Marquette Basketball: 5 storylines for Golden Eagles in 2020 offseason
By Brian Foley
How warm is Wojo’s seat?
On a scale from ice cold to volcanic, I’d put the Wojciechowski Hot Seat Watch somewhere around toasty. He isn’t going anywhere this summer, but it’s certainly something to monitor going forward.
After his first two years were spent re-stocking a bare cupboard left by predecessor Buzz Williams, Wojo has guided Marquette to three* NCAA tournament appearances and an NIT showing in his last four seasons.
*Assuming Marquette would have still made the dance in 2020.
Of course, that’s not the whole story. In each of his three tourney seasons, his teams have completely cratered after hitting the season’s high-point:
- 2016-17: Knock off no. 7 Creighton and no. 1 Villanova in back-to-back games, and then proceed to lose four of the next five
- 2018-19: Crack the top 10 of the AP Poll while riding a 20-2 streak, and then lose six of the final seven
- 2019-20: Jump into the top 20 of the AP Poll after a 6-1 stretch in conference play before losing six of the last seven for the second straight season
Marquette has failed to build on any semblance of success during the Wojo era. Throw in his 0-2 NCAA tournament record featuring a 19.5-point margin of defeat, a career 11-16 record in March that likely would have gotten worse in 2020 had the season not been canceled, and his teams’ continued struggles on the defensive end, and it’s not a pretty picture.
There are a few positives wedged into that messy resume. Wojciechowski and his staff are adept recruiters, and there has not been a peep of bad press about the players he has brought to campus, which is certainly high on the priority list for the Marquette administration.
It’s hard to envision the MU brass handing Wojo a pink slip anytime soon after they inked him to an extension last spring through the 2023-24 campaign. This upcoming season is something of a rebuilding year for the Golden Eagles; T-Rank projects Marquette to finish ninth in the 11-team Big East. As long as Marquette remains respectable with a .500ish season, I imagine the talented youngsters will earn him another crack at it in 2021-22.
The fanbase has reached the end of its rope however. Boos directed towards Wojo were audible throughout the Fiserv Forum during much of conference play, so much so that he did not even speak during the Senior Day speeches after the ugly loss to Seton Hall this year. Nearly every tweet from the Marquette men’s basketball account is bombarded with a bevy of #FireWojo comments. Attendance remained strong in 2019-20, but it would not be surprising to see a slight dip once November rolls around. If Wojciechowski survives a tourney-less year next season – which I believe he will – the ensuing campaign could very well be make or break.
I generally like Wojo. He is clearly a good guy, who brings in decent young men on and off the court. And unlike most high-major head coaches who cut their teeth at lower levels, this is his first gig, so he is still learning on the fly under the brightest lights. Even with those caveats, the clock is starting to tick. Once the new season tips off, Wojciechowski will be just the fifth head coach in Marquette’s 104-year history to coach at least seven years with the program, yet, he still has nothing of note to headline his CV. No tournament success. No conference championships. Not even a stinking Thanksgiving tournament trophy.
Marquette pours too many resources into its hoops program to simply settle for average. The Golden Eagles were expected to be the powerhouse program in the new Big East; instead, their average Big East tournament seeding under Wojo has been 5.8. It’s not fair to expect greatness in the next two years for Marquette based on the age of the roster, but Wojo has not earned enough equity to merely meet the bare minimum expectations. Either he stewards this group to a level above its weight class, or someone else will be given the opportunity to do so.