Marquette Basketball: Takeaways from Golden Eagles so far in 2020-21 season

6. Marquette is Not Too Reliant On One Player Like Years Past

Markus Howard is not the only player in the Wojo era who was forced with an extremely heavy load every night. With the exception of the 2016-2017 seasons, Marquette teams have relied heavily on Matt Carlino, Henry Ellenson, Andrew Rowsey, and of course Markus Howard. Marquette’s 2020-2021 team does not live or die based on one player’s performance.

According to Kenpom’s statistics, Marquette does not have one or two “go-to guys” and has four “significant contributors” who use the most possessions. Those four players, currently in order from percentage used (which has changed from game to game), are Koby McEwen, Dawson Garcia, DJ Carton, and Justin Lewis (ESPN recently put Lewis and Carton as 1st rounders in their 2022 mock draft).

Marquette can usually look to score with whoever has the hot hand, which can also definitely include Theo John, Jamal Cain, and Greg Elliot.

While the hot hand is effective, the offense has a pretty balanced approach. Theo John has channeled his inner Hakeem Olajuwon with a reliable jump hook shot/overall post game (not to mention he’s 75% from three going 3/4 this season), and Garcia and Lewis have proven they can be effective in the post (and midrange/three point range) as well.

Koby McEwen is the team’s leading scorer at 14.2 points per game, having three games with at least 20+ and 18 in the win at Creighton. Greg Elliot (52.9% from three) and Jamal Cain (40.0%) have both had stretches where they’re absolute on fire from deep and both play with great energy. DJ Carton and Symir Torrence can both be facilitators of the offense (Torrence has been ineffective scoring the ball this year but he’s shown good vision and generally takes care of the ball).

Marquette teams usually are amazing from three point range, and this year is no exception. Currently 23rd in the nation in 3PT percentage (39.6%), Marquette can spread the floor well but they don’t live and die by the three like a couple Marquette terms recently have. As I implied earlier, this team can play inside-out and can afford bad games from 1-2 star players. When Marquette is at their best, they play really well as a cohesive unit (especially evidenced with 5 players in double figures in the win at Creighton).

When Carton picked up second half fouls at Xavier and fouled out with 1:30 to play (and Theo John fouled out with 0:47 to play), Marquette found a way to keep themselves in a game where Xavier was playing really well. Against UCLA when Justin Lewis was limited to 12 minutes due to foul trouble (among 4 others), Marquette still found a way to keep the game close before a game-ending UCLA 6-0 run sealed a win for the Bruins.

Against Seton Hall when Marquette as a team struggled and couldn’t close the gap, they found a way to put themselves in a position to win late coming back from an 11 point deficit with nine minutes remaining (a questionable charge call tied at 61 and a gather-step travel to tie the game at 64 ended up costing Marquette).

With those three examples provided above, Marquette is a resilient team who almost always seems to play to the competition. The team as a whole needs to improve from the free throw line as that can always be the potential difference between wins and losses. Overall though, whether it’s role players stepping up from previous years or new additions to the team, Marquette has a lot of star power without one designated player the game plan has to revolve around.