Hi. I had this long piece about the Wojo era written out but realized how depressing it was, I deleted it. Instead, some observations:
1. Too many transfers have haunted this program. Yes, transfers happen everywhere but the transfers at Marquette have hurt the on the court performance because the replacements have either been worse or younger. The program refuses to get old together. In the era of one-and-done, quick fixes don’t always hold up. Very few programs can endure large scale roster turnover of top talent.
The argument that outside the Hausers, most of the Marquette transfers didn’t do much elsewhere doesn’t hold water with me. That means the staff mis-evaluated those kids.
The kids added have been a mixed bag. Matt Carlino was fine on a bad team. Katin Reinhardt was a solid piece on a tournament team. Ed Morrow never fit. Harry Froling never played. Koby McEwen has been a disappointment.
The Hauser transfer will be a thing of legend in a humorous and sad way. Stories of why have been floated since it happened, most preposterous. The fact remains, though, the transfer of Sam and Joey marked the end of the Wojo era. Whatever the reason, a potential Final 4 team and two potential all-timers took their ball and left. The coach is the CEO and right or wrong, that’s on him.
2. Defense in the Wojo era has been abysmal. Remarkably, this years team isn’t the worst but it could be trending that way. The best defensive team was the 18-19 team and they still got blown off the court by a more athletic team.
Unbelievably, his best team at turning the ball over was in 2015. Since then, no Marquette team has turned over its opponent at the national average other than 2016 and this years team is 331st after finishing 345th the year before!
What’s maddening about those numbers is, they’ve improved at holding teams shooting percentage downs but they can’t create offense through defense. Why is that a problem, you ask?
3. Speaking of offense, they’re 263rd in offensive turnover % after being 176th last year. Blame whoever you want, but this is a team with a lot of veteran ball handlers on it. That points to coaching. By the way, they were 239th in 2019. Find a ball handler. That’s 3 years running turnovers have killed them on both sides of the ball. Good coaches fix that because quite frankly, if those numbers were even average, we may not be having this conversation.
4. This years freshman class is promising. The current crop of seniors have had nice careers but were not a very productive class. That’s the harsh truth. The jury is out on Dexter Akanno and Symir Torrence but the early returns aren’t promising. They don’t have a junior class because Joey Hauser transfered. Next years class has a rising senior in Jonas Aidoo, a big man and top-100 kid and a solid 3-star but like any freshman, expectations will be tempered. DJ Carton is clearly the most talented kid on the roster but I’ll be surprised if he’s back next year which means they’ll be active in the transfer market. They need to get old together.
5. Worst of all for the program is, there is a crashing apathy setting in. Covid is covering a lot of problems off the court. The boos would be loud and attendance worse had their been fans this year. Marquette can’t afford apathy. The school is laying off people because of Covid and can’t really afford to fire Wojo. An apathetic fan base in 2021-22 will make the place a hard sell to recruits and potential coaches. The program has entered the wilderness, a place it hasn’t been since before Kevin O’Neill. The talent isn’t that bad and a quick fix is possible but seems unlikely given the real life concerns at the school. The quick decision to fire Mike Deane after one bad season was the best decision in the post-Al years. Year 8 of the Wojo era could be the worst but it might be the only choice they have. It’s bleak at Marquette and I don’t see how it gets better anytime soon
