What Do Marquette Fans Expect?

[Nukem2]

This is a program that 3 years ago won the last year of the previous Big East Conference and went to the Elite 8.

This is a program that had previously gone to the NCAA tournament 8 years in a row, never finishing below .500 in conference play.

This is a proud program, I think a lot of fans are surprised by the amount of time it looks like it will take to get back to that standard because for the last 3 years we've been just plain bad. Buzz's seamless transition probably set Wojo to an unrealistic standard, but when you're funding a program like a top 5 program, you expect success.

The most bitter pill to swallow is with the conference entering a new chapter with the realignment, we had a golden chance to establish ourselves right at the top of it, finishing first the previous year and being picked 1st in preseason polls. Now I'm not sure you can call us among the top half. The silver lining is there is a lot of young talent on the roster, hopefully it eventually "clicks".

Reality is that Buzz's departure after the loss of Gardner/Wilson/Otule/Thomas
to graduation and the departures of Burton/Dawson/Mayo/Taylor due to the coaching change and the loss of signees in Hill/Paige/Shayok and the subsequent graduation of Anderson/D.Wilson have turned the roster upside down and inside out along with a new culture with the new staff.

That's a lot of change and this is really Year 1 as last year really was a washout due to the timing of all of the above.
Obviously, MU and Wojo want to rebuild the roster primarily through recruiting HS players as opposed to Jucos/transfers/5th year preps/international guys. We need to be patient and that can be hard to do in this world of instant gratification. Took KO and Crean several years to get things going. This is no different. Listening to Jimmy Mac on the post-game shows tells me how hard it can be with a young & inexperienced team. Yes, we are 2/3's of the way into the season and there should be improvement. But that's true of every other team, so that's all relative.

Given all this, this team lacks identity at this point and a lot of that can be lack of confidence especially when the offense slows. And, this team has some missing pieces due to the transition. Time for some folks to get off the ledge. Enjoy the roller coaster ride.