2009-2010 Preview, Marquette News

2009-2010 BIG EAST PREVIEW: 13) MARQUETTE

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The era of the ‘Three Amigo’ has ended at Marquette as the school’s all-time leading scorer, Jerel McNeal, and classmates Dominic James and Wesley Mathews have taken their game to the professional ranks. Buzz Williams enters his second year at the helm of the Golden Eagles program and it is almost completely his program already. Only seniors Lazar Hayward, Maurice Acker and David Cubillan remain on the roster that played under Tom Crean at MU.

That kind of turnover so quickly will obviously set Marquette back in 2009-2010. There are only five players on the current roster that played high-major Division 1-A basketball last season, including Chris Otule and Joseph Fulce who only appeared in nine and 11 games respectively in 08-09. The lack of experience shows some empty recruiting classes towards the end of the Crean tenure. While Williams was able to secure an outstanding recruiting class to join the program this fall, he acknowledges there is plenty of work to be done.

“I think you’ve really got to string together three quality classes back-to-back-to-back to really get a footing in this league,” Williams told NBE’s Ray Mernagh this summer (The ‘Buzz’ at Marquette), “and we’re real excited about the kids we have coming in not only as players but as people because they fit what we’re trying to do at Marquette.”

So, while coach Williams and MU fans are excited about the developments on the recruiting front, and the recent commitment from highly touted Vander Blue for the 2010 class extends that excitement, everything has not gone smoothly once on campus. Expected point guard heir Junior Cadougan tore his Achilles tendon in preseason workouts and will miss the season, highly touted JUCO transfer Darius Johnson-Odom has missed time because of injury and freshman Brett Roseboro left school during the summer session and has moved on already.

Still, there is reason to be optimistic for Marquette faithful as Williams is a tireless worked and organized recruiter. He is a true player’s coach that will work a team hard, but also know when to back off and encourage. While this season will have some highs and lows, overall, their lack of experience and size upfront in the Big East will push them down in the standings. Just don’t get used to it, I do not think it will last.

2009-2010 Outlook

It seemed that Marquette was always snake bit once March rolled around the last four seasons. Some sort of injury or match-up seemed to sidetrack them. Despite all the wins achieved under Tom Crean with McNeal, Mathews and James, they only won a single NCAA Tournament game in their first three seasons. Last year was expected to be different, but a late season injury to Dominic James led to a slump at the end of the season which concluded in a heart-breaking loss to Missouri in the second round of the NCAA Tournament. This season the tough breaks have come early as Junior Cadougan is out for the season and a very inexperienced team will take their lumps this season. However, expect the young players and their coach to grow stronger in the experience.

The Frontcourt

Probably the most glaring hole in the Marquette armor the last several seasons has been their lack of production in the frontcourt. Much of the same is likely in 2009-2010 as the Golden Eagles list just two players on their roster taller than 6-foor-7 and they have a combined nine games of college experience and 12 career points, all owner by sophomore Chris Otule.

Otule is a 6-foot-10, 250-lb sophomore center from Richmond (TX). A foot injury sidelined him for the first 10 games of last season and held his development down in his freshman season. Williams is excited about the progress of Otule, but realistic about the work to be done.

“He’s a completely different guy,” Williams told the Journal-Sentinel at the MU media day recently. “I think he understands what’s going on. I think he scored two baskets last year (actually four), so he’s got a long way to go.”

The other big man on the roster is 7-foot-2 center Youssoupha Mbao, who hails from Dakar, Senegal originally. Mbao might tip the scales at 200 pounds, but that could be generous. The coaching staff is impressed with his skills for a 7-footer, but his strength has a long ways to go in order to be ready for the Big East.

“His game will progress as his strength progresses,” Williams told the J-S. “But as he begins to figure out how to use his skill set, he’s going to be really special.”

The strength of the frontcourt, and of the team, will likely fall onto the shoulders of their forwards, especially senior Lazar Hayward and junior Jimmy Butler. Hayward is a preseason all-Big East 1st-team, as voted by the league’s coaches at this week’s media day. Playing the role of a power forward, the 6-foot-6 Hayward averaged 16.3 points and 8.6 rebounds a game. Hard to believe that the player once thought of as a three-point shooting threat in prep school will go inside and bang with the monsters in the Big East night in and night out and be successful. Hayward will still step out and knock down the trey, he made 53 of 148 (36%) last season. He also shot over 80% from the line. All in all, Hayward is one of the most productive and well-rounded players in the Big East, despite playing out of position for much of his career.

Hayward’s running mate, junior Jimmy Butler, had a productive sophomore season, his first with MU after transferring from Tyler (TX) College. Butler is considered a 6-foot-6 G/F, but he quickly learned that his playing time would be earned by playing a role similar to Hayward’s, battling in the paint and presenting a tough match-up for league forwards with his perimeter skills. Butler averaged 5.6 points and 3.9 rebounds in under 20 minutes a game last season. While he does not have the range to the arc as Hayward, he uses his body well attacking the basket and possesses and uncanny ability to get to the foul line. Butler could be one of the biggest sleepers in the conference this season.

With the Cadougan injury, the freshman most likely to make a major impact for the Golden Eagles is Madison (WI) Memorial product Jeronne Maymon. Another 6-foot-6 G/F, Maymon was very impressive everytime NBE saw him with a non-stop motor and toughness that had Big East written all over him. Maymon will defend like a junkyard dog, hit the boards like every rebound should be his and give every ounce of effort he can. Maymon was a Player of the Year honoree and “Mr. Basketball” selection under head coach Steve Collins at Madison Memorial High School. He will be called on to play a lot of minutes as MU could have a line-up with three 6-foot-6 forwards on the court together often.

Rounding out the frontcourt line-up is a pair of 6-foot-7 forwards Joseph Fulce and freshman Erik Williams. Both posses extreme athletic ability for players their size. Fulce is a junior who was a JUCO teammate of Butler at Tyler (TX) College. He also came to MU last season with three years of eligibility left and injuries held him out of the first 10 games and limited his playing time to just 11 games and 62 minutes last season. At the Marquette Midnight Madness event, Fulce showed the crowd he is healthy with an impressive slam dunk exhibition while winning the dunk contest. Despite being just 6-foot-7, Fulce could earn the bulk of the time as the team’s de facto center.

Williams is a highly touted recruit out of Houston (TX) and looks to be a very big part of the MU future. At 6-foot-7 and 200 lbs, Williams must add weight to compete in the Big East. He will be a future contributor.

The Backcourt

With college basketball being geared heavily towards a guard’s game, replacing McNeal, Mathews and James was going to be a daunting task. However, the addition of Junior Cadougan was going to ease the loss a bit as Buzz Williams would be able to begin the transition to the new era with the Canadian import right out of the gates. The staff was extremely high on Cadougan when he arrived in Milwaukee.

“I compare him to guys who’ve had a lot of success in this league,” MU assistant Tony Benford told NBE in Septemeber, “guys like Sherman Douglas and John Bagley. He’s very heady and the thing that’s real special is his ability to hit guys with a pass that leads them into a shot, particularly bigs.”

However, the Achilles injury has nixed those plans for this season. Starting in his place will likely be senior Maurice Acker, who filled in at the end of last season for Dominic James. Acker averaged 2.8 points and 1.8 assists in 16 minutes of action a game last season. In replace of James, Acker put up averages of just over 5 points and nearly 3 assists a game as MU lost five of their last seven following James’ injury in a loss to UConn. Acker actually had decided in the summer not to return to the team for his fifth season of eligibility, but thankfully for MU, he decided to return prior to Cadougan’s injury and instead of providing depth, he could find himself in the starting line-up come the season opener.

Rounding out the backcourt personnel at Buzz Williams’ disposal this season are JUCO transfers Dwight Buycks and Darius Johnson-Odom and senior David Cubillan. Cubillan played a big role on the team earlier in his career, but struggled last season coming off of double shoulder surgery as he saw his playing time and shooting accuracy sink. If Cubillan can return to health, he could be a valuable weapon off the bench capable of running the team or getting free for long-range shots.

The intriguing aspect of the backcourt is with the pair of JUCO transfers. Buycks is a local Milwaukee product who spent two seasons at JUCO power Indian (IA) Hills. Last season Buycks averaged 17.5 points, 5.0 rebounds, 4.8 assists and 1.6 steals per game as a sophomore and finished as the third leading all-time scorer in the school’s history. Buycks could also fill in at the point, but the idea when recruiting him was that MU would need him to score for them to ease the loss of production that McNeal and Mathews provided.

Also being counted on to score, once he is healthy, is Johnson-Odom. As a freshman last season at Hutchinson (KS) CC, Johnson-Odom earned 1st team NJCAA All-American honors and was voted Jayhawk Conference freshman of the year. He averaged 21.6 points, 5.2 rebounds, 4.6 assists and 1.5 steals per game and had a school record 46 points in a game against Coffeyville CC. Johnson-Odom spent his senior year at the Patterson (NC) School and averaged just over 14 points a game at the powerful prep program.

Conclusion

The injury to Cadougan probably knocked Marquette down a spot or two for me this season. While I knew it was going to be a season of adjustment for Buzz Williams and company, I thought they had plenty of upside where they could improve greatly throughout the season. They are still likely to do so, but they are starting another step or two behind where I anticipated. There are going to be nights where things match-up well for Marquette and they can get by with their undersized look of three small forwards in the frontcourt. Other nights, it might not work so much. In the past, the elite guard trip of McNeal, Mathews and James could overcome their short comings up front, but this year it will be much more difficult with the changing of the guard.

Still, there should be a ‘Buzz’ at Marquette. The program is in good hands, but the league is too tough when you are undersized, young and inexperienced. They will get better and Buzz Williams is nearly halfway there in putting together his back-to-back-to-back recruiting classes to gain a footing in the Big East.

2009-2010 Big East Prediction: 6-12

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