Coach Crean explained that there is a reason he scheduled 8 days off between games over the break, "I have never been one to believe in … if you got a chance to not schedule games over Christmas where you can give your guys ample time off, I think that’s what you need to do. And that’s what we have done and these guys have had a great break at home. They’ve come back with a lot of energy, so we’re really focused on playing hard against Savannah State tomorrow and they have been in some really close games with some good teams, and at the same time, we are trying to build on what we’ve got to get ready to see next Thursday and so when you get to this time of year, it’s not as much about the opponent, it’s more about what are you doing to make sure you’re better so that you give yourself every chance. And we’ve got a lot of road games coming up so we want to make sure that we are doing the things that we need to do to win and that’s the way our practices have been."

Here is who the Golden Eagles will be facing on Saturday....

Savannah State University

Location: Savannah, GA

Mascot: Tigers

Conference: Independent

2005-2006 Record: 2-28

2006-2007 Record: 6-11, including an 0-7 road record

All-time series with Marquette: Marquette leads 1-0, defeating SSU 79-41 in 2003.

Interesting notes: SSU is one of the few Division I teams playing without a conference affiliation

Coach: Horace Broadnax has a career record of 44-116 in six seasons of coaching and a 2-28 record in one season at SSU

Probable Starters:

#3 Joseph Flegler: a 5’9” junior guard from Washington, DC.  Averaging 9.8 ppg and 2.5 apg on 37.7% shooting from the field and 35% from beyond the arc, also averaging 1.7 spg, has a .86/1 a/to ratio

#34 Javon Randolph: a 5’10” senior guard from Gainesville, GA.  Leading the team with 14.4 points on 42% shooting from the field.  Has no other statistical numbers of note.

#24 Chris Linton: a 6’6” sophomore forward from Jacksonville, FL.  Averaging  3.9 ppg and 2.6 rpg on 32% shooting.

#10 Josh Obiajunwa: a 6’6” senior forward from Jos, Nigeria.  Averaging 9.2 ppg and 8.1 rpg on 41% shooting from the field.  Also has a terrible a/to ratio, and 11 blocks on the season

#14 Lazarius Coleman: a 6’8” senior forward/center from Savannah, GA.  Averaging 5.3 ppg and 4.1 rpg.  Also has shot 46% from the field and has 12 blocks.