From a spot in the 2023 NCAA Tournament championship game (and even a title-winning performance!) to a second-round setback, you'll find a wide variety of expectations for the Marquette men's basketball team among college basketball writers.

Here's what they're saying:

CBS writers disagree on Marquette's plight

Those who watched CBS for the selection show on Sunday and stayed for the analysis were delighted when former Villanova coach Jay Wright put Marquette in the national championship game, falling to Kansas in a rematch of the 1974 national semifinal that MU won to reach the title game.

The CBS writers have a wide range of expectations for what's to come for head coach Shaka Smart and his Golden Eagles, though everyone agrees that the program will land its first NCAA win since 2013.

• Dennis Dodd has the most charitable read on Marquette, sending the Golden Eagles past Purdue into the Final Four, where Marquette loses to Arizona.

• Chip Patterson sees Marquette reaching the Elite Eight and then falling to Duke.

• Matt Norlander projects chalk in the East Region and expects Marquette to fall to top-seeded Purdue in the Elite Eight. He projects the path to go through Michigan State and Kentucky to get there.

• Gary Parrish has Marquette losing to Kansas State in the Sweet 16.

• Kyle Boone sees Michigan State beating Marquette in the second round.

Seth Davis of The Athletic also sees a Final Four berth

Seth Davis also put Marquette into the Final Four on the CBS selection show (though had the Golden Eagles losing once they got there to Alabama). Davis posted his full bracket at The Athletic.

"Besides the fact that the Golden Eagles are exactly the type of quick, skilled, scrappy team that gives Purdue trouble, they also have great chemistry and role definition, and they are extremely competitive," Davis wrote. "It would bum me out to see Purdue fall short of the Final Four (again) because I know those fans are starving to see it happen. Alas, according to my bracket, they’ll have to wait at least one more year."

Here's the writer picking Marquette to win it all

Ryan Fagan is Marquette's new favorite writer.

The Sporting News scribe crowns Marquette as the 2023 national champion, defeating Alabama in the national semifinal and then Texas in the championship. That's right; a matchup between Smart's former program and his new one.

"Shaka Smart’s Marquette team is playing at an unreal level. I wouldn’t want anything to do with them. I expect them to cruise into the Elite Eight," Fagan writes.

"I’ll be honest, I didn’t set out to pick a national championship game between Shaka Smart’s current team and his former team. Didn’t even think about it until after I went through the brackets and thought, 'huh, well that’s fun.'

"Any of those four teams in the Final Four are very capable of winning, as is the team (Purdue) that I have losing to Marquette in the Elite Eight."

Fagan's colleague Bill Bender thinks Marquette will reach the Elite Eight but fall short of the Final Four after running into No. 5 seed Duke.

"This is Duke's lowest seed in the NCAA tournament since 2016, but they feel like the team to beat around 7-footers Kyle Filipowski and Dereck Lively II," Bender said. "The Blue Devils are an elite rebounding team, and they make 76.8% of their free throws.

"The bottom half of the bracket features blue-bloods Kentucky and Michigan State, and we like both up-and-down teams to get through the first round. Marquette, however, is the team we trust most. Shaka Smart leads the Golden Eagles team to an Elite Eight run that includes victories against Michigan State and Kentucky before the Blue Devils close the door."

Andy Katz predicting chalk and a loss to Purdue

Katz, a personality for NCAA.com, has chalk in the East Region, with Purdue downing Marquette in the Elite Eight.

"This game happened earlier in the season. … Obviously, Marquette is much better (than the start of the season). They gave Purdue a good game, but I think (Purdue) beats them again," Katz said.

Purdue beat Marquette in MU's third game of the season during the Gavitt Tip-Off Games, 75-70, in West Lafayette.

Washington Post thinks Kansas State trips up MU

Neil Greenberg has Kansas State topping Marquette in the Sweet 16 after the Golden Eagles down USC in the second round. Purdue winds up reaching the Final Four.

The popular storyline with Marquette this year is that the Golden Eagles were picked to finish ninth in the Big East before winning the league. Kansas State was picked to finish dead last in the Big 12, and while it didn't win the league, it still has a No. 3 seed in the tournament.

Jay Bilas of ESPN thinks Duke will get in the way

Jay Bilas broke down each first-round game and gave Vermont a "zero" rating in the "glass slippers" category for likelihood of an upset, noting that he doesn't believe Marquette would take the Catamounts lightly, and that's what it would require for an upset.

Included in his breakdown:

Bilas picks Marquette to beat Michigan State and Kentucky but fall to Duke in a tourney heavy on blue-blood matchups.

"Duke is playing as well as almost any team out there," Bilas wrote. "The key will be Tyler Kolek. Can Tyrese Proctor keep up with him? Proctor is a terrific defender, but Kolek is the best pure point guard in the country. Duke will protect the rim and the paint, but Kolek and Kam Jones are difference makers. Still, I like Duke's chances because of the defense and balance. "

More:How to watch Marquette vs. Vermont in the opening round of the NCAA Tournament

More:What to know about Vermont, Marquette's opponent in its first game of the NCAA Tournament

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This article originally appeared on Milwaukee Journal Sentinel: National writers project Marquette basketball in 2023 March Madness