Marquette Basketball Preview Primer: at DePaul

Marquette Golden Eagles (16-10) at DePaul Blue Demons (8-17)

Marquette Stat Leaders

Points: Henry Ellenson, 16.6 ppg
Rebounds: Henry Ellenson 10.0 rpg
Assists: Traci Carter, 4.5 apg

DePaul Stat Leaders

Points: Myke Henry, 14.3 ppg
Rebounds: Myke Henry, 6.4 rpg
Assists: Billy Garrett, 3.6 apg

KenPom Rankings

Marquette: #106
DePaul: #179
KenPom Predictions: Marquette has a 53% chance of victory, with a predicted score of 71-70.

Tempo Free Fun: This space is usually used for addressing various KenPom type stats about the two teams.  We're ditching that here.  Marquette has not lost consecutive games to DePaul in over a decade.  The Blue Demons last won two in a row with Ws on February 7, 2004, and January 20, 2005.  Marquette has not lost twice to DePaul in the same season since 1991.  This was three conferences ago for MU, and dates back to when DePaul was still an independent.

Marquette Last 10 Games: 4-6, with losses in three of the last four.  I feel it it relevant to point out that Dave Leitao was coaching DePaul for both of those games.

DePaul Last 10 Games: 2-8, with three straight losses.  One of the wins is against Marquette, and the other is against Providence, a team that Marquette swept this season.

All Time Series: Marquette leads, 71-46.  This game will tie DePaul with Notre Dame for the 2nd most frequent Marquette opponent with 118 games.

Current Streak: DePaul has won two of the last three against Marquette because there is no God.

Henry Ellenson Watch: Let's start with the freshman records Ellenson has either already broken or has no chance to break: He has the free throws made (107) & free throws attempted (144) records, and his 44 blocks are second best to Jim McIlvaine's 92.

His 151 field goals made are tied with Damon Key for the fourth most by a Marquette freshman; his 346 field goal attempts are 2nd most, trailing only Dominic James at 404.   Ellenson is now just four rebounds away from Bo Ellis' freshman rebounding record of 264, and with an average of 10 per game, he should wrap that one up before halftime against DePaul.  Last, but certainly not least, Ellenson is #3 on the freshman scoring chart at 432 points. Only Doc Rivers (434) and Dominic James (473) are in front of him.

Traci Carter Watch: 117 assists from the freshman from Philly are the third most by a Marquette freshman.  God bless him, but I don't think Carter's getting to Dominic James (167) in second place.  He didn't get a steal against Creighton, so he's still tied for the 6th most steals by a freshman with Travis Diener at 39.  Just one more means a tie for 4th with Tony Miller and Tony Smith.

Luke Fischer Watch: His 45 blocks are the fifth most by a MU junior and two behind Dwayne "Not The Rock" Johnson for fourth place.  He's just 10 blocks shy of the 10th best season in Marquette history, by the way.

Haanif Cheatham Watch: Cheatham has moved up to the fifth most free throws made by a freshman and he still has the seventh most freshman free throw attempts.  I feel like this is largely being overlooked due to Henry Ellenson already breaking the record.  He does have a shot at breaking the freshman record for free throw percentage, as he's currently shooting 79.4% and Damon Key's record is 81.6%.  If he scores 10 points against DePaul, Cheatham will tie Roney Eford for the 11th most points by a freshman.

Duane Wilson Watch: Wilson's worked himself up to the ninth most made three pointers amongst Marquette sophomores, sitting just one more than Tony Miller (46) and three fewer than Dominic James (50). His 136 three point attempts rank as the eighth most for Marquette sophomores as there's a huge gap between Darius Johnson-Odom (154) and David Cubillan (116).

Follow Along On Twitter

@MarquetteMBB - The official Marquette account
@DePaulHoops - The official DePaul account
@AnonymousEagle - Hey, that's us!
@WeAreDePaul - Scout.com's DePaul site
@becb_sbn - SB Nation's Big East site
@Matt_Velazquez - Milwaukee Journal Sentinel beat reporter