Better Know A Gavitt Tipoff Games Opponent: Rutgers

Marquette has a varying history with the members of the Big Ten.  They have a long running series with Wisconsin, of course, and there are a few other schools that MU has squared off with over the years.  With the announcement of the Gavitt Tipoff Games and at least six games against Big East opponents, we're going to check in on Marquette's history against each of the 13 teams and see what could make for the most interesting matchups.

For lack of any particular order of importance, we'll go in order of how many times Marquette has seen each particular opponent.  This week, we'll wrap up the trio of teams that MU has faced eight times in history with the one in the group that MU has seen most recently.

Rutgers

All Time Series: Marquette leads, 7-1

Last Meeting: March 5, 2013

If you want to define a winning streak as three or more games in a row, then Rutgers is the only team in the Big Ten that Marquette has an active winning streak against.  After Rutgers earned a 91-84 win in the first ever meeting between the two schools back in 2006, Marquette has reeled off seven straight wins.  MU was victimized by 32 points by Quincy Douby in that first game with just slightly over 2,000 people in attendance at the RAC because of a massive snowstorm that hit the New Jersey area.  Marquette has enjoyed sizable advantages over the Scarlet Knights at home, winning by margins of 20, 30, 23, and 17 points.  The trips to the RAC, while lined with victories since that first encounter, have been much closer.  MU's margin of victory in those three wins only averages out to be 6.3 points per game, including a Steve Taylor powered 60-54 win in the most recent meeting.

Eddie Jordan just wrapped up his first season steering the Scarlet Knights, and all things considered, it was okay.  By "all things considered," I mean 1) Mike Rice was fired for being an abusive maniac, 2) all sorts of dudes transferred out of that madhouse, 3) athletic director Julie Hermann keeps tripping over herself and making the school look like a mess, and 4) Eddie Jordan managed to get himself hired even though he never earned a college degree from the school that he said that had... which happens to be Rutgers.  So, like I said, when you put it all together, going 12-21 and 5-13 in the American Athletic Conference maybe wasn't all that bad.

As mentioned earlier, Rutgers plays their home games at the RAC, which is officially named Louis Brown Athletic Center.  Officially, the building holds 8,000 people, but on the occasions when Marquette has visited, I've never seen the stands full.  The Scarlet Knights averaged just 4,425 fans per game last season, and considering that The State University of New Jersey has an undergraduate population of over 43,000, that's a borderline criminally low attendance number.