65 College Basketball Teams In 65 Days: Marquette Golden Eagles
This is a little something I like to call preview season, which by my watch starts on September 1. From that date until the start of the season we have 65 days. In those 65 days I’ll give a team preview each day. There’s going to be no rhyme or reason for the order we go in these 65 days. It will just be 65 teams I think are worthy of a detailed preview. We’ll have other previews throughout the time leading up to the season as well – conference breakdowns, player rankings, team rankings, etc. But, these will just be team previews.
Marquette Golden Eagles
2017-18 Record: 21-14, 9-9 in Big East, 7th in Big East
Top Returning Scorers: Markus Howard (20.4), Sam Hauser (14.1), Sacar Anim (7.6)
Notable Losses: Andrew Rowsey (Graduation)
Newcomers: Joseph Chartouny (Fordham transfer), Ed Morrow Jr. (Nebraska transfer), Joey Hauser (4-star)
Head Coach: Steve Wojciechowski, 5th season, 73-59
2018-19 Outlook
One of the most important years in coaching is what happens with Wojo and this Marquette team. He finally has a team that is balanced and should be able to defend at least on an average level – the biggest question mark of this team. There have been two downfalls to the Wojo-era so far at Marquette. The first is not having balance on the roster. Marquette has either had 14 guards and 1 big or the opposite over the first 4 years of Wojo’s career. The second has been just absolutely horrendous defense, especially the last couple of years. That’s where we start this year.
The transfer of Joseph Chartouny becomes so important for two reasons. First, the backcourt isn’t tiny. That’s not to say you can’t win with a small lineup, but Rowsey and Howard both being under 6’0″ and trying to defend opposing guards just never made for a great matchup. Even in a zone, putting the two of them up top, opposing guards can just survey the floor over them and make easy passes. Chartouny is a strong defender and at 6’3″you can match him up on whatever guard you want.
The other important part of the defensive side of the ball comes in another transfer. Ed Morrow transferred from Nebraska and at 6’7″ just adds some depth to a frontcourt that can now give different looks. Marquette will still run its best offensive lineup out there to start the game with Sam Hauser at the 4, but Morrow can come in and you can push Hauser to the three. During the 2016-17 season, Morrow was 29th in offensive rebounding percentage and 196th in defensive rebounding percentage. Marquette was sub-200 in both categories as a team last year. That’s where Morrow’s importance comes from.
Now, obviously the name everyone knows is Markus Howard. He’s a potential All-American and Big East Player of the Year. He averaged over 20 per game last year and is one of the best shooters in the country as he put up a 50/40/90 season last year. With Chartouny being able to play on the ball, we can see Wojo run different sets for Howard. You can put him on the ball, you can have him run off of a bunch of screens to initiate the offense, you can have him ISO’d on the wing. It’s going to be real fun to watch how Howard gets open and initiates the offense this year. That said, one of the few complaints about Howard offensively is his below-average ability to shoot on the move. He has to get better running off of screens and shooting that way.
After Howard it’s Sam Hauser, who is possibly becoming overrated because everyone has spent this offseason talking about how underrated he is. Or perhaps he’s just properly related. Either way, he’s damn good. He provides that unique matchup at the wing spot where he’s 6’8″, a decent defensive rebounder, but more importantly can stretch the floor. He shot 48% from three last season (7th in the country) on 195 attempts. Joining him is his brother, Joey, who might actually be better than Sam. Joey is a top-50 recruit, who enrolled at Marquette early so he should at least be familiar with the schemes heading into the year.
I think this is a team that will fall in and out of the top-25 all year. The main reason why is the fact that they rely on shooting so much – granted they are a great shooting team. They have the ability to beat anyone, but at the same time, we’ve seen them go cold and struggle with teams they shouldn’t. I also am hesitant to truly buy into the defensive side of the ball until we see them in action. On paper it looks better, for sure, but I still want to see what happens during the year there.
As I mentioned this is an important year for Wojo. There’s not really an excuse (as of today) to miss the NCAA Tournament. They should finish in the top half of the Big East as well. I’m not necessarily putting Wojo on the hot seat, but Marquette fans are starting to question if he’ll deliver. This is his best chance to do so.