Men’s basketball celebrated and concluded the 2016-17 season with its annual banquet Wednesday night. The occasion consisted of a meet and greet with the players and an award ceremony, and it concluded with head coach Steve Wojciechowski reflecting on the season.
The award ceremony brought the biggest twist of the night as Wojciechowski handed out the Most Valuable Player award to the entire roster. Moving up and down the stage, Wojciechowski listed the accomplishments of each and every player over the course of the season. He explained how each contribution was important, and without each player’s contribution, the team would not have reached its goal of making the NCAA tournament.
“The beauty of this team was the fact that it was a true team,” Wojciechowski said. “If you take any one player off this roster, without their contributions, then maybe selection Sunday isn’t so fun.”
Luke Fischer and Katin Reinhardt were the only Marquette players not in attendance, as they are currently prepping for the NBA draft combine. Fischer is in Virginia participating in the Portsmouth Invitational, while Reinhardt is back home in California training.
During the meet and greet, some of the players were asked what their proudest moment has been in a Marquette uniform. Duane Wilson and Matt Heldt both mentioned the win over then No. 1 ranked Villanova, but Markus Howard said that he was most proud of getting Marquette back to the tournament.
“My proudest moment was probably selection Sunday,” Howard said. “Seeing all of our hard work pay off with our name on that board was really gratifying.”
The banquet commemorated this past season, but it also looked forward to the future. Marquette basketball has already announced the signings of four incoming freshman in Michigan natives Greg Elliott, Jamal Cain and Ike Eke, as well as Minnesota native Theo John.
Matt Heldt expressed his excitement with Marquette’s new acquisitions.
“All four freshman coming next year have a lot of athleticism which is something we lacked this year,” Heldt said. “I think they’re all going to be contributors right away, and we can help them going forward. I think we have a chance to be much better next year than we were this year.”
