Nothing but home games and neutral site contests against high major opponents until December……
The first day of summer seems like a pretty solid time to release your college basketball non-conference schedule, and that’s what YOUR Marquette Golden Eagles men’s basketball team did on Friday morning.
We already knew about the neutral site games against Indiana and Oklahoma by way of previous announcements. With that said, at the time, the Indiana game was announced as “The Hoosiers and Golden Eagles will each have two home games as a part of the event,” and the press release for this schedule says “Tickets for both games in Chicago, which replace the traditional holiday tournament the team has played in previous years, will be sold individually and aren’t included in the season-ticket package.” So it feels like something changed about something along the way there. It’s possible that’s just phrasing an explanation from the athletic department about why there isn’t a holiday tournament this year, and we’ll find out that Indiana is hosting Albany and Southern in the first week of the season in the opposite order and nothing is actually changed.
The Maryland, Dayton, and Purdue games are all return bouts on a home-and-home series that started last year, and of course, the Wisconsin game is the Wisconsin game. Still, we haven’t talked about preseason projections for anyone yet, largely because projecting rosters in the transfer portal era is futile, so let’s go game by game and see what’s on deck for Shaka Smart in Year 5 in charge.
Monday, November 3: Albany Great Danes
2024-25 Record: 17-16, 8-8 America East
2024-25 Final BartTorvik.com Ranking: #276
2025-26 BartTorvik.com Projection: #299
All-Time Series: First ever meeting
This will be a return to Milwaukee for both Albany head coach Dwayne Killings as well as assistant coach Dan Madhavapallil. Killings was a Steve Wojciechowski assistant from 2018 through 2021 when he took the Great Danes’ job, and Madhavapallil was a student manager for both Wojciechowski and Buzz Williams before staying with the program in a variety of staff roles before following Killings to New York.
Wednesday, November 5: Southern Jaguars
2024-25 Record: 20-12, 15-3 SWAC
2024-25 Final BartTorvik.com Ranking: #212
2025-26 BartTorvik.com Projection: #186
All-Time Series: Marquette leads, 3-0
Last Meeting: Marquette won, 93-56, on November 28, 2023
Sunday, November 9: Indiana Hoosiers
2024-25 Record: 19-13, 10-10 Big Ten
2024-25 Final BartTorvik.com Ranking: #50
2025-26 BartTorvik.com Projection: #41
All-Time Series: Indiana leads, 8-2
Last Meeting: Indiana won, 96-73, on November 14, 2018
It might be a great thing that Marquette is catching Indiana in the first seven days of the season. They’re in the middle of a coaching transition, and this winter will be Darian DeVries’ first season in charge in Bloomington. It seems pretty likely, given DeVries’ track record, that Indiana will be pretty solid by the end of the season, but they might be figuring some things out early on.
Wednesday, November 12: Little Rock Trojans
2024-25 Record: 19-14, 12-8 Ohio Valley
2024-25 Final BartTorvik.com Ranking: #254
2025-26 BartTorvik.com Projection: #245
All-Time Series: Marquette leads, 2-0
Last Meeting: Marquette won, 48-46, on December 9, 2000
Saturday, November 15: Maryland Terrapins
2024-25 Record: 27-9, 14-6 Big Ten
2024-25 Final BartTorvik.com Ranking: #9
2025-26 BartTorvik.com Projection: #37
All-Time Series: Tied 1-1
Last Meeting: Marquette won, 78-74, on November 15, 2024
You can kind of throw out the Last Season stuff here, as Kevin Willard left the Terrapins after their season ended to take the Villanova job. This contest will be the first time that new Maryland head coach Buzz Williams will coach in Fiserv Forum and the first time that he’s been in Marquette’s building since a 91-90 double overtime loss to St. John’s in the 2013-14 regular season finale.
Wednesday, November 19: Dayton Flyers
2024-25 Record: 23-11, 12-6 Atlantic 10
2024-25 Final BartTorvik.com Ranking: #79
2025-26 BartTorvik.com Projection: #98
All-Time Series: Marquette leads, 20-15
Last Meeting: Dayton won, 71-63, on December 14, 2024
I am very curious to see what kind of a crowd turns out to see Dayton on a Wednesday night.
Saturday, November 22: Central Michigan Chippewas
2024-25 Record: 14-17, 7-11 MAC
2024-25 Final BartTorvik.com Ranking: #220
2025-26 BartTorvik.com Projection: #258
All-Time Series: Marquette leads, 3-0
Last Meeting: Marquette won, 70-62, on November 11, 2024
This is the third time that Shaka Smart is playing CMU, and the second straight season. That’s weird, right?
Friday, November 28: Oklahoma Sooners
2024-25 Record: 20-14, 6-12 Big 12
2024-25 Final BartTorvik.com Ranking: #47
2025-26 BartTorvik.com Projection: #30
All-Time Series: First ever meeting
REMINDER: This game is being played on Black Friday at Illinois-Chicago’s arena. No, I can’t explain any of that to you.
Tuesday, December 2: Valparaiso Beacons
2024-25 Record: 15-19, 6-14 Missouri Valley
2024-25 Final BartTorvik.com Ranking: #207
2025-26 BartTorvik.com Projection: #288
All-Time Series: Marquette leads, 21-5
Last Meeting: Marquette won, 65-62, on November 27, 2006
The last meeting with Valpo would be the game where Dominic James scored MU’s final 18 points including a three with three seconds remaining to prevent the #8 ranked Golden Eagles from suffering an upset.
Saturday, December 6: at Wisconsin Badgers
2024-25 Record: 27-10, 13-7 Big Ten
2024-25 Final BartTorvik.com Ranking: #12
2025-26 BartTorvik.com Projection: #29
All-Time Series: Wisconsin leads, 71-60
Last Meeting: Marquette won, 88-74, on December 7, 2024
Marquette hasn’t won consecutive games against Wisconsin since the 2017 and 2018 encounters. The 2017 game was also the last time MU won in Madison.
Saturday, December 13: at Purdue Boilermakers
2024-25 Record: 24-12, 13-7 Big Ten
2024-25 Final BartTorvik.com Ranking: #15
2025-26 BartTorvik.com Projection: #2
All-Time Series: Purdue leads, 11-2
Last Meeting: Marquette won, 76-58, on November 19, 2024
I don’t think it’s a coincidence that Marquette’s toughest non-conference test, at least according to BartTorvik.com’s projections, is saved for the very last game of the 11 game slate.
Here’s the full non-conference schedule! No start times or television assignments yet, and I wouldn’t expect those until September.
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