Arguably Saturday's best college game of the day takes place in Milwaukee when No. 11 Georgetown (23-4, 13-3) faces No. 21 Marquette (21-6, 11-5) in an important Big East matchup.
While both teams certainly are NCAA Tournament-bound, this game should play a role in Big East Tournament seeding. Georgetown is tied for the conference lead with No. 18 Louisville with two games remaining, and those two conclude the regular season against each other in Washington on March 8.
The Hoyas enter on a four-game winning streak, and they do it with typical Georgetown style: defense.
Georgetown is No. 1 in the nation in field-goal percentage defense, holding opponents to 36.3 percent shooting. That masks a mediocre offense that is 13th in the Big East in scoring- 152nd nationally - at 69.9 points per game.
"Right or wrong, I've gotten comfortable and used to us putting teams through stretches where they don't score," Hoyas coach John Thompson III said.
Georgetown will need that tough defense on Saturday against the Golden Eagles, who are averaging 79.4 points during their current five-game winning streak, including 85 in a road win at Villanova on Monday Marquette's average margin of victory in the win streak is 18.6).
Dominic James matched a season high with 25 points and had a career-best six steals in that Villanova win, and Jerel McNeal is averaging nearly 16 ppg in the streak. Marquette is 14-1 at home, while Georgetown's only losses this year have come on the road (the Hoyas allowed teams to shoot an average of 41.1 percent in those losses).The Golden Eagles are looking for one of the byes given to the top four Big East teams for the conference tournament.
Marquette has 51 steals and has forced 101 turnovers during its winning streak. It also has limited opponents to 22.8 percent (18-for-79) shooting from 3-point range in that span, but the Hoyas are third in the Big East in 3-point shooting at 37.0 percent.
James is averaging a team-high 13.6 points, and McNeal and Lazar Hayward are contributing 13.4 per game. Containing the Hoyas on the boards will be pivotal for Marquette, which has a plus-1.5 differential per game for the season, but has been outrebounded by more than six per contest in its six losses.
Georgetown is led by senior center Roy Hibbert, who leads the team in scoring (13.4 ppg), rebounding (6.4) and blocks (63). Georgetown is 9-0 when the big man scores at least 15 points. Dajuan Summers, a 6-8 sophomore, is the Hoyas' second-leading scorer (11.5 ppg) and rebounder (5.3). His offense is a key for Georgetown as he has shot 24.4 percent (10-for-41) in the Hoyas' four losses. No Georgetown starter averages less than 9.2 points per game.
Georgetown has won two of three games between the schools since Marquette joined the Big East in 2005. Last season, the Hoyas closed the game on a 23-5 run and pulled away for a 76-58 victory as Hibbert had 23 points and 11 rebounds.
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