Lacrosse Magazine's Bracketology Shows Marquette's Precarious Position

On Wednesday, before #17 Marquette ended up with an 8-7 overtime loss to #1 Notre Dame, Lacrosse Magazine published a brand new edition of NCAA tournament bracketology.

Here's the good news: Marquette was in the field, garnering a first round matchup with #4 seed and Ivy League leader Brown.

Here's the bad news: Marquette was the final at-large bid into the field, and that was before they took on their second loss of the season.

Here's the really bad news: Marquette hosts NCAA tournament non-factor Providence on Saturday, but the rest of Marquette's schedule has turned the Senior Day contest against the Friars into a must-win scenario.  You see, the Golden Eagles have two road trips to wrap up the regular season: at First Team Out Duke and at #1 overall seed Denver.

So, yeah.  What's really dragging Marquette down right now is an 12-8 loss at Ohio State.  You'd think that losing to the Buckeyes shouldn't be a terrible concept, and generally, you'd be right.  However, OSU has lost six straight games, all to ranked opponents, and now they're officially down in the bottom half of the RPI.

We already pointed out that Big East foe Denver is the top seed in this bracket projection.  Notre Dame is sitting pretty at #2 overall.  Villanova makes it three Big East squads in the field, as they get a first round game against #8 seed and current Patriot League auto-bid holder Navy.  Quinnipiac rounds out the list of MU 2016 opponents in the projection, as they're claiming the MAAC's auto-bid right now.  That gives them a play-in game against Bryant, the current top team in the NEC, where the winner would play Notre Dame in the first round.

Marquette's game against Providence is scheduled to start at 11am Central at Valley Fields.  If you can't make it down, it'll be carried on local television by Time Warner Cable SportsChannel.

You can check out the full bracket breakdown right here.