When? Well, Jon Rothstein’s not 100% helpful all the time
Ah, springtime, when a young man’s fancy turns to tweeting out non-conference buy game arrangements.
You can count on Living Twitter Meme Jon Rothstein to keep you UP TO DATE on all manner of guarantee games getting scheduled around the country, and on Wednesday morning, he reported that YOUR Marquette Golden Eagles men’s basketball team will host Stony Brook at some point during the 2024-25 season. This game will be the first ever meeting between Marquette and Stony Brook.
Source: Marquette will host Stony Brook as part of its 2024-25 non-conference schedule.
— Jon Rothstein (@JonRothstein) May 1, 2024
Barring something terrifically weird happening, 2024-25 will be Stony Brook’s sixth season under the direction of Geno Ford and the Seawolves’ third as a member of the Coastal Athletic Association. Ford’s team matched his best win total of his time on Long Island this past year, going 20-15 overall and 10-8 in CAA action. They came within a play or two of getting to the NCAA tournament as the #7 seed in the CAA tournament, as they held Charleston without a point in the final five minutes of regulation in the tourney title game and went on a 9-0 run to force overtime. Charleston shook off their slump to score the first six points of overtime, and that was that.
If the Seawolves were to recreate their 2024-24 season next year, they could end up as a sneaky good team on Marquette’s resume. Stony Brook finished the year at #175 in the NET, #158 on BartTorvik.com, and #168 on KenPom.com. However, the Torvik RosterCast system indicates that might not be the case. Even after adding Joe Octave, Holy Cross’ leading scorer and #2 rebounder, the RosterCast still projects Stony Brook at #287 in the country for next season. It also only shows them with seven players on the roster, so perhaps merely getting to 10 projected contributors will help that ranking out. The Seawolves are looking at replacing their top five scorers from 2023-24, but they do expect to return top rebounder Andre Snoddy, who chipped in 7.2 caroms per contest along with 5.0 points and 1.2 assists.
The addition of Stony Brook gives us five games on the Marquette schedule for next season. It’s the first buy game on the slate alongside home games against Wisconsin and Purdue, a road game against Iowa State in the Big East/Big 12 Battle, and a one-off trip to the Atlantis resort in the Bahamas to face Georgia. Roughly speaking, we’re about halfway home to a full non-conference schedule.