The 2014-15 season is going to be a struggle for the Marquette Golden Eagles and first year head coach, Steve Wojciechowski. Likely even more of a struggle than a year ago when MU missed out on the NCAA Tournament for the first time since 2005.
It appears as if next season will only be a bump in the road though as Wojo and his staff have hit the recruiting trail hard, already landing three top 100 commitments for the 2015 class including 6’5 wing Haanif Cheatham who last week chose Marquette over Georgetown and California.
Thanks to de-commitments stemming from Buzz Williams’ exit to Virginia Tech and Todd Mayo’s bone-headed decision to pursue a professional career, Marquette only has nine scholarship players for the non-conference portion of the up-coming season (that number will increase to ten after the first semester when Indiana transfer Luke Fischer becomes eligible) and only one player standing taller than 6-6. The short-term pain of the upcoming season should be alleviated the following season since Wojo has done an incredible job of building for the future.
Prior to Cheatham’s announcement, the new Golden Eagle head man already secured commitments from in-state products, Matt Heldt (6-10 center) and Nick Noskowiak, (6-2 point guard.) Noskowiak originally committed to Williams and MU during his junior season but de-committed after Williams left for Virignia Tech before reaffirming his decision to play his college career at Marquette. Wojo also picked up a pair of transfers in Loyola Marymount’s Gabe Levin and Wally Ellenson of Minnesota.
Three top 100 commitments is a huge, early coup for Wojo and shows the impact he can make in recruiting, but the big prize is still out there. Top ten recruit Henry Ellenson, a 6-10 power forward from Rice Lake, Wisconsin recently trimmed his list to three schools; Marquette, Kentucky, and Michigan State. Many recruiting experts see the Golden Eagles as the likely landing spot for Henry which would make him the program’s highest ranked recruit in decades.
If the younger Ellenson does give his pledge to Marquette, Wojo will have secured a top five recruiting class in the entire country despite being on the job for only a few months. That’s incredibly impressive for a first-year head coach. It should also bring a tremendous level of optimism for the 2015-16 season and beyond. Assuming Ellenson joins his brother at MU and no players leave during or after the season, here is what the Golden Eagles roster should look like for ’15-’16:
C: Fischer (Jr)/Heldt (Fr)
PF: H. Ellenson (Fr)/Taylor (Sr)/Levin (Soph)
SF: Burton (Jr)/Cohen (Soph)/W. Ellenson (Jr)
SG: Johnson (Jr)/Cheatham (Fr)
PG: Duane Wilson (Soph)/Noskowiak (Fr)/Dawson (Jr)
When you look at that roster, ten of those players were top 100 recruits. What’s really scary is that of those 13 players, only Steve Taylor would be a senior during the 2015-16 season meaning Marquette would be crazy loaded in 2016-17. That type of hope should have Marquette fans hanging on for Wojo’s inaugural season. Until then, #mubb nation awaits Ellenson’s decision in hopes that he is the icing on the cake for MU’s 2015 recruiting class.
David Kay is a senior feature NBA Draft, NBA, and college basketball writer for the Sports Bank. He also heads up the NBA and college basketball material at Walter Football.com and is a former contributor at The Washington Times Communities. David has appeared on numerous national radio programs spanning from Cleveland to New Orleans to Milwaukee to Honolulu. He also had the most accurate 2011 NBA Mock Draft and the most accurate 2012 NBA Mock Draft on the internet (Yup, repeat champ… #humblebrag), and finished with the second most accurate 2013 NBA Mock Draft (nearly a three-peat.) You can follow him on Twitter at David_Kmiecik.