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Onwards we march with the Marquette non-conference announcements, and the latest one is for a game we already knew was on the schedule. Earlier today, the athletic department made it official that MU will play Chicago State on Wednesday, November 29.
#matchup with Chicago State will continue four-game homestand. MU is 7-0 all-time vs. CSU. @Cam2Ham21 #mubb pic.twitter.com/KcuezFEWDR
— MarquetteMBB (@MarquetteMBB) July 12, 2017
Wednesday, November 29, 2017 - vs Chicago State Cougars
2016-17 Record: 6-26 (1-13 WAC)
Returning Points Leader: Fred Sims, Jr., 18.8 ppg
Returning Rebounds Leader: Fred Sims, Jr., 4.6 rpg
Returning Assists Leader: Glen Burns, 3.2 apg
Final 2016-17 KenPom Ranking: #335
The Cougars have failed to win 10 regular season games in each of the past three seasons. They haven’t reached double digits in wins in 10 of the 16 seasons covered in the KenPom database. Their highwater mark in wins was 19 under Benjy Taylor in 2008-09, but even that win total included games against two non-Division 1 opponents.
Chicago State has been a sub-300 KenPom team in each of the past three seasons and in six of the past eight seasons. This is a bad team suffering greatly under the weight of the school itself struggling financially, and it does Marquette’s potential postseason profile absolutely no good to be playing them. MU is 7-0 lifetime against the Cougars with the closest margin of victory sitting at 17 points. That came in the most recent outing in December of 2015 where Marquette did not play particularly well and still led by 23 at halftime. The average — average — margin of victory for Marquette is 32.3 points.
It is absurd that Marquette is scheduling this game. Deputy athletic director Mike Broeker will tell you that it’s a make-up game from last season, but it was a bad game to schedule last season, too.