USA TODAY Sports
If you listen closely, you can still hear the Marquette coaching staff letting out a giant sigh of relief after Luke Fischer announced his intentions to transfer to Marquette.
The 6-foot-11 big man left Tom Crean and Indiana after one semester in Bloomington with a desire to play closer to home. It doesn’t get much closer than Milwaukee, a short drive from Germantown High School where Fischer thrived in his prep days.
I am excited to say I will be transferring to Marquette University to play for Coach Williams and the Golden Eagles
— Luke Fischer (@Bigfishy44) January 5, 2014
Marquette allows me to be closer to home while playing at the highest level for a great academic institution
— Luke Fischer (@Bigfishy44) January 5, 2014
Buzz and Co. have to be ecstatic with the news on a number of levels.
For starters, he is a good player. He was a highly regarded prospect coming out of high school, becoming Marquette’s first consensus top-100 center under Buzz. His stats at IU may not stand out (2.8 points and 2.1 rebounds per game), but the start of his career was marred by a shoulder injury that kept him out most of the preseason. His final game in the crimson colors saw a career high output of 10 points and 3 blocks against Kennesaw State. The talent is there.
More importantly, he fills a glaring need. With Chris Otule and Davante Gardner graduating and Jameel McKay at Iowa State, Marquette’s lone big man on the roster was going to be incoming freshman Satchel Pierce, a player who won’t be expected to make an immediate impact. Making matters worse, Steve Taylor’s progress has been hampered by an atrophied quad suffered after offseason knee surgery. He may yet blossom into the player that can give teams nightmares as a stretch five, but assuming he can make the jump is foolish.
Instead, Marquette would have resembled its midget 2009-10 version, without a first-rounder in Lazar Hayward or established shooters in Mo Acker and David Cubillan. With Fischer in the fold, players will be able to stay in their natural spots. Bane at the three/four is much more threatening than Bane at the five.
Now, that’s not to say Fischer will step in on day one and be a 3o-minute per game player. Putting outrageous expectations on incoming players is foolish and leads to anger and disappointment. So let’s get the basics out of the way.
Fischer will not be eligible to play until December of 2014, once Marquette posts first semester grades. He will be able to practice and live with the team, but won’t be able to fly with the team to away games until he becomes eligible in December.
More than likely, Fischer will have five semesters of eligibility left in his career, the second half of next season and the following two years. There have been cases where players received a full year of eligibility after transferring, but unless Crean was abusing him at Indiana, it’s not going to happen.
He will not be on scholarship this semester, as McKay possesses it. McKay may no longer be at MU, but a scholarship given lasts a year whether or not it is used.
Speaking of scholarships, Fischer will take the 13th and final scholarship next season with four other incoming freshman signing their letters of intent. That means forward Malek Harris’ future is in limbo. Anonymous Eagle has a great explanation of this.
Luke Fischer gives the future a different dimension. There will be plenty of time to dissect that when the time comes.
Paint Touches 
Won’t he have 7 semesters of eligibility? The second semester of 2014-15 and then three full years.
“Putting outrageous expectations on incoming players is foolish and leads to anger and disappointment.”
How dare you say this about Scoopers! How dare you!
Any words on why he left IU? What happened with CTC?
GZ: That’s the biggest negative to midseason transfers. Unless he sat all of next season, he won’t have three full years of eligibility remaining. Eligibility can’t be broken down by semesters, it’s a year by year thing. Think of Todd Mayo being academically ineligible last year. He doesn’t get an extra semester despite not playing one game. Fischer gets 2.5 years if he plays immediately.
Mazo: The only explanation I’ve read is homesickness. Not sure about it’s validity but seems plausible enough.
I think he suffered a severe shoulder injury and tried to come back from it without surgery. The net result is he was not the same player and thus got limited minutes.Being an 18 year old kid he didn’t want to admit that. Easier mentally to transfer, sit out the year and get healthy and start over at a new place closer to home. They showed him on the TV yesterday with his parents at the game, he looked very young.