Gabe Levin Chooses To Transfer To Marquette

When you see that a guy who made the West Coast Conference All-Freshmen team is considering transferring to Marquette, Notre Dame, and Northwestern, you'd like to think that the Golden Eagles have the advantage.

That advantage came true on Tuesday, when Loyola Marymount freshman forward Gabe Levin elected to join up with new head coach Steve Wojciechowski.  The Oak Park, Illinois, native will begin attending Marquette this summer and sit out the 2014-15 season due to NCAA transfer rules.  He'll join Sandy Cohen as a sophomore starting in 2015-16 and have three years of eligibility remaining.

The 6'7" forward averaged 11.1 points and 7.2 rebounds for the Lions in 2013-14 while starting in all 29 games that he appeared in.  Those numbers would have placed Levin fourth on MU's stat sheet in point, but it would have given him the top rebounding margin on the team.  Yeah, he was playing in the WCC and not the Big East, but his advanced stats indicate that it might not make a difference.  Levin excelled at getting defensive rebounds and at getting to the free throw line, ranking in the top 400 in the country in both rate categories according to KenPom.com.  Levin also ranked in the top 350 in block percentage, which means he has a bit of a pogo stick in him, as it's not the easiest thing in the world to swat shots when you're only 6'7".

Levin's already on the official team roster page, and he'll be wearing #32 for Marquette, just like he did for LMU.  Levin joining the team means that there's just one open scholarship on the team right now, and at this point, it seems very likely that it won't get filled.  That will give Coach Wojo five total scholarships to fill for the fall of 2015, although he already has Nick Noskowiak committed for one of those slots.