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Marquette beat Kansas State 83-71 in Milwaukee last season largely thanks to 45 points from All-American guard Markus Howard, so naturally we asked the Milwaukee Journal-Sentinel’s Ben Steele how the Cats might be able to do a better job defensively Saturday night at Bramlage Coliseum. The bad news is Kansas State might not we well-equipped to handle such a difficult task. The good news is after the surprising departure of Joey and Sam Hauser during the offseason, the rest of Marquette’s offense might not pose as much of a threat as last year’s team. At least not yet.
Ben also told us why the Golden Eagles look better defensively this season and their interior defense will make it difficult for Cartier Diarra, Xavier Sneed and others to get to the rim. Marquette even played a little zone for the first time in Sunday’s 84-63 loss to Maryland, but coach Steve Wojciechowski said that was mostly because nothing else was working. Probably good news for Kansas State.
Be sure to read Ben’s work on the Journal-Sentinel’s website, and feel free to leave him some suggestions in the comments of where to go during his brief stay in Manhattan. Or as long as you’re nice about it, you could even tweet to him @bensteelemjs.
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