Big East Basketball: 5 biggest takeaways from 2019 recruiting classes

NEW YORK, NY - MARCH 14: James Farr #2 of the Xavier Musketeers and Daniel Ochefu #23 of the Villanova Wildcats jump for the opening tip during the championship game of the Big East basketball tournament at Madison Square Garden on March 14, 2015 in New York City. (Photo by Alex Trautwig/Getty Images) /

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HARTFORD, CONNECTICUT – MARCH 21: Joey Hauser #22 of the Marquette Golden Eagles celebrates scoring and getting fouled with teammates Sam Hauser #10, Ed Morrow #30, and Sacar Anim #2 during their first round game of the 2019 NCAA Men’s Basketball Tournament against the Murray State Racers at XL Center on March 21, 2019 in Hartford, Connecticut. (Photo by Rob Carr/Getty Images) /

2. Unexpected decisions leave Marquette and St. John’s reeling

This was supposed to be the offseason of hype of Marquette Basketball. They were returning the vast majority of their production from a 24-win team, including 25 ppg scorer and reigning Big East Player of the Year Markus Howard who snubbed the NBA Draft process early.

Unfortunately for the Golden Eagles, brothers Joey and Sam Hauser elected to transfer out of nowhere. They were the second and third-leading scorers, rebounders and passers for the team and the younger Joey was one of the top freshmen in the Big East. Their departures to Michigan State and Virginia respectively hurt the team badly, particularly when it came to spacing the floor. Utah State transfer Koby McEwen and Utah grad transfer big man Jayce Johnson will try to offset the losses but Marquette went from a surefire preseason top-10 team to one with a lower ceiling.

As for St. John’s, many fans and observers were calling for the firing of their head coach Chris Mullin, after another season falling below expectations. But the program itself was willing to keep him around. However, Mullin himself opted to resign out of nowhere, leaving the Red Storm hanging. It took a while for them to settle on a new coach, choosing Mike Anderson formerly of Arkansas. A couple of key juniors including Shamorie Ponds nad Justin Simon went pro but Mustapha Heron and LJ Figueroa are staying put.

Because of those moves, there as no way for either team to rebound on the recruiting trail this late in the process. Luckily for Marquette, they already had four-star combo guard Symir Torrence committed, along with three-star guard Dexter Akanno. The Red Storm weren’t expecting to do much work this anyways, having just three-star point guard Johnathan McGriff on board.

Now both programs will have to work extra hard on their 2020 recruiting classes to be viable in the Big East in the future. But things could’ve gone worse for each program after a rocky start to the offseason.

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