Is MU’s preseason buzz justified?
Talent, experience, depth all are reasons for hope
The painstaking rebuilding process finally looks complete for the Marquette men’s basketball team.
Let Golden Eagles coach Steve Wojciechowski list the attributes that have garnered his team some preseason buzz.
“We feel great about where our program is at,” Wojciechowski said. “I love the guys I get to work with on a daily basis. I think we have some experience. I think we have a good level of talent. We have depth. We have good balance in terms of our roster, our makeup.
“We have a great schedule, when you combine our nonconference schedule and obviously playing in the Big East Conference. And then the excitement that’s added with our ability to play in Fiserv Forum.”
It feels a long way from the doldrums of Wojciechowski’s first season in 2014-
’15, when MU often had a seven-man rotation and finished 13-19 overall and 4-14 in the Big East.
Now the team is confident enough to bring in Kansas State to its new, stateof-the-art arena to go with a road matchup at Indiana and a heavyweight Preseason NIT in Brooklyn that opens with a battle against top-ranked Kansas.
The slate at Fiserv Forum also includes the season opener Tuesday against Maryland-Baltimore County, the annual rivalry game with Wisconsin and a strong Buffalo team.
Redshirt junior Sacar Anim committed to MU during Wojciechowski’s first season when the cupboard was bare. Now he is part of an impressive collection of wing players – junior Sam Hauser, sophomore Jamal Cain and freshmen Brendan Bailey and Joey Hauser – who can play multiple positions.
“We’ve been having some great practices,” Anim said. “It’s different than (previous) years, because we’re just going so hard. Guys are beating each other up. It’s going to make us better.
“We’ve got a tough schedule this year that we have to get ready for. We’ve got some top-tier teams coming here. So we’ve got to be ready.”
The depth already is coming in handy with sophomore glue guy Greg Elliott possibly missing the entire nonconference schedule after having surgery on his left thumb. That leaves MU a little short-handed with ball-handlers, though Anim can help out.
The undisputed offensive stars of the team will be the elder Hauser (14.1 points per game) and junior guard Markus Howard (20.4), two of the best shooters in the country.
In their two seasons, Hauser and Howard have combined to make 351 of their 759 three-point attempts, a netscorching 46.2 percent.
Howard is eyeing more team success after a loss in the NCAA Tournament first round his freshman season and a third-round defeat in the National Invitation Tournament last year.
“We want to accomplish big things this year,” he said. “Whether that’s winning the Big East or going deep in the tournament. We know it’s not going to be easy but we’re preparing each day for that.”
Hauser knows that MU will need contributions up and down the roster.
“Our depth is going to be a big part of this year,” Hauser said. “We’re going to take it to our advantage this year and we’re going to try to wear teams down and bring in fresh legs toward the end of the game.
“I think a lot of guys are competing for minutes; that is a good problem to have. It raises the level of competition in practice, which gets everyone better. We’ve got to have everyone abiding their role and if we do that it’s going to be a very successful season.”
Wojciechowski has brought in two transfers to fill key roles. Junior forward Ed Morrow should help with rebounding and rim protection, and graduate transfer Joseph Chartouny is known for his pass-first mentality and ball-hawking defense.
There are also plenty of reasons to pump the brakes on the MU hype train.
Questions about defense can’t be answered until games are played.
“Guys know that in order for us to make strides and go to where we want to be in the postseason and all that, our defense is key,” Anim said. “We can always put the ball in the basket. We have terrific scorers. But the thing I love about this team is guys are putting forth a lot of effort defensively.”
It remains to be seen how Chartouny and Morrow fit on an offense that in recent seasons has pushed the pace and put up a lot of three-pointers.
Bailey and Joey Hauser also aren’t typical freshmen. Bailey is 21 years old and spent two years on a Mormon mission. Hauser played in only one game as a senior at Stevens Point Area Senior High School before enrolling early at MU to rehab after ankle surgery. There could be some rust to knock off.
“To think we’re going to be the team on Day 1 that we will be as the months go on, it would be wrong,” Wojciechowski said. “This team has a great opportunity for growth. And the path of growth for us is something that we will have to figure out, because we can’t exactly say what it’s going to be.
“People have said, when I go out to speak, ‘You guys are so experienced.’ We are experienced. It feels darn good to have a Sam Hauser and a Markus Howard and Sacar and Matt Heldt, who’ve played a lot of minutes.
“But we’re also introducing guys who should help us at a high level who are still trying to figure it out. So that’s the Rubik’s Cube that we have to figure out.”