Marquette outlook

[JohnW22]

Correct me if I'm wrong but I believe Maqrquette was expecting last year to be a down year even if Williams didn't leave

[MUPanther]

Correct me if I'm wrong but I believe Maqrquette was expecting last year to be a down year even if Williams didn't leave

Hard to say as Buzz's roster would have looked like. With Wojo that roster had tons of players shown the door. It's a different culture under Wojo.

[NovaBall]

If someone would ha hav predicted that r that after year 3 that marquette and georgetown would be combined for 1 tournament appearance and 1 tournament win, wow...

Marquette and depaul are the only two schools not to make a tournament in three years. Even St John's made a tournament.

[stever20]

If the league presidents knew Marquette and Georgetown would make the tournament one time combined in the first 3 years, and that's all they knew, there's no chance this league would've been formed. Marquette was the only team ranked in the preseason when the league first formed (at #14).

Come on, you don't really believe this, do you. That would be incredibly short sighted vision for the University Presidents. No way a business plan is put together based on short term success of 20% of the group. This is a long term relationship, not a what have you done for me lately venture. If the vision was that short term, then DePaul would have been cast aside.

It's an interesting thought. PC and Seton Hall hadn't taken the step up they have. St John's was mediocre. DePaul was DePaul. Even Nova was a ?. It was the C7 making the decision. I think they would have been like, we'll wait it out a few years and let teams improve, then split. Everyone was thinking Georgetown and Marquette would give the league some early legitimacy.
So I agree with adoraz's statement.

[adoraz]

If the league presidents knew Marquette and Georgetown would make the tournament one time combined in the first 3 years, and that's all they knew, there's no chance this league would've been formed. Marquette was the only team ranked in the preseason when the league first formed (at #14).

Come on, you don't really believe this, do you. That would be incredibly short sighted vision for the University Presidents. No way a business plan is put together based on short term success of 20% of the group. This is a long term relationship, not a what have you done for me lately venture. If the vision was that short term, then DePaul would have been cast aside.

It's an interesting thought. PC and Seton Hall hadn't taken the step up they have. St John's was mediocre. DePaul was DePaul. Even Nova was a ?. It was the C7 making the decision. I think they would have been like, we'll wait it out a few years and let teams improve, then split. Everyone was thinking Georgetown and Marquette would give the league some early legitimacy.
So I agree with adoraz's statement.

Yeah what DudeAnon and Stever said. I'm pretty sure if most people here knew 3 years ago that Marquette and Georgetown would make the tournament only once in the first 3 years the general consensus would be that the Big East = WCC or MWC at best (for the first 3 years anyways). Being a 1-3 bid league for 3 years would've been a disaster that nobody would sign up for.

Even this year, 3 years into the league, those 2 teams are still underperforming lowered expectations. It's just that most other teams have outperformed expectations.

[aughnanure]

Georgetown has been getting a lot of heat, but Marquette has been worse since the Big East began, and they were even more successful in the years prior to the breakup. Obviously, Buzz Williams leaving was not ideal, but Marquette hasn't gone 3 years without making the tournament since the 1998-2001 tournaments. This isn't something Marquette fans are used to.

Wojo has had 2 years on the job, and he's 1 game over .500. This year is a step in the right direction, and your team is very young, but losing Henry Ellenson means Marquette needs to find a new identity yet again next season.

Cheatham looks like a good young player. Johnson has taken a big step up this season. Fischer has flaws, but he's an efficient scorer and rebounder.

What's the state of the program for Marquette? Out of the Catholic 7 teams, Marquette, Villanova and Georgetown were by far the most successful in the years before the breakup. When are Marquette fans expecting to not only compete for an NCAA bid but actually make an NCAA run? And what is the consensus on Wojo through 2 years from Marquette fans? His record isn't impressive thus far, but it's foolish to make any judgments yet this early in his tenure.

As confused as I am with Georgetown, I would have been more surprised if you told me Marquette was going to miss the tournaments each of the first 3 years in the new league.

It's not really that surprising with the coaching change. Buzz seemed to be burnt out in his final year (a variety of theories revolve around why) and when he left we pretty much lost all of what was a pretty good recruiting class (only Cohen stuck around) and the upper-class cupboard was straight barren. So this is really Wojo's first year with his recruits. It's going to take a bit of time - but doubling our conference wins from last year and possibly getting to 20 wins is a solid imporvement (but yeah, still disspointing for us). Buzz had the benefit of taking over when Dominic James, Jerel McNeal, Wesley Matthews were all seniors and Lazar Hayward was a junior. Wojo sort of had to start from scratch - Fischer had played barely in his half season at Indiana when he became eligible in December 2014, JuJuan Johnson was just a Sophmore.

[XtoDC]

I don't think Marquette next year is going to be improved by leaps and bounds, but the collective improvement of most of the roster should offset the loss of Ellenson. A minor improvement though might be all that is needed for next year's team to be good enough to get into the tournament. The same OOC record next year with a schedule that is 100 spots better and one more Big East win and they will probably be in the field. I don't think that sounds too outrageous, especially because I think they would have to actively be trying to have an OOC SOS as bad as this year's was.

[FenwayFriar]

Andy Katz says Marquette could be a bubble team if they make the BET finals (even if they lose). Doubtful but you never know.
http://espn.go.com/video/clip?id=14919495

[MUBoxer]

I don't think Marquette next year is going to be improved by leaps and bounds, but the collective improvement of most of the roster should offset the loss of Ellenson. A minor improvement though might be all that is needed for next year's team to be good enough to get into the tournament. The same OOC record next year with a schedule that is 100 spots better and one more Big East win and they will probably be in the field. I don't think that sounds too outrageous, especially because I think they would have to actively be trying to have an OOC SOS as bad as this year's was.

We weren't that far from being in fourth this year so that little improvement may be all it takes. I mean it's 1 foul against Depaul away from being a 20 win regular season and one choke against Creighton in the final minute to being 21 wins. This team was wildly inconsistent and got blown out many a time but despite all that it actually was about one minute of better basketball away from being a tournament team.

[Rum_Ham]

My biased view as a Marquette fan is that Wojo will be able to make the tournament for the first time next year for a couple of reasons

1. This team is the third youngest in the nation with zero seniors and 7 freshmen. In my opinion age is a huge factor on how consistent a team preforms so the extra age of experience will be a huge plus. I think Seton Hall is an example of the effect that a year of maturity can have on a team. Losing Ellenson will hurt but there has been enough improvement from some of the other freshmen, namely Cheathem and Carter, where i think that overall the team will be better.

2. Marquette is bringing in two players that address one of their bigger needs which is the lack of a consistent three point threat. I am very high on transfer Andrew Rowsey, he reminds me a lot of Rotini Clark for Butler where he is a crafty scorer with legitimate range. Sam Hauser is the lone freshmen but he was Marquette's top target (a top 100 recruit) for 2016 and seems like he will be a stretch 4 in Marquette's lineup. I don't know how much of a impact he will have right away as he projects to be a 4 year player but with his 3 point shooting ability he will at least get some minutes.

3. Marquette isn't done recruiting for 2016. They recently received a visit from Markus Howard, a 5 star point guard who is reclassifying from 2017. He is a small guard but is easily one of the best scorers in the 2017 class and would likely start day one. Marquette seems to be the leader right now in his recruitment as they added Stan Johnson to the staff last year, who was responsible for getting Howard to commit to Arizona State under Herb Sendek. Wojo is also going hard after Bruno Fernando, one of the best available big men left in the country. Fernando would help make up for the size lost by Ellenson and would add some rebounding help that the team lack this year. Ideally Wojo could also get a grad transfer to fill in the starting 4 spot but I am not sure how many scholarships will be available.

In conclusion, adding a couple impact players and another year of maturity will make this team a tournament contender as long as they actually schedule a decent OOC schedule