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Ever since the NCAA announced changes to the parameters of how the 2020-21 basketball season will shake out, we’ve been waiting for word from the Al McGuire Center on what exactly the Marquette hoops schedule will look like. With a reduced maximum of games available and two fewer weeks to play them, there were obviously going to be a lot of changes made on the fly.
On Monday, Stadium’s Jeff Goodman let us know that there’s a pretty notable change to the Marquette schedule coming when the new one is officially announced. According to Goodman, Marquette men’s basketball will not be participating in the Hall Of Fame Tip-Off Tournament at the Mohegan Sun Casino in Connecticut. Based on what we previously knew about the matchups as well as other changes, it appears that Virginia Tech will replace Marquette in the field.
Marquette will NOT play in the Hall of Fame event at the Mohegan Sun, sources told @Stadium.
— Jeff Goodman (@GoodmanHoops) October 5, 2020
HOF field is currently URI, Virginia Tech, Temple and Minnesota, per sources.
Now, this isn’t completely surprising to find out. The original schedule for this multi-team event was November 21st and 22nd. The NCAA has declared that the season can not start until November 25th now. Obviously, the Tip-Off Tournament is changing dates if it’s still going to be played..... except we don’t know for sure exactly when that is. We also don’t know what else Marquette is doing with their schedule at this point. Are the previously scheduled games on November 25th and later staying where they are? Is Marquette frantically moving pieces around to fit in enough non-conference games into the schedule?
And what about Big East games? We’ve heard report after report that not only will the league stick with a 20 game slate in 2020-21, but also that MU’s conference is looking at getting as many as four conference contests in before Christmas. How does that affect where and when the Golden Eagles play? Is that what caused Marquette to withdraw from the Tip-Off Tournament?
With the multi-team event off the table, by NCAA rules, Marquette will only be allowed to play 25 games this season. With a 20 game Big East schedule waiting, we may be looking at a non-conference slate of just five games. Unless...... head coach Steve Wojciechowski and the MU admin have some sort of other plan up their sleeves. Might Marquette end up hosting some sort of event, thus allowing a couple of extra games on the schedule? It’s not impossible, of course, but it may be wildly impractical given the current state of the coronavirus pandemic in the state of Wisconsin.
We’re just over seven weeks away from the start date for the 2020-21 season. Hopefully we’ll get some sort of official schedule soon and bring an end to the rumormongering and theorizing.