In August of 2010, it was announced that Milwaukee Vincent standout Phillip Nolan was leaving Vincent to transfer to Huntington (WV) Prep. Marquette and Buzz Williams were among the schools already interested in the 6'10" junior who was coming off a sophomore season where he was named to the All-City third team. But Huntington Prep never worked out for Nolan and he played his junior year at St. Benedict's (NJ) Prep. Nolan had been ready to change schools - again - to Arlington Country Day in Florida in June, but by July, that had changed as well. Nolan had decided to come home, although not completely. Instead of returning to Vincent, he enrolled at Milwaukee Riverside University High School.

That's 5 high schools either in the plans to attend or actually attended, regardless of how long that attendance actually was. It should probably be of no surprise that the WIAA has declared Nolan ineligible to play for Riverside this year on two separate appeals, the most recent being announced this past Wednesday.

After all that tomfoolery, this brings us to the fall signing period for Nolan's class. Marquette received letters from all 4 recruits that had announced their commitments. Not coincidentally, Marquette had 4 scholarships available for next fall. From reading Buzz's comments about all 4 commitments, it sounds like he's more than happy with all 4. That's what made it interesting to see that CBSSports.com's Jeff Borzello predicted that Nolan would end up at Marquette, saying this about the as yet uncommitted senior:

Considering: Clemson, Marquette, Minnesota, Oregon, Oklahoma, Texas A&M
Another player who hasn’t advanced much in the process. Seems fickle about making a decision early, which could scare some away.

That led to these followup answers from Borzello when The Highly Influential @Mike_Thiel and I asked him about Nolan:

Honestly, it's impossible to pick for Nolan. Kid bounces around high schools, doesn't take visits, etc.

I wouldn't be surprised if he goes somewhere that's not currently on his list right now.

Borzello's second tweet turned out to be prophetic, as later that day he reported this via Twitter:

Phil Nolan tells me he will completely open his recruitment -- fresh new school list -- and sign in the spring.

Of course, fresh new school list only means so much, as Borzello then tweeted a 4 school list from Nolan that strangely includes a Marquette team that no longer has a scholarship available. Now, I'm not going to deny that over signing doesn't happen and we've all heard Buzz say that he never stops recruiting because you never know what's going to happen. But it's a very strange time to see a high school senior say that they're starting their recruiting from scratch and include a school - at least for right now - that doesn't have a scholarship available.

After months of irrational interest in the comings and goings of high school basketball stars, the day has finally come to make official what has been so hotly discussed.  Today is the day that so many hours of effort put in by coaching staffs, and so many hours of scouring Twitter by bloggers, finally come to fruition.  That's right kids, today is Day One of the 2011 college basketball early signing period.  Between today and November 16th, high school hoops stars from around the country will sign on the dotted line and make official their intent to play basketball for college programs.  So, in case you haven't been paying attention, here is your quick glance at those that will be signing on to play for Coach Buzz Williams and YOUR Marquette Golden Eagles next season.

Jamal Ferguson - A 6'4", 180lb shooting guard from Richmond, VA (Maury High School), Jamal was the first prospect to commit to Marquette for the 2012-13 season, and the first to send in his LOI.  He got his decision out of the way early, announcing his intention to play for MU back in January of 2011.  Scout.com ranks him as a 3-star prospect, the #22 SG in the 2012 class.  ESPN.com lists him as a small forward, so I think we can see how he fits into Buzz Williams' overall plan of "switchable" players.  He is a long, athletic wing player with great finishing ability and also projects as a plus perimeter defender.  Jamal chose Marquette over Georgetown.   Obligatory YouTube highlight package here.

TJ Taylor - No Buzz Williams recruiting class would be complete without a Junior College player.  TJ Taylor, a 6'4" 220lb shooting guard from Denison, TX (Denison HS), comes to Marquette by way of Paris Junior College in Texas.  Taylor was recruited by MU out of high school, but eventually chose to play for Jeff Capel and the Oklahoma Sooners.  After spending an injury marred semester in Norman, he decided to transfer out of OU and take the JUCO route to Milwaukee.  He was the #78 ranked player by ESPN.com and the #29 ranked SG by scout.com in 2010.  TJ is regarded as a scorer that can play point guard or small forward, along with shooting guard (switchables!).  He is a physical player that can finish and also has a decent stroke from 3-point land.  Obligatory YouTube clip here.

The final two pieces to the 2012 recruiting class after the jump

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All of the recent reports from the college basketball recruiting trail seemed to indicate that Marquette was intent on landing a post player to round out the 2012 recruiting class.  Tuesday night word came down that they had done exactly that, as they received a verbal commitment from Aaron Durley, a 6'10" center out of Sugar Land, TX and George Bush High School (the same HS that produced Chris Otule).

They say that everything's bigger in Texas, and Durley certainly appears to support that theory.  At 6'10" and 260-275lbs (depending on which website you believe) he is every bit a "true center".  Reports indicate that Aaron runs the floor well for a guy his size, but will have to work to get into better shape to be able to do it at the college level. (Paging Todd Smith).  He has good hands and good touch around the bucket, while lacking top level explosiveness.  Long story short, it sounds like he is going to be something of a project - but what high school big man isn't?  And if those same reports are true, then he could very well turn out be an under the radar player with a high ceiling, that winds up being a steal for MU.

Buzz Williams and Co. have had good success recently with the development of Otule and Davante Gardner. That fact apparently wasn't lost on Durley.  When asked about his decision he told Brian Snow of scout.com, "I just thought that Marquette was the best fit for me.  They do a great job of developing big men and they have a very good program up there."  

Aaron chose Marquette over South Florida (Sorry Voodoo Five, we did it to ya again), South Alabama, Rice and others.

Fun fact:  If you're a Little League World Series junkie, you may already be familiar with this kid.  He made headlines a the 2006 LLWS as a 6'8", 13-year old, first baseman playing for the Saudi Arabia team.

Welcome aboard Aaron!  Have a great senior year and we'll see you next fall!

Welcome back to the Anonymous Eagle Marquette Basketball Primer! Over the last 2 days, we've helped educate the class of 2015 on the current Marquette roster and the proud history of the program. Today we cover the key points of being a Marquette fan. 

To start things off, let's talk about rivals.  For more, we go to Rubie Q:

As a freshman at Marquette, it's probably likely that you have a friend or two who's attending school seventy miles to the west, at the University of Wisconsin-Madison. Maybe this person was a close friend of yours in high school. Maybe you think that you can maintain your friendship by attending a football game in Madison, or cheering for the UW-Madison basketball team when they're not playing Marquette. Maybe you figure that there can't be any harm in this, since Marquette doesn't have a football team and UW-Madison is the only D1 football program in the state and since Marquette and UW-Madison are in different conferences in basketball.

You have figured wrong.

I'm sorry to be the one to tell you this, but your friend is gone. S/he has crossed into a dark place where you dare not follow.

From here on out, you need to think of your former friend as a zombie. And just as I'm sure that most zombies were pleasant, affable people before they became undead, flesh-devouring monsters, I'm sure that your friend was a nice enough person before s/he packed up her things and left for the People's Republic of Madison. But that was then, and this is now.  And now your friend is a zombie.

If you're familiar with your horror films, you know that it's a fool's errand to try to save a zombie. When you try to save a zombie, in some misguided attempt to salvage that part of the zombie's soul that remains intact, you typically end up: (1) immediately eaten by a zombie; (2) chased by a shitload of zombies and then eaten by one or more zombies; or (3) turned into a zombie yourself.  For obvious reasons, Newbie, we can't have that. 

So don't be a hero.  Let your friend go, because it's better to be dead than Red.

Here at Anonymous Eagle, we have nothing but hate for the Wisconsin Badgers. Our advice to you is this: ignore them 51 weeks a year and focus your hate into the yearly Badger Hate Week.  Nothing is gained from engaging with Badger fans.  Their crude, crass and belligerent tones are not to be acknowledged.  They're attempting to feed off of your life force, as is typical for the followers of vampires like Badgers head basketball coach Bo Ryan.

This is the section of the primer where I acknowledge that there are two other Division 1 basketball programs in the state of Wisconsin.  One of them (UW-Green Bay) has beaten Marquette twice before and is coached by former Marquette standout Brian Wardle.  The other (UW-Milwaukee) is a joke who has never beaten Marquette in 38 attempts across   Guess which one gets to call themselves a rival?  HINT: It's not UWM.

Moving on to our rivals in the Big East, let's deal with both the Cincinnati Bearcats and the West Virginia Mountaineers.  Marquette's been playing in a conference with Cincinnati since before all of you freshmen were born.  Last season, I covered our long and contentious rivalry with the Bearcats.  However, the man who was the head coach at Cincinnati for most of the 20 seasons of yearly games with them, Bob "Huggy Bear" Huggins, is now the head coach at his alma mater, West Virginia, after being fired by Cincy for being a maniac and then serving a year in basketball purgatory at Kansas State.  It is truly a great thing for Marquette fans to be able cheer against Bob Huggins.

This brings us to the Louisville Cardinals. Names that draw horror from Marquette fans: Reese Gaines. Francisco Garcia. Taquan Dean. Jerry Smith. Preston Knowles. Marquette has had it's own share of dynamic victories over the Cardinals: the comeback game in Louisville in 2003, Dameon Mason's 3 point play in 2004 and the 2010 blowout to propel MU to the NCAA Tournament come to mind immediately.  Combine these fierce battles with the Cardinals' fans' strange ability to have strong crowds on the road and the generally repulsive behavior of head coach Rick Pitino, and you have an outstanding atmosphere any time these two teams hook up.

Two Big East opponents will always carry a big game feel for Marquette, and not entirely because of basketball.  The shared religious foundations between Marquette and Roman Catholic Notre Dame and Jesuit Georgetown provide for a rivalry on a bigger stage.  Marquette has played more games against Notre Dame than any other Big East team, with a 116 game series that dates back to 1920.  Noted tielighter aficionado Digger Phelps coached top 25 ranked Notre Dame teams against Marquette 9 different times, with Marquette getting the best of Digger 4 times, leading to many a great memory amongst Marquette fans.  As far as Georgetown goes, well, it's just fun to take over their building.

After the jump: Mr. Kensington describes the joys of attending Marquette Basketball in person!

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Welcome back to The Anonymous Eagle Primer.  Yesterday, we covered the current Marquette Golden Eagles basketball team.  During this upcoming season, Marquette will celebrate its 95th season of participation in college basketball.  That means we have a lot of history to cover.  Let's start with some big picture items.

• 29 NCAA Tournament appearances, tied for 11th most in NCAA history
• 36 NCAA Tournament victories, 21st most in NCAA history
• 3 Final Four Appearances (1974, 1977, 2003)
• 1977 NCAA National Champion, one of just 35 schools to have won a title
• 1970 NIT Champion

Let's get some emotion flowing with a video, shall we? Here's the 2009-10 version of the video that plays before the boys come out of the locker room right before tipoff.

There's a lot of great players and a lot of great memories in that video.  But this is a history primer, so let's focus on the most important people in there.  So we turn to Marquette's list of retired jerseys and start with the obvious place to begin: the jersey number least likely to be worn in NCAA play.

#77 - Retired in honor of Al McGuire and the 1977 NCAA Champion Marquette Warriors

Al McGuire was the head coach of Marquette basketball from 1964 through 1977, compiling a gaudy 295-80 record in the process.  He won the 1970 National Invitational Tournament when he famously refused an invitation to the NCAA Tournament because he didn't like where Marquette was seeded.  Coach McGuire led Marquette to two Final Four appearances, making the championship game in both 1974 and 1977.  Al had announced midway through the 1976-77 season that it would be his last season as a basketball coach.  His players responded, defeating the North Carolina Tar Heels in the championship game to secure Marquette's lone NCAA Championship.

Al McGuire was a master motivator and psychologist when it came to coaching basketball.  This can best be explained through my favorite story about Coach McGuire.  Marquette and DePaul was a great rivalry during Coach McGuire's tenure.  During a game between the two, Al put forward Pat Smith in to defend DePaul's big time scorer, Bob Zoretich.  Very quickly, Smith got under Zoretich's skin, they traded shoves, Smith threw a punch at Zoretich and both players were ejected.  DePaul's great head coach, Ray Meyer, went ballistic because his team had lost its star and Marquette had lost "a guy who can't throw the ball into the ocean if he were standing on the beach."  Coach McGuire, never one to pass on an opportunity to needle an rival, rounded up a Milwaukee Journal photographer and headed down to the shores of Lake Michigan and took this picture:

Smith's shot went in, and the picture was picked up by the wire services, including Al's gleeful quote about how the shot was much more difficult because Lake Michigan is much smaller than the ocean.

That's Coach Al McGuire for you.  After his retirement from coaching, he became a college basketball broadcaster, usually paired with broadcasting legends Dick Enberg and Billy Packer.  Al's unique sense of humor and personality as a broadcaster can best be seen in this clip as Syracuse celebrates a trip to the Final Four, not just in his ribbing of Syracuse Jim Boeheim, but in his exuberance in celebrating with the Syracuse players:

Al McGuire left a permanent impact on Marquette University and college basketball in general.  Sadly, Coach McGuire was taken from from us in 2001 after a battle with leukemia.  But we continue to honor his memory.  The facility that houses practices for men's basketball as well as home games for women's basketball and women's volleyball bears his name.  The court that men's basketball plays on is also named for Coach McGuire.  The men's basketball uniforms carry an "AL" emblem at the middle of the neckline.  Lastly, every season, one home game is designated as "Al's Night," a celebration of the lasting legacy of Coach McGuire's influence.  The usual pregame video is replaced by an Al McGuire-themed one, like this one from last season.

After the jump: We continue with the history lesson!

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To the new freshmen of the Marquette University Class of 2015, I say welcome.  You have joined a proud heritage and tradition, and perhaps you don't even realize it yet.  Don't worry, that's what Anonymous Eagle is here for.  We understand that many of you haven't gotten a chance to bring yourself up to speed with the past, present and future of Marquette Basketball.  Join us now, as we get you ready for what is shaping up to be one of the most exciting seasons in Marquette Basketball history.  We have a lot of ground to cover, so let's get you started today with what you need to know to jump right in to this year's team.  Join us the rest of the week for more important Marquette Basketball knowledge!

The Present

This is your head coach, Brent "Buzz" Williams.  The nickname refers to his dedication to work and improvement and not his haircut.  The first thing you need to understand about Buzz is the story about how he got his first job out of college.  He's prone to positive emotional outbursts on the sideline.  He has a few catchphrases, and I don't mean that in a condescending way.  This will be his 4th season at Marquette, and his 5th season as a head coach overall.  Rubie Q and I will spend the season disagreeing over how much influence coaching has on the outcome of a game, with me supporting Buzz and Rubie finding every possible flaw.  It's a living.

Moving on to players, the logical place to start is #1 on your scorecard, Darius Johnson-Odom (6'2", 215 lbs., Raleigh, NC).  He's coming off a 2010-11 campaign that landed him on the All Big East Second Team.  If you watched the video I linked to in the paragraph about Buzz, he's the guy throwing down the RIDICULOUS putback dunk that causes Buzz's outburst.  DJO's the resident sharpshooter on the team, burying 3s at a 41.3% clip since joining the Golden Eagles in 2009.  If his performance at the North Carolina Pro-Am this summer is any indicator (examples here, here, here and here), we're in for a big season from the left handed senior.

Speaking of seniors on the team, the only other one is The Absolut Weapon, #32, Jae Crowder (6'6", 235 lbs., Villa Rica, GA).  After winning the National Junior College Player of the Year award while leading Howard College to an NJCAA title in 2009-10, he stepped right in at MU and started contributing immediately.  Jae's contributions might actually have been slightly underestimated.  The boys over at Cracked Sidewalks (add your bookmark now) crunched some numbers and found that Crowder was the ONLY Power 6 conference (Big East, Big Ten, Big 12, Pacific 10, Southeastern Conference, Atlantic Coast Conference) player who finished in the 80th percentile or better in at least 6 of the 8 KenPom.com (bookmark now) key player stats for the 2010-11 season.  Things are looking up for the man with the Predator-style dreadlocks.

Coming up after the jump: We go around the AE roundtable to talk about the remaining returning players, as well as talk a bit about this year's newcomers and who Buzz has lined up to join the Golden Eagles next fall as well.

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Three weeks from today, on August 24, the Marquette University Class of 2015 will descend on campus and move into their assigned residence halls.  While they will bring many things with them to college, the one thing they won't bring with them is knowledge and understanding of Marquette Basketball.  This is where we come in.

On Wednesday, August 24, Anonymous Eagle will publish the definitive Marquette Basketball Primer for those new freshmen.  As I mentioned on Twitter the other day, this is shaping up to be an important season for the Golden Eagles.  Given the importance of the season, it's crucial that the season get off to a roaring start, and we can't afford to bring the freshmen along slowly to the traditions of Marquette Basketball.

The important thing is that when I say "we," I don't mean just those of us here at Anonymous Eagle.  I mean YOU, our wonderful and loyal readers.  We'll be the first to tell you that we don't remember everything that's ever happened to Marquette on a basketball court, not to mention that it's been a while since we were young enough to purchase Fanatic tickets.

With that, I'm officially throwing the doors open on The Anonymous Eagle Primer Project.  What do YOU think that the Class of 2015 needs to know about Marquette Basketball?  It can be anything: important info on the current team, historical info about past teams, things to remember about various rivalries, pre- or post-game student traditions, or do's and do not's of being a Marquette fan.  There's no piece of info that's too small or too obvious to not include.  If there's something you feel that the newest Golden Eagles need to know, then pass it along!

You can contribute in three different methods.  If you have a quick note or a link to contribute, you can pass it along on Twitter to either @brewtownandy (my account) or @AnonymousEagle (the official site account).  If you have something a little bit longer, post it on the Anonymous Eagle Facebook page.  If you have a story or a long list of things you want to see included, you can send it in an email to brewtownandy@gmail.com.

Last thing: Since this will be published on Freshmen Move-In Day, all submissions will have to be in by Sunday, August 21.  If this is going to be the definitive guide to being a Marquette fan, we're going to need some time to hammer it out into something readable and useful.

We're looking forward to your contributions! RING OUT AHOYA!

The University of Oklahoma's loss continues to be Marquette University's gain, as MU head coach Buzz Williams secured a 2012 verbal commitment from 6'4" 220 lb. combo guard TJ Taylor.  Taylor began the 2010-11 season at OU, but suffered an early concussion and never played in a game before transfering to Paris (TX) Junior College during semester break.  Professional Journalist Todd Rosiak reports that Taylor will stay at Paris for the 2011-12 school year and join Marquette with three years of eligibility in the fall of 2012.

Coming into the 2010-11 season, Taylor was a three-time all state player at Denison (TX) High School and was ranked 78th in the country by ESPN and 104th by Rivals and had been considering playing in Milwaukee before commiting to Jeff Caple and Oklahoma -- and the scuttlebutt is that TJ's mama wasn't happy with that decision.

Taylor will join SF Jamal Ferguson to close out the class of 2012, putting Buzz in the odd position of having filled all his scholarships for 2012 before filling all the scholarships for 2011.  Of course, he could always just bank the 13th scholarship for this year and add someone with Taylor and Ferguson.

[Rubie sez: One final note: we've gone to the tapes to determine who ran this scoop first, as Professional Journalist Todd Rosiak and Amateur House Organ Jim "IWB" Ganzer appeared to tweet the news at roughly the same time.  In the event of a tie, Rosiak gets the credit because of IWB's extremely douchey "I know something you don't know!" tweet two hours before the news broke.)