Marquette Basketball: 5 storylines for Golden Eagles in 2020 offseason
By Brian Foley
Can Koby McEwen’s confidence be salvaged?
Perhaps no one is more important to Marquette’s 2020-21 success than Koby McEwen. Through three games this past season, the Toronto native looked the part as Howard’s wingman, averaging 17.7 ppg, 6.3 rpg, and 3.0 apg in games against Loyola (MD), Purdue, and Wisconsin. The 71 percent three-point mark during that time was clearly unsustainable, but as someone who knocked down 42 percent of his treys during a productive freshman year at Utah State, it seemed plausible – if not likely – that his outside shooting would be a plus for the Golden Eagles.
Yeah. About that.
From Nov. 23 through the end of the season, McEwen’s minus-1.9 Box Plus/Minus ranked 531st out of 558 high-major players who soaked up at least 40 percent of their team’s minutes. Wojo kept trotting him out there with the starters because of his upside (and frankly no other guard was exactly beating down the door for playing time), but he never really found his stride. McEwen had a little surge in conference play, when – even though his efficiency remained poor – he was managing to stuff the stat sheet by crashing the boards, worming his way to the free throw line, and dishing assists. But down the stretch, he completely lost whatever success he had found, and saw his minutes reduced in a haze of ghastly turnovers and frustrating fouls.
Even with all those pock marks, T-Rank still projects McEwen to lead the team in minutes and usage rate next year, while maintaining the same subpar offensive rating that he has posted in his last two seasons on the court for Utah State and Marquette. Can McEwen throw it back to his freshman days when he had a 60 percent true shooting percentage? It seems unlikely, but McEwen might be the kind of player who can follow the Luwane Pipkins road map.
Pipkins’ efficiency (or lack thereof) for Providence in 2019-20 probably didn’t match his usage rate, but he was the kind of player who checked a lot of boxes, played strong defense, and seemed to have a knack for big shots in clutch moments. When McEwen is feeling good, he flashes a lot of those same skills; the MU coaching staff just needs to help him unlock those talents for a full year. He doesn’t need to be Markus Howard, dominating the ball and attempting high-wire shots. He just needs to be Koby McEwen.