Colton Crowdis committed.

[JakeBarnes]

Here I was worried we had too many people and not enough minutes

[The Sultan]

Can't make quality players transfer to MU with offers of reserve minutes and reserve pay. 

We most certainly could have gotten better front court options than the two back-ups we have now.

[lawdog77]

We most certainly could have gotten better front court options than the two back-ups we have now.

I am too lazy to look. Names?

[The Sultan]

Here I was worried we had too many people and not enough minutes

We have too many people who are not proven at all at this level or who haven't shown anything multiple years into their career.

We have five, experienced, plus-level players right now. James, Stevens, Royce and the two transfers.

Other than that, we have a couple who have flashed some potential. The rest are simply not at this level or are incoming freshmen.

[The Sultan]

I am too lazy to look. Names?

Get less lazy and read some of the stuff that PT wrote and brew posted.

[Zog from Margo]

It's good this team was so solid last season that it can add to its number of project players.

[lawdog77]

Get less lazy and read some of the stuff that PT wrote and brew posted.

I did read the PT article, which said this: The answers so far haven't matched to what Marquette is looking for. There simply weren't many true bigs in the portal this year, let alone late in the game, and that scarcity drove prices and desperation up.

I couldn't find any actual names for viable options-ones with decent stats who were willing to be a backup-direct me there if you could.

[muwarrior69]

It's good this team was so solid last season that it can add to its number of project practice players.

FIFO

[SchnitzelBoy]

I'd like a bit more depth, but at some point you need to trust that one or two of these developmental pieces will pan out. It's not like ONLY 5-star recruits and transfers end up being good. Every year, mid-major players transfer up and end up on Final 4 squads. Many of those are ranked far behind the recruits Shaka has been getting recently. He had consecutive recruiting classes either underwhelm (3-star guys like Chase, Ben, and Sean were so injury-bitten) or bust (Al, Tre, Zaide, Caedin) which hurt the team. But you can see the caliber of recruit getting better each year where we're averaging 4-star recruits like Royce, Owens, Sheek, MPIII and Egbuonu all come with tremendous upside. If you don't see how the potential of some of these NBA bodies then you're not actually watching.

[panda]

There is a world where a couple of freshmen make an unexpected splash and take this team from bubbly ceiling to tournament lock. There is a more realistic world where the freshmen are freshmen, foul trouble/injuries exist and we struggle when a modicum of depth is needed to deal with adversity. For the third year in a row, self inflicted roster building puts a cap on our success.

[SchnitzelBoy]

I think frontcourt depth will be something to watch. Josh Clark is the one we need to really to make a jump because he's 7'2" and springy. Should be adding more weight and conditioning this summer. I think we Egbuonu, MPIII and DO can fill in at the 4 because I guess they've grown a bit and are all 6'7" + adding weight. MPIII looked bigger in the recent social media post and I think he'll be able to be a reliable stretch-4. But we need 15-17 minutes at center to spot Fru. It'll be done by committee.

What will also be done by committee is backup PG. Minessale, Nash, Adrien, and Colton Crowdis are our options. I think Minessale is the best option because we have plenty of options at SF. When I look at PG and SG, we need as many of those 80 minutes covered by Nigel, Minessale, and Adrien as possible. I'm hoping Nash (recovering from injury but practicing) and give us minutes next season and handle the ball + hit threes.

Here's where some of the criticism is frankly ridiculous. "What if Nigel gets hurt? Why don't we have a superstar backup PG?" Basically NO ONE has that... Close to ZERO teams have enough depth to cover losing their best player.

BUT I do see a world where Nigel can miss a few games and Marquette rolls with lineups with Minessale and Adrien at the PG where our squad might be able to hang with lower level Big East teams and even scrap a win. That would also require big games from Royce, Damarius, MPIII, and Fru but that's entirely possible.

[The Sultan]

I'd like a bit more depth, but at some point you need to trust that one or two of these developmental pieces will pan out. It's not like ONLY 5-star recruits and transfers end up being good. Every year, mid-major players transfer up and end up on Final 4 squads. Many of those are ranked far behind the recruits Shaka has been getting recently. He had consecutive recruiting classes either underwhelm (3-star guys like Chase, Ben, and Sean were so injury-bitten) or bust (Al, Tre, Zaide, Caedin) which hurt the team. But you can see the caliber of recruit getting better each year where we're averaging 4-star recruits like Royce, Owens, Sheek, MPIII and Egbuonu all come with tremendous upside. If you don't see how the potential of some of these NBA bodies then you're not actually watching.

Yes, I am glad after 17 years of being a head coach, six of which have been at Marquette, that Shaka is finally figuring out how to recruit.

[Jay Bee]

Choosing 18 over Sheek is dangerous but not surprising from SS. It is what it is (insane).

Our hope is we see someone do much more than reasonably projected -- e.g., DO or Alex.

Otherwise...

#LastYear

[Pakuni]

Here's where some of the criticism is frankly ridiculous. "What if Nigel gets hurt? Why don't we have a superstar backup PG?" Basically NO ONE has that... Close to ZERO teams have enough depth to cover losing their best player.

Literally no one has said this.