Can No. 25 Marquette Defend?

[Oldgym]

Rob Dauster article.  The usual positives, the usual doubts.

https://sports.yahoo.com/no-25-marquette-golden-eagles-160742649.html

[mu03eng]

I object to the article on three grounds:

-If this team goes to the NIT, Wojo will be fired. There is no "expectation or acceptance" of a trip back to the NIT that the ending of the article seems to imply. Further, a top 25 team simply does not go to the NIT
-Sam Hauser is recovering at the rate projected, and to knock him as unathletic after playing a full year on a bad hip is....questionable.
-Apparently Matt Heldt and Ed Morrow peed in Dauster's wheaties at some point.

[Galway Eagle]

Am I blind or is Theo John not listed?

[Oldgym]

03Eng: it was "No 25" that caught my eye.  I've seen one or two writers put Marquette there, but it's hardly a consensus and we all know that preseason rankings are about as useful as Sam Dekker's twitter account.

Galway, good catch.  Somebody didn't do his homework.

[tower912]

Loves the offense, hates the defense.  Uses advanced stats.  Scooper?

[Juan Anderson's Mixtape]

Am I blind or is Theo John not listed?

Eke was also not listed.  I'm guessing the article format for this,  and the other 24 yet to come,  is to touch on exactly 10 players for each team.  If John was included,  someone else would've been left out of the article.

[MU82]

When I read something like this, I try to read it from the perspective of an outsider -- somebody who doesn't follow Marquette closely and obviously somebody who is not an MU fan.

Looking at it that way, it's by and large a reasonable look at this year's team.

Now, because most of us have much better insight into these players than a guy like Dauster does -- even if we admit to being biased -- we certainly can find ways to nitpick.

For one thing, could he actually be gushing a little TOO much about Markus? When I read "They have an all-american at the point," I had to stop for a second and say, "He isn't really claiming that JCS is going to be an All-American, is he?" Most of us believe Markus will play some PG this year, maybe even 15+ mins some games, but will he really be our PG? I hope Markus improves as much as Dauster thinks he will -- it's certainly possible.

While praising Sam's offense, he is not giving Sam enough credit as a defender. Sam is a very willing, mostly able, positionally sound and tough-minded defender. If everybody on our team played D as well as Sam has most of the last 2 seasons, we'd have won a lot more games.

Theo does seem an odd exclusion, but Lazar might be right. Still, there will be many games that Theo plays more minutes than Heldt does. And there will be plenty of times we use "center-less" lineups.

Again, though, I think Dauster did fine here. I do think it's OK to bring up the Hausers' injury histories because if they are not 100% or darn close to it, we will not be a Top-25 team.

I'm not sure if mu03 is right about Wojo getting fired if this is only an NIT team again -- especially if it's widely perceived as being due to injuries -- but a whole lot of Scoopers will want Wojo fired, and I'd think he'd be on the hot seat big-time in 2019-20. But I don't pretend to know how MU honchos think about him, so maybe mu03 is right, and anything short of an NCAA bid, regardless of circumstance, will put Wojo on the street.

[Juan Anderson's Mixtape]

When I read something like this, I try to read it from the perspective of an outsider -- somebody who doesn't follow Marquette closely and obviously somebody who is not an MU fan.

Looking at it that way, it's by and large a reasonable look at this year's team.

Now, because most of us have much better insight into these players than a guy like Dauster does -- even if we admit to being biased -- we certainly can find ways to nitpick.

When I read an article like this, I ask myself  WWJD: What Would a Journalist Do?

If the article was about Kansas St, the omission of their 11th man wouldn't even register with me.

Theo may be much more than MU's 11th man this year.   But to an outside journalist,  he averaged just 12 mpg last year, and the writer chose to write about 4 significant newcomers & 6 players that averaged more minutes per game last year.

[MuMark]

When I read something like this, I try to read it from the perspective of an outsider -- somebody who doesn't follow Marquette closely and obviously somebody who is not an MU fan.

Looking at it that way, it's by and large a reasonable look at this year's team.

Now, because most of us have much better insight into these players than a guy like Dauster does -- even if we admit to being biased -- we certainly can find ways to nitpick.

For one thing, could he actually be gushing a little TOO much about Markus? When I read "They have an all-american at the point," I had to stop for a second and say, "He isn't really claiming that JCS is going to be an All-American, is he?" Most of us believe Markus will play some PG this year, maybe even 15+ mins some games, but will he really be our PG? I hope Markus improves as much as Dauster thinks he will -- it's certainly possible.

While praising Sam's offense, he is not giving Sam enough credit as a defender. Sam is a very willing, mostly able, positionally sound and tough-minded defender. If everybody on our team played D as well as Sam has most of the last 2 seasons, we'd have won a lot more games.

Theo does seem an odd exclusion, but Lazar might be right. Still, there will be many games that Theo plays more minutes than Heldt does. And there will be plenty of times we use "center-less" lineups.

Again, though, I think Dauster did fine here. I do think it's OK to bring up the Hausers' injury histories because if they are not 100% or darn close to it, we will not be a Top-25 team.

I'm not sure if mu03 is right about Wojo getting fired if this is only an NIT team again -- especially if it's widely perceived as being due to injuries -- but a whole lot of Scoopers will want Wojo fired, and I'd think he'd be on the hot seat big-time in 2019-20. But I don't pretend to know how MU honchos think about him, so maybe mu03 is right, and anything short of an NCAA bid, regardless of circumstance, will put Wojo on the street.

I think he calls him.a point guard because he is 5'11.......I really think people focus too much on who is listed as a " point guard" or a " shooting guard".

In today's day and age none of that matters all that much. Both he and JC will handle the ball and iniate offense......they are both guards......Will JC bring the ball up after a made basket? I would think so most of the time......but after a rebound or a turnover various players might push it up.....

Guards, forwards and bigs. That's what you have now......I'm not even sure they list particular positions on the AA teams anymore?

[Herman Cain]

Greg Elliott is under rated. Love what this young man brings to the table for MU. I believe he is going to be a key to our success this year.

[MuMark]

Greg Elliott is under rated. Love what this young man brings to the table for MU. I believe he is going to be a key to our success this year.

Agree......looks like a nice glue guy this season. Just needs to reduce those turnovers. Healthy thumb should help but better decisions and fewer travels needed as well.

[bilsu]

When I read something like this, I try to read it from the perspective of an outsider -- somebody who doesn't follow Marquette closely and obviously somebody who is not an MU fan.

Looking at it that way, it's by and large a reasonable look at this year's team.

Now, because most of us have much better insight into these players than a guy like Dauster does -- even if we admit to being biased -- we certainly can find ways to nitpick.

maybe even 15+ mins some games, but will he really be our PG? I hope Markus improves as much as Dauster thinks he will -- it's certainly possible.

While praising Sam's offense, he is not giving Sam enough credit as a defender. Sam is a very willing, mostly able, positionally sound and tough-minded defender. If For one thing, could he actually be gushing a little TOO much about Markus? When I read "They have an all-american at the point," I had to stop for a second and say, "He isn't really claiming that JCS is going to be an All-American, is he?" Most of us believe Markus will play some PG this year, everybody on our team played D as well as Sam has most of the last 2 seasons, we'd have won a lot more games.

Theo does seem an odd exclusion, but Lazar might be right. Still, there will be many games that Theo plays more minutes than Heldt does. And there will be plenty of times we use "center-less" lineups.

Again, though, I think Dauster did fine here. I do think it's OK to bring up the Hausers' injury histories because if they are not 100% or darn close to it, we will not be a Top-25 team.

I'm not sure if mu03 is right about Wojo getting fired if this is only an NIT team again -- especially if it's widely perceived as being due to injuries -- but a whole lot of Scoopers will want Wojo fired, and I'd think he'd be on the hot seat big-time in 2019-20. But I don't pretend to know how MU honchos think about him, so maybe mu03 is right, and anything short of an NCAA bid, regardless of circumstance, will put Wojo on the street.

Athlon Sports has Markus on their All-American second team.

[MU82]

I think he calls him.a point guard because he is 5'11.......I really think people focus too much on who is listed as a " point guard" or a " shooting guard".

In today's day and age none of that matters all that much. Both he and JC will handle the ball and iniate offense......they are both guards......Will JC bring the ball up after a made basket? I would think so most of the time......but after a rebound or a turnover various players might push it up.....

Guards, forwards and bigs. That's what you have now......I'm not even sure they list particular positions on the AA teams anymore?

Totally agree with this.

I do think Markus will be more of a scorer and JCS more of a distributor -- I know, shrewd analysis -- so in my mind JCS is more of your garden variety PG. But you are right.

[GB Warrior]

Also Dauster

[Newsdreams]

Also Dauster

Lol Dauster he has MU as a Final Four team and Wright as coach of the year. In that scenario wouldn't Wojo make more sense?

[brewcity77]

Also Dauster

He's probably being bullied into that pick by Producer Tess.

(Tess Quinlan, Dauster's podcast producer, is a MU alum)

[MU82]

Lol Dauster he has MU as a Final Four team and Wright as coach of the year. In that scenario wouldn't Wojo make more sense?

Isn't the coach of the year picked before the NCAA tournament? Maybe he thinks Nova will have the better season (indeed, he ranks them way higher than MU), earning Wright coach of the year after losing 4 studs to the NBA, but thinks our ladz will go crazy in the tourney and reach the Final Four.

[dgies9156]

Also Dauster

Sub out Villanova for Kansas and you have Catholics 3, Field 1.

[Galway Eagle]

Sub out Villanova for Kansas and you have Catholics 3, Field 1.

Why stop there let's get a third Jesuit school in there!

[MU82]

A year from now, the title of a thread like this will be:

Can No. 1 Marquette Defend Its National Title?

[rocket surgeon]

Greg Elliott is under rated. Love what this young man brings to the table for MU. I believe he is going to be a key to our success this year.

Absolutely!  GE brings energy off the bench and haven’t seen a little guy jump like this since grasshopper

[dgies9156]

Thoughts about the pre-season assessments of Marquette:

1) This is a make-or-break year for Wojo. Period. Will the powers that be relieve Wojo if he fails to reach the second or third weekend of the NCAA or even if we make the NIT? Not likely. But we've been close in some high profile recruiting battles and if we intend to be a contender for five-star talent on a consistent basis, we better start winning. No ifs, ands or buts.

2) The defensive questions are legit. Prognosticators have a tendency to look at past performance and project the future based on them. Until we see some defense, we will have questions about defense. Coach Dean Smith used to argue that with rare exception, its tough to teach defense right away. It comes with time. Well, time is here and we will see.   

3) We have a pretty good team this year. But a lot of things could happen. The team doesn't mesh as a unit. Injuries. Or an unhealthy addiction to the three-bomb. Until we see how our guys play together, I just don't know.

4) We Scoopers tend to see the present and become wildly optimistic about the future. It is an occupational hazard. I'd rather go into a season with folks guessing about what we are that start the year with unrealistic or excessively lofty expeectations.  With Kansas, Kansas State and possibly Tennesssee on the schedule, we'll know early how good we really are.

[radome]

GE brings energy

Nice.

[Tha Hound]

I object to the article on three grounds:

-If this team goes to the NIT, Wojo will be fired. There is no "expectation or acceptance" of a trip back to the NIT that the ending of the article seems to imply. Further, a top 25 team simply does not go to the NIT
-Sam Hauser is recovering at the rate projected, and to knock him as unathletic after playing a full year on a bad hip is....questionable.
-Apparently Matt Heldt and Ed Morrow peed in Dauster's wheaties at some point.

Nope

[MU82]

GE brings energy

Nice.

I hope our GE does a lot better than the GE the company.

Down 35% this year and 62% last two.