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.

An already weak Marquette frontcourt has gotten much weaker in the last week or so. The Golden Eagles have announced that both junior forward Joseph Fulce and freshman center Chris Otule will miss significant time due to injury.

Otule will be out for about a month after breaking his left foot in practice. Fulce has been suffering from a stress reaction in his right knee that is expected to keep him out for 2-to-4 weeks. The transfer didn’t even get a chance to play any exhibition minutes for the Golden Eagles.

(Just for the record, Marquette freshman center Liam McMorrow underwent surgery to correct a stress fracture in his right foot Wednesday. The 7-foot Canadian was already redshirting this season per NCAA transfer rules, but still.)

It’s tough to gauge just how much these losses will actually matter, given that Otule and Fulce are still relatively unproven entities. Hard to imagine it helps, though. The bulk of the workload in the post will be carried by junior Lazar Hayward, who started off his season with a double-double (19 points, 12 rebounds) against Houston Baptist. Senior forward Dwight Burke will have to show continued development too, as will sophomore forward Patrick Hazel (seeing as they are the only other healthy big men left on Marquette’s roster).

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.”