Stanford leaves a rather large footprint

The team from the Big East Conference wants to make fancy passes and show off its perimeter skills; the Pacific 10 Conference team is looking for a half-court, muscle matchup.

Yeah, you read that right.

Sixth-seeded Marquette plays third-seeded Stanford today in a second-round NCAA South Regional game at the Honda Center. It’s the kind of game where you throw the ball up and the preconceptions out the arena’s double doors.

The Big East all but invented rugged basketball and once experimented with a six-foul rule.

Some Big East teams still want to mug you, but not necessarily Marquette (25-9), which relied mainly on three guards and speed to get this far in the season and the tournament.

Stanford (27-7) represents the once passively perceived Pac-10, which in realty has grown Popeye arms.

Friday’s most-asked question -- “How is the Marquette front court going to stop Stanford’s Lopez twins?” -- was the right question.

Brook and Robin Lopez are 7-foot sophomores going against a roster that boasts one man taller than 6-9.

That Marquette player is 6-10 sophomore Ousmane Barro, who said he had a brother, Daouda, who was 7 . . . years old.

That won’t help the Golden Eagles today.

“He’s too young,” Barro joked.

Figuring out how to slow the Lopez twins was Marquette’s top pre-game priority.

Coach Tom Crean’s team faced a lot of good big men in the Big East. There was 7-2 Georgetown center Roy Hibbert, Louisville’s 6-10 David Padgett and Hasheem Thabeet, Connecticut’s 7-3 skyscraper.

“The Lopez brothers, I mean, that’s different,” Barro said. “We’ve never seen, like, two 7-footers in the game, playing at the same time. There’s two of them, that makes it harder.”

Barro won’t be alone out there. Marquette plans to use bodies like spike strips.

The Golden Eagles can deploy the 6-8 tandem of Dwight Burke and Lawrence Blackledge, mix in Lazar Hayward, who is 6-6, and 6-9 forward Dan Fitzgerald.

Burke is used to giving away inches and pounds.

After Barro fouled out in 16 minutes trying to guard Georgetown’s Hibbert this season, Burke had to play most of the second half. Hibbert finished with 21 points in a two-point overtime win on March 1.

“But I thought he had to earn every one of those points,” Crean said.

Burke said playing against Hibbert then gives him confidence now.

“I think it’s great preparation for the Lopez twins. Roy Hibbert is 7-2, they’re both 7-feet. So I’m fairly experienced at guarding a lot bigger players than I am,” he said. “I’m looking forward to stepping up to the challenge.”

Burke says the important thing is not allowing Brook and/or Robin from establishing position deep in the lane. “Take them out of their comfort zones,” Burke said.

Fitzgerald said Marquette needs everybody’s help.

“We’re a deep team, and everything’s collective with us,” Fitzgerald said. “We have a ton of guys who can play multiple positions. And we’re always ready to do that. Play multiple guys and guard different guys. The main thing is them having to guard us. That’s the same mismatch on offense.”

Brook and Robin said they’ve seen just about every imaginable defense this season.

“USC sat someone in my lap, and then played someone behind me,” Brook said.

UCLA beat Stanford three times this season, so maybe the Bruins’ coach could offer some insight even though the second win was controversial and the third was by three points.

Brook averaged 15.3 points a game against the Bruins and Robin averaged 10.

“You don’t match up with the Lopez brothers,” UCLA Coach Ben Howland said Friday. “ . . . I think you got to do it as a team. We double [team] the post. That’s what we did against them. If you try to play those two one-on-one, I don’t think you can because they’re just too skilled and too big.”

Barro of Marquette said the only good news, in terms of his game-day assignment, is that he can definitely tell the difference between Brook and Robin. “He’s got the hair,” Barro said of Robin.

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chris.dufresne@latimes.com