The 2019-20 college basketball season is quickly approaching, and thus, we turn our attention to previewing the upcoming Marquette Golden Eagles men’s basketball season.

To that end, we’ve got a stacked up list of questions about the 2019-20 campaign, and each of the contributors to AE are going to take a crack at answering them. There will be a new question every weekday morning between now and the start of the season, so be sure to stop back every day to find the new one.

Onwards, then, to the question of the day:

Is Marquette going to be in the 2020 NCAA Tournament?

As we’ve talked about in the past in this season preview, MU used to be a national title contender for about five minutes. Then, following some roster changes, the Golden Eagles aren’t even in a lot of top 25 rankings to start the season. You have to be in the top 40 in the country to make the NCAA tournament every year, and thus we ask the question if Marquette is an NCAA tournament team this year.

Besay:

Yes? Right? So their defense is slated to be better than last season. I still have to see what their offense is made of aside from Markus Howard. But they do have some promising talent in Koby McEwen, Sacar Anim, and Brendan Bailey. I don’t think Marquette will have too much of a drop off from last season’s tournament appearance as long as Markus is still leading MU. The Big East is projected to be stronger this year (via KenPom.com) but fingers crossed that Marquette will keep pace. I wouldn’t get your hopes up for any high seeds though. Let’s see how the Golden Eagles are doing in mid-February before beginning to talk about seed lines.

Patrick Leary:

This is without a doubt an NCAA tournament team in my opinion. Whether they will win a game is another question entirely and a far more interesting one in my opinion, especially since neither Steve Wojciechowski or Markus Howard has accomplished that yet.

Ben Snider:

Yeah, but in more of a “Hey, maybe they can find a way to beat Alabama in the first round” sort of way that ends up making me more sad.

Pistol Brad:

I really want to say yes. So I will. As previously stated, I think the offense is in for some major regression but the defense will be marginally better. I think that is enough to sneak in as a 10 seed.

Sam Newberry:

Yes. This team, despite the loss of the Hausers, is talented enough to make the tournament, probably as a 7 or an 8 seed.

Brewtown Andy:

I’m the guy who called a Big East championship in our conference standings roundtable, so uh, yeah, clearly they’re going to be in the NCAA tournament.

The thing is, though, I don’t think that they’ll get the tippy-top seed that you might expect from a Big East regular season champion. When I did the BartTorvik.com Teamcast for the predictions over on Paint Touches, I ended up with Marquette at 13-5, and they were the top team in the Big East in the NCAA tournament seed list. That’s why I said they would win the Big East title. However, that only slotted the Golden Eagles in as a #4 seed in the field.