#19 Marquette Golden Eagles
Last Season: Lost to Michigan State 61-49 in the First Round
Key Retuns: The Golden Eagles will return arguably the most talented and by far the best defensive backcourt in the country with Dominic James, Jerel McNeal and Wesley Matthews. Each scores between 12 to 15 ppg and each can play the kind lockdown defense that can win any basketball game.
What’s To Love: As mentioned before, the backcourt is outstanding. Outside of the overall talent, this is a very experienced group that have been playing together for the past few season. It is also a hungry squad, because two seasons have resulted in zero NCAA Tournament victories. This team also has some nice depth coming off the bench, with guards Maurice Acker and David Cubillan leading the way by providing some much needed outside shooting.
What’s Not To Love: Notice all the talk about the backcourt? Well, that’s because this has nothing in the front court in terms of scoring or rebounding. The Golden Eagles will look to get something out of forward Ousmane Barro down low, but vast improvement is needed. The Golden Eagles caught a break when 6’7 freshmen Trevor Mbwake was declared eligible to play last week, but I'm never a fan of relying on an unproven freshmen for defensive toughness.
Key Player: Dominic James - His decision to withdraw his name from the NBA Draft and return to Marquette moved this team form outside the Top 25 to a legit Final Four contender. If he can develop a consistent outside shot, the Eagles become even more dangerous.
Key Retuns: The Golden Eagles will return arguably the most talented and by far the best defensive backcourt in the country with Dominic James, Jerel McNeal and Wesley Matthews. Each scores between 12 to 15 ppg and each can play the kind lockdown defense that can win any basketball game.
What’s To Love: As mentioned before, the backcourt is outstanding. Outside of the overall talent, this is a very experienced group that have been playing together for the past few season. It is also a hungry squad, because two seasons have resulted in zero NCAA Tournament victories. This team also has some nice depth coming off the bench, with guards Maurice Acker and David Cubillan leading the way by providing some much needed outside shooting.
What’s Not To Love: Notice all the talk about the backcourt? Well, that’s because this has nothing in the front court in terms of scoring or rebounding. The Golden Eagles will look to get something out of forward Ousmane Barro down low, but vast improvement is needed. The Golden Eagles caught a break when 6’7 freshmen Trevor Mbwake was declared eligible to play last week, but I'm never a fan of relying on an unproven freshmen for defensive toughness.
Key Player: Dominic James - His decision to withdraw his name from the NBA Draft and return to Marquette moved this team form outside the Top 25 to a legit Final Four contender. If he can develop a consistent outside shot, the Eagles become even more dangerous.
Best Case: The perimeter defensive is so overwhelming that it makes up for the lack of size, Dominic James becomes a more consistent shooter, McNeal becomes the three time Big East defensive player of the year, someone rebounds the basketball, Barro takes some pressure off the perimeter with a limited offensive game
Worst Case: Just like in the Michigan State game, this team just pushed around too much to be a serious contender, James turns the ball over even more then he did last season, this team falls behind a resurgent UConn and Syracuse in the ever competitive Big East.
STF Prediction: 3rd Place Big East, Sweet 16
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