Marquette Basketball: Projecting Golden Eagles’ 2019-20 rotation

Point Guard

Minutes Breakdown (40 total): Markus Howard (20), Koby McEwen (9), Symir Torrence (8), Greg Elliott (3)

We are one sentence into the point guard breakdown, and Wojo already has several different avenues to take in regards to Marquette’s nominal positioning.

Howard is clearly going to be the lead option on this team, and he will likely start games as the main ball-handler. But how much Wojciechowski will be able shift his All-American off the ball is one of the Golden Eagles’ biggest questions heading into the season.

Koby McEwen will likely get the first crack at bringing the ball up the floor when Howard sits or slides down to 2-spot, but he is more of a score-first guard himself. The Toronto native averaged 15.6 points per game in 2017-18 as a sophomore with Utah State, and while he did tally 3.2 assists a night, he also finished in the bottom half of the country in turnover rate (19.2 percent).

Redshirt sophomore Elliott – who joined McEwen on the bench last year as a medical redshirt following thumb surgery – had similar giveaway issues as freshman, and doesn’t profile as the sturdiest ball-handler even with a fully-healed hand. Defensively, though, he is a menace, and will likely spend some time guarding the Big East’s top point guards.

Symir Torrence is the big unknown. Torrence was the no. 44 recruit in the 2020 class before recently reclassifying to join this year’s roster. He is a traditional, pass-first, defensive-minded point guard, but he is also a prime redshirt candidate, potentially waiting to be unlocked in the post-Howard era. Should he remain eligible to play in 2019-20, Torrence could see a massive minutes jump if he proves to be the most reliable steward on the roster. But, as always, relying on a true freshman point guard is a notoriously tricky gambit.

Here’s guessing it will be a point guard by committee approach as the coaching staff looks to steal as many off-ball/rest minutes for Howard as possible.