MU Sports Illustrated Missing Puzzle Piece

[TempoFree]

Marquette

Biggest problem: The Golden Eagles' gaping hole in their puzzle goes about 6-11, 265 pounds. Those are the dimensions of senior center Chris Otule, whose season ended when he suffered an ACL tear during a Dec. 6 against Washington. That Marquette is still 18-4 without him is a testament to their grit and savvy. Still, this team's lack of size (they're 221st in the country in effective height) leaves them vulnerable on the boards (12th in the Big East in rebound margin). If they could somehow find another big body to replace Otule, that would leave Marquette less vulnerable to a cold shooting night, which is bound to happen at some point during the NCAA tournament.

Missing piece: Drew Gordon, 6-9 senior forward, New Mexico. Gordon is a fifth-year senior (he transferred from UCLA) who over the years has adopted a blue-collar mentality. He is the nation's 11th-leading rebounder (10.7) and he leads the Mountain West in blocks (1.3). He scores a respectable 12.4 points per game on 50.5 percent shooting, but the Jigsaw Man really likes his 73.6 free throw percentage. The Jigsaw Man watches a lot of Big East basketball and he knows how teams in that league love to get physical with big men. Gordon will make opponents pay for that at the foul line, which will only give more cushion for Marquette's slashing guards.



Read more: http://sportsillustrated.cnn.com/2012/writers/seth_davis/01/30/hoop.thoughts/index.html#ixzz1l4AIHP4n

[downtown85]

I just want Davante to be healthy. Somebody like Gordon would be nice but thinking about that doesn't get me anywhere. 

[wyzgy]

missing piece is drew gordon???   umm, why?  was he supposed to come here?  hell, by that logic, i'll put together an all-universe team with missing pieces, aww shoot i just dropped my blunt , just a second...

[madtownwarrior]

totally agree - what a dumb premise for an article -

missing piece is drew gordon???   umm, why?  was he supposed to come here?  hell, by that logic, i'll put together an all-universe team with missing pieces, aww shoot i just dropped my blunt , just a second...

[sfmu22]

Pointless article but we could try to recruit his younger brother.  He is pretty beastly.

[mugoose]

this article is so stupid. I mean really, really stupid. Seth playing Fantasy recruiter. Dumb

[MU82]

Missing piece: Blake Griffin.

Just as effin logical.

[77ncaachamps]

But his brother, Aaron Gordon, is a top 25 junior.

Look him up.

http://espn.go.com/college-sports/basketball/recruiting/player?id=96195&_slug_=aaron-gordon

http://rivals.yahoo.com/ncaa/basketball/recruiting/player-Aaron-Gordon-109520

He'll be a GREAT fit and garner IMMEDIATE playing time...if only he wanted to come to MU.