College Basketball

Marquette’s Experience Ranking in 2018-19

Marquette’s Experience Ranking in 2018-19

Last season it was said that Marquette was a young team and that was true. The Warriors’ KenPom experience ranking sat at #313 (of 351 teams) with an experience score of 1.21. The NCAA D-I average was 1.70, with the median slightly higher at 1.74.

Going through the process of projecting MU’s experience score in 2018-19 highlights the mostly-wonderful dilemma the upcoming season brings: how do you distribute the minutes?

We’ve gone through numerous projections and keeping coming back to results in the range of mid-1.6x to low 1.7x, which would likely place Marquette in the high 100’s or very low 200’s.

In other words, MU figures to be average regarding experience relative to all D-I teams. While you won’t be able to call Marquette “very young” again this coming season, they certainly will not be a highly experienced team.

However, there are some important footnotes to place on the experience calculation.

For example, per BartTorvik.com, MU’s Returning Minutes will be 78.5%, placing them far and away at the top of the Big East and around #50 nationally. However, it’s important to understand the background of the “newcomers”:

  • Joseph Chartouny comes in as a grad transfer with three years of heavy experience at Fordham. More importantly, he’s a lead guard with some size (6’3”) and a reputation for defense – size and defensive were both needs that haunted Marquette last season. If reputation doesn’t do it for you, consider that he’s a top-100 assist rate point guard who has finished second and first, respectively, in steal % in the last two season and has consistently shown the ability to rebound well off the defensive boards.
  • Ed Morrow sat out last season after transferring from Nebraska and brings more toughness and physicality (pair him with Theo John and the toughness meter inside for MU has risen dramatically over the past couple of years). A Chicago product with two years of Big Ten experience, Ed will be physical, rebound and block shots at a minimum. Offensively he’s got the ability to consistently produce around the basket, especially with the complement of players around him. Like Chartouny, Morrow’s addition addresses the needs of the last couple of seasons for Marquette.

None of the three freshmen are “normal” freshmen just out of high school:

  • Ike Eke sat out last year with injury, but in our view there is no need to rush him into game action. Any positives he can provide the team are great, but there’s not a strong need this season.
  • Brendan Bailey, a 6’8” switchable, is a 21 year old freshman coming off a 2-year Mormon mission. He was a 24.5% usage player for Dream Vision in the 2015 adidas circuit and has a fantastic opportunity where if he produces he can earn minutes, but he doesn’t have to be pushed into a huge role on the team from day one.

There will be more in the upcoming weeks as we prepare for what could be a very memorable 2018-19 campaign. For now, if you’re extremely bored or generally odd, take a few minutes and project 2018-19 experience for yourself. Distributing the minutes is very difficult, but the difference scenarios (if you’re reasonable) don’t seem to change the experience calculation results much.

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