Omax declares

[willie warrior]

Job is in for a whale of a season. You can book it!

Ofeensively: maybe
Defensively: lots to improve

[El Guerrero 2]

Shaka did one hell of a job last season and it was a magical run up to the tournament, but we shouldn’t pretend this team wasn’t flawed. Defensive rebounding was horrendous, and we lacked any rim protection. Realistically we probably should have lost to X at home and Butler at home down the stretch; we got somewhat lucky. Now we lose our best wing defender. And what if we have an injury next season, something we were remarkably blessed to avoid last season until the tournament.

Yes, guys will continue to develop, but I just think the upside of adding a rebounding big far outweighs the risks.

[The Hippie Satan of Hyperbole]

Shaka did one hell of a job last season and it was a magical run up to the tournament, but we shouldn’t pretend this team wasn’t flawed. Defensive rebounding was horrendous, and we lacked any rim protection. Realistically we probably should have lost to X at home and Butler at home down the stretch; we got somewhat lucky. Now we lose our best wing defender. And what if we have an injury next season, something we were remarkably blessed to avoid last season until the tournament.

Yes, guys will continue to develop, but I just think the upside of adding a rebounding big far outweighs the risks.

Yep.  All of our success was due to luck and our failures were because we were fundamentally flawed.

Great analysis.

[Uncle Rico]

Ofeensively: maybe
Defensively: lots to improve

This is so good

[Scoop Snoop]

Shaka did one hell of a job last season and it was a magical run up to the tournament, but we shouldn’t pretend this team wasn’t flawed. Defensive rebounding was horrendous, and we lacked any rim protection. Realistically we probably should have lost to X at home and Butler at home down the stretch; we got somewhat lucky. Now we lose our best wing defender. And what if we have an injury next season, something we were remarkably blessed to avoid last season until the tournament.

Yes, guys will continue to develop, but I just think the upside of adding a rebounding big far outweighs the risks.

And we should have won in Providence. And Wisconsin got lucky (they couldn't miss in the first half!). And we were unlucky to get under seeded MSU in the tourney, and unlucky that Kolek suffered a serious thumb injury. See how easy it is to play this game?

If our incoming freshmen are anywhere near as good as they seem to be, they-along with our returning players- will provide depth to cover injuries. The one exception is Kolek. As we have seen, it is not easy to find a substitute for him. Maybe Shaka should bring in a transfer so that we have a top-level PG to step in, right?

If Omax does not return, I think Shaka will restructure the team to address some of the issues you brought up. That does not mean that they will be resolved entirely, but it is the overall performance of not just Marquette but any college bball team that matters. Even the bluebloods have flaws.

[Tha Hound]

Shaka did one hell of a job last season and it was a magical run up to the tournament, but we shouldn’t pretend this team wasn’t flawed. Defensive rebounding was horrendous, and we lacked any rim protection. Realistically we probably should have lost to X at home and Butler at home down the stretch; we got somewhat lucky. Now we lose our best wing defender. And what if we have an injury next season, something we were remarkably blessed to avoid last season until the tournament.

Yes, guys will continue to develop, but I just think the upside of adding a rebounding big far outweighs the risks.

Imagine posting something like this after the season we had last year

[Uncle Rico]

Imagine posting something like this after the season we had last year

It’s partly true, though I’m not sure how EG2 conveyed it is clear.

Marquette had flaws last year.  The positives far outweighed that most games.  Every team has flaws, doesn’t mean they can’t win a lot of games.  Also, luck is part of sports.  Heck, UW-Madison shot well above their weight in beating Marquette.  Bad luck for MUBB, good luck for them that afternoon.

17-3 in any league is hard to duplicate year-in, year-out.  All that said, this team, with or without OMax may not have the same record as last year but be every bit as good

[panda]

Too many simpletons here. If omax leaves, the immediate need is a back up center freeing up gold to play in his more natural position on the perimeter.

[Scoop Snoop]

It’s partly true, though I’m not sure how EG2 conveyed it is clear.

Marquette had flaws last year.  The positives far outweighed that most games.  Every team has flaws, doesn’t mean they can’t win a lot of games.  Also, luck is part of sports.  Heck, UW-Madison shot well above their weight in beating Marquette.  Bad luck for MUBB, good luck for them that afternoon.

17-3 in any league is hard to duplicate year-in, year-out.  All that said, this team, with or without OMax may not have the same record as last year but be every bit as good.

I think it is his repeated assertion that Shaka needs to find a transfer to correct the rebounding and rim protection problems that EG2 focused on that triggered many of the responses. The last sentence of my post above dovetails with your comment that all teams have flaws. We will not have a perfect team. So what?

Agree mostly with the bolded. I think the team will be better due to experience and our very promising freshmen. That does not mean that we need to repeat the 17-3 record at all, and I do not think we will. At least one more L, maybe two, is likely. 

[SaveOD238]

From a "maximize the potential of the 2023-2024 team" perspective, OMax leaving is almost certainly a negative.  Count me among those worried about the general lack of size/length/rebounding on this team.

From a "long term team continuity / continued success" perspective, it may not be the worst.  Chase, Ben, Jop, and the freshmen will almost certainly increase their minutes and they will develop into the kinds of players we will need when Kolek, Oso, Kam, and Stevie leave after '24 or '25.  Plus, more minutes in '24 might make those guys more likely to stick around.

[avid1010]

UCONN was soft and had an unreliable 3 pt shooting team.

[bilsu]

I’ve noticed a few things in this thread

1- very little talk of Sean Jones 22 makes me think that scoop faithful consider him deep bench next man out fodder
2- not as many Tre Norman expectations as I would have imagined.

I’ll give my prediction.
If OMax returns- same starting 5
TyKo, Kam, Stevie, OMax, Oso.
First three off the bench Jop, Tre, SJ22

I think Tre gets more minutes that Stevie by years end, Stevie becomes 6th man lockdown versatile guard that can score some in spurts. Sean spells the 1/2, Tre spells the 2/3, Jop spells the 3/4 depending on matchups.

If Omax doesn’t continue to develop Jop passes him up in minutes due to his elite scoring ability- that’s one of the risks of OMax returning. If you can’t beat out Jop you can’t beat out NBA dudes tho, so come on back OMax.

Btw that first 8 above is an Elite8 at worst type squad barring a disaster.

And I haven’t even mentioned the 4th guy off the bench, Ben to spell Oso at the 5. Then there’s Zaide Lowery and Al Amadou. I’m most excited about Zaide from next years class, which might seem insane with what I said about Tre above, but it sort of reminds me of the DawsonG/JLew class where I knew that Lewis would become a Marquette favorite.
I think Zaide will have the longer, more fruitful MU career but it will take him a bit more time to transition.

I got down this far and just realized I missed Chase Ross.
Now it becomes clear to see why Shaka isn’t going nuts in the portal.
In the above scenario Ross slides in off the bench in the group with Jop, Ross, Tre, SJ22. Ross spells the 2/3 with Tre, but there aren’t a lot of minutes to be had there so now we are logjammin.

If OMax doesn’t return.
TyKo, Kam, Tre, Jop, Oso starting 5.
Stevie (spells 1-3), Chase (spells 2-4), SJ22 (spells 1/2), Ben (spells 4/5), Zaide (3/4) and Al with limited minutes.

I’m sure my Tre prediction will surprise most, but I think the hype might be real in the short term. Not sure how it ends up long term until we see him play regularly. I also think Stevie is an amazing kid, the best ball defender on the team, but destined to a super sub 6th man elite guard defender role until I see otherwise.
I think he finds a nice role in a championship caliber MU team, just like he found a nice roll in a BE championship MU team.

What stands out to me is how much “cleaner” the sans OMax prediction squad is- easier roles, easier to find guys minutes, better build up and experience for the future etc.
What also stands out is how much more elite the with OMax squad is.
That’s a championship squad, the one without him is a good squad that will need a lot to come together to become a championship squad.

When you push good players into a reserve role because upperclassmen that can’t lose their starting spot are running the show you get a lot of good results.
If Kolek stumbles a bit so what, there’s guys to step in and the team is so stacked that it’ll be ok.
Same with Omax, or Kam, but maybe still not Oso (let’s go Shaka with that portal Magic!)

If OMax leaves the margin for error becomes much smaller. The future develops quicker and that’s good, but in this day and age you don’t get runs at magic often.

Hope he comes back

Possibly could happen, but Tre and Stevie were similarly ranked coming out of high school and Stevie has two years of college experience. I think Tre has a hard time breaking into lineup. Everyone who played any minutes at three guard positions are coming back. Who is Tre going to take time from?

[wadesworld]

We had the same starting lineup every single game last season. If we return everyone next year, the starting lineup is not changing.

Stevie is a menace on defense. We have enough scoring in the starting lineup. Having scoring coming off the bench is very valuable. Stevie is not losing his starting spot to a freshman.

And the same story for OMax. He wasn’t consistent offensively, but neither was Joplin. And OMax was a menace offensively while Joplin was not.

[panda]

UCONN was soft and had an unreliable 3 pt shooting team.

TAKE QUAKE

[DoctorV]

Possibly could happen, but Tre and Stevie were similarly ranked coming out of high school and Stevie has two years of college experience. I think Tre has a hard time breaking into lineup. Everyone who played any minutes at three guard positions are coming back. Who is Tre going to take time from?

I gave the answer, but it probably got lost in the extremely long post. Of course, barring any injury, most of the minutes would come from Mitchell and some from Kam at the 2/3.

That said, I know it’s a pretty aggressive and unlikely take, but I can see it happening if Tre’s defense comes as advertised and he can find ways to become an effective scorer much like Kam did from the day he stepped foot on campus.
Reports came out quickly praising Mr Jones of his abilities very early in his Marquette career, and if Tre is to take on a role like this I would expect that early in his career as well.

I don’t think Tre would start either way, u agree that Stevie would (and should) continue to start. I just think Tre gets more minutes as the season progresses.

The following season there is a chance that BOTH TyKo and Kam might exit the program and Stevie, Sean, Chase, Tre, Zaide and newcomers would be the new backcourt.

[brewcity77]

Possibly could happen, but Tre and Stevie were similarly ranked coming out of high school and Stevie has two years of college experience. I think Tre has a hard time breaking into lineup. Everyone who played any minutes at three guard positions are coming back. Who is Tre going to take time from?

I really like Tre and could see him carving out a role. Incredibly underrated recruit. But like Stevie said to Souley Boum, he ain't going nowhere.

[Uncle Rico]

I really like Tre and could see him carving out a role. Incredibly underrated recruit. But like Stevie said to Souley Boum, he ain't going nowhere.

Bold prediction time:

Stevie is borderline BE first team in 2024

[PointWarrior]

Bold prediction time:

Stevie is borderline BE first team in 2024

so minimum 2nd team all BE?

[Jay Bee]

Bold prediction time:

Stevie is borderline BE first team in 2024

If by bold you mean bad

[Tyler COLEk]

Jay Bee’s acension to the top tier of most irritating posters on the scoop is one of the most impressive developments here this offseason.

[THRILLHO]

Jay Bee’s acension to the top tier of most irritating posters on the scoop is one of the most impressive developments here this offseason.

They have an impressively high variance in post quality

[Lennys Tap]

Bold prediction time:

Stevie is borderline BE first team in 2024

Bold prediction time:

If you’re right, and a guy who is (depending on O-Max’s decision) our 4th or 5th best player is the 10th or 11th best  player in the Big East next year - MU will be the no doubt about it #1 seed in the NCAA tournament.

More reasonable prediction:

You’re high.

[El Guerrero 2]

Yep.  All of our success was due to luck and our failures were because we were fundamentally flawed.

Great analysis.

Your reading comprehension is absurdly poor. One can appreciate the fantastic job Shaka and the team did this past year without pretending there is no possible way the roster could be enhanced. It is possible to have some critical self-evaluation in the off-season.

Next year, I don’t want to have Oso be preoccupied battling Joel Soriano down low, and Clingan will abuse us again. If we had a guy even like Dwight Burke to pull off the bench and give us 10-20 minutes a game, I think it would help. There is no reason Shaka can’t find that type of player who is the right culture fit. There are 1000+ kids portaling.

[Uncle Rico]

Bold prediction time:

If you’re right, and a guy who is (depending on O-Max’s decision) our 4th or 5th best player is the 10th or 11th best  player in the Big East next year - MU will be the no doubt about it #1 seed in the NCAA tournament.

More reasonable prediction:

You’re high.

Be more bold 😂

[Hards Alumni]

In general.

Tyler -> Sean
Stevie -> Tre and Zaide
Kam -> Chase
Omax -> Jop and Al
Oso -> Ben and Al

The ones on the left generally swapping in for the starters.  If Omax goes, we are thin at the wing.  Of course the combo of Tre, Zaide, Chase can all swap into the omax wing role if they have to, but we'd be going pretty small if that happens.  Which is a bummer, but I don't see a lot of players mentioned with us that could easily slide into that wing spot.

Hopefully, Omax returns.  I think he will.