Marquette Basketball: 3 questions facing the Golden Eagles

Can the roster be counted on to take and make free throws?

Before I get too far into this, I will say that I do not think free throw shooting will be a major weakness for Marquette basketball this season. Yet, there are some concerning factors regarding the team’s volume of and efficiency on foul shots. Although the team obviously has some tremendous individual free throw shooters, there are also some extremely poor ones as well. Now, before you jump into my Twitter mentions with the fact that “Marquette ranked third in the country in free throw percentage last year…”, hear me out real quick.

Yes, Marquette shot 80.4% from the free throw line in 2017-18 and ranked third in the nation in that category. This is true. Yet, the team did so thanks to two tremendous free throw shooters who got to the line more than anyone else on the team. So, what I am saying with this is that although the “team” may have shot well from the line, it was really only two players, one of whom is now gone. (Yes, incoming freshman Joey Hauser should help with this.)

• Howard + Rowsey: 280-for-306 – 91.5%
• Everyone Else: 203-for-294 – 69.0%

However, regardless of this, possibly the potential biggest issue with Marquette and foul shooting this year will be getting to the line in the first place. Overall, the Golden Eagles ranked just 224th in the nation (out of 351) in total free throw attempts (600 FTA) last season and 9th (out of 10) in the Big East at 284. And, when looking at the roster this season, it is hard to imagine that they will be any better at drawing shooting fouls.

For starters, the team does not have a serious post threat to feed the rock to. Matt Heldt, the team’s starting big man a year ago, posted just a 7.8% usage rate last season and even if his free throw attempt rate is high, it seems unlikely that he will get to the line all that often because he won’t have the ball.

In addition, the Golden Eagles are losing by far and away their best player when it came to drawing contact and getting to the free throw line in Andrew Rowsey. The king of “The Thing”, Rowsey will no longer be getting opponents to jump on pump fakes from 3-point land. Over the course of last season, Rowsey attempted 194 total free throws, meaning that he accounted for 32.3% of Marquette’s total FTA.

His replacement, Joseph Chartouny, should help in this department but it will be more difficult for the grad transfer to get into the lane and draw fouls in the Big East compared to the A-10. Chartouny shot 122 total free throws last season, which would be the highest among returning Golden Eagles. However, he will not help in the efficiency category, as he converted on just 69.7% of those shots. (He is, though, a career 73.8% shooter from the line.)

In final, Marquette may have a lot of returning talent coming back this season but they still have some problems to work through. The Golden Eagles should be one of the top contenders to win the Big East this season and could make serious noise if these questions are answered positively.