MU Takes On Seton Hall In BIG EAST Semis at 8 p.m. CT

The No. 23/22 Marquette University men's basketball team (24-8, 12-6 BIG EAST) takes on Seton Hall (19-12, 9-9) Friday night in the semifinals of the BIG EAST Tournament presented by Jeep at 8 p.m. CT in Madison Square Garden. FS1 features the television broadcast, with Gus Johnson (play-by-play), Jim Jackson (analyst) and Lisa Byington (analyst) calling the action. Friday night's winner will advance for the opportunity to play for the league's automatic bid to the NCAA tournament.

Marquette Making Third Semifinal Trip

Marquette has advanced to at least the league tourney quarterfinals every season since joining the BIG EAST in 2005-06, the longest current run by any program in the conference.

The Golden Eagles are 12-13 all-time in the BIG EAST Tournament and 24-28 in postseason events since joining a league for the first time in 1989-90. MU hadn't advanced to the semifinals since 2010, when it was defeated by Georgetown, 80-57, and owns just one other Friday-night appearance, falling to Pittsburgh 68-61 in 2008 under head coach Tom Crean.

Marquette's No. 2 seed (2012) matches its highest since joining the BIG EAST and the program's lone league tournament title came in 1997 as a member of Conference USA.

Win Produces New Postseason Standards

Marquette's 32-point win in Thursday night's quarterfinal not only kept the team from falling to St. John's three times in 2018-19, it also produced some record-setting individual and team performances.

The final margin of victory is the largest in league tournament history for Marquette, surpassing a 29-point win over St. John's in 2009 (74-45). Guard Markus Howard surpassed Jerel McNeal's previous single-game scoring mark (28 points vs. Notre Dame, March 13, 2008) with his 30-point effort and now owns 17 career efforts of 30-or-more points, the fifth-most among current NCAA Division I players.

Series With Pirates Dates Back To 1956

The Golden Eagles lead the all-time series with Seton Hall, 19-8, with all but one of the matchups coming after MU joined the BIG EAST Conference in 2005-06.

SHU opened the series with a 96-78 victory over Marquette on March 17, 1956 in MU's first-ever appearance in the National Invitation Tournament in New York. The next meeting wouldn't come until 50 years later when Marquette moved to the BIG EAST.

The team's split the season series, with each program winning on its respective home court.

The Golden Eagles and Pirates have met three times previously in the BIG EAST Tournament, with Marquette claiming opening-game wins in 2008 and 2015. Seton Hall downed MU 82-76 in the most recent matchup in the 2017 quarterfinals.

Howard Leads In Scoring, But Gets Plenty Of Help

Junior guard Markus Howard led the way with 30 points in the win over St. John's, but received plenty of help on the offensive end.

Forwards Sacar Anim (13) and Sam Hauser (10) also finished with double figures in points and Marquette had a total of nine different players score at least one basket, including a total of 17 points from the center duo of Theo John (9) and Ed Morrow (8).

Marquette's 86 points were its most since a 92-73 win over DePaul on Feb. 12, 2019.