Morning Grinds: News & Notes for Marquette Basketball

The Warriors are off until Saturday when they travel to Louisville for a morning tip-off against Slick Rick's Cardinals. Louisville fell to Villanova last night in Philadelphia, 88-74. We'll get to that game later in the week. In the meantime here are updates of interest on a host of former Marquette players.

Marquette graduate Jerel McNeal is playing well in the NBA D-League this season. McNeal is averaging 17 points (45% shooting), four assits and nearly four rebounds per game for Rio Grande Valley. McNeal matched his season high with 27 points last night leading Rio Grande Valley to a 124-106 win over the Erie Bayhawks.

Dominic James is excelling in Bulgaria as Lukoil Academic continues to lead the league with a 13-1 record. James leads the team in scoring at nearly 15 points per game and is in the top 10 in the league in both steals (1.7/game) and assists (3.9). Lukoil lost its first game of the season last night, falling 86-79 to Lisboa e Benfica in the EuroChallenge. James led the team with 25 points.

Travis Diener is lacing'em up for Dinamo Basket Sassari in Italian Lega Basket Serie A. The team is struggling at 5-9, 14th place in the league. Diener is averaging 11.6 points on 45% shooting (29% from deep) and 3.7 assists per outing, which is 7th-best in the league.

Meanwhile Wesley Matthews continues to impress in his debut season with the Portland Trailblazers. ESPN recently named Wesley as the league's most improved player through the season's first trimester.

Oh, that Wade guy is living in another stratosphere, leading the Heat to a gaudy 30-10 record. That guy can ball.

Reggie Smith, who decided to leave MU during winter break, has enrolled at UNLV. Surely this means that MU will go to the Final Four next season. Odartey Blankson must be proud.

Finally, for all of you Danny Pudi fans out there, the Marquette grad appeared on George Lopez' show last night and his passion for Marquette hoops was apparent.

Friday Media Update

UPDATED

Thanks to everyone that helped up break the stretch goal of nearly $3,300 to support Al's Run. Because of your generosity, we were able to exceed last year's total, mostly due to some very kind donations. There's still time if you haven't, so please donate to Al's Run now. Every little bit counts.

A few days ago, Marquette released some details about Marquette Madness. It'll be on Friday, Oct. 15 at 7 p.m. in the Al McGuire Center. Doors will open at approximately 6:45 p.m. MUTV Sports will stream the entire event.



Earlier this week MU released another episode of Marquette basketball revealed. This one looks at Buzz on the road, and the role key people play behind the scenes.

Buzz did an interview with MSG's Jon Rothstein, who posted the responses on his Twitter feed. Or... you could also read the summary in the MUScoop thread or Jon's article that he posted this morning. Buzz also did a radio interview with Milwaukee radio's Bob and Brian (click here and search for Buzz Williams). Buzz has been busy - he was also interviewed yesterday on the WSSP afternoon show.

Check out Villanova By The Numbers for their great preview of Marquette. It's fair, well researched, and in-depth. And oh so accurate -- "Blue is a consensus Top 50 recruit, who was slated to go to Wisconsin before Badger fans changed his mind." Greycat is doing a full preview for each team in the BE. They're all good.

Super recruit Quincy Miller indicated yesterday that MU remains on his list for now. Full details in the article he wrote in SLAM. Of course, according to Zagoria, Miller cut his list down to four and Marquette isn't on it. Seriously, Miller committing to MU is a pipe dream.

Finally, take a look at this mini-documentary about Wesley Matthews. , Wesley had 20 points two nights ago, and 21 points last night. Good start by Wesley.

Marquette News Around the Web

It is so nice that Rushin is back at SI. This article about why he doesn't have a college football team really hit the mark for me. I mostly use college football as an indicator that the NFL starts soon, which is also mostly just an indicator that College Hoops will be back soon.

MUAthletics is trying another innovative social media ticket campaign. If you are on twitter, tweet @muathletics your reasons to purchase MU tickets or to give a short plug on the upcoming 2010-11 MU basketball season. Marquette could pick your tweets to appear on billboards in the greater Milwaukee area. The billboards are the ones at 14th and St. Paul as well as one heading North on I-43. Cracked Sidewalks is in the game.

The Miami NewTimes asks if Dwyane Wade has a kryptonite, and settles on his former SLU nemesis Josh Fisher. In those games, Wade was held to six points and seven points, respectively.

According to his twitter feed, Novak is working out for the Spurs and the Bulls. Good luck to Steve trying to latch on with a team.

Also, you need to be an insider (cough) to read the article, but ESPN has a decent feature on Wesley Matthews.

Finally, the Open Recruiting period begins today. There's no doubt Buzz and company will be extremely busy over the upcoming time leading up to and through Marquette Madness. The SportsBank has a nice recruiting summary.

Buzz makes what?

UPDATED

... and more below

Don Walker from the Journal-Sentinel has an article on Buzz Williams' salary in 2008. Evidently he made $841,160 that year from Marquette. However, note a few things.

That means that Williams was paid $841,160 that year, but one should not assume that was his annual salary at the time.

Pfeil said it would be fair to say Williams is paid a higher salary now. She noted that Marquette reports all facets of compensation in its tax return.

She's right. Many colleges and universities, in reporting coaches' salaries, often report a salary figure, but often do not report additional compensation.

Keep this in mind when digging around USA Today's Salary Database to compare coaches. This ties us back to the other conversations about the budget Marquette has for basketball. For instance, think about this when one reads that Marquette has the highest budget in the BE, (and the second highest budget for hoops overall) but we're getting little bang for the buck. Repeat after me. It is never an apples to apples comparison, and different schools have different incentives for how they handle the accounting of what is a basketball expense versus what is not. (do you think a taxpayer funded state school has an incentive to show a large or small AD budget?) Our budget includes things like Bradley Center rent. Suck it, yahoo. Considering 95-97% of AD revenues come from hoops, continued strong investment in the coach and the program is fine.

Speaking of that...

Williams' salary was believed to have been bumped this off-season to around $1.4 million, sources told Rosiak.

While digging around, Kevin found Marquette's 2007 Tax Return. $448M in revenue for our beloved alma mater that year versus $382M in expenses. Just some extra numbers that I thought were interesting.

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Wesley Matthews is officially a TrailBlazer, with a story on ESPN. Here's his official Blazers fan page. Plus, there is a great article about Wesley from the Portland Tribune. It really speaks highly of Matthews and represents Marquette well. I still can't get over the notion of Matthews doing 41 chinups his senior year. That is insane.

Part Three of the BIG EAST Roundtable is now available. Today's question looks at 2011 recruiting. Catch up on Part One and Part Two at the links.

Jimmy Butler is getting a little coverage out there, as Rivals.com lists him as one of their Most Underrated Players. Not by us.

Marquette also launched a new website called WeAreMarquetteAthletics. There are some video clips on there, but I've not spent too much time digging around.

Finally, it's got nothing to do with hoops, but I'm a big fan of the Daily Show and saw this from MU. A Director on the Daily Show is a Marquette Alum.

Summer Hoops and Show Me the Money

UPDATED

Jonesing for some Marquette Basketball? Well, there are still several weeks to go on the Milwaukee Summer Pro-Am. Several posters attended the games, and you can check out the informal scouting reports here. Heck, even GoMarquette.com had a report on the games. You can see the box scores for each game here.

However, for those involved with the pro-am, could we get a collection of turnovers and offensive rebounds in the box scores? Yeah, I know that it's a pro-am game and summer ball and blah blah blah. But all of the rest of the box score stats aren't very informative without some sort of frame of reference for the total possessions used (and wasted).* Of course, that's a minor quibble when there is hoops that could be watched. Just keep it in mind when you see that Player X had 18 points.

*I'm really just annoyed because the box scores don't allow us to generate tempo-free stats.

Here is the video recap from GoMarquette.com



The next set of games are Friday night and Saturday morning at Homestead High School in Mequon. Admission is free to the public.

Back on the Marquette Alumni news, we forgot to mention that Dominic James is working out with the Bucks this summer. Best of luck to DJ as he continues to chase his dream. The transformation of his game his senior season, including his suffocating, I-will-crush-your-soul defense, made me a big fan for a long time. In other news, congratulations to Wesley Matthew. The Portland Trail Blazers signed him to a five-year, $34 million deal. The Utah Jazz still have the opportunity to match. But either way...

Hayward could give MU 13th biggest NBA presence

Only 1% of Division I college basketball players make the jump to the NBA each year, so the fact that Lazar Hayward could become the 8th former Marquette player drawing an NBA paycheck next year puts MU in elite company.

Lazar has shot up to a projected 38th pick in Thursday's draft (www.nbadraft.net), and all 16 times a Marquette player has gone in the first two rounds, he has played in the NBA. In fact, Wesley Matthews was the 14th MU player NOT drafted in the first two rounds to still make the NBA, meaning Lazar could be MUs 31st NBA player, and he could join seven former MU players who were drawing an NBA paycheck last season.

As for the future, DJO emerged as a potential future NBA player when he was selected as one of the Top 15 college guards by Chris Paul’s camp, and 5-stars like Vander Blue have a pretty good record of making the NBA (Note to Vander, we are talking about the 2014 draft for you AFTER your 4-year career at Marquette):

Colleges with the most NBA players, coaches and projected 2010 draft picks
1 UNC 23
2 Duke 18
3 UCLA 17
4 Kentucky 16
5 UConn 13
6 Kansas 13
7 Arizona 12
8 Texas 11
9 Ohio State 11
10 Florida 10
11 Georgia Tech 10
12 Notre Dame 9
13 Marquette 8
14 Alabama 8
15 Oklahoma 8
16 LSU 7
17 Memphis 7
18 Wake Forest 7
19 Syracuse 7
20 Southern California 7

Ed Davis’ projected 10th pick gives the Tar Heels 23 former players, while Jon Scheyer's rather shaky projection as the 52nd of 60 picks (14 spots behind Lazar), gives Duke 18 former players to break a tie with UCLA for 2nd.

Kentucky’s five projected picks starting with John Wall shoots them up to 4th place, while Kansas and Texas move up the list as the only other two teams with more than two projected picks this year.

Obviously, these counts won’t necessarily be the same as the actual rosters at the beginning of the next season. We could have our hearts broken like last year’s draft with Lazar not being called, Doc Rivers (or coaches Jim Boylan or Maurice Lucas for that matter) could hang it up, and Steve Novak or Travis Diener could always be cut, though Wes Matthews and Dwyane Wade look like pretty sure things to be back.

However, this is true of any of the teams listed. There are very few sure bets to be back as a player or coach. And we can still hope for McNeal or James to follow Tom Copa's steps by going oversees for a couple of years before coming back to play in the NBA.

The important thing is that when players like Vander Blue get down to their short list, they are only going to consider programs that have shown they can produce NBA players. With Buzz appearing to be able to develop players like Wes Matthews, Jimmy Butler and DJO, there are really only seven schools that can argue that they clearly offer a better chance for a player to make the NBA (Arizona, Connecticut, Duke, Kansas, Kentucky, North Carolina, UCLA) .

Marquette is really on par with the other 13 schools on this list, and ahead of the other 327 Division I schools.

MU offers recruits the opportunity to play in front of the 10th largest crowds in the country, play for one of only 11 programs to make it to the NCAA tournament all of the last five years, and go to the only program in the country where they have this strong a chance to make the NBA AND don’t have to compete with football players for attention on campus. I mean really, why would any 4- or 5-star want to go anywhere else?

Lazar ranks among MUs 30 All-Time Greats

Before turning full attention to the 677th player to take the court as a Marquette player at some point during the 2010-11 season (Vander Blue, Jae Crowder, Jamail Jones, Devonte Newbill or Reggie Smith), allow me my annual update of the greatest players in Marquette history through the 2010 season.

Based purely on the database figures, Lazar ranks as the 27th greatest of 676 MU all-time players. Because a small percentage of a player’s rating is based on being drafted and/or playing in the NBA, Lazar could move up a few spots if www.nbadraft.net is correct in just moving Lazar up as a projected FIRST ROUND draft pick. Explanation below, but here is my updated Top 30 based purely on the numbers:

Greatest 30 Players in MU History
1 Dwyane Wade 2002, 03
2 Maurice (Bo) Ellis 1974, 75, 76, 77
3 Alfred (Butch) Lee 1975, 76, 77, 78
4 George Thompson 1967, 68, 69
5 Dean Meminger 1969, 70, 71
6 Jim Chones 1971, 72
7 Maurice Lucas 1973, 74
8 Don Kojis 1959, 60, 61
9 Jerel McNeal 2006, 07, 08, 09
10 Earl Tatum 1973, 74, 75, 76
11 Terry Rand 1954, 55, 56
12 Dave Quabius 1937, 38, 39
13 Jerome Whitehead 1976, 77, 78
14 Tony Smith 1987, 88, 89, 90
15 Larry McNeil 1972, 73
16 Travis Diener 2002, 03, 04, 05
* Lazar Hayward (moves up to 17th if he has as good a rookie year as Wesley Matthews)
17 Jim McIlvaine 1991, 92, 93, 94
18 Lloyd Walton 1974, 75, 76
19 Glen (Doc) Rivers 1981, 82, 83
20 Wesley Matthews 2006, 07, 08, 09 (moved up 2 spots due to rookie NBA season that has moved him into 18th on the all-time CAREER NBA scoring list among Marquette grads)
21 Bernard Toone 1976, 77, 78, 79
* Lazar Hayward (moves up to 22nd if drafted or makes NBA roster)
22 Dominic James 2006, 07, 08, 09
23 Ed Mullen 1933, 34, 35
24 Gary Brell 1970, 71
25 Michael Wilson 1979, 80, 81, 82
26 Bob Lackey 1971, 72
27 Lazar Hayward 2007, 08, 09, 10 (even if not drafted, ranks 27th)

28 Sam Worthen 1979, 80
29 William Chandler 1942, 43, 44, 45 (broke Top 30 after new records from 1940s discovered)
30 Raymond Morstadt 1934, 35, 36

I outlined these rankings through the 2008 season in the Ultimate Hoops Guide: Marquette University, but for the record, I am not trying to sell more books when I update this every year. The stat geeks like me who wanted the book bought it two years ago, I don’t think anyone has bought one in over a year, so I just like to keep the rankings current through www.crackedsidewalks.com.

For those who haven’t read my work on this in the past, the ratings are based on three areas:

1. Statistical. The biggest part of the rating is based on the player’s statistics, but in the context of the team defense played, to put players from all eras on equal footing. So when Dave Quabius averaged 9.9 points per game in his All-American year of 1939, that was 30% of what MU needed to win each night since they were giving up 32.6 points per game. That’s about the same as Lazar scoring just over 18 points per game while MU was giving up 64.6 points this year.

Once you add in Lazar’s points, rebounds, steals, blocked shots and assists in the context of the 64.6 points per game allowed by the team, the formula calculates that Lazar was worth 6.6 wins to MU this year, the 19th best total in history. Jimmy Butler was worth 5.3 wins, Darius Johnson-Odom 3.5, Mo Acker 2.7, David Cubillan 1.7, Dwight Buycks 1.7 and Joseph Fulce 0.5. Without the great breakthroughs for Mo and David in their seniors season MU would have missed the NCAA Tournament with four or five fewer wins.

The statistical part of the formula calculates that Lazar was worth an additional 19.2 wins while at Marquette (1.7, 4.6, 6.3 and 6.6 for his four years), so estimates that MU would have been 77-61 during his four years instead of 96-42 if he had not chosen to come to Marquette. Without going through the rest of the math, his final Statistical Rating is a 23.0, which is the 19th best ever though quite a bit behind the top three (Bo Ellis 31.2, George Thompson 30.8 and Dwyane Wade 30.4).

2. Impact. The second factor is Impact on the program, and Lazar gets a “7” here for being the best player on a team that made the tournament but was eliminated the first weekend. Bo Ellis is the only “10” in this Impact Rating for his role in two runs to the championship game, but only the leaders on good teams get higher than a “4” on this.

3. Dominance. The last factor is the dominance as judged by people who pick All-Conference and All-American teams, as well as by the NBA scouts and coaches who select players for the NBA. As ticked as I am that Lazar was only given 2nd team All-Big East this year, I’m sticking to the numbers and 2nd team All-Conference gives a player 8 of a possible 15 points. The only players to get a perfect 15 in this category are players who have a combination of All-American awards and dominant NBA performances (Dwyane Wade, Jim Chones, Don Kojis, Maurice Lucas and National Player of the Year Butch Lee).

However, while Lazar only gets an “8” for second team All-Conference, players who are drafted in the top two rounds or make an NBA roster get a “10,” which would move him up to 22nd All-Time.

I don't think our fans fully appreciate what a tiny percentage of college stars ever score an NBA point. For example, when a Maryland fan was on me after the Washington loss and how great all their 2005 National Champion players were, I pointed out to him that not a single player on that title team ever scored an NBA point. Despite all the great Marquette stars over the years, as of today Travis Diener is 15th All-Time among all-time MU with 851 career NBA points, followed by Butch Lee in 16th (778), Steve Novak in 17th (750) and Wesley Matthews already in 18th (626).

If Matthews can keep up even three more years at his current pace, he would move ahead of all MU NBA players except Maurice Lucas (12,312 career NBA points), Dwyane Wade (11,671 through today), Don Kojis (9,931), Doc Rivers (9,418), George Thompson (8.128), Jim Chones (6,283) and Jerome Whitehead (4,531). Being able to play at the next level is rare, and a factor that I believe should be part of the evaluation when rating the all-time greats.

Matthews production to date already has him up to a “12” on the dominance part of the formula, which moved him up two more spots to put him on my All-Time Top 20. If Lazar can become a 5th MU player to put up several hundred points in the NBA in recent years, he would likewise move up into the Top 20.

For those of you who don’t care about ancient history, you can go back to discussing how great Jimmy, DJO and the rest of the guys will be with Vander Blue and company next year, but for us old-timers, that’s the Top 30 as I see it now. My evil database will be used to project the future wins, but for today let's focus on putting Lazar among the All-Time greats, a list that I'm sure Vander Blue will be joining in a few years!

MUTV with Wes Matthews .. Buzz media video

Update time

With the season less than two weeks away Buzz Williams received good news recently when the NCAA ruled that freshman center Youssoupha Mbao would only have to sit out two games due to a violation of his amateur status before enrolling at Marquette. Mbao will miss games against Centenary and Maryland Eastern Shore before hitting the court against Grambling State on November 21.

Other updates on the program:

• Talented 6'8" power forward Tarik Black might be "leaning to Marquette". Black is also considering Tennessee, Memphis, and Florida.
• MU is after a pair of talented bigs -- cousins, in fact. 6'6" forward Josh Langford de-committed from Rick Pitino and Louisville and is now considering MU among other suitors. Interestingly Langford's 6'7 cousin Devin Langford (class of 2011) is also interested in MU.
• Lazar Hayward is an impact player -- a solid write-up by Rush The Court.
• Sports N'at ranks MU as the BIG EAST's 9th best team in this preview which, despite a few oversights on personnel, sums up what many in the league might be thinking about MU this year and next.
  
• Don't forget to check out KBuck's Haunted Hoops video along with some related commentary here. Rosiak reported on the scrimmage -- his analysis of Darius Johnson-Odom is most encouraging.
• The Buzz Williams radio show begins next week.
• Here's a bookmark -- Wesley Matthews' player page from NBA.com.
• Dominic James is averaging better than 16 ppg (11th in the league) in the early stages of his professional career with Mersin in the Turkish Basketball League. Mersin is winless in three games so far this season.
  

Wes Matthews gets PT

MU put together a great video of Wes' first day in the NBA. It's awesome, baby.

Wes got in for 5 minutes, but missed his only shot.

Media updates from around the interwebs

With only nine days remaining before Marquette Madness here are a few media updates:

Fox Sports' Jeff Goodman previews the BIG EAST in his latest effort. Goodman slots MU in as the league's 12th best team but disappointingly leaves Lazar Hayward off of his first-team All-BIG EAST pre-season squad in favor of Devin Ebanks and Greg Monroe.

In case you missed our tweet on this yesterday, Wesley Matthews started and scored 16 points for the Utah Jazz in their exhibition game against the Chicago Bulls on Tuesday night. Matthews scored 11 points in the third quarter and drew high praise from Basketball Hall of Famer Jerry Sloan.

"I think he has a great body for basketball," Sloan said. "Just trying to figure out what he's doing, what we're trying to accomplish and all that stuff will take him a little time. But I like some of the things he's done."

Many thanks to the guys at the NBE Basketball Report for including Rob's stellar JUCO analysis in their league-wide update this morning. Among the notes in their update is the ESPN.com report that MU is now in the final three for Reggie Smith, a guard from Thornton High School, south of Chicago. Smith is also considering USC and UCLA with the Trojans and former MU coach Kevin O'Neill considered the leader.

BTW, here is a video with clips of Reggie Smith -- tip o'the cap to dw3dw3dw3 at MUScoop for finding this.



Don't forget to follow CrackedSidewalks on Twitter -- click here to check it out. We keep a running update of Tweets on the right nav bar too.

Also -- Al's Run needs your support.

Updates, updates, updates

The news flow surrounding the Marquette hoops program has slowed a bit in the early stages of the off-season but in the last few days several developments emerged:

• Dale Layer, Buzz Williams' top assistant coach, was announced as the new head coach at Liberty University. Layer was formerly the head coach at Colorado State and an assistant at Liberty before landing at MU. The Buzz Williams coaching tree sprouts, apparently. Talk about it at MUScoop.
• Todd Rosiak recently completed three fantastic updates on the incoming class of 2009 (with more to come). First he updated readers on Junior Cadougan. This week he took an in-depth look at Jeronne Maymon. Then, Rosiak delivered with a look at Dwight Buycks. Seriously, if you don't get a little fired up about the incoming recruits, you probably don't have a pulse.
  
• Looking ahead to the 2009 NBA draft, soon-to-be Marquette graduate Wesley Matthews has been invited to participate in the Portsmouth Invitational.
• Peter Vescey of the New York Post completed a two-part series on the legendary Al McGuire. As you'd expect, these articles are a blast to read. Here's part one. Here's part two.
• Back to the commitment of Darius Johnson-Odom -- check out these videos.
  

........stay tuned.

NBA futures for the 3 Amigos - An interview with Draft Express President Jonathan Givony

We had the pleasure of chatting yesterday with Jonathan Givony, the President of Draft Express, on the NBA prospects of the Three Amigos from Marquette. Jonathan was kind enough to to answer a few questions and give us his expert opinions on the topic.

Currently, Draft Express has Wesley Matthews, Dominic James, and Jerel McNeal projected in the second round of the 2009 NBA draft.


Question 1 - What goes into your evaluation process when looking at players and determining if they have a chance in the draft.

We attend a ton of games in person....we were just at the Big East tournament for example. After doing this for a number of years, we have a solid understanding of what the NBA is looking for, what type of talents, body profiles, athleticism, etc. that are needed to make an NBA team. We talk to the teams, to their scouts, we share information back and forth and factor all of this into our evaluations. Obviously different scouts have different opinions on the same players and their future prospects. At the end of the day, we use all of this information along with with what we see with our own eyes to make our evaluations.


Question 2 - What is your general opinion of the 2009 draft - weak or strong?

That's difficult to answer this far in advance of the draft. There are too many unknowns at this point in terms of who is coming out early or will stay for another year. However, there are 5 to 6 guys that if they come out could change the draft considerably, and it would have a potential effect on the three Marquette players because of where they are currently slotted in the second round.

Some others are down on this year's draft, but I think it's pretty strong and its deep if these additional players decide to declare. It's potentially missing a bit of star power at the top but there are quality players up and down. You might find an all-star in the group late in the first round. Ultimately you evaluate the draft after the players have played in the league.


Question 3 - Your 2009 mock draft has three Marquette players slotted for the second round. Who has the best chance to have a long term NBA career?

This may surprise some people, but I think it's Dominic James. He is a great athlete and has become a true point guard now. Certainly he is not a great shooter but I think that can be fixed with tweaking. His stroke needs to be dissected but I'm not as down on his shooting as others are because it can be fixed. He's a tremendous defender as well. Good point guards are hard to find and if he can stick, he can have a productive NBA career.

McNeal has a chance for a good NBA career and most experts would say of the three he has the best chance to stick the longest. I like his game a lot.

Wesley has good size but he does things that many other players do. He's at a disadvantage from that perspective because so many other players at his position have those same skill sets.


Question 4 - Do you think the Dominic James injury has hurt him at all with this draft prospects?

I don't think it will affect much. I wasn't able to see the game against Missouri but he will heal, he has time before the draft.


Question 5 - What is your opinion of players drafted in the 2nd round...are they better off being drafted or hoping for a free agency route?

GM's don't like to waste picks. Those are assets and GM's want the players they draft to make the team. It doesn't reflect well on them if they are drafting players that don't make it. So in my opinion it's better to be drafted then go the free agency route because you have a higher probability to make the team.

However, if you're not drafted it's not the end of the world for players because they can selectively target those teams that need their skill set. Of the three Marquette players, James might benefit the most if he's not drafted from the free agency route. James is a true point guard and teams need those skills.


Question 6 - In years past we have seen an influx of foreign players selected in the NBA draft. What are the foreign prospects this year?

This might be the first draft in a number of years where a true foreigner (Brandon Jennings excluded) isn't selected in the first round. It depends who from abroad decides to make themselves eligible. Overall, this draft appears that will skew more toward American players than in years past. The foreign crop isn't as strong.


Question 7 - Lazar Hayward will be a senior next year and should finish in the top 5 at Marquette in scoring and rebounds. What are his NBA prospects?

I like him as a player...he rebounds, he can post up and shoot with range, he defends adequately. We have a profile of him on Draft Express because he has possibilities. However, we do not have him the 2010 board right now. He needs to get better during the summer in some areas, especially putting the ball on the floor. His size dictates that he would be a small forward in the NBA and he doesn't have a high enough skill set right now in putting the ball on the floor (left hand is weak, dribbles in straight line), creating his own shot, etc. He has played the power forward spot at Marquette but his size dictates he would be a small forward in the NBA. He doesn't seem to have the quickness or ball handling ability to play that position in the NBA. We'll be monitoring him next year.


********************************
Jonathan has been scouting potential NBA players for years along with consulting for various professional teams. He is currently blogging through the NCAA tournament.

Wes and Buzz on CBS

Gearing up for the Big East Tourney: News and Notes

With the BIG EAST Tournament kicking off this afternoon at The World's Most Famous Arena here are few media updates of note:

• First, congratulations to Jerel McNeal for being named a First Team All-American by FoxSports.
• Congratulations are also in order for McNeal and teammate Wesley Matthews for earning All-BIG EAST Honors. McNeal was named to the first team, Matthews to the second team.
  
• Sadly, Wesley Matthews was aced out of the league's Most Improved Player award by Villanova's Dante Cunningham despite eclipsing the Wildcat's year-to-year improvements in points, rebounds, assists, steals, FG%, FT% and 3-point FG%. Other than those categories Cunningham certainly showed more improvement than Matthews.
  
• The team over at The East Coast Bias completed a Blogger's Roundtable to recap the regular season and look ahead to the tournaments. I represented Cracked Sidewalks in the discussion which you can find here.

BIG EAST TOURNAMENT DETAILS
For Marquette alums in town for the BIG EAST Tournament, the Local Café West across from MSG is the Marquette bar for the week. MU will have dedicated space for pre/post-game gatherings. Additional details will be added to this URL throughout the week.

Later today Georgetown plays St. John's at MSG for the right to play Marquette tomorrow at 1pm CT. The Red Storm (15-16) play on their home court as the tournament's 13th seed while the Hoyas hit MSG ast the 12 seed.

Despite the four-game losing streak heading into post-season play, MU remains upbeat about the road ahead -- check out this AP feature on the team.

Marquette Fails and Passes Test

#8 Marquette lost a game most expected to lose today, bowing to #6 Louisville on the road 58-62.

But how Marquette lost should give Warrior nation great hope for our immediate, Dominic James-less future.

Had you been told MU would be without their star PG, would be forced to start a 5'9" shrimp in his place .. and their star SG would have a miserable offensive night, missing 16 of 19 .. you'd have had nightmares of a 30 point thrashing at Freedom Hall.

That didn't happen. While DJ was missed, Marquette did not play like a team with an important cog missing. -- Other than McNeal perhaps trying too hard to make up for DJ's absence, forcing up too many shots that bricked.

This bodes well for MU's future, playing @Pitt, home vs. Syracuse, the BET, and the NCAAs. Simply put: Even without DJ, Marquette took the #6 team in the country down to the wire. -- Had McNeal been able to bring even his C+ offense, the Warriors would have walked out with a W.

Marquette never quit, broke the highly touted Louisville press well, committing only 11 turnovers .. and even managed to tie UL 37-37 on rebounds.

Acker was laudable in his 33 minutes of play, handling the ball well, with 3 assists, 3 rebs, and just 2 turnovers. Jimmy Butler had 6 points and 10 rebounds in 26 minutes off the bench.

Lazar notched another double-double with 16 and 10, on a very efficient 6-11 shooting, while Matthews poured in 19, and was unfortunate in a no-call at the end of the game. (See video below.)

Marquette goes to #1 Pittsburgh on Wednesday with their heads held high, and hopes up.

AP Recap
Box Score
Rosiak Recap

Last shot by Wes .. no foul? You judge:

Videos: Strength/Conditioning & Matthews

Georgetown learns: You can't hang with MU for 40 minutes

This just in: Jerel McNeal is pretty good.
This just in: Wes Matthews is pretty good.
This just in: Dominic James is pretty good.
This just in: Lazar Hayward is pretty good.


Marquette stayed perfect in the Big East with a 94-82 beat down of #25 Georgetown that just wasn't that close. While Georgetown had a 10 point lead after the first 7 minutes, MU stormed back to tie it with 6 to go in the first half. The remainder of the 1st half was a gutty battle between the two teams, hammering on each other with abandon, and few whistles.

The game continued like that until the 2nd half, when MU started pulling away, and with 10 minutes left, had built a 10 point cushion, then +16 with 5 to go. Georgetown was playing so slowly, the game was over at that point, as it was just impossible for them to win with how much time they took per possession.

It's hard to describe Jerel McNeal's game. The word "nuclear" might come close. A double-double the hard way. 26 points, 11 assists. Oh, and throw in 5 steals and 6 rebounds.

It was a good game for Jerel to "go nuclear" as scouts from the Clippers, Timberwolves, 76ers, Hawks, Bulls and Bucks were in attendance.

Wes and Lazar "only" chipped in 23 each. Lazar notched his 1,000 point as a Warrior.

That's what makes Marquette so hard to beat. They've got four guys on the court who can score 20, 25 points. You just can't stop that much talent over 40 minutes.

Marquette won despite letting Georgetown hit 56% of their shots .. to MU's 51%. How'd we win? Free throws. MU made 30 of 38, with GTown getting a paltry 8 points by FT.

Something should be said about the crowd at the Bradley Center. The house was "filled to the corners," raucous, and packed with 19,041 .. just some 40 shy of the record set last year (again, versus Georgetown.) The crowd "went to 11."

Marquette improves to 8-0 in the Big East, next up are games versus hapless DePaul, and nearly-as-hapless South Florida, who between them are 2-14 in conference play.

One item that will be talked about by watercoolers everywhere is an incident that occurred during the post-game radio interview between Coach Williams and Marquette color-man and former player, Jimmy McIlvaine. (Transcript here.)

Mac asked what the coach was doing to keep the team focused, with Marquette's top-10 ranking. In the next 90 seconds, which could only be termed "surreal," Coach Williams savaged Mac for asking the question, and questioned his loyalty to Marquette. -- Parenthetically, it's a shame this odd event will overshadow Marquette's great victory this afternoon, in many circles.

In Rosiak's report, Mac says: "I think it was just a misunderstanding .. I've already forgotten about it."

• Official Box Score
• AP Recap
• Coach Buzz post-game MP3 (8:10 he speaks about the post-game w/JMac)
  
• Matthews post-game MP3
• McNeal post-game MP3
• JS Online
• Rosiak Blog

MU beats DePaul 79-70

On Saturday, as expected, Marquette stayed unbeaten-in-the-Big-East, victorious over a "victory-challenged" DePaul squad. While Marquette won 79-70, the 2nd half was irritating, as DePaul actually outscored MU, 36-31.

Marquette improved to 6-0, DePaul unimproved to 0-7.

McNeal scored 21, Matthews 20, Lazar had a double-double with 17 and 16 (sixteen) rebounds. Even Dwight Burke got into double-digits, with 10 and 7 rebounds. DJ almost had a double-double the hard way, 8 points, 9 assists, 2 turnovers and 3 steals. You take that line any day.

After beating DePaul Saturday, Marquette left for South Bend to play Notre Dame on Monday Night.

• Official Box
• AP Recap
• Photos
• Buzz Williams Postgame mp3
• Dwight Burke Postgame mp3
• Lazar Hayward Postgame mp3
• Rosiak Recap
• Rosiak Blog Recap

MU down 13, storms back to beat Providence by 9.

After trailing for most of the first 26 minutes, Marquette was in the odd position of NOT being the fastest team on the court. Providence's players were beating MU off the dribble, blowing by our guards with frequency. PC was shooting in the high 60s, and Marquette was DOWN THIRTEEN POINTS.

And then Marquette snapped out of their funk, and put together two 14-3 runs over the next dozen minutes to shock the Friars. Acker was instrumental with his defense, and coming up with 3 steals down the stretch. Lazar was amazing, draining 4 of his 5 three-pointers in the final 10 minutes.

MU had THREE 20+ point players .. Lazar with 25, McNeal with 25, Wes with 22. Tough to beat a team with those kind of numbers.

Marquette's lineups were odd all night, with Burke and Hazel sitting down in favor of Butler, Fulce, and Acker. Buzz later explained that Burke and Hazel "weren't running down the court" and with Providence's quick offense, were allowing points.

While MU took control those last 14 minutes, Buzz concluded with Homer: "We were absolutely pitiful in many ways and brilliant in others."

Coming back from 13 down was a huge statement by the Warriors and will be looked back upon as evidence that with DJ, Wes, McNeal and Lazar on the court, Marquette has a very high ceiling.

Marquette is now 5-0 in Big East play, has another week off, then plays a hapless DePaul team at the Bradley Center making a 6-0 start very likely.

---

One scary moment, at the 17 minute mark, in what was clean defensive play, PC player Jeff Xavier ran into Joe Fulce. Xavier went down clutching his face on the contact. Replays showed Fulce's play was clean, and Xavier simply caught Fulce's elbow in a bad spot. Apparently, the refs did NOT call that foul, yet called a foul 2 seconds later on Fulce.

In an unbelievable lapse of security, a fan from the stands, Xavier's brother, sauntered onto the court to confront Fulce. Buzz quickly yanked his players off the court and after a good 15 seconds, someone coaxed Xavier's brother off the court and out of the building. -- Coincidentally (or not) the Refs called a grand total of 3 fouls on Providence over the next 12 minutes.

Even Providence fans are upset: "That guy should have been tackled to the floor with a tire knocker in his throat. Where was security? Off having a beer and pretzel?" "I thought security was ho-hum about the incident. Disgrace that it happened but how security failed to act was even a more of a disgrace.. could have been worse!"



Note to Providence, note to DDCenter, note to Big East HQ: That security team needs a lesson in how to quickly respond to threatening fans on the court. That response was a total joke, and should not be tolerated in Big East play.

AP Photos
OFFICIAL Box Score
AP Recap
Rosiak Recap