Marquette men’s basketball headed into Wednesday night’s contest against Xavier at 1-3 in Big East play, a far cry from where the Golden Eagles would have wanted to be at this point. They also went into it without backup guard Greg Elliott, who was still sidelined with an ankle injury suffered against Providence, as well as without reserve forward Ed Morrow. The redshirt senior big man was announced as taking an indefinite leave of absence from the team shortly before tipoff.
So: 1) In need of a win, 2) playing a team also at 1-3 and thus also in need of a win, and 3) doing it shorthanded.