The No. 12 seed Ohio Valley Conference Champion Murray State Racers (27-4) will lock horns with the No. 5 seed Big East constituent Marquette Golden Eagles (24-9) in the first round of the 2019 Men’s Basketball Tournament. The match is scheduled for Thursday, March 21st, 2019 with a scheduled tip-off time of 4:30 PM ET. The game will be televised on TBS. The Racers and Golden Eagles last met in 2012 in this very tournament where the Golden Eagles dispatched the Racers 62-53 to cover as a five-point favorite.
Murray State Racers vs. Marquette Golden Eagles Overview
Murray State Racers
The Racers enter into this game as the 2019 Ohio Valley Conference Champion. Murray State won the title when they defeated the Belmont Bruins on March 9th by a score of 77-65. The Racers staged an upset on paper as they were priced as a two-point underdog at the tip.
Marquette Golden Eagles
The Golden Eagles were last in action in Big East Tournament on March 15th when they were knocked off by the Seton Hall Pirates. As a 4.5-point favorite, the Golden Eagles were defeated by a mere basket as the Pirates staged an 81-79 upset.
Reasons To Avoid Murray State
There has been a lot of hoopla surrounding this Murray State bunch. Many experts and pundits have cited the Racers as being the prime candidate to orchestrate this year’s 5 vs. 12 upset in the first round. As a result of the fanfare, the public has hopped all over the Racers from the get-go which signals the fact that the Golden Eagles may be short-sold and undervalued here. Given the response to the speculation by many analysts, significant red flags are being raised concerning the overreaction potential.
Reasons To Back Marquette
The Golden Eagles and the Racers have played two far different schedules in terms of strength and difficulty, and ultimately that can serve as the difference maker in this contest. Murray State’s strength of schedule sits 270th overall according to KenPom. Contrarily, Marquette’s strength of schedule sits 58th under the same metric. With these differences considered, Marquette still bodes a 28th ranked efficiency margin (+18.24) compared to Murray State’s 52nd ranked AdjEM of +13.48. Given the fact that Marquette may be short-sold here, the Golden Eagles can end up being one of the first round’s true chalk value plays.
- Get more details: Murray State vs Marquette NCAAB Tournament Match-up
