Thursday night in CBB will see the Vanderbilt Commodores to the Bradley Center to take on the Marquette Golden Eagles. The game is scheduled for a 9:00 pm tipoff and will be televised live on ESPN 2. Currently Marquette is favored by 8.5 points with the total being set at 148.5 for this game. The 14th-ranked Marquette Golden Eagles close out their non- conference schedule this evening, as they welcome the Vanderbilt Commodores to Milwaukee for a showdown at the Bradley Center.
Free Analysis:The Commodores (8-4) ranked seventh nationally in the preseason, but have stumbled through a tough non-conference slate, dropping a pair of overtime games and suffering upset home losses to Cleveland State and Indiana State. Despite the rather modest record, Vanderbilt has been impressive at the offensive end of the floor this season, netting 76.8 ppg on a healthy .466 shooting percentage. The scoring depth is vast, headlined by junior guard John Jenkins, who is averaging an SEC-best 20.6 ppg. Jeffery Taylor also has the ability to fill up the basket at 17.9 ppg, while Lance Goulbourne and Brad Tinsley add to the scoring deluge with 10.4 and 10.2 ppg, respectively. The Commodores may be without their starting center, as Festus Ezeli has missed the last two games with knee tendinitis. He has really been limited this year with injuries and a suspension at the beginning of the year and has totaled just 19 points and 10 rebounds after averaging 13.0 points, 6.3 rebounds and 2.6 blocks last season. Vanderbilt has been inconsistent on defense (69.5 ppg on 44.6% shooting), and has also had trouble with ballhandling, turning the ball over nearly 15 times per contest. Marquette has played well at both ends of the floor this season and the result is an impressive +18.8 scoring margin. The team is delivering on 47.7 percent from the floor and netting 80.2 ppg, while holding foes well under 40 percent shooting (.374) and just 61.5 ppg. The Golden Eagles are led by the scoring duo of Darius Johnson-Odom and Jae Crowder. Johnson-Odom leads the team with 17.9 ppg, but Crowder is not far behind at 17.3 ppg, plus Crowder is also tops on the squad in the rebounding department, grabbing 7.3 boards per outing. The Golden Eagles have an injury to their own big man as starting center Chris Otule will miss his fifth straight contest due to an ACL injury to his left knee, with Williams hoping the junior may be available for Marquette's Big East opener against Villanova on Sunday. The Golden Eagles are off to a fast start and are seeking 12 wins in non- conference play for the first time since the 2006-07 season. Marquette holds a narrow 3-2 advantage in the all-time series. Vanderbilt won a thriller last season, 77-76 in Nashville.
Free Pick: Going to look to the dog in this one. I have been on the right side of this Marquette team plenty of times and i feel that I really have them figured out. Vanderbillt has been playing much better of late and even though they are 3-3 in their last 6 games it still has been promising for them. Ok the home loss to Indiana State was not promising, but they are off 2 blowout wins and they did beat a very good Davidson team by 24 points on their home floor, plus they took highly ranked Louisville and Xavier to OT in BB games. This is a team that is just about there and ready to fully turn that corner. Marquette has been a team to be reckoned with this year and they have really crushed a lot of the weaker teams on their schedule and they did win in Wisconsin, but they also won by just 2 over Washington and they lost outright as 7.5 faves at LSU, so they can struggle vs some bigger names. The Vandy defense has struggled some, but I feel their balance on offense will be enough to keep them in this one. I look for this game to go right down to the wire.