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Marquette Basketball: 2018-19 player reviews for the Golden Eagles

By Brian Foley

NEW YORK, NEW YORK - MARCH 15: The Marquette Golden Eagles huddle before the game against the Seton Hall Pirates during the semifinal round of the Big East Tournament at Madison Square Garden on March 15, 2019 in New York City. (Photo by Elsa/Getty Images)
NEW YORK, NEW YORK - MARCH 15: The Marquette Golden Eagles huddle before the game against the Seton Hall Pirates during the semifinal round of the Big East Tournament at Madison Square Garden on March 15, 2019 in New York City. (Photo by Elsa/Getty Images) /
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NEW YORK, NEW YORK – NOVEMBER 21: Marquette Golden Eagles head coach Steve Wojciechowski directs his players during the first half of the game against Kansas Jayhawks during the NIT Season Tip-Off tournament at Barclays Center on November 21, 2018 in the Brooklyn borough of New York City. (Photo by Sarah Stier/Getty Images)
NEW YORK, NEW YORK – NOVEMBER 21: Marquette Golden Eagles head coach Steve Wojciechowski directs his players during the first half of the game against Kansas Jayhawks during the NIT Season Tip-Off tournament at Barclays Center on November 21, 2018 in the Brooklyn borough of New York City. (Photo by Sarah Stier/Getty Images) /

Marquette basketball’s disappointing finish to the 2018-19 season marred an otherwise excellent campaign. Let’s evaluate all 10 scholarship players.

Maybe it was always going to come crashing down. After all, Marquette basketball was relying upon a 5-foot-11 guard with a hilariously high usage rate, and despite winning 20 of 22 games over a three-month span – with the only two losses coming against St. John’s – decidedly few victories came in convincing fashion.

There was the neutral floor overtime win over Louisville where the Cards missed three potential game-winners in the final seconds of regulation. The home overtime win against a Wisconsin team that shot 10-21 from the line. A Fiserv Forum victory against Buffalo where the aforementioned high-usage player went on the heat check of a lifetime to skew what was a one-point game at halftime. And then the home win against Villanova where MU blew a 15-point second-half lead, before rallying back to survive by one.

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All of those were good wins on the resume, but outside of the 12-point win over Kansas State, none of them were especially clean victories (even that K-State game was at home). And upon further review, as all five of those teams – plus the Golden Eagles themselves – were destroyed in the first or second round of the NCAA tournament, maybe the wins weren’t even that good to begin with.

But it still didn’t have to end like this, with Marquette losing six of their last seven to end the season amidst rash turnovers, poor defense, and crunch-time catastrophes.

If Marquette holds on in just two or three games down the stretch, maybe they don’t have to play Ja Morant and Murray State in the first round. Then again, the Golden Eagles were fortunate to win some of the games they pulled out early in the year, and as Florida State proved in the second round, it’s not like Morant’s Racers were the second coming of Wooden’s UCLA teams.

Marquette (24-10, 12-6) ultimately finished with the record for both it was projected and deserved, even if MU fans are still sore from the whiplash it took to get there.

Let’s dive into some player reviews for the 2018-19 campaign. Apologies to the redshirts, Greg Elliott and Koby McEwen, the injured, Ike Eke, and the walk-ons, Tommy Gardiner, Buddy Jaffee, Mike Lelito, and Cam Marotta, who were not examined in this piece.

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