The 2018-19 college basketball season is quickly approaching, and thus, we turn our attention to previewing the upcoming Marquette Golden Eagles men’s basketball season.

As was the case last year, we’ve got a stacked up list of questions about the 2017-18 campaign, and each of the contributors to AE are going to take a crack at answering them. There will be a new question every weekday afternoon between now and the start of the season, so be sure to stop back every day to find the new one.

Onwards, then, to the question of the day:

Which newcomer will have the biggest impact on the team?

Here, we have a lot of options, as it includes anyone who has not played for Marquette in the past, even though three of them were on the team last year and a fourth signed his letter of intent three years ago. The list is: Brendan Bailey, Joseph Chartouny, Ike Eke, Joey Hauser, and Ed Morrow.

Ben Snider:

I know that every single person on #MUBB Twitter (AKA psychos who tweet about college basketball in July) has been beating on this drum since Wojo landed him, but my god Joseph Chartouny is going to fit with this team better than OJ Simpson’s gloves before they were covered in blood.

I think back to when Wojo said last year that the offense ran better when Andrew Rowsey was a distributor. This created such a dilemma because we couldn’t have expected him to just make Rowsey stop launching threes. That’s like if Real Chili was forced to stop serving people sloshed out of their minds at 3 AM.

The other big dilemma was how to navigate two of the best offensive talents in the country being on the team was also royally sucking at defense when they were on the court together. It was agonizing to watch on that end.

Chartouny instantly solves both of those dilemmas. He’s a good enough scorer to keep defenses honest when he has the ball in his hands, but he butters his bread on offense by dishing out assists. He ranked in the top 100 nationally in assist rate in each of his 3 years at Fordham.

Defensively he’ll prove to be a massive asset for a team that desperately needed guard help. The (listed) 4 inch height difference between him and Rowsey alone would be enough to make an impact, but he also happens to be the leading returning stealer in the country this year. The jump in defensive quality to Chartouny might end up being the biggest reason that Marquette gets a good seed in the tournament.

Pistol Brad:

This one is pretty tough, my gut tells me that Ed Morrow will be the most important newcomer as he is the only one with a proven (almost) power conference track record. Morrow has had a full year to work on his game which was already pretty strong at Nebraska as he averaged around 9 points and 8 rebounds his sophomore year. Morrow came over to Marquette after reportedly getting sick of playing exclusively center at Nebraska which is interesting as Marquette has a glut of power forwards and Morrow could see some significant time at the center position. There are three guys who could possibly rival Morrow for the title of biggest impact as a newcomer, Joseph Chartouny, Brendan Bailey, and Joey Hauser. Chartouny’s case relies on the fact that we are rather thin at guard and he would be harder to replace than Morrow, however, as important as Chartouny will be to the team I have heard the rumors that Morrow was often the best player at practice last year (please take this with a grain of salt) so I am going to pick him. I could go off the rails and say Bailey or Hauser, but freshmen are freshmen no matter if they are 21 or if they enrolled early, I foresee both having a pretty important role on this team, especially later in the season but the safe bet in on Big Red Ed from Nebraska.

Sam Newberry:

This is actually really tough, but I think it’s gotta be Chartouny. Marquette’s been lacking an elite rebounder and offensive post threat, which made me think a long time about Ed Morrow, but having a 6’3” lead guard that is focused on defense and playmaking is really the key to unlocking the potential of this team in my opinion. The combo of Sacar Anim and Joey Steals should provide strong resistance to most teams’ 1-2 backcourt and/or wing combos, and having a true distributor for the hot hands of Markus Howard and Sam Hauser (or opening up space for Sacar to slash) will be awesome.

Patrick Leary:

The nice thing about this question is with the exception of Ike Eke, the answer should basically be all of them. Of the four others, Joey Hauser has the highest ceiling of potential impacts. If he’s ready for primetime immediately, which is a big if, he could legitimately be the team’s No. 2 scoring option were his older brother to maintain his lower volume role. That’s a low probability outcome though.

It’s a lot smarter to side with the guaranteed minutes and high floor role of Joseph Chartouny. Between his projected responsibilities of improving the team’s perimeter defense and getting the ball out of Markus Howard’s hands so he can create with more freedom, that’s enough right there to carry this question, without even mentioning anything about assist rate or scoring.

Brewtown Andy:

At the end of the day, I have to go with Ed Morrow. Last year, Marquette ranked in the 210s in terms of rebounding rate on both ends of the court according to KenPom.com. While MU’s block rate was okay on defense (#138), they were one of the 50 worst two-point shooting defenses in the country. That’s going to be a combination of teams getting to the rim and finishing as well as putting offensive rebounds back in the bucket.

Morrow should improve both of those items. He’s already been proven as a high quality rebounder, and he’s actually an even better threat to rack up blocks than he is to grab defensive rebounds. That’s pretty impressive work for a guy listed at “only” 6’7”.

He’s a physically imposing threat on defense who got a year off due to his redshirt season to clean up some of his nagging health issues (he missed 11 games for Nebraska in two seasons), including an offseason hernia surgery. All of that combines to make a bigger impact on the team than any of the other new guys in my book.

Broadway Brown:

It almost has to be Joseph Chartouny. He is expected to get the most minutes out of all the newcomers and is going to be a huge part of this team on both sides of the ball. I am expecting a huge season out of him and between his assist rates and leading the country in steals per game he should have a significant impact on this team.

Besay:

So everyyyybodyyy is going with Joesph Chartouny on this one. And I don’t completely disagree. He’s going to have a massive impact being the primary ball-handler and automatically improving the defense tenfold with his active hands and propensity for stealing what is rightfully his.

The unpopular choice is Ed Morrow (aka Big Red Ed). With Chartouny being the obvious choice, I think Morrow will be a huge factor on the glass. I envision him grabbing offensive and defensive rebounds at a high rate and giving the already lethal Marquette offense second chance opportunities. Morrow will have the biggest impact because he’ll take most of the rebounding responsibilities away from Sam and Sacar when he’s on the floor. That will let them linger on the wing and wait for the dish out. I can’t wait to see Marquette’s offense in full swing.