Marquette hosts Jacksonville Wednesday night

The Marquette Golden Eagles (5-2) return home Wednesday from a relatively successful trip to Orlando that saw them place second in the Orlando Invitational, picking up wins over Davidson and USC before falling to Maryland in the championship on Sunday.

The biggest story of the weekend, though, was Markus Howard. The Marquette guard went off for 40 points in Thursday’s opener against Davidson, and followed that up with 51 against USC, his fourth career 50-point game. Howard has always been dynamic and explosive, but he’s seemingly taken his scoring ability to new heights this year and it has been a blast to watch. The flip side, however, is when he’s not scoring (such as against Wisconsin or Maryland) things get ugly in a hurry for the Golden Eagles.

Luckily, that shouldn’t be much of an issue Wednesday night against the Jacksonville Dolphins.

Howard and the Golden Eagles likely won’t be able to shoot the lights out against Jacksonville, who are slightly above average defensively and significantly above average at guarding the perimeter (both per KenPom), but Jacksonville’s offense leaves a lot to be desired, as they’ve failed to score 65 points in six of their nine games this season. The Dolphins have managed to win two of those games, but they won’t be able to beat Marquette scoring such a small amount of points, barring something crazy.

Jacksonville’s leading scorer and rebounder this year is Dave Bell, who is averaging 12.2 points and 10.6 rebounds per game. If Marquette can slow him down on both ends, they’ll win in a rout.

How to watch or stream

Time: 8 p.m. CT

TV: FS2

Stream: FOX Sports Go