2019 NCAA Tournament Game Thread: #5 Marquette Golden Eagles vs #12 Murray State Racers

THE VITALS: #5 Marquette Golden Eagles (24-9, 12-6 Big East) vs #12 Murray State Racers (27-4, 16-2 Ohio Valley)

THE DATE: Thursday, March 21, 2019

THE TIME: Approximately 3:30pm Central

THE LOCATION: XL Center, Hartford, CT

THE TELEVISION: TBS, with Carter Blackburn, Debbie Antonelli, and John Schriffen on the call

THE STREAMING: March Madness Live

THE RADIO: 540 ESPN Milwaukee, available through the TuneIn app, with Steve “The Homer” True and Tony Smith on the call

THE LIVE STATS: March Madness Live, maybe.

THE LINE: Marquette -4.5

THE PROJECTION: KenPom.com gives Marquette a 63% chance of victory, with a predicted score of 76-72.

THE EXCITEMENT LEVEL: KenPom gives this game a Thrill Score of 67.8, the fourth highest score of the 18 games scheduled for the day.

MARQUETTE PROBABLE LINEUP

• Markus Howard (25.0 pts, 4.0 rebs, 4.0 asts, 1.1 stls)
• Sacar Anim (8.6 pts, 3.1 rebs, 1.2 asts)
• Sam Hauser (14.9 pts, 7.1 rebs, 2.5 asts)
• Joey Hauser (9.7 pts, 5.3 rebs, 2.5 asts)
• Theo John (5.7 pts, 4.8 rebs, 2.1 blks)

MURRAY STATE PROBABLE LINEUP

• Ja Morant (24.6 pts, 5.5 rebs, 10.0 asts, 1.8 stls)
• Shaq Buchanan (13.0 pts, 4.2 rebs, 1.8 asts, 1.8 stls)
• Tevin Brown (11.7 pts, 4.7 rebs, 2.4 asts, 1.1 stls)
• Darnell Cowart (10.4 pts, 6.5 rebs, 1.0 asts)
• KJ Williams (7.6 pts, 4.7 rebs)