Projected Starting Lineup
G – Dominic James 5-11 Sr. (30.3 MPG, 12.9 PPG, 4.4 APG)
G – Jerel McNeal 6-3 Sr. (30.2 MPG, 14.9 PPG, 4.9 RPG)
G – Wesley Matthews 6-5 Sr. (28.8 MPG, 11.3 PPG, 4.4 RPG)
F – Lazar Hayward 6-6 Jr. (25.4 MPG, 12.8 PPG, 6.5 RPG)
F – Dwight Burke 6-8 Sr. (11.8 MPG, 2.5 PPG, 2.9 RPG)

Impact Bench Players
G – Maurice Acker 5-8 Jr. (13.3 MPG, 4.5 PPG, 1.8 APG)
G – David Cubillan 6-0 Jr. (17.6 MPG, 5.1 PPG, 1.6 APG)
F – Patrick Hazel 6-7 So. (3.4 MPG, 0.5 PPG, 1.1 RPG)

Guards
You won’t find many teams that have better guards from top to bottom than Marquette. They return their starting trio from last season as well as their two main backups off the bench. Dominic James, Jerel McNeal, and Wesley Matthews are all back and they’re all seniors. Matthews may actually be the best player of the three, although James nearly went pro after his sophomore season, and McNeal almost did the same after last season. They both made the right decision to stay because they weren’t ready. James is the leader of this team, and although he takes way too many threes, he’s a great passer and runs the point extremely well. McNeal led the team in points per game last season, and he’s great at forcing turnovers and creating plays for his teammates. Matthews is another smart player who plays his position well. You won’t find him taking nearly as many poor shots as the other two. Coming off the bench will be Maurice Acker and David Cubillan. Both guys are natural PGs, but the position is crowded so you won’t see Cubillan run it too often.


Forwards
Naturally, Marquette isn’t that strong at forward since they’re so good in the backcourt. The main problem is depth because they didn’t bring in any good prospects, and they lost three seniors in Dan Fitzgerald, Lawrence Blackledge, and starter Ousmane Barro. That’s a lot to replace, even though they do return starter Lazar Hayward as well as Dwight Burke who did start his fair share of games last season. Hayward’s a very good perimeter shooter, yet he can also play in the post well and rebound. Burke’s a guy that’s generally pretty quiet on offense, but his post play is reliable when called upon. Sophomore Patrick Hazel looks to be the guy they’ll turn to off the bench, but he’s a bit of a question mark. JUCO transfer Joseph Fulce may cycle in, too.

Final Thoughts
There are a lot of reasons to be optimistic if you’re a Marquette fan this season. Marquette returns 4 of 5 starters, and anytime you do that from a very good team, things should get better the following season. That should be the case, especially since this is a veteran group that will start four seniors and a junior. Not to mention, the two most active guys off the bench will be upperclassmen as well. The coaching change from Tom Crean to Buzz Williams may turn out to be a good thing, because this team has underachieved since joining the Big East as they’ve yet to make the Sweet 16, and have only gotten out of the 1st round once. One big problem is that James, McNeal, and Cubillan combined to shoot 119-376 (32%) from deep last season. That’s a lot of attempts from three guys who struggle from out there. If that can be corrected, Marquette should be a major contender in the Big East, although they may struggle defending bigger opponents since they lack a lot of size.

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