The Conference USA Tournament Champion, the 15-seed Western Kentucky Hilltoppers, will play the runner-up in the regular season and Big East Conference Tournament, the 2-seed Marquette Golden Eagles, in the South Region of the 2024 NCAA Tournament on Friday afternoon in Indianapolis, Indiana at the Gainbridge Fieldhouse with the game scheduled to start at 2:00 PM ET and will air on TBS.

After finishing in 3^rd place in Conference USA with a conference record of 8-8 and an overall record of 22-11, the Western Kentucky Hilltoppers earned the automatic bid in their conference by winning the conference tournament in Conference USA after defeating the New Mexico State Aggies in the Quarterfinals by a score of 89-69, the Middle Tennessee Blue Raiders in the Semifinals by a score of 85-54, and the UTEP Miners in the championship game by a score of 78-71. 

The Hilltoppers finished the regular season on a four-game losing streak but earned their 24^th appearance in the NCAA Tournament and their first since the 2013 NCAA Tournament by winning three games and getting the automatic qualifying bid in Conference USA. In their previous two trips to the NCAA Tournament, Western Kentucky has not advanced past the round of 64. 

Western Kentucky will look to end their losing streak in the NCAA Tournament when they play the 2-seed in the South Region, the Marquette Golden Eagles, in the 1^st round of the tournament.

If it wasn’t for the UConn Huskies, more people would be talking about the Marquette Golden Eagles as a possible NCAA Tournament Champion, however, the Golden Eagles play in the Big East which is the same conference as the #1 overall seed, the UConn Huskies, and Marquette finished as the runner up in the regular season and in the Big East Conference Tournament to the Huskies and lost to the Huskies three times this season including in the Big East Tournament championship game by a score of 57-73. 

The Golden Eagles made it to the Big East Tournament championship game by defeating the Villanova Wildcats in the Quarterfinals by a score of 71-65 in overtime and the Providence Friars in the Semifinals by a score of 79-68. Marquette was one of the highest-scoring teams in college basketball this season ranking 60^th nationally in scoring with an average of 78.29 points per game. This will be Marquette’s 3^rd consecutive NCAA Tournament appearance and their 36^th overall. Last season the Golden Eagles were eliminated in the 2^nd round by the Michigan State Spartans by a score of 60-69 and have gone 1-6 in their last seven games in the NCAA Tournament. 

The Golden Eagles will look to advance to the 2^nd round of the NCAA Tournament for the 2^nd year in a row when they face the Western Kentucky Hilltoppers in the 1^st round of the 2024 NCAA Tournament on Friday afternoon.

WagerWeb has the Marquette Golden Eagles listed as 14.5-point favorites against the Western Kentucky Hilltoppers in the 1^st round of the 2024 NCAA Tournament on Friday afternoon. Western Kentucky won their conference tournament to receive the automatic qualifying bid while Marquette received an at-large bid after finishing in 2^nd place in the regular season and in the conference tournament in the Big East. This will be the first time these two programs will face each other in college basketball.

Marquette is the more talented team, however, Western Kentucky has covered the spread in four of their last five games and has been the better team at covering the spread this season with a record of 19-11 ATS overall while the Golden Eagles are 20-13-1 ATS overall. Buy the .5 point and take the points with the Western Kentucky Hilltoppers when they face the Marquette Golden Eagles in the 2024 NCAA Tournament on Friday afternoon.