In the 35 meetings between these teams, Marquette has won each and every single game.

Some may say the cross-town match up between the University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee and Marquette men’s basketball teams is a rivalry, while others will argue that to be a rivalry games would have to consist of equal competition.

Neither happens to be the case between the Golden Eagles and the Panthers, two completely opposite schools and athletic programs. UWM is just dabbling in a pond of mid-majors while Marquette is starting to show life in the newly rebuilt Big East while also holding a position in the national top 25.

There has never been any actual competition between these two teams. In fact, in the 35 meetings between them, Marquette has won each and every single game, the most recent, before Friday night’s game, being on Dec. 8, 1998 which resulted in a Golden Eagle victory 77-56. The last time the Panthers had Marquette at home was their home opener of 1935 in a 29-25 nail-biter.

Though this clash between two great Milwaukee schools isn’t yet considered a great rivalry, it need be mentioned that there had been a nine-year lapse since the teams last faced off.

Since 1999, when the Panthers finished a dreadful 8-19 and the Horizon League was known as the Midwestern Collegiate Conference, UWM has made it to the NCAA Tournament three times, winning three of the six games they played. In 2006 they won their first round game over Oklahoma, losing to eventual champs Florida, and also made a Sweet 16 appearance in 2005 under Bruce Pearl.

The Panthers even copied the trend set by Marquette in 1988 and relocated to downtown Milwaukee due to their success, playing their fifth season at the 12,700-seat U.S. Cellular Arena, a step up from the 5,000-seat Klotsche Center.

It is useless to say that UWM would have beaten the Golden Eagles had they played once in the past four or five years, however, when comparing the numbers one can only assume the Panthers would have notched their first win in the all-time series if they had.

That season would most likely have been 2004-05. Marquette went 19-12 that year and lost in the first round of the NIT to Western Michigan by 14 points. The Panthers on the other hand advanced to the Sweet 16 of the NCAA Tournament by way of Alabama and Boston College. At worst, that match up would have been a thriller. In that same year the Panthers and Golden Eagles shared only one opponent, Air Force. Each team won that game, Milwaukee by five and Marquette by four.

UWM and Marquette could have built quite the rivalry in recent years had they played. Though this year the Panthers couldn’t match up against No. 13 Marquette, the Panthers and Rob Jeter should see at least one win in the years to come, starting an actual cross-town rivalry.

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