Marquette oozes confidence with mystery recruits, seasoned vets

Practice doesn't start for almost two months, but Tom Crean is ready right now. The meticulous Marquette coach already has concocted practice schedules deep into October.

Marquette coach Tom Crean knows he's got his arms full of high-caliber talents this season.(Getty Images)

"I was up late last night planning our first five practices," Crean says. "I'm excited to get started."

He should be. Marquette returns the best three players from a 19-12 team, including preseason All-American candidate Travis Diener at point guard, and Crean has complemented that foundation with a mysterious trio of recruits that could answer the team's questions in the post.

The most mysterious recruit of all, maybe in the entire country, is a 6-foot-10 former Senegalese under-19 national team member who is nicknamed "The Ooze." Ousmane Barro was an unexpected surprise at the 2002 Nike All-America Camp, but since then he has receded into basketball's background.

After Barro moved to Chicago from Dakar, Senegal, the Illinois public high school federation ruled him ineligible at Julian High because he lived with Julian's coach. That prompted Barro to consider transferring to a private high school in Miami or obtaining his GED and playing for a junior college in Kansas.

He chose instead to spend the past two seasons at Julian -- not playing.

Barro's first game with Marquette will be his first organized game in the United States. Ask Crean if he's sitting on a winning lottery ticket, and he gives an answer that sounds a little bit like yes.

"I fell in love with him a long time ago at Julian. He's got a lot of potential, but there's a learning curve," Crean said. "He's got raw athleticism, and he was extremely well coached by Loren Jackson at Julian when he wasn't playing. He's got great length, great timing, runs extremely well, and he's a sponge for learning. Take those attributes, allow him time to develop offensive skills, allow him to learn in games, and he'll be a really good player. He has a 7-2 wingspan and is getting his weight up. The parts are there."

Even if Barro needs more than one season to reach his apparently sizable potential, the parts are there for Marquette to get back to the NCAA Tournament. Last season Marquette reached the NIT, a fall from the 2003 Final Four but a reasonable destination for a team that had lost its top two scorers, including All-American Dwyane Wade.

One year later Marquette has lost both its starting big men, Scott Merritt and Terry Sanders, but Crean believes his interior could be deeper this season.

Part of that is the addition of Barro and two other intriguing recruits, 7-0 junior college All-American Mike Kinsella and 6-8 Ryan Amoroso, an unsung addition whom Crean says has earned raves from teammates following pickup games. Part of that is the return of role players Chris Grimm and Marcus Jackson.

And another part of that is Crean's plan to wield Steve Novak as a weapon of matchup destruction. Novak, a 6-10 junior, has added almost 30 pounds since reporting to Marquette weighing 190. Crean hopes the added muscle will add a dimension of toughness to Novak's incredible shooting skills (career totals: 92.1 percent on free throws, 45.6 percent on 3-pointers).