I have heard the scenery at Mons Venus is pretty spectacular that time of year too.
Mons Venus is the reason South Florida got in the Big East.
I'm grinning from ear to ear on this.. yes it's daunting and thinking about it gets the heart racing a little like it does when you're at the top of a very high roller coaster and you can't quite see where you're going to be going. Finally starting to feel like we're headed back to b-ball season now!
hard for me to predict the win/loss counts yet.. the when will factor in very importantly I think.
Chilli---The view is overrated. I'll check it out and report back for next season.
Love the headline above "Pitt basketball gets rugged Big East schedule (Pittsburgh Post-Gazette) (http://us.rd.yahoo.com/dailynews/rss/search/marquette+basketball+-inurl%3Anwaonline+-peninsula/SIG=128p7pmg8/*http%3A//www.post-gazette.com/pg/08184/894254-100.stm?cmpid=latest.xml)"
As if every big east team didn't just get a a rugged schedule...
Damn. If I got to pick 3 teams to have home games against, it would be ND, Louisville, and Pitt. Damn.
Those games are always great.