As we laid out in the preview for Tuesday night, there was at least a little bit of trepidation as to how Marquette men’s basketball would look in their first game back on the mainland after finishing second at the 2023 Maui Invitational in Hawaii.
And then Marquette, fresh off their new #3 ranking in the Associated Press top 25, took an 8-0 lead in the first 91 seconds against Southern.
Trepidation over.
Was the entirety of the 40 minutes a picnic? No, not really, but that’s mostly due to Southern’s Jordan Johnson going haywire for 20 points off the bench in the first 20 minutes.