The West Virginia Mountaineers are coming off a huge loss on the road to Notre Dame Fighting Irish as they host the Marquette Golden Eagles in Morgantown Friday night. History favors the Mountaineers, as they have never lost a game at home to Marquette in school history. Add to that the fact that West Virginia has won four games in a row against Marquette. With that said, Marquette is 23-5 and has wins against Louisville, Cincinnati and Wisconsin, and the Mountaineers are struggling to stay in the NCAA Tournament conversation. History may not help them much.
This game features the two top scorers in the Big East. For West Virginia, forward Kevin Jones is making a great case for Big East player of the year averaging 20.3 points and 11.2 rebounds per game. In addition to Jones, guard Darryl Bryant is averaging 16.5 points per game.
For the Golden Eagles, a win would clinch them a double-bye in the Big East tournament and they will be relying on Darius Johnson-Odom, averaging 18.7 points per game in addition to forward Jae Crowder's 17.1 points and 7.7 rebounds per game.
The game will be broadcast nationally on ESPN with tip off at 9 p.m. The game will also be available for streaming live on ESPN3.com.
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