Morrow will fill a big need
Transfer must sit out the 2017-’18 season
While putting together his first recruiting class at Marquette over two years ago, coach Steve Wojciechowski took an interest in Ed Morrow, one of the top basketball players in Illinois while playing at Chicago’s Simeon Career Academy.
But at the time, the fit wasn’t quite right. Marquette had fivestar recruit Henry Ellenson coming to Milwaukee to play power forward. Morrow, a 6foot-7 forward, took a scholarship offer to play at Nebraska. Times have changed. Ellenson was a one-and-done player, going 18th in the 2016 NBA draft. With his departure, Marquette became more guardheavy on the way to making the NCAA Tournament this past season.
Morrow performed well at Nebraska, averaging 6.4 points and 5.2 rebounds in 54 games over two seasons, including 9.4 and 7.5 this past season as a sophomore, when he also ranked 29th in the country in offensive rebounding percentage. During that time, he decided that Nebraska was no longer the best fit for him and in late March he announced he would transfer.
On Tuesday morning, almost a week after news of his commitment became public, Marquette announced that Morrow officially had joined its basketball program.
“When he went to Nebraska, I didn’t follow Nebraska very closely, but I knew in talking to some of my friends in that league that he was a very well-respected player, someone who was a proven commodity who averaged close to a doubledouble at times when he was healthy,” Wojciechowski said. “There’s not that many guys floating around in college basketball that can do that.”
Morrow, who missed seven games due to a right foot injury in the middle of this past season, will sit out the 2017-’18 season in compliance with NCAA transfer rules. Afterward, he will have two seasons of eligibility remaining.
When he arrives at Marquette, Morrow will immediately become the Golden Eagles’ most seasoned frontcourt player. His 973 minutes played in collegiate competition almost double those of center Matt Heldt, who played 519 minutes over his first two seasons at Marquette. The Golden Eagles’ other big men have much less experience — Harry Froling played one semester at SMU before transferring to Marquette in January and Ikechukwu Eke and Theo John are incoming freshmen.
Morrow’s ability to practice against Marquette’s younger bigs undoubtedly will provide a tough test as they prepare to face the rigors of the season.
“I think we want to use his year where he’s not able to play to really help him get better,” Wojciechowski said. “I think his presence will help our young guys who aren’t yet proven commodities understand what it’s like to play against a guy who has been a producer in an outstanding league.”
At 6 feet 7 inches and 235 pounds, Morrow has the size and skill set to play both forward and center. At Nebraska, he was often an undersized center, holding his own and even out-rebounding larger centers. With Heldt and Froling standing 3 and 4 inches taller, Morrow can move to power forward in certain lineups.
“I think he’s pretty versatile,” Wojciechowski said. “A lot of times on the floor he’s not going to be the biggest guy on the floor (for us), which is different than what he experienced at Nebraska. But in certain situations, as we told him when he was here, there are some teams in our league that are smaller and there may be a time when he’s the biggest guy on the floor. Talking to Ed, his thing is he wants to develop as a player and he wants to win and have a chance to play in March. He felt like we gave him the best opportunity to do that.”
With Morrow’s addition, 12 of Marquette’s 13 available scholarships are taken for next season. With Andrew Rowsey as the team’s only senior and Brendan Bailey already signed to join the team in 2018-’19 following his two-year Mormon mission, Marquette will also have 12 of 13 scholarship spots claimed for the 2018-’19 season.
“We do really like who we have,” Wojciechowski said. “I think the situation we’re in now where we have a lot of good players is a lot different than where I started, so I’d rather be in this position than the one I started in.”
“Talking to Ed, his thing is he wants to develop as a player and he wants to win and have a chance to play in March.” STEVE WOJCIECHOWSKI, MARQUETTE COACH