Marquette has high hopes for next season
Marquette had a spirited run in the National Invitation Tournament, but the Golden Eagles don’t want to do the same thing next season.
That’s because MU will return the majority of its roster and should reasonably expect to play in the NCAA Tournament next March.
“We have everybody back except for (senior guard) Andrew (Rowsey),” Golden Eagles coach Steve Wojciechowski said. “We’ll finally have more than one or two upperclassmen next year, which will be nice I think.
“I think we’re going to look at this year as a year we did some things and had some experiences that will allow us to leap into the future.”
MU certainly will miss Rowsey, who set the school record for points (716) and three-pointers (125) in a season.
“He’s a true gamer and we’re going to miss his presence on the floor next year,” sophomore wing Sam Hauser said. “But a lot of our youth is going to grow up. But we obviously have big shoes to fill with Andrew leaving.”
The senior was also the team’s primary ball-handler.
MU has two scholarship slots open next season after the departures of Harry Froling and Haanif Cheatham, so Wojciechowski can bolster the backcourt with a graduate transfer or a late recruit.
Sophomore guard Markus Howard and freshman guard Greg Elliott could be counted on to play point guard, although that is not the natural position for either.
Elliott will be rehabbing a thumb injury he suffered on a fall in MU’s exhibition against Lindenwood. He had surgery on Thursday.
Hauser said he will have surgery on his left hip, an injury that bothered him all season, and also will be recovering for most of the off-season.
Despite the nagging pain, Hauser was the team’s best all-around player and averaged 14.1 points, 5.7 rebounds and 2.9 assists per game.
Joey Hauser, Sam’s brother and MU’s top recruit, enrolled in school in January and took a redshirt season so the staff could monitor the 6-foot-8 forward’s return from ankle surgery.
The Golden Eagles’ other incoming 6-8 freshman, Brendan Bailey, joins the team after a two-year Mormon mission.
Add in Ed Morrow, a forward who sat out this season after transferring from Nebraska, and freshman center Ike Eke, who redshirted this season and also had back surgery, and MU will have a lot of players who will need to knock off some rust.
MU knows what it will get with Howard. The sharpshooter was named to the all-Big East second team and has scored 1,104 points in his two seasons.
“Looking back on it, I think we really
grew,” Howard said of this season. “We grew from boys to men. I think we really have a lot to look forward to next year. We have a lot of guys coming back.
“So it’s exciting just to be able to know we got better in (the NIT) and helping propel us into next year.”
Center Matt Heldt and walk-on Cam Marotta will be seniors next season. Hauser, Howard and Sacar Anim, who developed as a defensive stopper and slasher in his sophomore season, also will be upperclassmen.
The biggest emphasis must again be defense, which has been unsightly in the last two seasons.
The roster continuity should help, along with the development of this season’s freshmen: Elliott, forward Jamal Cain and center Theo John.
The 6-7, 235-pound Morrow will have two seasons of eligibility after playing in 54 games with the Cornhuskers. He is a rugged rebounder and will offer MU a physical presence down low.
The pressure will be on Wojciechowski to put all the pieces together and make the NCAA Tournament.
Wojciechowski is 73-59 in his four seasons at MU, with one NCAA Tournament appearance and this season’s NIT run.
“We had the youngest team in the Big East,” Wojciechowski said. “The Big East is the best it’s been since I’ve been here.
“Did we accomplish everything we wanted to accomplish? No. That doesn’t mean the season is not a success. We’ve got great kids. They represented the jersey well, got better as the season went on and they were fun to coach.”