Marquette Is Going To Embarrass New Mexico

New Mexico vs. Marquette, 7:25 ET

By the end of the night, we will have cut the entire bracket in half. By the weekend, only a fraction of the teams will remain. I love March Madness, but it comes and goes far too quickly every year. I would love to see multiple tournaments like this, or an NBA one (if the players actually cared). I don't want to get off on a tangent, so it probably makes more sense to just tell you that this pick will be a winner. The game we are focused on here is between New Mexico and Marquette. 

You probably aren't overly familiar with the body of work of the Lobos this season, and to be honest, they kind of flew under my radar as well. The Mountain West is not a good conference at all. Maybe that is a bit harsh, but they haven't had much success in the tournament either, so it wouldn't be a complete shock to see them fall flat on their face in this one. The Lobos did come into this game with a 26-7 record overall, so they clearly have talent. Who did they lose to this season? St. John's, but most teams lost to them. Arizona State on a neutral court. New Mexico State in an overtime thriller. Then they lost to San Jose State, Boise State, and San Diego State all on the road. They also lost to Boise State in the Mountain West Tournament. If you really want me to identify one clear reason that I don't really like this team, it is fairly simple - they lost to San Diego State. North Carolina beat San Diego State, and I have Marquette power ranked higher than the Tar Heels.

Marquette can have games where they are not a very attractive team to watch. They are just 23-10 overall coming into this one, and they went just 13-7 in conference play this year. Sure, the Big East is certainly better than the Mountain West, but they should've at least been third in the conference (they finished fourth, so maybe the complaint isn't very valid). Still, let's compare losses. They dropped a game to Iowa State and Dayton, both on the road. They hosted and lost to Xavier. They dropped three straight to UConn, St. John's, and Creighton. Then at the end of the regular season/conference tournament, they fell to UConn and St. John's twice. The only game against St. John's that wasn't a battle was this final one in the conference tournament. The other two regular season losses were by a total of eight points. New Mexico lost to them by 14. 

I know this isn't the exact science behind the spreads and anything can happen in March, but the reality is that Marquette is a significantly better team than New Mexico. They have a better coach, more experience, and they have faced tougher competition. Could the Lobos make a Cinderella run? I really doubt it. I think Marquette rolls in this one. Back the Golden Eagles -4.5.

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