Madness Basketball Thoughts for those not in attendance

[Celtic Truth]

There is a lot of talk in the other thread about the new jerseys and the videos played at Madness last night. For those that were not able to be at the Al last night I'll share some of my thoughts and observations.

1. Wojo was more energetic than I have ever seen him last night. I know that this was coming from the Athletic department telling him to be more engaged with the fans. Wojo is very much so and X's and O's type of coach but the department really wants him to be more of a promoter who brings energy to the fan base. He came out of the tunnel last night and lambeau leaped into the student section and then ran around the court jumping on the media tables screaming "we are".

2. The 3 point contest was the 1st event. Hauser, Rowsey, Marcus, and Katin all shot really well. Their mechanics all looked good and they all were knocking down shots. Rowsey won with I believe 19 points out of 30 possible(5 shots at 5 racks but one money ball per rack counting for 2 pts) and Katin had 17 points.

3. Dunk contest contestants were Sandy, Marcus, and Sacar. Sandy won making 2 pretty impressive dunks. Both dunks involved a toss off of the side or back of the backboard  from Cam that he then slammed home. Howard has good bounce for a small guy (about 5'10 1/2 I'd say) but he had trouble making his dunks. For his age he does have a good build though, I believe hes still only 17 but he is certainly not a skinny looking freshman. Also the bright lights didn't really seem to intimidate him at all, he plays with a lot of confidence/swagger and looks ready to go. Sacar looked pretty good in the dunk contest as well, but no notable changes in his game/physique from last year. Novak was the only celebrity judge also.

4. Scrimmage was solid but nothing really notable. Look had 2 nice dunks and the ball seemed to move well overall. Traci, Marcus, and Rowsey all brought the ball up the court. There has been a lot of talk regarding Rowseys position (pg or sg). I'm assuming he will play some point guard this year but his primary role will be as a shooter/scorer. Similar to Carlino.

- Hauser looks pretty good sized. Wojo talked about him really making progress in the weight room since hes been on campus. Lowered his body fat percentage significantly while still adding weight. He's listed at 6'7 but after standing next to him and walking past him plenty of times I'd believe you if you told me he was 6'8. I think Wojo said he was up to about 230 lbs also. I don't think he's all that aggressive of a player and he will have an adjustment period, especially in BE play. Right now I wouldn't feel great about him guarding tough BE power forwards like the guys seton hall has up front.

- Heldt has had by far the biggest physical transformation. When I first saw him on campus this year I barely recognized him. He lost a lot of fat and added a lot of muscle. He's way more athletic now and dunks with east compared to the beginning of last season when he had a tough time dunking at all. I've heard that he has really been putting the time in at the Al and is often shooting or working out late at night (often after midnight). In the 2nd half of the scrimmage last night Matt scored 6 of his teams 11 points I believe. He still has improving to do but I feel a lot better about him backing up Luke now than I did 6 months ago.

- Recruits- there were several recruits in attendance last night sitting court side. Anonymous Eagle wrote about them in an article if you want more detail. But the short version is I believe there were 4 guys there from 2018. 3 bigs and 1 pg. One of the PF's is a top 75 recruit from Minnesota and the PG is a top 75 recruit from St Louis. There was also a tall kid from Racine who is class of 2019. No UNSIGNED 2017 guys there to my knowledge but I think Theo John and maybe Jamaal Cain were there. Hopefully someone has better info than I do regarding this. Kids in the student section were holding up "fatheads" with the recruits faces on them which I think the recruits thought was pretty cool.

[Celtic Truth]

Regarding recruiting- I just saw a tweet that said 2018 F Jarvis Thomas from Orono HS in MN has received an offer from Marquette while on an unofficial visit this weekend. So he was certainly at Madness last night.

[Nukem2]

Just watched the DVR replay.  Markus Howard seem much more athletic than I thought.  Rowsey is going to play a lot.  Sam is just a very nice player.  Hope Luke can stay healthy.

[MuMark]

Sam's jump shot ... form wise .. is almost perfect. Very Novak like.

Now if it goes in as often we will be in good shape.....

[AZWarrior]

Celtic - Appreciate the overview.   

[brewcity77]

- Recruits- there were several recruits in attendance last night sitting court side. Anonymous Eagle wrote about them in an article if you want more detail. But the short version is I believe there were 4 guys there from 2018. 3 bigs and 1 pg. One of the PF's is a top 75 recruit from Minnesota and the PG is a top 75 recruit from St Louis. There was also a tall kid from Racine who is class of 2019. No UNSIGNED 2017 guys there to my knowledge but I think Theo John and maybe Jamaal Cain were there. Hopefully someone has better info than I do regarding this. Kids in the student section were holding up "fatheads" with the recruits faces on them which I think the recruits thought was pretty cool.

Based on that description and previous reports, here's my guesses of putting names to those, as well as a few others:

2017: Committed PF Theo John was supposed to be there.

2018: Top-75 PF from Minnesota is Race Thompson. PG from St. Louis is Courtney Ramey, rated as high as top-20 by some services. Grayson Carter and Jarvis Thomas the other two 2018s mentioned. Thomas received an offer during his visit, though don't expect it to be accepted any time soon, I imagine they'll want to know what is going on with Joey Hauser and Thompson first. Joey wasn't at Madness because he had a football game.

2019: Tall kid from Racine is Nobal Days.

2020: Jalen Johnson from Sun Prairie was expected to be there. Jalen Suggs from Minnesota reportedly received an offer this week, but not sure if he was planning to come to Madness.

[ATL MU Warrior]

Great thread.  Thanks for the recap.

[warriorchick]

There is a lot of talk in the other thread about the new jerseys and the videos played at Madness last night. For those that were not able to be at the Al last night I'll share some of my thoughts and observations.

1. Wojo was more energetic than I have ever seen him last night. I know that this was coming from the Athletic department telling him to be more engaged with the fans. Wojo is very much so and X's and O's type of coach but the department really wants him to be more of a promoter who brings energy to the fan base. He came out of the tunnel last night and lambeau leaped into the student section and then ran around the court jumping on the media tables screaming "we are".

2. The 3 point contest was the 1st event. Hauser, Rowsey, Marcus, and Katin all shot really well. Their mechanics all looked good and they all were knocking down shots. Rowsey won with I believe 19 points out of 30 possible(5 shots at 5 racks but one money ball per rack counting for 2 pts) and Katin had 17 points.

3. Dunk contest contestants were Sandy, Marcus, and Sacar. Sandy won making 2 pretty impressive dunks. Both dunks involved a toss off of the side or back of the backboard  from Cam that he then slammed home. Howard has good bounce for a small guy (about 5'10 1/2 I'd say) but he had trouble making his dunks. For his age he does have a good build though, I believe hes still only 17 but he is certainly not a skinny looking freshman. Also the bright lights didn't really seem to intimidate him at all, he plays with a lot of confidence/swagger and looks ready to go. Sacar looked pretty good in the dunk contest as well, but no notable changes in his game/physique from last year. Novak was the only celebrity judge also.

4. Scrimmage was solid but nothing really notable. Look had 2 nice dunks and the ball seemed to move well overall. Traci, Marcus, and Rowsey all brought the ball up the court. There has been a lot of talk regarding Rowseys position (pg or sg). I'm assuming he will play some point guard this year but his primary role will be as a shooter/scorer. Similar to Carlino.

- Hauser looks pretty good sized. Wojo talked about him really making progress in the weight room since hes been on campus. Lowered his body fat percentage significantly while still adding weight. He's listed at 6'7 but after standing next to him and walking past him plenty of times I'd believe you if you told me he was 6'8. I think Wojo said he was up to about 230 lbs also. I don't think he's all that aggressive of a player and he will have an adjustment period, especially in BE play. Right now I wouldn't feel great about him guarding tough BE power forwards like the guys seton hall has up front.

- Heldt has had by far the biggest physical transformation. When I first saw him on campus this year I barely recognized him. He lost a lot of fat and added a lot of muscle. He's way more athletic now and dunks with east compared to the beginning of last season when he had a tough time dunking at all. I've heard that he has really been putting the time in at the Al and is often shooting or working out late at night (often after midnight). In the 2nd half of the scrimmage last night Matt scored 6 of his teams 11 points I believe. He still has improving to do but I feel a lot better about him backing up Luke now than I did 6 months ago.

- Recruits- there were several recruits in attendance last night sitting court side. Anonymous Eagle wrote about them in an article if you want more detail. But the short version is I believe there were 4 guys there from 2018. 3 bigs and 1 pg. One of the PF's is a top 75 recruit from Minnesota and the PG is a top 75 recruit from St Louis. There was also a tall kid from Racine who is class of 2019. No UNSIGNED 2017 guys there to my knowledge but I think Theo John and maybe Jamaal Cain were there. Hopefully someone has better info than I do regarding this. Kids in the student section were holding up "fatheads" with the recruits faces on them which I think the recruits thought was pretty cool.

I agree with this analysis 

[Newsdreams]

This..... https://twitter.com/5swish/status/784792224152289280

[MU82]

There is a lot of talk in the other thread about the new jerseys and the videos played at Madness last night. For those that were not able to be at the Al last night I'll share some of my thoughts and observations.

1. Wojo was more energetic than I have ever seen him last night. I know that this was coming from the Athletic department telling him to be more engaged with the fans. Wojo is very much so and X's and O's type of coach but the department really wants him to be more of a promoter who brings energy to the fan base. He came out of the tunnel last night and lambeau leaped into the student section and then ran around the court jumping on the media tables screaming "we are".

2. The 3 point contest was the 1st event. Hauser, Rowsey, Marcus, and Katin all shot really well. Their mechanics all looked good and they all were knocking down shots. Rowsey won with I believe 19 points out of 30 possible(5 shots at 5 racks but one money ball per rack counting for 2 pts) and Katin had 17 points.

3. Dunk contest contestants were Sandy, Marcus, and Sacar. Sandy won making 2 pretty impressive dunks. Both dunks involved a toss off of the side or back of the backboard  from Cam that he then slammed home. Howard has good bounce for a small guy (about 5'10 1/2 I'd say) but he had trouble making his dunks. For his age he does have a good build though, I believe hes still only 17 but he is certainly not a skinny looking freshman. Also the bright lights didn't really seem to intimidate him at all, he plays with a lot of confidence/swagger and looks ready to go. Sacar looked pretty good in the dunk contest as well, but no notable changes in his game/physique from last year. Novak was the only celebrity judge also.

4. Scrimmage was solid but nothing really notable. Look had 2 nice dunks and the ball seemed to move well overall. Traci, Marcus, and Rowsey all brought the ball up the court. There has been a lot of talk regarding Rowseys position (pg or sg). I'm assuming he will play some point guard this year but his primary role will be as a shooter/scorer. Similar to Carlino.

- Hauser looks pretty good sized. Wojo talked about him really making progress in the weight room since hes been on campus. Lowered his body fat percentage significantly while still adding weight. He's listed at 6'7 but after standing next to him and walking past him plenty of times I'd believe you if you told me he was 6'8. I think Wojo said he was up to about 230 lbs also. I don't think he's all that aggressive of a player and he will have an adjustment period, especially in BE play. Right now I wouldn't feel great about him guarding tough BE power forwards like the guys seton hall has up front.

- Heldt has had by far the biggest physical transformation. When I first saw him on campus this year I barely recognized him. He lost a lot of fat and added a lot of muscle. He's way more athletic now and dunks with east compared to the beginning of last season when he had a tough time dunking at all. I've heard that he has really been putting the time in at the Al and is often shooting or working out late at night (often after midnight). In the 2nd half of the scrimmage last night Matt scored 6 of his teams 11 points I believe. He still has improving to do but I feel a lot better about him backing up Luke now than I did 6 months ago.

- Recruits- there were several recruits in attendance last night sitting court side. Anonymous Eagle wrote about them in an article if you want more detail. But the short version is I believe there were 4 guys there from 2018. 3 bigs and 1 pg. One of the PF's is a top 75 recruit from Minnesota and the PG is a top 75 recruit from St Louis. There was also a tall kid from Racine who is class of 2019. No UNSIGNED 2017 guys there to my knowledge but I think Theo John and maybe Jamaal Cain were there. Hopefully someone has better info than I do regarding this. Kids in the student section were holding up "fatheads" with the recruits faces on them which I think the recruits thought was pretty cool.

1. You know for a fact that Wojo was told to be more engaged with the fans? How?

2. It's Markus with a K.

Aside from those minor quibbles, I appreciate the recap. Thanks.

[TAMU, Knower of Ball]

This..... https://twitter.com/5swish/status/784792224152289280

Clearly the victim of Wojo mind games.

[Marcus92]

Outstanding recap. Thanks, Celtic.

[Celtic Truth]

1. You know for a fact that Wojo was told to be more engaged with the fans? How?

2. It's Markus with a K.

Aside from those minor quibbles, I appreciate the recap. Thanks.

Yes, according to Brian Hardin the associate AD

[DienerTime34]

Yes, according to Brian Hardin the associate AD

What did he say specifically? Did the university feel it was lacking overall?

[Celtic Truth]

What did he say specifically? Did the university feel it was lacking overall?

It wasn't a huge deal really. The department just felt that as head coach Wojo is the face of the program and anything he can do to create excitement for our fans is a plus. He's not the natural salesman that many other coaches are like Cal, Pitino, Crean. So for Wojo it takes a little extra effort to express his excitement/passion. And for what it's worth the university thinks very highly of Wojo. Especially Lovell and Bill Sholl. His seat is not at all "hot" as others on here think. They love the direction of the program.

[tower912]

It wasn't a huge deal really. The department just felt that as head coach Wojo is the face of the program and anything he can do to create excitement for our fans is a plus. He's not the natural salesman that many other coaches are like Cal, Pitino, Crean. So for Wojo it takes a little extra effort to express his excitement/passion. And for what it's worth the university thinks very highly of Wojo. Especially Lovell and Bill Sholl. His seat is not at all "hot" as others on here think. They love the direction of the program.

Only a vocal few think his seat is hot.

[real chili 83]

Only a vocal few think his seat is hot.

Those who scream the loudest think they are right. 

[Brewtown Andy]

It wasn't a huge deal really. The department just felt that as head coach Wojo is the face of the program and anything he can do to create excitement for our fans is a plus. He's not the natural salesman that many other coaches are like Cal, Pitino, Crean. So for Wojo it takes a little extra effort to express his excitement/passion.

I would presume the discussion went something like this: "Hey, Steve, you know all that fire and enthusiasm you show when you're coaching the team during games?  Can we get you to let a little bit of that show when you're making videos talking to the students, interacting with the fans, and so forth?"

[MU82]

It wasn't a huge deal really. The department just felt that as head coach Wojo is the face of the program and anything he can do to create excitement for our fans is a plus. He's not the natural salesman that many other coaches are like Cal, Pitino, Crean. So for Wojo it takes a little extra effort to express his excitement/passion. And for what it's worth the university thinks very highly of Wojo. Especially Lovell and Bill Sholl. His seat is not at all "hot" as others on here think. They love the direction of the program.

I haven't seen this reported anywhere, so thanks for the insight, CT.

[brewcity77]

Madness is on TWC Sports channel right now.

[real chili 83]

Can you beam it over our way?   

[Dr. Blackheart]

Can you beam it over our way?   

https://mobile.twitter.com/MarquetteMBB/status/786336339285401600

Once you click to the TW Coverage map...scroll down to the video to play.  No subscription needed.

[real chili 83]

Thanks!