Marquette hosts Providence late Tuesday night

When the Marquette Golden Eagles (8-6, 0-3) tip-off against the #16 Providence Friars (13-1, 3-0) on Tuesday night, it will have been nearly four weeks since they last won a game. They have lost four games in a row, three of which came at home. Shaka Smart is still looking for his first Big East win.

Marquette has not played bad basketball, but this team has been unable to finish. Against Xavier and Connecticut, the Golden Eagles cut deficits to a single score with less than five minutes to play. They never led in the second half of either game. Marquette did force overtime against Creighton and even led by five late in the first overtime, but a failure to foul when up by three allowed Alex…