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Buzz Williams, housing markets, and Marquette’s new look

Buzz Williams

Marquette head coach Buzz Williams runs drills during practice Wednesday, March 21, 2012, in Phoenix. Marquette will face Florida in an NCAA tournament West Regional semifinal college basketball game on Thursday. (AP Photo/Matt York)

AP

Marquette is going to have their work cut out for them this season.

And it’s not because they have a lack of talent on their roster. Quite the opposite, actually; Buzz Williams has a myriad of perimeter weapons and a pair of big-bodied centers at his disposal.

Where Marquette could run into some trouble, however, is in how quickly new roles become defined. With Jae Crowder and Darius Johnson-Odom both graduating and heading to the NBA, Marquette is going to need to figure out where they go to for scoring and who they can count on for defense and rebounding at the power forward spot.

But if you as Williams, the best way to prepare for this season is to ... ignore last year?

“Every team is a house,” Williams said. “We all live in that house and when the season’s over, that house goes on the market and you can’t live in it again. They were pretty impressive and you can argue that they were maybe the best (combination) of guys that’s been here in a long time but relative to who replaces them and how that plays out, nobody knows that. We’re in a different house.”

(Sidenote: quotes like this are the reason why you always need your recorder turned on when Buzz Williams is speaking.)

What may end up being the more likely outcome here is that Marquette doesn’t have a single go-to guy. Maybe one night Trent Lockett goes for 25 points, while the next game it’s Todd Mayo and Vander Blue who combine for 40 points. A week later, it’s Junior Cadougan scoring 12 points and handing out 10 assists before Steve Taylor puts together a three-game stretch where he scores 40 points coming off the bench.

The point I’m trying to make is that instead of fielding a team with two stars, Marquette will have a handful of perimeter weapons that are all capable of taking over that ‘leading-man’ role for a night, and that’s before you consider that Jamil Wilson, Davante Gardner and Chris Otule are all back up front.

So Buzz is right.

This could end up being a much different house.

But this year’s house will be any less valuable at the end of the season than last year’s house.

Rob Dauster is the editor of the college basketball website Ballin’ is a Habit. You can find him on twitter @robdauster.