Marquette Basketball: Sacar Anim looming as a key cog for stretch run

Sacar Anim is in the midst of the best run of his Marquette Basketball career, which is easing Markus Howard’s burden and raising MU’s postseason ceiling.

Star guard Markus Howard is clearly the driving force behind no. 10 Marquette’s (23-4,12-2) run to the top of the Big East, but the elevated play from his backcourt mate Sacar Anim has firmly wedged MU into the Final Four conversation.

With defenses hounding Howard all over the floor, and Sam Hauser and Joey Hauser drawing attention as versatile wing threats, Anim often finds himself in advantageous offensive situations. Anim typically sets up shop in the corner, making himself available for a wide-open kick out trey, a drive and finish at the rim, or a one-dribble pull-up jumper back towards the middle of the floor.

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Earlier in the season, the redshirt junior was much more tentative in such situations, either totally passing up the opportunity or timidly sliding towards the basket. Anim averaged only 5.3 attempts per game over the first seven contests of 2018-19, which was putting too much ball handling stress and scoring responsibilities on Howard. But since the calendar flipped to December, Anim has assumed much more responsibility of the offense. He is averaging 9.9 points on 8.2 attempts per game during this 20-game stretch – all starts – while shooting 39.5 percent from three.

And in his last six games, Anim has lifted his game to a career-best level, posting 13.2 points per game and hitting nearly 65 percent of his treys, which coincides with MU’s string of blowout victories. That mark from deep is clearly an unsustainable number long-term, but Anim is playing with more confidence than ever offensively. He is taking – and more importantly, making – above-the-break threes and recently unleashed an impressive array of floaters against Providence on Saturday. As Marquette’s fourth option, opponents will never overload Anim with defenders, but he now has the skill set to make them pay for leaving him open.

And, of course, Anim is still checking all of his usual glue-guy categories. He has battled admirably as a defender against the Big East’s top guards, including Shamorie Ponds, Myles Powell, Phil Booth, and Kamar Baldwin. Anim’s defensive metrics don’t stand out – he ranks 12th out of 14 MU players in defensive box plus-minus – but he is the piece that allows everyone else to be effective defenders. With him picking up the top assignment each night, Howard can downshift and store energy for his massive offensive load, Sam Hauser – while cagey – can guard someone with less foot speed, and Theo John can protect the paint as a one-man fly-swatter. Anim’s defensive versatility has been one of the big reasons the Golden Eagles have moved up nearly 150 spots in KenPom’s defensive efficiency metrics over the past year, and thus turned into a dark-horse title contender.

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Anim still needs to improve his ballhandling, though he has gotten steadier in that regard, and his free throw shooting is a real issue, especially late in games (56.8 percent for his career). But after watching him add another weapon with each passing month, it would not be surprising to see him turn into a true two-way threat by March, and eventually his senior season.

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