Marquette Basketball 2014-15 Non-Conference Game #4: NJIT

Y'all can ignore all of this, because Marquette will be playing NJIT on Monday, November 24th.  For a brief capsule on the Highlanders, you can check out our post on the Wisconsin game.  If you're confused by any of this, well, that falls on the athletic department and whoever thought MSM was on the schedule.

I remember the last time that Marquette played Mount St. Mary's.  It was opening night for the 2011-12 season, the student section was absolutely bananas on a Friday night in November, and 6 different Golden Eagles scored in double digits as MU obliterated the Mountaineers 92-37.  Will the rematch in 2014 go any differently?

Monday, November 24 - vs Mount St. Mary's

2013-14 Record: 16-17
Returning Points Leader: Taylor Danaher, 7.1 ppg
Returning Rebounds Leader: Gregory Graves, 5.4 rpg
Returning Assists Leader: Khalid Nwandu, 1.2 apg
Final 2013-14 KenPom.com Ranking: #188

Mount St. Mary's is coming off of a season where they went 9-7 in the NEC, but won the conference tournament to earn an NCAA tournament berth.  While they got knocked out by Albany as part of the First Four, the game was very much in doubt in the closing minutes.

The downside of all of this for them is that the Mountaineers' top three scorers were all seniors, and even more troubling, they had just one junior on the roster, and he only played in 13 games.  The attention this year will turn to Danaher and Graves, but at least Graves was the team's leading rebounder last year already.  Danaher may give Marquette fits as he's seven feet tall, and Luke Fischer won't be eligible for this game.  Last year, senior guard Julian Norfleet led the team in assists with 5.5 per game, but no one else had more than 1.7.  Can someone step into the void left behind by Norfleet and get the engine running again?