Here’s a quick look at this afternoon’s game between Marquette and Georgetown in Milwaukee.

Probable Starting Lineups (season statistics in parenthesis):

MARQUETTE (18-2, 7-0 Big East):

G Dominic James (11.6 ppg, 5.4 apg)

G Jerel McNeal (19.4 ppg, 48 3-pointers)

G Wesley Matthews (19.0 ppg, 5.5 rpg)

F Lazar Hayward (16.3 ppg, 8.7 rpg)

F Dwight Burke (2.9 ppg, 3.8 rpg)

GEORGETOWN (12-7, 3-5):

G Chris Wright (11.6 ppg, 3.0 rpg)

G Jessie Sapp (6.5 ppg, 4.1 rpg)

G Austin Freeman (12.2 ppg, 3.8 rpg)

F DaJuan Summers (14.9 ppg, 4.3 rpg)

C Greg Monroe (14.1 ppg, 7.8 rpg)

This game might not be a must win for the Hoyas, but it has to be getting pretty close. Georgetown has lost four straight, the last two coming to Big East basement-dwellers Seton Hall and Cincinnati. The Golden Eagles are coming off a road win against Notre Dame, no small feat even given the trouble the Irish have had of late.

I can’t really see a situation in which Greg Monroe doesn’t go nuts for Georgetown today, so look for Marquette to take the Luke Harangody approach they used on Monday. Basically, they’ll probably allow Monroe his points and try to shut down everyone else, betting that one guy can’t beat them. No official word yet on whether DaJuan Summers will play with an ankle injury suffered against Cincinnati. My guess is yes, but he won’t be 100 percent.

You know the drill for Marquette — good perimeter defense led by Jerel McNeal, Dominic James and Wesley Matthews, weak frontcourt that can’t afford to get in foul trouble and don’t fall in love with the 3-pointer.

Should be a good one today, we’ll have more as we go.

It’s a final here at the Sears Centre in Hoffman Estates, Ill., with Marquette beating Northern Iowa 73-43 in the third round of the Chicago Invitational. The closest this one got was 0-0, because Marquette jumped out to a 32-8 lead at the start and lead 37-18 at the half.

Senior guard Jerel McNeal, a Chicago native, had 13 points for Marquette. He added two steals as the Golden Eagles forced 14 turnovers. Fellow guard Wesley Matthews continued his surprisingly strong start to the season with 17 points and seven rebounds. Forward Lazar Hayward turned in another good game for Marquette, scoring 15 points and grabbing eight rebounds.

Now the bad news. Marquette looked shaky in the halfcourt again, settling too often for quick 3-point shots. That worked in the first half, when the Golden Eagles shot 42.9 percent from three, but not as well in the second half when they shot 38.5 percent. We’ll have coach Buzz Williams’ comment on that as soon as possible.

Senior forward Dwight Burke managed to stay on the court for most of the game, playing 30 minutes and scoring one point while grabbing six rebounds. Other than that, walk-on Robert Frozena got in for an unprecedented five minutes tonight.

I’ll give you some postgame quotes when they become available.

A quick look at No. 16 Marquette (2-0) against Wisconsin-Milwaukee (3-1) in Milwaukee today:

Probable Starters (season stats in parenthesis):
Marquette:
G Dominic James (6.5 ppg, seven steals)
G Jerel McNeal (18.5 ppg, 11 assists)
G Wesley Matthews (26.5 ppg, 7.0 apg)
F Lazar Hayward (20.0 ppg, 10.5 rpg)
F Dwight Burke (1.5 ppg, 2.5 rpg)

UW-Milwaukee:
G Tone Boyle (14.5 ppg, 6 steals)
G Ricky Franklin (11.8 ppg, 3.8 apg)
G Deonte Roberts (6.0 ppg, 1.8 apg)
F Tony Meier (9.3 ppg, 6.3 rpg)
F Anthony Hill (9.3 ppg, 7.3 rpg)

The Golden Eagles hold a 35-0 record all-time against Wisconsin-Milwaukee, so this cross-town “rivalry” is such in name only. In reality, Marquette and UW-Milwaukee are rivals like blades of grass and a lawn mower are rivals. Or how Barack Obama and Ron Paul are rivals.

Still, senior guard Wesley Matthews acknowledged the perceived importance of being called “the best team in Milwaukee” this week.

“It’s just the next game on the schedule,” Matthews said. “But we still don’t forget about those bragging rights.”

Right. UW-Milwaukee lost Torre Johnson, Paige Paulson and Marcus Skinner from last season – when Marquette won a 100-65 decision. That trio accounted for 38.6 points and 20.3 rebounds per game last year. The Panthers now rely on juco transfer Tone Boyle.

It should be business as usual for the size-challenged Golden Eagles, with Matthews and fellow guards Jerel McNeal and Dominic James leading the way. Matthews has 27 and 26 points in his first two games of the year, respectively, and McNeal is off to a quietly stellar start. Junior forward Lazar Hayward is averaging a double-double, and should have a chance for a good showing considering UW-Milwaukee is equally size-starved.

More on this one after it finishes.

Sloppy game out of Milwaukee on Monday, with 56 fouls called in Marquette’s 106-87 win over Chicago State. That’s a dangerous way to play for the Golden Eagles, who dress just nine scholarship players right now, but you can overcome that against this type of nonconference opposition.

Coach Buzz Williams seemed noticeably irritated by the haphazard play in the postgame press conference, and his main complaint was that Marquette allowed Chicago State to score 51 second-half points and shoot 42.5 percent from the floor in the game.

“It’s not poor me, it’s not pity me, I’m not trying to be a prophet or forsee the future, but we can’t allow teams to score 51 points (in one half) in our building,” Williams said. “To be honest with you, you can’t allow teams to score 51 points whether you’re playing in the park or no matter what gym.”

That’s for sure. For more on the game, look here.

A few musings:

- Marquette senior guard Wesley Matthews looks a ton more aggressive this year than in previous campaigns, albeit against relatively weak competition. He scored 17 first-half points last night when Marquette’s other scorers were struggling. Interesting to see from a guy who has always been the least exciting of Marquette’s trio of guards.

- Dominic James, never the strongest shooter, is 3-for-11 from the free throw line this season. Even Shaq thinks that’s bad.

- Sophomore forward Patrick Hazel played decently (10 points, five rebounds) but he hasn’t convinced Williams yet. “I don’t think Pat Hazel has played enough minutes to know what confidence is yet…I’ve probably stopped practice for (Hazel) more times than for the other eight guys on the roster.” Sure looks better than senior forward Dwight Burke, who followed up his season opener (zero points, two rebounds) with an equally invisible second game (three points, three boards).

- The game marked the first time since the 1994-’95 season that Marquette scored at least 90 points in back-to-back games. The 106 points scored also marked the highest Marquette point total since Marquette defeated Charleston, 106-58 in the 1980-’81 season opener on Dec. 1, 1980.

Up next for Marquette – Saturday game against semi-rival Wisconsin-Milwaukee.

Here’s a quick look at Marquette (1-0) against Chicago State (1-0) in Milwaukee at 7 p.m.

Probable starters (stats from season opener in parenthesis):
Marquette:
G Dominic James (5 points, 5 assists)
G Jerel McNeal (20 points, 4 rebounds)
G Wesley Matthews (27 points, 8 assists)
F Lazar Hayward (19 points, 12 rebounds)
F Dwight Burke (2 rebounds)

Chicago State:
G Mike Wilson (4 points, 3 assists)
G David Holston (32 points, 7 assists)
G John Cantrell (15 points, 6 assists)
F Carl Montgomery (23 points, 12 rebounds)
F Tawrence Walton (10 points, 7 rebounds)

I don’t know much about Chicago State, beyond the fact that they hung up 112 points in a win over St. Xavier in the season opener. Of course, Marquette beat Houston Baptist by 31 points to open the year — neither of those wins is very impressive. The Golden Eagles will be playing shorthanded tonight (and for the next month) with forwards Chris Otule (foot) and Joseph Fulce (shin) sitting due to injury.

Chicago State shot 46.4 percent (13-of-28) from three in its first game and snatched 16 steals while turning the ball over 16 times.

For Marquette, I’d have to say a big goal probably will be getting forward Dwight Burke involved a little more. If he’s having trouble against non-conference opponents, he’ll be struggling mightily later in the year.

More on this game after it wraps up tonight.

Just got back from Marquette’s men’s basketball media day. Here’s a little information on the Golden Eagles heading into the season:

Marquette may have a new coach (former assistant Buzz Williams) but the strength for this team will be the same as it’s been for the past three years – guard play. Led by the trio of senior guards Jerel McNeal, Dominic James and Wes Matthews, the Golden Eagles will look to play the same basic fast-paced, up tempo style as they did under now-Indiana coach Tom Crean.

In McNeal, Matthews and James, Marquette returns three players who have scored over 1,000 points in their career. Only one other Division I school – North Dakota State – can say that. Reserve guards like juniors David Cubillan and Maurice Acker also provide game-tested experience off the bench. But as talented and deep as Marquette’s guard play may be, it is the production (or lack thereof) of the frontline that will determine whether the Golden Eagles can be more than a flash in the pan come postseason.

Marquette lost senior center Ousmane Barro (5.5 points, 5.5 rebounds per game) to graduation and freshman center Trevor Mbakwe (1.5 points, 2.1 rebounds per game) left the program a few months after Crean jumped ship. Barro’s main strength was that he ran the floor well, a necessity in the type of offense Marquette employs. Mbakwe didn’t contribute much last season, but missed all but 11 games with a knee injury and almost redshirted – he was only rounding into form as the season ended.

That leaves the bulk of the minutes to senior center Dwight Burke. Burke is sort of the forgotten member of this senior class, mostly by his own doing. He stands at just 6-foot-8, but his body type would still seem ideal for a low-post banger. However, he tends to disappear at times, and averaged just 2.5 points and 2.9 rebounds last year. He’ll get some help from 6-foot-7 junior college transfer Joseph Fulce and Chris Otule, a 6-foot-10 freshman from Texas. Fulce, though, would seem better suited as a small forward and will need to rely on his length and ability to run the floor until he can add some weight. Junior Lazar Hayward will be counted on to fill some minutes in the post and should see his playing time expand from the 25.4 minutes a game he saw last year. Despite being relatively small (6-foot-6, 225 pounds), he excelled in a similar role last season averaging 12.8 points and 6.5 rebounds per game.

Here are a few highlights from today’s press conferences:

Coach Buzz Williams on the two transfer students from Tyler (Tex.) JC…

“Any time you can sign players that have prior experience, it’s a positive. No matter how good their high school team is or what state you play in, any time you go from high school to (the Big East) it’s a big separation. I think (Fulce and fellow transfer Jimmy Butler), they didn’t play in the Big East, but they played in a really good junior college league.”

Williams on his team’s lack of size…

“We are little. We’re short. We’re short today when we take the team picture and we’ll be short when you cover our first game. That’s not going to change…our guards are going to have to be extraordinarily good rebounders, because we don’t have a 6-foot-11 guy get all the rebounds.”

Senior center Dwight Burke on negative publicity regarding the Marquette’s post play…

“I don’t ever want to take anything from what the guards have done, we have great guards. But people have been putting down our front line and in a way disrespecting us. I take it to heart…I’m not really mad about it, I’m just looking forward to showing people that we do have a front line and we’re going to surprise people.”

Senior guard Jerel McNeal on last season’s NCAA Tournament loss…

“It doesn’t go away, if that’s what you’re asking. I think about it every day, just about being a shot away or a stop away from making it to the Sweet 16…after that you never know what will happen…It’s something that drives you in the offseason to work hard and take that same shot you missed at the end of the game, work on getting those stops at the end of the game that you need to get.”