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Influx of Talent at Marquette

Henry Ellenson

Friarbasketball.com reached out to writers covering the Big East to learn more about the talent entering the league next season. John Pudner writes for the insightful crackedsidewalks.com covering all aspects of Marquette basketball, and he explains how a five star recruit will be asked to lead an inexperience core.

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SEVEN of Marquette’s 11 scholarship players have a combined ZERO games played for MU.

A return to the NCAA Tournament will only come if 6-foot-10 freshman Henry Ellenson dominates. Marquette has never won out over Kentucky and Michigan State for a recruit until now, and Draft Express pegs Henry as a one-and-done No. 7 pick in the 2016 NBA Draft.

While the MU fanbase is thrilled at the incoming class, most of the rest project to be very strong in 2017 unless Ellenson takes over to help a team with no seniors, just one player who has played two seasons for MU (Jujuan Johnson), and three players who have played just one season.

Wojo (head coach Steve Wojciechowski) first recruited Henry’s brother Wally, who is six inches short than his brother, but put up the world’s third best high jump at just under 7’6″ in January.

Freshmen Matt Heildt, Haanif Cheatham and Sacar Anim are all players who project to be very good by 2017, but the player who may not have time to develop is freshman point guard Traci Carter who may have to step into a team that has no one to play the point. The idea of Carter trying to bring the ball up the court against D’Vauntes Smith-Rivera and Kris Dunn, who rank as the 5th and 6th best player in the country in my preseason ratings at www.valueaddbasketball.com, and Dunn’s co-Big East MVP Ryan Arcidiacono is scary at best.

MU pushed hard for a senior transfer to play the point but came up empty.

The Classes of 2016 and 2017

Next year’s class already started strong with transfer Andrew Rowsey, who will red shirt this year but was one of the top three-point shooters in the country during his two years at UNC-Ashville.

With him in place and no one graduating after this coming season, MU simply must land a top-flight point guard to have a chance to return to the elite status of three straight Sweet 16s before the sub-.500 combined record of the last two years.

Wojo has won his first 5-star battle with Izzo, but it would seem to take a miracle to go into Michigan to grab coveted point guard Cassius Winston from both Michigan schools. He has also offered point guard Markus Howard, the top Arizona player. While MU would love to keep shooting forward Sam Hauser in state and Wojo will compete with others, the question is whether they can find a solution at point guard to lead the incredibly talented but equally inexperienced team.

There is a chance these newcomers may face a similar path as the 1991 team that included current MU TV broadcaster Jim McIlvaine, whose loaded team of freshmen was booed at times but built the foundation for a 1994 return to the Sweet 16.

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