Better Next Year or Hit With Rebuilding?

[Blackhat]

Our team fell apart in the last four minutes in OT especially on O once Lazar fouled out........ which gives some pause to how we will adapt next year

Some concerns:

*DJO seems to lack a mental toughness at times which pops up at the FT line, imo.
* Youth usually sucks, at least inititally. 
*Our one "big" is gone, anyone on our roster who can rebound as well as Zar next year????

I'm the last person who should be prognosticating on next year seeing as this year I felt we would be bottom dwellers in rebuilding mode.....but next year could be a true rebuilding year despite our influx of "talent".   

[4everwarriors]

Talent coming in is better than that talent leaving. Besides, seniors lead any team.

[Aughnanure]

Oh come on don't use one game to guess about next year's team. Don't we even remember the Louisville game anymore where Butler and Hayward got hit with early fouls and our team not only held together but thrived.

We will miss Lazar, but as with every year the team next year will just have a different make-up, you can't think about next year's team just as minus Lazar. The team will adjust...Butler wasn't a big part of our offense last year because we didn't need him to be in our offensive strategy/game planning, but now he is crucial. 

[PGsHeroes32]

No way. We have Blue, Smith and Jones coming in. Crowder should be a help rebounding if we get him good PT. Butler is obviously going to be solid. Fulce is showing promise of being very productive next year. DJO will only be more experienced. Junior will be healthy from injury. Otule will be back to rebound. We should be very solid.

[Tulsa Warrior]

Don't under estimate Buycks next season.

[MUBurrow]

i am certainly more confident going into next year than this year.  but that being said, i dont think we move up, and possibly move down a spot or two.  not that i dont agree that the talent coming in is promising, but i still dont think next years roster looks like a team that will beat top echelon teams.  a couple of the perennial powerhouses will still sport better squads, which puts us fighting for that top spot in the next level of the BE. (4th, 5th ish) still not a bad spot to be in though. very MU.  

[PGsHeroes32]

I agree to an extent, but i think we can still compete. Nova will lose Reynolds so whose knows how good they will be without him. Cuse will lose alot, WVU loses some most importantly Butler. So clearly those teams will also add on alot but i dont think it can be said that we wont knock them off. If Monroe stays for some reason, Gtown will be scary.

[Clam Crowder]

If Hazell stays for some reason Seton Hall will be scary too. Also don't sleep on Providence they lose nothing from their team and have a good recruiting class they could be a suprise. Syracuse loses alot but they have alot coming in. I think their recruiting class is the only one better than ours in the BEast. I think if the talent we have Blue,most importantly, performs like they can then we may improve.

[DomJamesToTheBasket]

BETTER.  The team is going to get better for the forseeable future..  Jimmy will get drafted.  He's that good.

[MU111]

Don't under estimate Buycks next season.

+1  Buycks has put up some pretty decent numbers this season.  If he keeps working on improving his shot selection and cutting down the turnovers, he should be a big help.  Fulce's continuing improvement is encouraging, as well.

[DomJamesToTheBasket]

+1  Buycks has put up some pretty decent numbers this season.  If he keeps working on improving his shot selection and cutting down the turnovers, he should be a big help.  Fulce's continuing improvement is encouraging, as well.

Buycks and Fulce will have a much larger impact as seniors.  Keep in mind that this is their 1st year as D1 players.  The talent is in place.

[Big Papi]

I think we are going to be the same, maybe a step back and a true bubble team next year.  Hayward and Acker will be hard to replace.  Wow didn't think I would be saying that about Acker but his 3 point shooting and ball handling has been clutch.  I don't expect Vander or Junior to be a perimeter threat and with no inside threat, I expect our offense to really struggle at times.  Good news is that EWill, Otule and Fulce will be better and so will DJO.  Crowder looks like he might be able to defend down low but I think his offense might be more perimeter oriented but that is based on some stats and what Crowder and his coaches have said about his game.  We will be deeper and hopefully instead of slowing down the game, we speed it up with more traps seeing that we will be a lot more athletic and longer.

[PuertoRicanNightmare]

I don't want to sound sappy, but that's why college basketball is so much fun and why I enjoy Senior Day so much.

You remember when these guys first joined the team as freshman or as transfers and you see their progression. One advantage of not being the kind of school that generally attracts "one and dones" gives us an opportunity to have players progress year over year. David and Acker are prime examples (Lazar, less so because he was solid from the start).

We might not win 11 games in the Big East, but we'll be fine next year!

[Ari Gold]

Talent coming in is better than that talent leaving. Besides, seniors lead any team.

+1 to suggest that the additions of Blue, Jones, Crowder, Newbill and Smith this year won't make up for or surpass the contributions of Cooby Aker and Lazar (and Maymon) this year is ridiculous.

Even if Newbill and Smith statistically equal Cooby and Aker in their first years, Blue Crowder and Jones will easily statistically compensate for Lazar.

Assume that other players on the team will have a year of progression in them, I think it's safe to speculate that next years team will be better than this.

[Big Daddy Z]

Key is will our big man be healthy...we need 25 minutes a game from Otule..not a lot of pts but at least 8-9 rebs. A big man that can eat minutes & grab rebs will go a long way in stabalizing a team in transition.

[NersEllenson]

Next year's team will miss Mo Acker more than what most of us would have ever thought.  Mo has been great at running the team, and no one that will replace him will be near the threat from 3 point land.  This year's team has been a joy to watch with their unselfishness.  Hopefully next year's team can duplicate that, though I don't see next year's team shooting it nearly as well from the 3.  Buycks, Butler, DJO, Fulce and Crowder will be critical to the teams success.  I'm not expecting much from any of the freshman, including Vander Blue - I don't see Vander averaging anymore than 6-10 points per game.

It will be interesting to see how Buzz uses his bench/depth.  8 man rotation?  9 man?  10 man?  I hope he plays hockey basketball to where develops a 2nd line and isn't afraid to rotate players in/out 5 at a time, and play 40 minutes of hell type ball.

[HoopsMalone]

I expect us to be top 4 in the BE next year with Cuse, Nova, and Pitt.  

We already have two guys who are tough matchups, and DJO and Butler should actually improve.  There is no pressue on the freshman next year.  DJO should also get better.  He is more talented than his output bc he only catches and shoots or gets all the way to the hoop.  Once he figures out a midrange game, he will be solid.

We get bigger at guard next year and will significantly upgrade at the 2.  Replacing Cubillan with Blue, Buycks, or Newbill is huge.  Acker is hot and takes care of the ball, but gets abused on D.  Otule and Fulce will give us some size.

We had a nice group of 8 guys in the Amigos, Hayward, Burke, Barro, Acker, and Cubillan.  I appreciated their effort.  They did a lot to establish Marquette as a consistent tournament team, or at least a bubble team.  Now, I think we take a step forward by finishing better in conference and making more noise in March.  

[goodgreatgrand]

I think we'll finish somewhere between 4 and 6.

Freshmen suck in the BE. The Stephenson kid on Cincy wasnt exactly dominate. He'll be good next year, but he had some very "freshman-like" games.

Syracuse will lose Onuaku, Rautins and most likely Johnson (though he said he was coming back...which is what they all say). But they will add an All-American center to replace Onuaku and I have heard that their team next year will be taller and longer than this year - a key element for their zone.

[MarquetteDano]

I expect us to be top 4 in the BE next year with Cuse, Nova, and Pitt.  

We already have two guys who are tough matchups, and DJO and Butler should actually improve.  There is no pressue on the freshman next year.  DJO should also get better.  He is more talented than his output bc he only catches and shoots or gets all the way to the hoop.  Once he figures out a midrange game, he will be solid.

We get bigger at guard next year and will significantly upgrade at the 2.  Replacing Cubillan with Blue, Buycks, or Newbill is huge.  Acker is hot and takes care of the ball, but gets abused on D.  Otule and Fulce will give us some size.

We had a nice group of 8 guys in the Amigos, Hayward, Burke, Barro, Acker, and Cubillan.  I appreciated their effort.  They did a lot to establish Marquette as a consistent tournament team, or at least a bubble team.  Now, I think we take a step forward by finishing better in conference and making more noise in March.  

I think being less Senior heavy next year will make for the two halves of the season to be quite different.  My early guess would be we're worse in first half (compared to this year), but about the same if not better in the second half (again compared to this year).  That equals bubble territory next year but we will be playing our best ball at the end of the year.

Those who are saying Buycks will be much improved next year get a +1.  I think he will take his game offensively and defensively to the next level.

[GOMU1104]

Key is will our big man be healthy...we need 25 minutes a game from Otule..not a lot of pts but at least 8-9 rebs. A big man that can eat minutes & grab rebs will go a long way in stabalizing a team in transition.

You expected 8-9 rebounds per game from Otule? Wow....

 I hope he plays hockey basketball to where develops a 2nd line and isn't afraid to rotate players in/out 5 at a time, and play 40 minutes of hell type ball.

Sounds fun...but rarely is that effective.  

[wojosdojo]

Big guy, we had arguably one of th best backcourts in the nation last year and lost that all. Not to mention this year were in a position no one thought wed be., thanks Buzz.

[goodgreatgrand]

Key is will our big man be healthy...we need 25 minutes a game from Otule..not a lot of pts but at least 8-9 rebs. A big man that can eat minutes & grab rebs will go a long way in stabalizing a team in transition.

You're kidding, right?

Here is the list of current players in the conference who average between 8-9 rebounds per game.

Wes Johnson
Devin Ebanks
Luke Harangody
Greg Monroe
Herb Pope
Jamine Peterson
Mac Koshwal

Less than half the teams in the BE have a guy that grabs 8 or more rebounds per game.

[SacWarrior]

Think about it this way- we lost a whole lot more last year than we're going to lose this year and I don't know if you can definitively say we've gotten any worse off. Next year we have the best recruit in years coming to Milwaukee, a solid JUCO veteran, solid recruits in Newbill and Reggie Smith to back up the guard positions, and not to mention my favorite member of the recruiting class- 6'6" 210 forward Jamail Jones all the way from Monteverde, Florida.

The biggest question I have out of the upcoming class is what nickname we give Jones. His friends apparently call him "Mellow," but I personally like JaMail Man

[GOMU1104]

Think about it this way- we lost a whole lot more last year than we're going to lose this year and I don't know if you can definitively say we've gotten any worse off. Next year we have the best recruit in years coming to Milwaukee, a solid JUCO veteran, solid recruits in Newbill and Reggie Smith to back up the guard positions, and not to mention my favorite member of the recruiting class- 6'6" 210 forward Jamail Jones all the way from Monteverde, Florida.

The biggest question I have out of the upcoming class is what nickname we give Jones. His friends apparently call him "Mellow," but I personally like JaMail Man

I wouldnt expect much out of Jones next year...probably similar to what we are seeing with EWill this year.

[HoopsMalone]

I think being less Senior heavy next year will make for the two halves of the season to be quite different.  My early guess would be we're worse in first half (compared to this year), but about the same if not better in the second half (again compared to this year).  That equals bubble territory next year but we will be playing our best ball at the end of the year.

We will have Jimmy, Fulce, and Buycks as seniors and Crowder and DJO as juniors.  Those 5 (if Crowder plays like he is scouted and Buycks handles it ok) could start and be effective.  We will bring some experience next year so that the talented freshmen do not have to play right away.  If Fulce has truly figured it out, we could be really strong all season.


We had an awful first half as far as wins/losses this year.  Can't see that being worse.