Marquette Basketball Preview Primer: vs St. John's

Marquette Golden Eagles (11-4, 1-2) vs St. John's Red Storm (7-9, 0-3)

Time: 1pm Central
Location: Bradley Center in Milwaukee, WI
Television: Fox Sports Wisconsin & these affiliates.
Radio: 540 ESPN
Live Stats: GameTracker

Marquette Stat Leaders

Points: Henry Ellenson, 16.0 ppg
Rebounds: Henry Ellenson, 9.9 rpg
Assists: Traci Carter, 4.7 apg

St. John's Stat Leaders

Points: Federico Mussini, 13.1 ppg
Rebounds: Yankuba Sima, 6.8 rpg
Assists: Federico Mussini, 2.5 apg

St. John's Injury Note: Yankuba Sima broke a bone in his left hand during SJU's recent game against Xavier.  He's going to be out for 4 to 6 weeks, which means that he won't be available for today's game, nor for Marquette's return bout with St. John's two weeks from today.

Current KenPom Rankings

Marquette: #96
St. John's: #238
KenPom Prediction: Marquette has an 88% chance of victory, with a predicted score of 74-63

For The Record: That means that St. John's is ranked lower than previous MU opponents IUPUI (#204) and Jackson State (#200).

Tempo-Free Fun: In Big East games only, Marquette and St. John's are the two least efficient offenses in the conference, with Marquette as the only offense to average fewer than 90 points per 100 possessions.  The lack of offensive efficiency is due to both teams also ending up as the two worst shooting teams in the Big East.  They're also the two fastest paced teams in the Big East in league games only, with the Golden Eagles topping out at more than 75 possessions per conference game.  St. John's biggest defensive strength is their league best team block rate, but that's propped up by Yankuba Sima (14th best Blk% in the country), who will miss this game.

St. John's Last 10 Games: 3-7, with losses in their last six games.

Marquette Last 10 Games: 8-2, with a win in their most recent game against Providence.

All Time Series: Marquette leads, 15-10.

Current Streak: St. John's has won the last four meetings.

Henry Ellenson Watch: With 149 rebounds, Henry Ellenson has the fifth most rebounds by a Marquette freshman.  #4 is Odartey Blankson with 160.  Ellenson has 55 made free throws on the season, one short of the 56 FTM by Shannon Smith, the 10th most free throws made by a MU freshman.  Ellenson's 22 blocks on the season are the fifth most by a Marquette freshman, and just three behind Scott Merritt's fourth best mark.

Traci Carter Watch: Carter has 70 assists on the season, which is the 9th most by a Marquette freshman.  He's nine assists short of Mark Anglavar in 8th place.

Follow Along On Twitter:

@MarquetteMBB - Official Marquette account
@StJohnsBBall - Official St. John's account
@AnonymousEagle - Hey, that's us!
@rumbleSBN - SB Nation's St. John's site
@becb_sbn - SB Nation's Big East site
@Matt_Velazquez - The Milwaukee Journal Sentinel MU beat reporter