Marquette Basketball: Dissecting Dawson Garcia’s value for Golden Eagles

McDonald’s All-American Dawson Garcia will prove enormously important to the short- and long-term outlook for Steve Wojciechowski and Marquette Basketball.

Few head coaches were as active as Steve Wojciechowski of Marquette Basketball this offseason, who supplemented his Big East-best high school recruiting class with two well-regarded college transfers, as well as a pair of commitments for the Class of 2021.

But perhaps no player is as important to the Marquette puzzle for both the upcoming campaign and the program’s long-term prognosis as freshman big man Dawson Garcia.

Here are the “back-of-the-baseball-card” highlights for Garcia:

• 6-foot-11, 230 lbs out of Prior Lake, Min.
• McDonald’s All-American (no. 32 recruit in the nation by 247Sports)
• averaged 31.9 ppg and 9.7 rpg in 2019-20
• fourth-best high schooler to attend MU in the 21st century, according to 247Sports

Garcia’s game, with his size, hands, and ability to get buckets on the perimeter, in the paint, and in transition, is somewhat reminiscent of the last great prospect to come to Milwaukee – Henry Ellenson.

Of course, just by flipping through various YouTube clips, Garcia does not seem to possess the same athleticism or capacity to create his own jump shot as Ellenson. The former one-and-done star also had a quicker release on his jumper (though, for what it is worth, Ellenson shot just 29 percent from beyond the arc as a freshman at MU. Garcia certainly has a smooth stroke and did nail over 41 percent of his treys as a high school senior).

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While Garcia should not be expected to average 17 ppg and 9.7 rpg like Ellenson did en route to a first-team all-Big East honor, Marquette will likely be trotting out a starting lineup with legitimate size for the first time since those 2015-16 Golden Eagles started Ellenson next to traditional center Luke Fischer.

Theo John, coming off offseason wrist surgery, is the lone big man returning to the Golden Eagles in 2020-21, and will undoubtedly keep his starting job (the only games John has not started in each of the past two seasons have been Senior Night games when Wojo handed the ceremonial start to John’s elder backups).

Garcia is the leading candidate to grab the starting nod at the four, which will give Marquette something of a poor man’s version of the Fischer-Ellenson duo that combined to average 29.1 ppg, 15.9 rpg, and 2.9 blocks per game five seasons ago.

The minutes where John and Garcia share the floor will have interesting ramifications for Marquette’s offense. There is some high-low potential there, and Garcia has plenty of face-up game to spread the floor. Wojo has increased his emphasis on offensive rebounding the last two seasons, which will be further buoyed by jamming a 6-foot-11 stud next to one of the Big East’s best offensive rebounders.

This frontcourt combo could also unlock Marquette’s ball movement; John has flashed occasional passing wizardry from the post, but as an afterthought on offense in past seasons, he has rarely had the chance to show those skills consistently. Garcia’s highlight tapes are also indicative of a player who is willing to swing the ball, particularly when opponents send double-teams his way.

Throw in Marquette’s likely starting guards DJ Carton and Koby McEwen, who both finished in the top-100 in assist rate last season among high-major rotation players, as well as backup point guard Symir Torrence, who averaged a team-high 5.8 assists per 40 minutes last year, and the Golden Eagles have a recipe to punch above their weight offensively in 2020-21. The dream of building around Carton and Garcia – both left-handed, coincidentally – is something to get excited about in Milwaukee, barring any early departures.

Wojo has shown a preternatural ability to craft elite offenses, but the other end of the floor has been his Achilles heel. In the four seasons between Ellenson’s departure and Garcia’s arrival, Wojciechowski almost always deployed lineups with either a prototypical stretch four (Sam and Joey Hauser), a four-guard lineup (Jajuan Johnson and Katin Reinhardt), or something in between (Brendan Bailey).

Those units provided incredible offensive success but were often incredibly vulnerable on defense. The size of John and Garcia should give Marquette some added rim protection, and help cover for any defensive lapses on the perimeter. (Subbing out Markus Howard for the bigger Carton should also boost the defense across the board.)

For as many transfers as Marquette pursued in the offseason, it was a tad surprising to see how few were big men. John, for all his strengths, is a foul machine and has only averaged 20.2 mpg over the past two seasons. The Golden Eagles will be relying heavily on Garcia to cover some of those non-John minutes at center. While it will be fun to watch Marquette throw five playmakers onto the floor on offense, asking any young big to anchor a defense is a stretch.

How Garcia handles those minutes at the five will not only dramatically impact the team this season, but will also affect Marquette’s future roster-building strategy. The Golden Eagles have already received two commits for 2021 – from guards Stevie Mitchell and Kameron Jones – but still have three scholarship slots open.

How Marquette rounds out its frontcourt rotation in the future will be strongly influenced by Garcia’s development as a five-man this year. MU does have two other four-star freshman bigs in tow, but neither Justin Lewis at 6-foot-7, 235 lbs or Oso Ighodaro at 6-foot-9, 205 lbs profile as classic rim protectors.

Marquette is replacing three starters, including a two-time All-American, from last year’s presumed NCAA tournament team. But in a post-Markus Howard world, Garcia’s talent and versatility represent more than enough promise for the next era of Golden Eagle basketball.