Marquette takes on Northern Iowa in Chicago Invitational

We're still eating.....so, here's the official preview from Marquette:


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MU Heads To Chicago Invitational This Weekend At Sears Centre

Golden Eagles to face Northern Iowa and Dayton

	Senior Jerel McNeal

Nov. 26, 2008

MU-UNI Game Notes (PDF)

The No. 15/15 Marquette University men’s basketball team continues play at the 2008 Chicago Invitational with a pair of matchups at the Sears Centre in Hoffman Estates, Ill. The Golden Eagles will face Northern Iowa at 7:30 p.m. on Friday night before playing Dayton Saturday evening at 7 p.m. Time Warner Cable Sports 32 will produce and broadcast each game, with Steve “The Homer” True (play-by-play) and former MU standout Jim McIlvaine (analyst) calling the action.

Tournament Champion May Depend On Defense
The 2008 Chicago Invitational is an eight-team event that features its first two rounds on campus sites. Competing in the tourney with MU are Mercer, Texas Southern, Bethune Cookman, Chicago State, Auburn, Dayton and Northern Iowa.

Each of the programs will also play two games at the Sears Centre in predetermined matchups. In the event that more than one team finishes with the same overall record, head-to-head competition is the first tiebreaker and lowest combined defensive points (all four games) is the second tiebreaker. MU is already 2-0 heading to the weekend.

McNeal, Acker To Juggle Ticket Requests This Weekend
Senior Jerel McNeal and junior Maurice Acker, former high school teammates and Chicago-area natives, will be busy this week sorting through ticket requests as they play in front of numerous friends and family members.

The duo starred together at Hillcrest High School, helping the program to multiple conference championships and a sectional final appearance in 2005. McNeal came to Marquette directly from Hillcrest, while Acker transferred to MU after one season at Ball State.

MU Continues Regular Season Tournament Success
Already 2-0 in the Chicago Invitational, the Golden Eagles have continued in 2008-09 a recent trend of success in regular season tournaments. Marquette opened play in the Chicago Invitational Nov. 17 again

st Chicago State with a 106-87 victory and defeated Texas Southern on Tuesday night, 85-68. Senior Wesley Matthews and junior Lazar Hayward are leading the way offensively for MU in those two games, scoring 19.5 points per game.

The Golden Eagles are 14-1 overall since 2004-05 in those events, including a trio of championships at the BCA Classic (2004-05), Great Alaska Shootout (2005-06) and CBE Classic (2006-07).

MU advanced to the title matchup of the EA Sports/Maui Invitational last season, but was edged by Duke, 77-73.