:format(webp)/cdn.vox-cdn.com/uploads/chorus_image/image/33423465/20140215_mje_an2_112.0.jpg)
The official national spring signing period ended on Wednesday with Marquette not signing any players to start in the fall of 2014. Seeing as new head coach Steve Wojciechowski only had about 7 weeks to build relationships to the point where he could sign someone, that's not surprising.
Yesterday, a bright note popped up. CBS Sports' Jeff Borzello reported that Loyola Marymount transfer Gabe Levin would be visiting Marquette on June 4th, as part of a visiting tour that also includes Notre Dame and Northwestern. The Oak Park, IL, native spent his freshman year at LMU, and with a coaching change in Los Angeles, he appears to be looking to transfer closer to home.
I'd rather see Wojo stay shorthanded instead of taking on guys who might have marginal ability to play at the level of the Big East, but that doesn't seem to be a problem for Levin. The 6'7", 230 lb. forward started in all 29 games that he appeared in for the Lions, averaging 11.1 points and 7.2 rebounds on his way to a spot on the West Coast Conference's All-Freshman team. Digging a little deeper, KenPom.com tells us that Levin was top 400 in the country in both defensive rebounding rate and free throw rate, while edging into the top 350 players in the country when it comes to block rate. He also couldn't be that far outside the top 500 in the country when it comes to offensive rebound rate. Levin grabbed a teammates' miss 8.2% of the time, while teammate Alex Osbourne did so on 8.8% of misses, and Osbourne ranked 439th in the country.
Levin is a traditional transfer and would have to sit out the 2014-15 season, then have three seasons of eligibility remaining. If he were to decide to transfer to Marquette, it would still leave the Golden Eagles with just 11 players available for this coming season. On the flip side, Levin would help provide depth for practices and also balance the classes a bit, as he would join Sandy Cohen as a sophomore in 2015-16.
