It Seems Like Marquette Basketball Will Play Howard In The 2K Classic

The Marquette athletic department has been slowly (or, if you prefer S-L-O-W-L-Y) releasing the men’s basketball non-conference schedule since July 5th. The plan, apparently, was to announce MU’s home games as part of the 2K Classic as they popped up, but ESPN apparently holds the right to announce the bracket for the event.

Well, someone forgot to tell Howard University.

During the day on Monday, the Bison released their entire 2016-17 schedule, all the way down to the MEAC conference tournament in March. As a part of that release, they included a road trip to Marquette on Monday, November 14th, which would be the home opener for the Golden Eagles.

I can’t prove this now, though. Someone over in Washington, D.C., realized that there’s an embargo on the 2K Classic games and if you check out the press release now or the schedule page, there’s no mention of their contests against Marquette or their subsequent trip to Michigan.

Well, almost no mention. Whomever they put in charge of editing the page forgot that the statement from head coach Kevin Nickelberry mentioned the games.

Screencap from hubison.com

Oopsie.

Well, if nothing else, I appreciate them not realizing that they were supposed to keep quiet until the World Wide Leader got a chance to announce the game.

Because I know you’re wondering, IUPUI, Eastern Michigan, and Gardner Webb have all not released their schedules yet, so we’re still in the dark as to who will be the opponent for the home game on November 22nd. If we’re picking opponents purely by last year’s KenPom rankings, then we’re going to want to see Marquette get partnered up with Eastern Michigan (#151) to balance out Howard (#332). If Marquette had voluntarily signed up for a game against Howard, I’d be annoyed about taking on the RPI risk of playing a team in the MEAC, but that’s not the case here. It is what it is, I guess.