Marquette Men’s Basketball Just Barely Misses Out On The Associated Press Preseason Top 25

As Paint Touches astutely pointed out on Monday morning, it’s been over 1,700 days since Marquette men’s basketball appeared in the Associated Press top 25 poll. We have to go all the way back to 2013-14, when Marquette lost to San Diego State while ranked #25 in the country on Sunday, December 1st. When the new poll came out the next day, Marquette wasn’t on it, and they haven’t been back since.

We’re going to have to keep waiting until the first poll of the regular season at least.

The AP released their preseason top 25 poll on Monday, and YOUR Marquette Golden Eagles turned up at the unofficial #27 spot. They earned 124 points while appearing on 33 ballots. Kayla Anderson (WKRN in Nashville) and Scott Wolf (Los Angeles Daily News) are MU’s biggest proponents, slotting them in at #18 on their initial ballot of the year. Craig Meyer (Pittsburgh Post-Gazette) rounds out the believers in the polling group as the lone voter to put MU at #25.

Loyola-Chicago is the #26 team, just ahead of Marquette with 162 points, while #25 Washington and their 165 points are the mark to hit next time around.

53 different teams earned at least one 25th place vote in the preseason poll, and as you might expect, there are an awful lot of Marquette opponents on that list. It starts right at the top, with Kansas, MU’s Preseason NIT Tip-Off semifinals foe, earning the #1 spot to start the year, and #6 Tennessee might be waiting for Marquette in the next game of the NIT Tip-Off. Villanova is the only Big East team ranked to start the year, coming in at #9. Kansas State, which will make a visit to Milwaukee this season, is #12 to round out the ranked teams.

Down in the receiving votes department, things are crrrrrrazy. Indiana, MU’s opponent in the Gavitt Tipoff Games for the third game of the season, is just one spot behind the Golden Eagles. Wisconsin turns up at #32, Buffalo is tied for #37, and Louisville, the fourth team in the NIT Tip-Off is at #39. Butler sits in a tie for #42, St. John’s is in a tie for #46, while Providence and Xavier are tied with each other at #48 with two points.

Marquette opens the season on Tuesday, November 6th, when they host UMBC Retrievers at Fiserv Forum. It will be MU’s first official regular season game at the new downtown Milwaukee arena.

You can check out the whole top 25 poll right here.