The Big East Championship will take place at MSG on Saturday in the third meeting of the season between UConn and Marquette. The defending champion Huskies swept the regular season series, and will be looking to pick up their third win to claim their first Big East Championship since 2011.
UConn dominated the first meeting between these two by the score of 81-53. Marquette put up more of a fight in the rematch. However, they still came up short, falling 74-67. The Golden Eagles were without star guard Tyler Kolek in the rematch and it looks like he will be out again in the championship game.
With or without Kolek, the Huskies are the better team in just about every facet. UConn is 2nd in the country in scoring margin, 10th in effective field goal percentage, and 24th in scoring offense. But where they hold the biggest advantage is in the deep ball. They are 42nd in the nation in three point percentage, while Marquette is 220th in defending the three.
Marquette has played well without Kolek in this tournament. They took down a hot Villanova team in OT and beat Providence who was coming off a big upset over Creighton. Unfortunately for the Golden Eagles, UConn is a different animal.
The main thing that stuck out in Connecticut's win over the Johnnies on Friday was how fast they can put together runs. If you go on a scoring drought, they can put together a 10-0 run real quick. That is bad news for a Marquette team who is missing their best player.
Let’s not forget the revenge angle to this game. Marquette took down UConn in last year’s tournament on their way to cutting down the nets at MSG. The roles should be reversed here. UConn should win this game in emphatic fashion to capture their first conference tournament championship in 13 years.
