REPORT: Marquette & Missouri Are Playing In Chicago

I don’t like the idea of going back to Chicago for a third neutral site game in two seasons, either. Look, if Gazelle Group or whoever is paying Marquette to be in these games or at the very least covering expenses so it’s not costing the athletic department anything, then this isn’t the worst idea. I know Marquette has a strong alumni base in Chicago because I can read admissions data, and serving that market with a game that’s not the yearly visit to DePaul does make a lot of sense because MU doesn’t control when the game at Wintrust gets played. But MU double tapped the Chicago alumni base for two non-conference games last year, and the attendance for both of them was lackluster at best. The Indiana game drew 14,017 to the United Center, and that was with Indiana fans taking up the majority of the occupied seats in the 20,000 seat home arena for the Chicago Bulls. The Oklahoma game drew 2,587 to UIC’s arena, which is listed by KenPom.com with a capacity of 8,000 and there were very few Sooners supporters in the building. I always thought that game was a bad idea on Thanksgiving weekend, and the lack of ticket sales just supported my point there. Now MU is going back to Chicago and the United Center with an opponent from much further away than Indiana and in an offseason where the Golden Eagles are in much more tumult than they were a year ago when you could squint and say “well, Shaka Smart will figure this out, right?” Feels like this could go sideways on the attendance pretty quickly.

Just don’t schedule a second one in Illinois, okay? Thank you.

By the way: This is just the third game on the slate that we know so far, with Michigan and Wisconsin lining up as the other two. Wonder if we’re going to get a quality opponent at Fiserv other than the Badgers…..

Oh, one last thing. Marquette is 4-5 all time against Missouri. The first two meetings were back in the 1950s in a pair of home and home series games. That happened again in the late 1970s, then Mizzou beat Marquette in the 1982 NCAA tournament before a home and home set in 1983 and 1984. This game will be the first regular season meeting since 1984, as the last two encounters were in the NCAA tournament. The second most recent one was the 101-92 overtime win for Marquette in 2003, and the most recent one was 83-79 for Missouri in 2009. That would be the “Lazar Hayward stepped in bounds” game, as well as the game that caused the NCAA to chance the injured player replacement free throw shooter rule. FUN FACT: Now deposed Providence head coach Kim English is the guy who shot the free throws instead of JT Tiller who fell on his wrist and then immediately returned to the game.

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