Marquette's NCAA Nightmare Scenarios

Now that Marquette is locked into a NCAA bid & could lose every game from now until Selection Sunday & still have a bid, we have the luxury of being able to look forward a bit & think about the tournament itself. Where Marquette is seeded now, they would potentially face a 14-seed in the first round, followed by either a 6-seed or 11-seed to get to the Sweet 16. Let's take a look at one team off each seed line.

South Dakota State (14-Seed): The Jackrabbits are led by Mike Daum, a 6'9" senior center that is already one of the 15 most prolific scorers in NCAA history. He can score out to the arc, which allows the Jacks to spread the floor with five three-point shooters. Daum also excels at drawing fouls. His abilities to both drag centers to the arc & get them in foul trouble would only be the beginning of Marquette's troubles though. The Jacks have two other players that are high-major quality in David Jenkins & Skyler Flatten. Both average 15+ ppg & shoot well over 40% from the arc. As a team, no one in their rotation is shorter than 6'2", which would allow them to rotate longer defenders onto Markus Howard. They are one of the best shooting teams in the country (#2 eFG%, top-10 in both 2PFG% & 3PFG%) & don't beat themselves by turning it over.

VCU (11-Seed): The Rams are still one of those pesky teams that will give teams fits. They have length & athleticism all over the floor with everyone in the rotation between 6'2" and 6'8". They are an elite defensive team that is #1 in the country at defending the three but also excel at limiting the number of threes opponents take. Defensively, they simply do not allow teams to score at the arc. VCU also forces a ton of turnovers. Offensively they are not great, but do have a handful of guys that can get hot by attacking inside & getting to the line. My main concern with them is on the defensive end, where everything they do plays to Marquette's weaknesses.

Florida State (6-Seed): This is the definition of a nightmare. Their primary rotation is all guys from 6'5" to 6'10", with a 7'4" center they can bring off the bench as a rim protector. They use that length to turn teams over & get out in transition. Their big man, Mfiondu Kabengele, is a high efficiency player that can score inside & out, get to the line, block shots, & basically do everything. This is the team that could apply a lot of pressure to Markus Howard, eat up our bigs inside, & disrupt everything in the Marquette gameplan. Hopefully come Selection Sunday, the 'Noles & Marquette won't be anywhere close to the same region.

1-Seeds: 1-DUKE, 2-TENNESSEE, 3-Virginia, 4-GONZAGA
2-Seeds: 8-Michigan State, 7-MICHIGAN, 6-North Carolina, 5-Kentucky
3-Seeds: 9-Kansas, 10-HOUSTON, 11-Marquette, 12-Purdue
4-Seeds: 16-Lsu, 15-Texas Tech, 14-Iowa State, 13-NEVADA
5-Seeds: 17-VILLANOVA, 18-Louisville, 19-Wisconsin, 20-Iowa
6-Seeds: 24-Florida State, 23-Maryland, 22-Virginia Tech, 21-KANSAS STATE
7-Seeds: 25-Mississippi State, 26-Cincinnati, 27-BUFFALO, 28-Mississippi
8-Seeds: 32-WOFFORD, 31-WASHINGTON, 30-Baylor, 29-Texas
9-Seeds: 33-LIPSCOMB, 34-St. John's, 35-Auburn, 36-Syracuse
10-Seeds: 40-Oklahoma, 39-BELMONT, 38-Seton Hall, 37-Ohio State
11-Seeds: 41-Indiana, 42-Nebraska, 43-NC State, 44-VCU
12-Seeds: 50-DAVIDSON, 49-Temple/48-Clemson, 47-Alabama/46-TCU, 45-Minnesota
13-Seeds: 51-NEW MEXICO STATE, 52-HOFSTRA, 53-VERMONT, 54-YALE
14-Seeds: 58-SOUTH DAKOTA STATE, 57-RADFORD, 56-UC IRVINE, 55-OLD DOMINION
15-Seeds: 59-MONTANA, 60-NORTHERN KENTUCKY, 61-LOYOLA CHICAGO, 62-TEXAS STATE
16-Seeds: 68-CANISIUS/67-ST. FRANCIS (PA), 66-SAM HOUSTON STATE/65-NORFOLK STATE, 64-PRAIRIE VIEW A&M, 63-BUCKNELL

Last Four Byes: Nebraska, NC State, Minnesota, VCU
Last Four In: TCU, Alabama, Clemson, Temple
First Four Out: Butler, Utah State, UCF, Furman
Next Four Out:  Arizona State, Florida, UNC Greensboro, San Francisco