Learning to fly: After losing top three players to graduation, Marquette’s new crop looks to sustain success
This time last year, Jimmy Butler was coming off the bench for Marquette, Lazar Hayward was playing in the shadows of the team’s stars and Maurice Acker was contemplating a departure from the team at the end of the season to focus on academics.
Just a year later, Butler, Hayward and Acker make up the veteran core of the once-dominant Golden Eagles lineup. A lineup that exactly a year ago was undefeated in the Big East and had Marquette ranked as one of the 10 best teams in the country. But now, the group is merely determined not to finish the season in the Big East cellar.
Marquette’s Big Three of last season, Dominic James, Jerel McNeal and Wesley Matthews, led the Golden Eagles to a No. 10 national ranking, the quarterfinals of the Big East tournament and the second round of the NCAAs before graduating last May. McNeal and Matthews averaged 19.8 and 18.3 points per game, respectively, making Marquette the third-best scoring offense in the conference last season.
‘We miss those guys, but you can only play four years in college and I think we knew that when they came here,’ Golden Eagles head coach Buzz Williams said.
Marquette (11-7, 2-4 Big East) will look to fight its way back up the standings when it faces No. 5 Syracuse (18-1, 5-1 Big East) Saturday at 2 p.m. in the Carrier Dome.
As if the loss of his core offensive weapons was not enough for the transitioning team, the second-year head coach battled a tough offseason of injuries and disappointment, beginning this season with only 11 healthy players – four of which had never played a minute of Division I basketball.
The turmoil began in June, when Acker announced he was leaving the team to focus on his academics and junior forward Joe Fulce underwent knee surgery. In early fall, two injuries to key newcomers to the program severed the team’s depth even more. Top recruit freshman Junior Cadougan ruptured his Achilles’ tendon during a preseason workout, forcing him out of play for the season, and sophomore transfer Darius Johnson-Odom sprained a ligament in his left foot and missed a month of practice.
In addition, Monterale Clark, a 2010 recruit, created a scandal when he was arrested and charged on a count of sexual assault. He subsequently lost his eligibility with the team for the following season, further dampening an already gloomy situation in Milwaukee.
By late August, Acker had decided to return to the team, a godsend for a Marquette squad that was in desperate need of healthy players and senior leadership. Williams only had Hayward and Butler, who was promoted from bench player to starting forward, to lead the offensive charge.
Butler has taken full advantage of the new role. Last year he averaged 19.6 minutes off the bench with 5.6 points and 3.9 rebounds. This year, he has started every game, averaging 31.8 minutes, 15.2 points and 6.5 rebounds for the Golden Eagles. He already has more points this season than he did all of last year.
‘Jimmy has really improved from last year – his numbers can prove that,’ Acker said. ‘His performance this year is amazing. He’s just stepping up to the plate every game and playing real well, rebounding the ball well, shooting the ball and getting easy baskets.’
Alongside Hayward’s 18.8 points and 7.4 rebounds and the now-recovered transfer Johnson-Odom’s 12.2 points, the Golden Eagle offense has averaged 77.0 points, good for seventh in the conference and better than ranked opponents West Virginia, Georgetown and Pittsburgh.
Acker has helped anchor Hayward and Butler making big shots when necessary. He posts a 51.1 percent 3-point field-goal percentage, second best in the Big East.
Yet the lack of depth in the Marquette roster created concerns for the team’s success in the preseason. Marquette quieted those concerns by starting its season on a 6-0 run, beating Xavier and Michigan before posting a 4-5 record over the next nine games. After heartbreaking losses by one and two points, respectively, in its first two Big East matches against West Virginia and Villanova, the Golden Eagles beat Georgetown before posting another close loss at Villanova, again by two points.
‘This year it’s more of a team thing,’ Acker said. ‘Everybody has to do their job in order for us to have success. It’s not just based on those three guys (McNeal, Matthews and James), which is a good thing because everybody has to come to work and practice. You can’t have any days off with this team because we have a small room of error.’
A rare, early-season bye-week after the second loss to Villanova helped Marquette rebound and post a big win against Providence earlier this week.
‘It’s going to take everybody contributing and playing their role,’ Acker said. ‘That’s the good thing about this year’s team is everybody knows their role. We don’t have anybody that tries to come out and be the hero every night. Everybody knows what they have to do.’
The schedule seems in Marquette’s favor to turn its team around from the tough losses earlier in the month. After its game in Syracuse on Saturday, the Golden Eagles will only face two ranked opponents, in Pittsburgh and Connecticut, for the remainder of its Big East schedule.
Even without the Big Three to pave the way to March Madness this season, Marquette’s transition season may shape out to be better than expected.
‘Our returning guys have done a great job in leading them and trying to explain what’s upcoming,’ Williams said. ‘I think they’ve handled it fine. Obviously we haven’t had the results we would have liked to have had, but I don’t think it’s because we haven’t been trying or haven’t been playing hard.’
