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Leg injury forces Marquette freshman PG Duane Wilson to redshirt

williams

After having the start to his freshman campaign delayed due to a stress fracture in his right leg Marquette freshman guard Duane Wilson returned to practice in mid-December, with the hope being that he could possibly help the Golden Eagles in Big East play. A consensus Top 100 recruit, Wilson has the ability as both a scorer and distributor to give Marquette more versatility at the point guard position.

Unfortunately for Wilson and the Golden Eagles, the leg issue has resulted in the program deciding that the best course of action would be for him to redshirt this season. Marquette announced the news via its Twitter account on Friday morning.

As a senior at Dominican HS in Milwaukee, Wilson averaged 23.8 points, 4.7 assists and 4.5 rebounds per game. With Duane now ruled out, starter Derrick Wilson (no relation) becomes even more important at the point. And according to Mark Strotman of Paint Touches, he’ll need to make some strides if the Golden Eagles are to improve offensively when Big East play begins.

But Marquette is struggling on offense, and Wilson is one player who could help with his outside shooting and entry passes. That hasn’t happened to date, making it difficult to figure out how much Wilson is or isn’t helping the Golden Eagles. The start of the Big East season will be crucial for Wilson; his outside-shooting numbers seem capped, though more attempts at the rim (he’s taking 55 percent of his shots at the rim, up from 48 percent a year ago) and becoming more comfortable finding Gardner and Otule, where the Marquette offense is started most possessions, will go a long way.

Marquette plays its final non-conference game on Saturday when Samford visits Milwaukee. The rotation won’t experience much of a shakeup based upon the fact that Duane Wilson had yet to play a game, but not having him available has impacted the way in which Marquette attacks teams on the offensive end of the floor.

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