Marquette #30

[MU Viking]

According to this site which walks down the top 144 teams. 5th in the BIG EAST and an NCAA team. The analysis isn't spot on, but can't argue too much with the placement.

http://www.collegesportsmadness.com/article/4963

[CaribouJim]

That would be my starting lineup as well. Thomas is not really a walk on though now is he - isn't he now on scholarship or do I have that wrong?

[IWB]

No, he came here as a walk on and was granted a one year schollie last year. He is now back to walk on status.

But, you get 13. Right now MU is at 11 (Otule, Cadougan, Lockett, J Wilson, Vander, Gardner, Mayo, Anderson, D Wilson, Ferguson, Taylor). I believe Buzz will keep one open in case of some super transfer, but being 2 short, Thomas may be on the receiving end again, but tougher to do when you have 3 walkons that are all doing the same amount of work.

[2012Warrior]

Are you able to split scholarships up? For example, each walk-on gets 1/3 a scholarship. I think the non-revenue sports do this. For basketball everyone gets a full scholarship, but I wasn't sure if that's just because no recruit would come for less than a full since he could get one elsewhere.

Sorry this is way off the main topic.

[CaribouJim]

No, he came here as a walk on and was granted a one year schollie last year. He is now back to walk on status.

But, you get 13. Right now MU is at 11 (Otule, Cadougan, Lockett, J Wilson, Vander, Gardner, Mayo, Anderson, D Wilson, Ferguson, Taylor). I believe Buzz will keep one open in case of some super transfer, but being 2 short, Thomas may be on the receiving end again, but tougher to do when you have 3 walkons that are all doing the same amount of work.

But Thomas is clearly bringing the most value though of the walk-ons correct? If he is going to be actually playing more than spot minutes and they have a schollie, hopefully one comes his way.

[IWB]

Caribou you are correct.

2012 - That happens in other sports, especially track, but no, you can't do that in basketball or football.

[TedBaxter]

Maybe I'm missing something with all these pundits not mentioning MU in the top 25. Hell, Vitale omitted Marquette them from his preseason top 40.

Yes, we all agree that Jae Crowder and DJO were the top scorers and were a huge reason why this team made it to the Sweet 16, but you basically have 4 starter types returning from the Murray State game in Junior Cadougan, Vander Blue, Jamil Wilson and Davante Gardner. Then you add a former starter in Chris Otule, a guy who can score in Todd Mayo, a former 3 year starter at another high major program in Trent Lockett, a freshman who could have an impact off the bench in Steve Taylor and there's 8 quality players and I haven't mentioned Derrick Wilson, Juan Anderson, Jake Thomas and Jamal Ferguson who can provide depth from 9-12 and in 3 of those players, you have some D1 experience.

I'm not complaining as I like MU being the underdog, but are there really 25-30 teams who have the experience and the talent Marquette is bringing to practice this weekend? Color me skeptical. I know one thing. There aren't 25 teams in the USA who can play as physical as Marquette this year.

[IWB]

Hit the nail on the head Ted, great post.

[CaribouJim]

Maybe I'm missing something with all these pundits not mentioning MU in the top 25. Hell, Vitale omitted Marquette them from his preseason top 40.

Yes, we all agree that Jae Crowder and DJO were the top scorers and were a huge reason why this team made it to the Sweet 16, but you basically have 4 starter types returning from the Murray State game in Junior Cadougan, Vander Blue, Jamil Wilson and Davante Gardner. Then you add a former starter in Chris Otule, a guy who can score in Todd Mayo, a former 3 year starter at another high major program in Trent Lockett, a freshman who could have an impact off the bench in Steve Taylor and there's 8 quality players and I haven't mentioned Derrick Wilson, Juan Anderson, Jake Thomas and Jamal Ferguson who can provide depth from 9-12 and in 3 of those players, you have some D1 experience.

I'm not complaining as I like MU being the underdog, but are there really 25-30 teams who have the experience and the talent Marquette is bringing to practice this weekend? Color me skeptical. I know one thing. There aren't 25 teams in the USA who can play as physical as Marquette this year.

...and SI doesn't think much of MU as well - at least not for top 32:

http://sportsillustrated.cnn.com/2012/writers/luke_winn/10/11/college-basketball-power-rankings/index.html?eref=sihp&sct=hp_t11_a0

[Mark Miller]

Vitale is a clown. Used to like him about 10 years ago, but I've grown to really dislike his announcing and his favoritism of certain programs/coaches. Thank God he doesn't work many Big East games.

[Goose85]

Maybe I'm missing something with all these pundits not mentioning MU in the top 25. Hell, Vitale omitted Marquette them from his preseason top 40.

Yes, we all agree that Jae Crowder and DJO were the top scorers and were a huge reason why this team made it to the Sweet 16, but you basically have 4 starter types returning from the Murray State game in Junior Cadougan, Vander Blue, Jamil Wilson and Davante Gardner. Then you add a former starter in Chris Otule, a guy who can score in Todd Mayo, a former 3 year starter at another high major program in Trent Lockett, a freshman who could have an impact off the bench in Steve Taylor and there's 8 quality players and I haven't mentioned Derrick Wilson, Juan Anderson, Jake Thomas and Jamal Ferguson who can provide depth from 9-12 and in 3 of those players, you have some D1 experience.

I'm not complaining as I like MU being the underdog, but are there really 25-30 teams who have the experience and the talent Marquette is bringing to practice this weekend? Color me skeptical. I know one thing. There aren't 25 teams in the USA who can play as physical as Marquette this year.

Agree Ted. You would think MU is the only college hoops team that had starters use up their elligibility. Our tough early non conference schedule will either move us up quick, or make it a much task to move up in the rankings based on early projections by the so called experts.

[bleedbluegold03]

It's lazy reporting. Feel like a lot of journalist ask three questions:

1. How'd they do last year?

2. Who'd they lose?

3. Who did they have coming in?

While we got to our 2nd S16 in as many years it is easy for them to look at our team and say "but they lost the best player in the Beast along with another All Beast player with no blue hips coming in." The only coach that ha pundits believing in his "system" is 60 miles west of us.

It takes a lot of years being proven wrong before they admit it. Now they've gotten to te point of over compensating for them. There is NO WAY in hell they're better than us this year. We'll prove that early December

[dubs98]

Maybe I'm missing something with all these pundits not mentioning MU in the top 25. Hell, Vitale omitted Marquette them from his preseason top 40.

Yes, we all agree that Jae Crowder and DJO were the top scorers and were a huge reason why this team made it to the Sweet 16, but you basically have 4 starter types returning from the Murray State game in Junior Cadougan, Vander Blue, Jamil Wilson and Davante Gardner. Then you add a former starter in Chris Otule, a guy who can score in Todd Mayo, a former 3 year starter at another high major program in Trent Lockett, a freshman who could have an impact off the bench in Steve Taylor and there's 8 quality players and I haven't mentioned Derrick Wilson, Juan Anderson, Jake Thomas and Jamal Ferguson who can provide depth from 9-12 and in 3 of those players, you have some D1 experience.

I'm not complaining as I like MU being the underdog, but are there really 25-30 teams who have the experience and the talent Marquette is bringing to practice this weekend? Color me skeptical. I know one thing. There aren't 25 teams in the USA who can play as physical as Marquette this year.


In addition: how many teams can say they are starting a senior PG, a power forward and center who are not seniors, but in age are seniors and have played for 3-4 yrs already, a senior small forward in lockett, and a junior in vander. In the end, our starting squad is nearly all seniors in age, and we are not talking about chumps for players...they are all really good. With that said, I get how the pundits would leave us off. If I was an outsider looking in, I would do the same. The team has lost a huge chunck of their scoring, lost the BE player of the year, and does not have a huge, well known recruiting class coming in. I probably would not rate them high, but I know this squad and they are going to be really GOOD.

[TedBaxter]

Bleed, I'm not referring to a school like Wisconsin as much as someone like Murray State who lost 3 starters from last year and the one newcomer who will help is UAB guard transfer Dexter Fields. Murray State is in most, if not all, top 30's and MU returns more points from last years game and thats not mentioning MU having Otule back and adding Lockett and Taylor.

I think MU is really going to be tough as long as they stay relatively healthy. I expect Vander, Jamil and Todd to step up their production and those are the keys.

[Mucrisco]

I think instead of looking at experience and returning players, you have to look at the makeup of the team. Sure, we have a lot of talent returning, but our lack of a proven outside shooter scares me. You need good outside scorers to balance inside scoring. With only penetrators and post scoring, a defense can just sag into the lane, offer more help, and double team in the paint. DJO and Crowder were our outside threats. They opened up the lane for penetration and post ups. Mayo could shoot, but he was so streaky and inconsistent. Wilson can shoot, but again, he has to prove consistency. I don't really know anything of Lockett's game and I don't form opinions until I see guys play a couple of times, so that includes the frosh.

[Nukem2]

I think instead of looking at experience and returning players, you have to look at the makeup of the team. Sure, we have a lot of talent returning, but our lack of a proven outside shooter scares me. You need good outside scorers to balance inside scoring. With only penetrators and post scoring, a defense can just sag into the lane, offer more help, and double team in the paint. DJO and Crowder were our outside threats. They opened up the lane for penetration and post ups. Mayo could shoot, but he was so streaky and inconsistent. Wilson can shoot, but again, he has to prove consistency. I don't really know anything of Lockett's game and I don't form opinions until I see guys play a couple of times, so that includes the frosh.Agreed. There are question marks as to perimeter shooting for this team as well as to who will be the go-to-guy(s) within Buzz's framework. Hard to project at this point. This is compounded as well by the staff turnover. Will be interesting to see how this all plays out.

[Alan Bykowski, "brewcity77"]

We're underrated again. Shock and awe. What I find amazing is how Bo Ryan's Wisconsin teams, despite routinely returning players with seemingly very little ability, always end up in the top-25 lists and Buzz's teams that return similar or better talent are usually left out. I get the idea that voters got sick of Ryan's teams surprising them by mid-season, but at the end of the year, how often have his teams really outperformed Buzz's?

[Phantom Warrior]

This year's Wisconsin team returns four of its starters, plus its top reserve. On top of that, Dekker is a consensus Top 20 recruit. UW lost Taylor, but his performance lastr year fell considerably short of his performance as a junior.

Don't kid yourself. The Badgers will be tough, though they will probably live and die by the trey. When they are hitting from the perimeter, they will be nearly unbeatable; if they go through a prlonged dry spell, they can lose to inferior teams.

But don't under-estimate Bucky. They don't have the talent overall of OSU, IU, or even Michigan. But they'll win a lot of games and find themselves back in the Big Dance once again.

By the way, I would not be surprised if Ryan Evans has a breakout year.

[Goose85]

I too think Evans will have a breakout year. Very interested to see Dekker this year.

I do think that losing Taylor will hurt more than they think. He seemed to hit every key hoop for them, and even having a down year, was a real leader.
My guess is they will have two frosh starting. Can't imagine Dekker would come off the bench.

[2012Warrior]

I just don't think they can have someone to create their own shot. Gasser, Bruesewitz, Berggren all seemed to be spot up shooters. Berggren has some nice post moves, but the others seemed to get mostly garbage baskets and hustle plays. Which I think is fine, but in my opinon having Taylor able to get decent looks helped allow those. Even Evans seemed to be a stationary shooter on the elbow or the baseline (he's almost automatic on the baseline jumper).

I think they will be the Badgers this year. We think/hope they have a down year and it seems like they lose too much, but they have guys step up and are able to advance in the tourney. I'm really interested to see Dekker. He's supposed to be a stud. If he lives up to the hype, then they are a dangerous team.

I still don't think they will be better than us. I like that we will have a senior point guard. Lockett in the scrimmage looked like a 28 year old. He seemed smooth and just knew where to be and how to use his body/savvy to be in the right place. I also would be surprised if one of Vander or Todd doesn't make a big jump. We seem to be underrated, and I would guess Buzz isn't too upset about it. Hopefully we can get some big wins early to move up in the rankings early.

[Alan Bykowski, "brewcity77"]

Don't kid yourself. The Badgers will be tough, though they will probably live and die by the trey. When they are hitting from the perimeter, they will be nearly unbeatable; if they go through a prlonged dry spell, they can lose to inferior teams.

Not what I meant. I was more inferring that they lose as much or more than we do most years and are still rated in the top-20 while we are left out of top-30 and top-40 lists. Last year they lose Leuer and Nankivil and are ranked higher than us despite us losing only JFB in terms of star power. I know they'll be pretty good. I expect them to play a style that caters to their players and gets a lot of wins. But I expect Buzz to do the same. I see us as a top-15 or so team and am thinking a Sweet 16 or better could be in store.

Not saying the Badgers are overrated so much as I'm saying we're underrated and I think Buzz doing what he has the past 4 years should start getting some respect.

[MKE_GoldenEagleFan]

Realistically Marquette will have a chance very early to take a leap in the rankings. If they beat OSU they will be ranked in the next week.

[AlexJesswein]

Realistically Marquette will have a chance very early to take a leap in the rankings. If they beat OSU they will be ranked in the next week.

And if they do well in Maui a week and a half later, they could be top-15 or top-10.