#mubb Hosts Jacksonville Wednesday At 8 p.m. CT

The Marquette University men's basketball team (5-2, 0-0 BIG EAST) returns to Fiserv Forum to host Jacksonville (4-5, 0-0 ASUN) in non-conference action on Wednesday, Dec. 4 at 8 p.m. CT. FS2 will feature the national television broadcast, with Jeff Levering (play-by-play) and Stephen Bardo (analyst) calling the action. Following the outing against the Dolphins, the Golden Eagles will travel to Kansas State on Saturday, Dec. 7 before an extended break in the schedule to focus on first-semester finals.

Marquette To Meet Dolphins For Third Time

Marquette has claimed each of the previous two meetings with Jacksonville, both of which came in Milwaukee.

MU posted an 88-79 win over the Dolphins on Feb. 16, 1972 and most recently earned an 88-56 decision when the Golden Eagles were ranked 16th in the country on Nov. 28, 2011. Forward Jae Crowder, now with the Memphis Grizzlies, led the team with 27 points in the victory.

Bailey Breaks Through In Orlando Finale

Entering Sunday's game against Maryland, sophomore forward Brendan Bailey had only reached double figures in points on three occasions in 40 career appearances and had never scored more than 11 points in a game.

He finished with a personal-best 27 points against the Trojans, shooting 10-of-16 from the floor overall and 7-of-12 from long distance in 38 minutes of action. The Salt Lake City, Utah, native also chipped in six points, two steals and an assist.

Bailey scored more points on Sunday than he had (25) over the course of the first six games of the season. He had 13 points at the intermission and is the only player on the roster not named Markus Howard to score more than 25 points in a game this season.

Johnson Effective On The Boards

Graduate transfer Jayce Johnson has been slowed early in 2019-20 by a knee injury, but has increased his production with each passing game.

Johnson collected a team-best 11 boards against Maryland in just 19 minutes of action, including five at the offensive end. His rebound total marked a personal-best with the program and he has grabbed as many as 15 caroms in a game at Utah (three-year letterwinner).

Johnson missed the first two games of the year after suffering a knee sprain in practice the day before the team's Oct. 29 exhibition.

Marquette's Schedule Off To Challenging Start

Marquette's early-season schedule ranks as one of the toughest in the nation through games of Dec. 1.

The Golden Eagles have played four of their seven games against major-conference opponents, a group that includes a trio of Big Ten programs (Purdue, at Wisconsin, vs. 5/8 Maryland) and USC.

According to KenPom, MU's strength of schedule based on average ranking of opponents is best in the BIG EAST and the team has played the most games against teams in KenPom's A/B quadrants. Overall, the schedule ranks 25th in the country and only Oregon and Kansas have played better schedules among major conference teams.

Marquette University Athletics

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Brendan Bailey

Markus Howard

Jayce Johnson

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