Marquette's season had dizzying highs, crushing lows
It was a head-spinning season for Marquette.
The Golden Eagles had some dizzying highs, but those good feelings crashed hard as they lost six of their last seven games, including an abysmal showing against Murray State in the first round of the NCAA Tournament.
Along the way, MU entered the national polls for the first time in Steve Wojciechowski's five seasons as head coach. The Golden Eagles even cracked the top 10 before their late-season collapse.
"There's a lot of lessons we can learn from this year," Wojciechowski said. "Most of them are really good. We have to build off those things.
"And the things we didn't like, we just got to get better at. I'm sure we'll do both."
MU challenged itself with its non-conference schedule. There were concerns after a 96-73 pasting at Indiana and allowing a 22-0 run to start the second half in a 77-68 loss to Kansas in the NIT Season Tip-Off in New York.
But the Golden Eagles bounced back with strong victories over Wisconsin, Kansas State and Buffalo in sparkling new Fiserv Forum. Junior guard Markus Howard captured the attention of the nation with a pair of 45-point performances.
The Golden Eagles kept the positive momentum going into the Big East season, suffering only two losses to St. John's in their first 14 league games.
MU found ways to win close games, even in crazy fashion with junior forward Sam Hauser's game-tying three-pointer at the buzzer in an eventual overtime victory at Creighton.
Howard scored a Big East-record 53 points in that win over the Bluejays. Along with his 40 points in the second half against Buffalo, Howard added more evidence to being the most accomplished scorer in school history.
He ended the season averaging 25 points per game, a program record. He has 1,955 points through three seasons, 30 shy of Jerel McNeal's MU mark. Howard was MU's first Big East player of the year since Jae Crowder in 2012.
With Howard rolling, the Golden Eagles looked poised to capture the conference title after a 76-58 victory at Providence on Feb. 23.
But the guard hurt his left wrist in a fall during a 67-61 loss at Villanova, when the Golden Eagles blew a late lead against their only competition for the Big East crown.
That set the stage for MU's free fall.
There were 22 turnovers in a home loss to Creighton. Seton Hall closed a victory over MU with an 18-0 run. The Golden Eagles settled for second place in the Big East after allowing two Georgetown freshmen to combine for 48 points in a loss to close the regular season.
"The big thing in Big East play was turning the ball over," MU junior guard Sacar Anim said. "And a lack of rebounding that we struggled with. Obviously that's something we need to fix, couldn't get a hold of at the end of the year.
"Making adjustments, too. We struggled to make adjustments. And closing games out. Crucial situations at the end of games, we struggled. We didn't have good execution."
Frequent foul trouble for MU centers Theo John and Ed Morrow led to less aggressive rebounding and rim protection late in games.
The Golden Eagles' offense also went cold down the stretch, with a banged-up Howard shooting 47 for 133 (35.3 percent) in MU's last seven games.
The end of the season was ugly. First came a chippy, foul-filled loss to Seton Hall in the Big East tournament semifinals. Then the fifth-seeded Golden Eagles were at the wrong end of a historic NCAA Tournament performance with Ja Morant's triple-double for 12th-seeded Murray State.
"We just didn't do the things we planned to do," MU freshman forward Brendan Bailey said of the slide to end the season. "The scouting report. The things we talked about in the locker room. We didn't execute all those things.
"That's no shot at my team or coaches or anything like that. I love all of them. It was just our execution and our competitiveness."
Bailey was one of the few bright spots at the end of the season, finding his three-point shot and using his length on defense.
MU's Joey Hauser was on the all-Big East freshman team, but he struggled with consistency down the stretch. Both Hauser and Bailey will be expected to make big leaps for their sophomore seasons.
Senior center Matt Heldt, graduate transfer guard Joseph Chartouny and walk-on guard Cam Marotta are the only MU players to exhaust their eligibility.
Greg Elliott, who sat out this season as a redshirt with a thumb injury, and Koby McEwen, a transfer from Utah State, will give MU some two-way guards and ball-handling help that the team lacked this season.
MU will also welcome freshman guard Dexter Akanno next season. The Golden Eagles still have one scholarship slot open. MU 2020 commit Symir Torrence is still pondering reclassifying to join the team next season, and the Golden Eagles could also look for a transfer.
Howard has to decide if he wants to test the NBA draft waters. If he chooses to stay in school, MU will have two of the best and most-experienced players in the Big East with Howard and Sam Hauser.
With so much talent returning, Wojciechowski will likely be facing pressure to deliver greater success. MU hasn't won a game in the NCAA Tournament since 2013, with Wojciechowski's teams suffering blowout losses in two appearances.
"I'm just going to remember a lot of the highs," Anim said of this season. "The NCAA Tournament is still a high, even though we lost.
"It's still a great thing, even though we fell short of our goal. Obviously, we wanted to continue to play. We just got to learn from it and continue to get better."
Contact Ben Steele at (414) 224-2676 or bmsteele@gannett.com. Follow him on Twitter at @BenSteeleMJS or Instagram at @bensteele_mjs