GAME THREAD: #5 Marquette vs Northern Illinois

THE VITALS: #5 Marquette Golden Eagles (0-0) vs Northern Illinois Huskies (0-0)

THE DATE: Monday, November 6, 2023

THE TIME: 7:30pm Central

THE LOCATION: Fiserv Forum, Milwaukee, Wisconsin

THE TELEVISION: None.

WAIT, WHAT? THE GAME’S NOT ON TV? Not from beginning to end, no. This is the opening night of the season and there are seven Big East teams playing. Fox Sports doesn’t have the ability to put all them on TV without resorting to 2pm starts or something like that, so we are getting FS1 Whip-Around coverage as they bop from game to game all night long. MU/NIU is the final game of the night to start, so it stands to reason you’ll get to see the end uninterrupted.

SO HOW DO I WATCH THE WHOLE GAME IF I DON’T LIVE IN MILWAUKEE AND CAN’T GO TO THE GAME? FoxSports.com/live or the Fox Sports app will have individual feeds for each game.

THE RADIO: 94.5 ESPN Milwaukee, available online at Wisconsin On Demand or The Varsity Network.

THE LIVE STATS: Sidearm Stats

THE LINE: Marquette -25 from our friends at Draft Kings.

THE PROJECTION: KenPom.com gives Marquette a 99% chance of victory with a predicted score of 85-61.

THE EXCITEMENT LEVEL: KenPom.com gives this game a Thrill Score of 12.6, making it the 75th most potentially exciting game out of the 113 all-Division 1 games scheduled for the day. #1? USC vs Kansas State in Las Vegas.

MARQUETTE PROBABLE LINEUP

(w/last year’s stats)

• Tyler Kolek (12.9 ppg, 4.1 rpg, 7.5 apg, 1.8 spg)
• Stevie Mitchell (7.1 ppg, 2.9 rpg, 1.0 apg, 1.7 spg)
• Kam Jones (15.1 ppg, 3.6 rpg, 2.0 apg, 1.4 spg)
• David Joplin (9.2 ppg, 3.2 rpg)
• Oso Ighodaro (11.4 ppg, 5.9 rpg, 3.3 apg, 1.5 bpg)

NORTHERN ILLINOIS PROBABLE LINEUP

(w/stats from their exhibition game)

• Zion Russell (11 points, 4 rebounds, 3 assists, 1 block)
• Will Lovings-Watts (3 points, 1 assists, 3 steals)
• Philmon Gebrewhit (14 points, 5 rebounds, 3 assists, 1 block, 2 steals)
• Xavier Amos (14 points, 9 rebounds, 4 blocks)
• Yanic Konan Niederhauser (16 points, 6 rebounds, 1 assists, 2 blocks)