Marquette Basketball: 2020-21 season preview for the Golden Eagles

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Marquette Basketball Steve Wojciechowski (Photo by Mitchell Layton/Getty Images) /

Marquette Basketball has several new faces in 2020-21. Will the Golden Eagles have enough juice to earn an NCAA tournament bid?

It is a new day for Marquette Basketball.

After four years of building the program around Markus Howard, the Golden Eagles are now working to establish a new foundation in 2020-21.

Gone is Howard, the face of the university for the past four years, as well as the program’s all-time leading scorer and two-time All-American.

Gone is Sacar Anim, a tough-minded wing who is likely Steve Wojciechowski’s greatest developmental success story.

Gone are Brendan Bailey and Jayce Johnson, two rotation players whose primary skills (floor spacing and interior defense, respectively) have not been obviously replaced in the frontcourt.

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In their stead is a host of new faces. DJ Carton, a highly-coveted transfer from Ohio State and a player Marquette pursued in high school, is expected to take over Howard’s role as the lead guard.

McDonald’s All-American Dawson Garcia leads the Big East’s best recruiting class. Garcia, the Big East’s preseason Freshman of the Year, will be joined by fellow forwards Justin Lewis and Oso Ighodaro.

Dexter Akanno will also see his first action for the Golden Eagles after redshirting in 2019-20. Akanno, who was not heavily recruited in high school, spent a portion of the summer impressing in scrimmages with NBA players.

How Wojo molds this program sans Howard is the question looming over every Marquette conversation entering the season. Does Wojciechowski’s offensive system need one supernova to survive? If so, Carton or Garcia will likely be the beneficiary. Or can MU thrive with an equal-opportunity game plan?

In Howard’s freshman campaign, Marquette finished with a top-10 offense in adjusted efficiency while featuring seven players who averaged between 8.7 ppg and 13.2 ppg. The Golden Eagles might need to follow that blueprint if they are to return to the NCAA tournament this season.

While there are some offensive unknowns for the first time in a while, the defensive concerns are nothing new. Marquette has improved from its horrifying lows of the 2017-18 season, but the Golden Eagles still struggled to get consistent stops against NCAA tournament-quality competition in each of the past two seasons.

Marquette has largely given up on trying to force turnovers; no high-major team posted a worst defensive TO rate last season. Will the team’s defensive strategy change now that the program has seen significant roster turnover?

Let’s dive into the starting lineup tasked with leading Marquette into the 2020-21 season.

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