Marquette Hosts Notre Dame

Fresh off three games away from home, Marquette returns to the Bradley Center on Friday night to take on Notre Dame. These longtime rivals will clash for the 106th time, and the first time ever as conference rivals. A sellout crowd is expected.

For a look at how MU and ND stack up statistically, visit the updated Tempo Free Stats site.

Notre Dame enters the game at 10-5 overall, and 1-3 in conference play. In their last outing, Mike Brey's squad defeated the Providence Friars 92-77 in South Bend on the strength of nearly 61% shooting from beyond the arc. Chris Quinn led the Irish with 31 points.

Like MU, Notre Dame is a perimeter-oriented team with senior Chris Quinn leading the charge. Quinn has picked up the pace in the last few weeks, averaging an impressive 19;7 points per game in his last seven outings, and 17 ppg overall while shooting 44% from 'three'. He's joined in the backcourt by sharpshooter Colin Falls, who contributes nearly 14ppg on 40% shooting from beyond the arc. Add in freshman Kyle McAlarney's 50% from deep, and its clear that MU will have to defend the perimeter better than they have all season if they expect to win the game.

Inside the Irish are paced by burly senior Torin Francis, who nearly averages a double-double. Francis' strength will present problems for MU's post players, and Golden Eagles fans hope the team will not be forced to double team or 'dig' into the post to defend him . . . not with Quinn, Falls and McAlarney floating around the perimeter.

MU is 12-5 overall and 3-2 in the Big East after a successful trip to DePaul on Wednesday night. The Golden Eagles are exceeding expectations early in the conference season, largely because of the play of the backcourt and their outside shooting. Dominic James, coming off of back-to-back career high performances, Jerel McNeal and Joe Chapman will look to counter the Irish's backcourt prowess. Steve Novak, averaging better than 22ppg in conference play, figures to be MU's biggest matchup advantage against the Irish.

Inside, both Ryan Amoroso and Ousmane Barro are coming off of disappointing performances at DePaul - -perhaps TC will look to establish one of them early on Friday night.

Here are a few previews:

ND Athletics preview.

Elkhart Truth preview.

GoMarquette preview.

South Bend Tribune preview.