Don't Expect Surprises In The Marquette Basketball 2015-16 Non-Conference Schedule

On July 6th a year ago, we knew eight of Marquette's non-conference games.  Today, we only know a handful, and that's only because entities other than the athletic department has announced them: The Gavitt Tipoff Game against Iowa, the four games that will result from the Legends Classic, and the yearly contest at Wisconsin, which was "accidentally" announced by Joe True over in the university advancement office.

We should be getting the full non-conference schedule soon, or at least that's what Deputy Athletic Director Mike Broeker says.  Even though that might be the case, I suspect that we're not going to see a lot of surprises and/or big time matchups when the full schedule is released.  Here's what I mean.

2014-15:

Wisconsin
Three games in the Orlando Classic
Arizona State
at Ohio State
Six buy games

Here's what we have on the board already for 2015-16:

at Wisconsin
Iowa
Two games in Brooklyn for the Legends Classic
Two home games for the Legends Classic

By my math, that's six games, and that matches the non-buy game section of last year's schedule.  If last year's scheduling is a predictor, then all we're going to see announced when the full schedule is out is the Tennessee-Martins and Morgan States of the world.  It would be nice to get another road game in there, as it looks like MU will only be playing one true road game in the non-con and two neutral site games, but that's how things go sometimes.  As long as Marquette snags Belmont (KenPom #135 last year) and avoids Kennesaw State (KenPom #343) for their two Legends Classic home games, not getting that extra road game in for an RPI boost will probably end up being okay.