Marquette Men’s Basketball Faces Off Against Seton Hall: Can They Crack the Big East Battle Ahead?

Come Saturday morning at 11 am Central time, the Prudential Center in Newark will buzz with anticipation as the Marquette Golden Eagles, struggling with an 8-14 record and 3-8 in Big East play, step onto the court against the Seton Hall Pirates, who boast a much sturdier 15-6 overall and a balanced 5-5 conference slate. It’s one of those matchups where stats tell one story—Marquette’s grappling with more losses than wins, Sean Jones sidelined due to injury, and Seton Hall’s solid defensive rankings—but the heart of college basketball often defies numbers. Chase Ross led Marquette’s charge at 15.5 points per game, while Seton Hall depends on AJ Staton-McCray’s steady 11.7 points and Stephon Payne’s 7.4 rebounds per outing. Seton Hall’s favored on paper, with KenPom giving them an 82 percent edge and a projected 74-64 victory, but as anyone who’s followed these two knows, these contests can flip on a dime—just ask Marquette, who held a late lead in their last encounter before the Pirates rallied to win. The electric vibes, the looming pressure, and the taste of redemption in the air—this game promises more than just numbers. If you love college hoops’ unpredictability and the tussle that comes with rivalry, mark your calendar. LEARN MORE

Marquette Golden Eagles (8-14, 3-8 Big East) at Seton Hall Pirates (15-6, 5-5 Big East)

Date: Saturday, January 31, 2026
Time: 11am Central
Location: Prudential Center, Newark, New Jersey

Marquette Stats Leaders

Points: Chase Ross, 15.5 ppg
Rebounds: Ben Gold, 5.6 rpg
Assists: Nigel James, 4.7 apg

Marquette Injury Note: Sean Jones has missed the last eight games with a foot issue. He was out of his walking boot during the Providence game last week, so he’s moving closer towards a return but was still listed as Out on the availability report before Friday’s game against Butler. With eight games played already this season, but just 11 games left to go, I presume that he will play again if the doctors clear him before the season ends.

Seton Hall Stats Leaders

Points: AJ Staton-McCray, 11.7 ppg
Rebounds: Stephon Payne, 7.4 rpg
Assists: Budd Clark, 4.6 apg

KenPom.com Rankings

Marquette: #109
Seton Hall: #49
Game Projection: Seton Hall has an 82% chance of victory, with a predicted score of 74-64.

Last Time Out: Marquette fired off a 13-2 run in the first half in Milwaukee to take a 21-18 lead. Marquette threw out a 16-0 run in the second half to flip the contest from 45-39 Seton Hall to 55-45. Marquette led 73-66 with three minutes left. Marquette led 73-72 with less than two minutes left. Marquette lost 79-73 because Seton Hall closed the game on a 13-0 run, holding the Golden Eagles without a field goal for the final 6:14 of the game.

Since Last We Met: That near escape was probably the basketball equivalent of the Check Engine light blinking at Seton Hall head coach Shaheen Holloway. That game in Milwaukee was their first game back from Christmas break after losing 64-56 to Villanova in their last game before the break. Then they needed a 16-2 run to have a chance to force two straight jump balls to get the ball back in the final 20 seconds AND for Najai Hines to haul in a Budd Clark missed fadeaway elbow jumper AND draw the and-1 foul AND make the freebie to win, 56-54.

Then the Pirates bounced back from a 16-3 run early in the second half by Georgetown to get a 13-0 run of their own to jump out to a 10 point lead and beat the Hoyas 76-67 in Washington. That moved them to 14-2 on the year and 4-1 in Big East play. They got there with problems, but they did get there, and that pushed the Pirates into the AP top 25 poll at #25.

Then the Pirates lost four straight games. By 5 at home to UConn? Okay, not so bad. By 11 at home to Butler? Not great, Bob! By 15 at The Garden to St. John’s? Well, that’s bad just by margin, not so much by the opponent.

Losing 67-60 at DePaul? Well, now the brakes are screeching when you’re driving on the freeway after the Check Engine light went on, aren’t you?

Following that up with a 41-30 halftime deficit at home against Xavier? Yep, Seton Hall’s officially in trouble. Yes, they won that game, yes, it was very funny to see them suddenly break that game in their favor with a 23-3 run out of the locker room and a 12-0 run to end the game, but hooooooboy, it was not looking great for Seton Hall again there for a while.

Tempo Free Fun: Hey, y’all know you can filter data on BartTorvik.com, right? We’ve talked about this before, so hopefully you know what I mean. Since Big East play started, Seton Hall has been playing like the #84 team in the country. Their defense has been elite, ranking #16, but the offense has been a disaster, waaaaay down there at #251. Marquette has been worse, #90 overall, #92 on defense, but at least they have the #111 offense to lord over the Pirates.

Since the first Marquette/Seton Hall game, the Pirates have been the #89 team in the country. Still elite on defense at #16, but the offense got a bit worse, down to #257. Marquette? #66 overall, #76 on defense, #80 on offense. Not great, but better, so that’s nice.

Since the start of Seton Hall’s four game losing streak, the Pirates have been the #98 team in the country. The defense has slipped, although #42 in the country is still very good. The offense has improved, but #212 in the country is still bad and mixing bad offense with declining defense is how you get problems. Marquette in the same time frame? #70 in the country, #141 on defense (we’ve talked about how they keep giving up 1.2 points per possession, although they broke that streak against Creighton, holding the Jays to less than 0.90 per trip) and #49 on offense.

Why do I bring all of this up? Mostly to point out that you can actually take the filtered BartTorvik.com data and alter the game projections. See up top where I said that KenPom.com says Seton Hall has an 82% chance of victory and there’s an expected margin of 10 points? Yeah, so, BartTorvik.com’s full season data has it a little bit closer, with SHU sitting at an 81% chance of victory and a score of 72-64. But if we take the “since the Pirates’ losing streak started” data? 52% chance, 72-71. A coin flip.

In between Marquette beating Creighton on Tuesday and Seton Hall rallying to beat Xavier on Wednesday, the filtered data actually had it 53% for Marquette. I’d imagine that margin would have been bigger if the Musketeers hadn’t folded like an old card table in the second half.

Filtered data from BartTorvik.com says Marquette has a 53% chance of victory against Seton Hall with a predicted score of 70-69.

Marquette had Seton Hall beat last time. Had them, right there, after 37 minutes. Just couldn’t close the deal. The trends for the past two-plus weeks say that Marquette is playing better than Seton Hall, and were it not for a truly wretched second half for Xavier, the gap between the two teams would be even bigger. Mix in a little bit of perhaps Marquette’s guys are still annoyed about letting Seton Hall off the hook and a little bit of Seton Hall panicking as their season starts to fall apart around them — Bracket Matrix says they’re not a tournament team right now and Torvik’s projections say it won’t get better — and that sounds an awful lot like a nice combination for MU’s first back-to-back wins since the first week of the season.

The computer algorithms say that Marquette is going to win a couple of games that they’re not favored to win between now and the end of the season. Why not this one, why not right now?

Marquette Last 10 Games: 3-7 with wins in two of their last three games.

Seton Hall Last 10 Games: 5-5 with a home win over Xavier on Wednesday snapping a four game losing streak.

All-Time Series: Marquette leads, 26-15

Current Streak: Seton Hall’s win earlier this season in Milwaukee snapped a three game Marquette winning streak in the series, but the Golden Eagles have still won seven of the last nine.

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