2008 ncca tournament bracket
2008 ncca tournament schedule
NCAA tournament bracket
The Big East tournament gets under way on Wednesday with No. 25 Marquette (22-8) the only ranked team in action. Yet while the Golden Eagles are pretty much assured a spot in the NCAA Tournament, they have some work to do this week in New York.
Marquette dropped two of its final three games – with the lone win coming against an overmatched Florida Gulf Coast lower-division program - to fall to the sixth seed in the tournament.
Last season Marquette lost four of its final six games leading into the conference tournament, then defeated St. John's in the first round before losing to Pittsburgh in the quarterfinals.
The Golden Eagles said they have learned from that experience; if they win Wednesday against Seton Hall (17-14), in which they are 10.5-point favorites at WagerWeb.com, they would face Notre Dame in Thursday's quarterfinals.
"You have to have a sense of urgency," Marquette coach Tom Crean said. "Experiences provide that. Every day, every game, you have to have the desire to be aggressive, attack, be physical. You have to understand every team is going to come at you with everything. When you get into this time of year, you can take nothing for granted."
Seton Hall, meanwhile, also comes in on a downer, loser of three straight games and eight of 10, including a 64-61 loss to Rutgers in its regular season finale on Sunday. Despite shooting just 31.4 percent from the field, the Pirates blew a 17-point lead and lost on JR Inman's 3-pointer at the buzzer.
"You can't hang on to the negative," Seton Hall coach Bobby Gonzalez.Seton Hall gave up a league-high 76.3 points during the conference season. The Pirates are 17-27 all-time in the Big East tournament, including 7-12 in the first round. They've lost in the first round the last three times they were in the tournament.
The Pirates are led by Brian Laing, a senior forward who averages 19.0 ppg and 7.0 rpg. With 16 points in Seton Hall's last game against Rutgers, Laing passed Rimas Kaukenas for 22nd place on the Pirates' all- time scoring list with 1,307 career points.
In their matchups this season, the Golden Eagles shot 32.1 percent on three-pointers in their 61-56 victory over Seton Hall in January and 47.6 percent on three-pointers in their 89-64 victory in February. The Pirates managed only 16.7 percent and 27.8 percent on threes in those meetings. Marquette won four in a row overall vs. Seton Hall.
"They have an unbelievable perimeter," Gonzalez said. "The first game was pretty tough. The second game they kicked our tail."
MU is led by Jerel McNeal, who averages a team-high 13.6 points and 2.3 steals. But the club is coming off its worst defensive effort of the season, having allowed Syracuse to shoot 58 percent, including 69.2 percent in the second half, in Saturday's 87-72 loss.
Marquette, which is holding Big East opponents to 68.4 points this season, has given up an average of 77.3 in the last three games.
Fearless forecast: Take Marquette and give the points.
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