Marquette Basketball: Next steps for Golden Eagles after Murray State defeat
By Brian Foley
2019-20 additions
Marquette is scheduled to have an even deeper roster next season. Barring transfers or early exits, seniors Joseph Chartouny and Matt Heldt are the only two players who will not be back in the blue and gold come the fall; those two collectively played in just 10 percent of the minutes Marquette handed out to scholarship players this year.
In their stead will be two desperately-needed ball handlers, Greg Elliott and Koby McEwen, as well as three-star commit Dexter Akanno.
Elliott was forced to redshirt this season with a thumb injury, but he was an extremely valuable part of the MU backcourt as a freshman in 2017-18. The 6-foot-4 Detroit product averaged 4.5 points, 2.3 rebounds, and 1.4 assists in 18.3 minutes per game last year, and led all first-year guards in block rate. Shooting was not at the top of Elliott’s scouting report out of high school – though he wasn’t a slouch in that area – but he answered those questions with flying colors, shooting 51/37/79 percent from the field, albeit in limited attempts.
While Elliott provides quality defense, spot-up shooting, and transition highlights, McEwen should slot in nicely as a combo guard. The redshirt sophomore averaged 15.6 points, 5.4 rebounds, and 3.2 assists per game for Utah State last year. He only shot 40 percent from the field for the Aggies as a sophomore – compared to 46 percent as a freshman – but that drop-off can almost entirely be attributed to his three-point shooting dip (42 percent on 4.8 attempts per game as a freshman, compared to 33 percent on 6.8 attempts per game as a sophomore).
His two-point shooting numbers (roughly 49 percent) and free throw marks (72 percent) were almost exactly the same over the two-year span. One of Steve Wojciechowski’s strengths is creating open looks for his shooters, so McEwen may be able to move closer to his freshman form in MU’s wide open offense.
It’s a little concerning that Utah State jumped from a .500 squad in the Mountain West to an eight seed in the NCAA tournament as soon as its highest usage player left the program, but so long as Wojo can reign in McEwen’s more erratic tendencies, Marquette will be much better off with him in the fold, Ewing Theory be damned. At the very least, McEwen will give MU more slashing ability off the ball and ease some of Markus Howard‘s scoring burden in the backcourt.
Oh yeah, about that Howard guy…