March 6, 2008

MU-SU Game Notes (PDF)

The 21/20 Marquette University men's basketball team wraps up regular season play at Syracuse Saturday afternoon in front of a national television audience on ESPN. John Saunders (play-by-play) and Len Elmore (analyst) will call the action from the Carrier Dome in MU's 13th national broadcast of the campaign. The opening tip is slated for 3 p.m. CT. Syracuse leads the all-time series 4-2, most recently posting a 70-58 victory in Milwaukee in 2006-07.

BIG EAST Tourney Seeding Still TBA
Heading into the final weekend of the regular season, Marquette knows it will be participating in the 2008 BIG EAST Championship Presented by Aeropostale. The team's seeding, however, has yet to be finalized.

A victory over Syracuse Saturday would assure the squad of the No. 5 seed in the 12-team field and a 2 p.m. ET matchup with the No. 12 seed on Wednesday afternoon. Should the Golden Eagles fall to the Orange and West Virginia defeats St. John's, the Mountaineers would earn the fifth seed and Marquette would slide down to No. 6. WVU defeated MU in early January to secure the tiebreaker in the only matchup between the two programs.

The No. 6 seed faces the No. 11 team at 9 p.m. on Wednesday night.

Conference Road Swing Ends In Syracuse
While the Golden Eagles are wrapping up their third season in the league, Saturday's visit to Syracuse will mark the first to the Carrier Dome for MU as a member of the BIG EAST Conference.

Syracuse is the lone league program Marquette has yet to visit on at least one occasion. The two programs didn't face each other in 2005-06 and last season's matchup came at the Bradley Center.

Hayward Rebounds In A Big Way Against FGCU
Held scoreless for just the second time in his career in the team's loss to Georgetown, sophomore Lazar Hayward responded with an impressive performance against Florida Gulf Coast.

He posted his fourth career double-double in the victory over the Eagles, finishing with 18 points and 11 rebounds in just 21 minutes of action. He shot 6-of-12 from the field and 3-of-5 from behind the 3-point line.