Busting Brackets
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Marquette Basketball: Player reviews for the 2017-18 season

By Brian Foley

LAHAINA, HI - NOVEMBER 20: The Marquette Golden Eagles bench celebrates during the second half of the game against the VCU Rams at Lahaina Civic Center on November 20, 2017 in Lahaina, Hawaii. (Photo by Darryl Oumi/Getty Images)
LAHAINA, HI - NOVEMBER 20: The Marquette Golden Eagles bench celebrates during the second half of the game against the VCU Rams at Lahaina Civic Center on November 20, 2017 in Lahaina, Hawaii. (Photo by Darryl Oumi/Getty Images) /
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NEW YORK, NY – MARCH 08: Markus Howard
NEW YORK, NY – MARCH 08: Markus Howard /

Marquette Basketball finished seventh in the Big East and made a run in the NIT. Let’s recap the season for the nine scholarship players who received regular minutes.

Marquette’s motto this year seemed to be “Get Buckets or Die Trying.” In the end, the Golden Eagles certainly got buckets, but they also gave up many more.

In MU’s 85-80 loss to Penn State in the NIT quarterfinals, guards Andrew Rowsey and Markus Howard put on their typical offensive show (50 combined points), but were absolute sieves on the defensive end. Sam Hauser – hampered by a hip injury – was quiet for long stretches of the game. Freshmen Jamal Cain, Greg Elliott, and Theo John showed flashes of what’s to come, yet still committed several boneheaded mistakes (including 5 turnovers from John). The Golden Eagles knocked down at least 10 threes for the 25th time this season, but their defensive shortcomings kept them from ever really threatening the Nittany Lions.

With just the graduating Rowsey departing, Marquette (21-14, 9-9) now has an entire offseason to focus on player development and defense. Especially the defense. In Steve Wojciechowski’s first two seasons, Marquette ranked 69th and 88th, respectively, in adjusted defensive efficiency. Last year, that fell off to 165th, and somehow got even worse this season (185th). For reference, everyone killed Oklahoma’s defense this season, but the Sooners still ranked 100 spots higher than MU’s lackluster outfit.

Playing just one 5-foot-11 guard next season will help the defense, and Howard at least seems to mostly try on that end (the same cannot always be said for Rowsey). But one player does not torpedo a defense to this level. Everyone else needs to step up defensively, and Wojo needs to iron out some scheme issues that have plagued the Golden Eagles in Big East play over the last two years.

With the 2017-18 season now in the rearview, let’s dive into some player reviews. Shout out to redshirts Ed Morrow, Joey Hauser, and Ike Eke, as well as walk-ons Cam Marotta and Mike Lelito, who we did not cover in this post.

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