Just a quick writeup on Marquette's team to share with other fan boards, and hopefully get one in return.

From last year we lost our best shooter Steve Novak, do-everything guard Joe Chapman, and utility big-man Chris Grimm to graduation. Also, a red-shirt shooter Matt Mortenson “made himself ineligible” for NCAA play, and PF Ryan Amoroso transferred to San Diego State.

However, you'll probably all recognize our 3 backcourt stars - all three are Soph's this year, are healthy, and playing great ball. All three will start. Dominic James is the PG that makes things happen and can drive on just about anyone. Jerel McNealis a defensive specialist but can slash with the best of them. Wesley Matthews is a playmaker.

Ousmane Barro is the starting center, and he's improved leaps and bounds over last year. He's not the best center in the league, but he is athletic, and learning new post moves seemingly every game. He's held his own against McRoberts, Thabeet, and Gray this year, and that's better than most Marquette fans would have thought. At Power Forward, one of two guys will start. Dan Fitzgerald, a Junior transfer from Tulane plays good D, can defend and score in the post, but also has good 3pt range. We also have highly regarded Freshman Lazar Hayward that has started. He was a deadly shooter in prep school, but hasn't shown that yet at MU. Instead though, he's got a nose for the ball and has excelled at rebounding and put-backs.

Other guys off the bench…Freshman David Cubillan is another sub-6ft guard that handles the ball as well as James, plays great D, doesn't drive as much, but can stroke the 3 ball. Shooting around 50% for the season on 3s. PF Dwight Burke will come in and play the Center and PF position. He's only a Soph, so he's still developing but has shown good potential. Mike Kinsella is a 7 footer that has a nice shooting touch. He's been hurt most of his career at MU though, so development hasn't been there, and he only sees a few minutes off the bench. Jamil Lott is another Center/PF, and was starting the first few games of the season, but has only seen limited time lately.

MU is a good defensive team this year, we usually make other teams play look “ugly”. Of course, our offense can look ugly too (see Prov & 'Cuse games). We don't shoot the 3 particularly well, but luckily the team has learned that and gone back to getting points off of penetration. We hadn't been shooting FTs well, but that seems to be improving.

Lawrence Blackledge, a Juco guy with freakish athleticism, missed a few games early in the second semester for “personal” reasons, and hasn't gotten off the bench since.