With those two early departures, Crean had only half of his first recruiting class intact for the 2003-’04 season — Scott Merritt and Terry Sanders.

“We thought coming in those guys would be here for four years,” Sanders said. “But Dwyane got so good that we figured he might not be here for four years. Then the Dot thing just came as a surprise; we didn’t really expect that. But we still keep in contact with them.”

“We are happy for Dwyane, he’s doing great in the NBA,” Merritt said. “Since we are the only two seniors, we are trying to show more leadership.”

As a heavily recruited and highly-touted big man out of Wauwatosa East High School, Merritt was Crean’s first marquee recruit. Even though Crean was still unproven as a head coach, Merritt chose Marquette over Duke, Kentucky, Syracuse and Michigan among others.

“I knew I wanted to pretty much stay home,” he said. “And when Coach Crean got the job, it was a pretty easy decision for me. Being that first one to say yeah, (it was special). It changed the program a lot. After that a lot of players came. Every year after that, he has got the best player out of Wisconsin.”

Merritt’s numbers have steadily improved from 6 points and 3.6 rebounds per game as a freshman to 10.1 points and 6.6 boards per contest in his junior year. As his numbers have changed, so has his style of play. Sanders remembers in high school when the two played and Merritt was not the post player he is now.

“We always had some pretty competitive battles,” said Sanders, who had attended Milwaukee Vincent High School before transferring to Hargrave Military Academy in Virginia. “I remember he was a pretty good shooter. He doesn’t shoot as much as he did in high school. He still has some pretty good moves like he did back then. He has become a lot stronger.”

Merritt also remembers the games — and the results.

“We played against each other several times,” he said. “Usually my team got the upper hand. We played in AAU circuit and high school. More in AAU though. We did (cover each other) at times, too.”

To the delight of the coaching staff, Merritt has become a much more post-oriented player and still continues to improve. At 6-foot-10, he says that he watches NBA power forwards Kevin Garnett of the Minnesota Timberwolves and Tim Duncan of the NBA champion San Antonio Spurs.

“I’ve been working on my whole game,” Merritt said of his off-season work. “My post up, my handles, everything. Just everything in my game. I think as far as my conditioning, the injury put me back a little bit. I continued to lift with my legs. I was still able to improve my game (without using my shoulder).”

Sanders has also been working hard on improving his game in the off-season.

“I’ve been focusing on just shooting and being aggressive,” he said. “Taking the ball to the basket aggressively and good post moves. And always with the different drills we do.”

No matter what they have been working on coming into the year, both seniors have embraced their role as team leaders. After tasting Final Four success last season, Sanders says he wants to leave as a “winner,” and to win as many games as possible.

“I definitely feel like I’m going to have a great year,” Merritt said. “I would consider myself one of the best big men in the country.

“My goals are to show as much senior leadership as I can. I want to get to the level we were at last season. If we can get everybody on the same, we’ll be tough to beat because we are talented.”