A quick look at the non-conference schedule

College basketball is in its biggest lull right about now with the season over and AAU tournaments just about to get under way, but that doesn’t mean there hasn’t been some excitement regarding Marquette’s upcoming season.

Just a few weeks after AD Larry Williams told Paint Touches Buzz wasn’t afraid to play anyone, anywhere, he went out and proved it with a brutal non-conference schedule that will measure up to just about any team in the country.

Already in the books was a visit to the Kohl Center in December, as Marquette tries to make it three-in-a-row over the Badgers. The Golden Eagles will also be traveling to Anaheim for the Direct TV Classic, an eight-team tournament with Creighton, San Diego State and Arizona State co-headlining with Marquette and Miami.

A payback game against Wiscsonsin-Green Bay is also on tap as the Phoenix visit the BC after winning at home last season. That’s what was already known a while back. Correction: It turns out Marquette does not play Wisconsin-Green Bay next season and pay back will have to wait for another year.

Then things got interesting.

Deputy Athletic Director Mike Broeker took to Twitter to announce some of the juicier match-ups being arranged for the 2013-14 season and beyond.

First came this Tweet, catching everyone off guard:

Scheduling with coach Buzz is a lot of fun.Ohio State and Arizona State added to slate.Home-and-homes. Buy your #mubb tix now.

— Mike Broeker (@mikebroeker) April 27, 2013

That was followed by this Tweet after it had been reported that Marquette and New Mexico would meet at some point:

I can confirm @jonrothstein‘s report.Likely to play New Mexico in Vegas at MGM Grand in late December.Many details to finalize. #mubb

— Mike Broeker (@mikebroeker) May 8, 2013

Finally there’s this, which needs a sarcasm decoder as I can’t tell how we are supposed to read it:

On the topic of scheduling.We have one game to finalize.It will be a home game and won’t draw much interest on twitter. #mubb

— Mike Broeker (@mikebroeker) May 8, 2013

Wow. Talk about stepping up. With the loss of conference games against perennial top-25 teams Louisville and Syracuse, and high quality programs in Pitt and Notre Dame, Marquette had to up the level of difficulty in the non-conference slate in order to maintain a high RPI and SOS. Boy did it do that.

Ohio State is a pre-season top-7 team in most early rankings. Wisconsin is a top-25 team in most as well, getting as high as 11 in Luke Winn’s rankings. Winn also has New Mexico at No. 15, with ESPN’s Jason King slotting the Lobos at No. 16.

When you add in a potential date with Creighton and their All-American Doug McDermott on top of a visit to a top-40 squad in Arizona State, you have the makings for a very challenging schedule, exactly what was needed this first year of the Big East.

There will be a few buy games sneaked in there, a necessity, but one which Broeker is an expert at, scheduling teams Marquette will beat but won’t be weighed down RPI-wise. So far, so great.

Finally, Patrick Marshall (a must follow for Creighton info @WildJays) and the White and Blue Review have set up a fantastic page where you can see what non-conference games every Big East team has scheduled. It will be very important for the league as a whole to step up its game, so be sure to bookmark that page as more dates become announced.