Travis Diener’s choice for MU post-2000s team

A few weeks back I posited a question asking readers on here and on Twitter to pick the best team of Marquette players post-2000 from the graphic above with the $15 provided. The results were tremendous, with almost 150 unique responses.

But then we added a newborn to the already chaotic Greska household, and it kind of just trailed off organically. However, I couldn’t just leave it at that. We needed to get an expert opinion on the case.

Enter Travis Diener. A member of the graphic at $4 himself, he had either played or coached with over half the players involved, and was best suited to give us the breakdown this type of question required.

Best Team

$5 Dwayne Wade: “I can justify him at pretty much any amount, that’s the easiest decision you can make.”

$4 Travis Diener: “Gotta go with myself here. We have chemistry playing together and balanced each other out pretty well.”

$3 Steve Novak: “He has the ability to create space for Wade to operate and if they collapse there is no better shooter in the universe.”

$2 Robert Jackson: “Rob is just a force down low. He gives us size inside if we need a basket but can also stretch out the defense.”

$1 Jamil Wilson: “I got to play with him in the TBT and has ability to play the 3 or 4. He balances the team out with his athleticism.”

As you can see, Travis went with a reprise of Marquette’s most successful team in the last 40 years, with Jamil slotted in.

“I’m extremely loyal so that matters, but ’03 worked out pretty well, so that’s just who I would have to pick,” Diener noted.

Turns out it wasn’t just a Travis thing, this lineup was one of the most common ones picked, with 4% of respondents concurring with the former player and coaching staff member.

Photo by Anthony Giacomino/ Paint Touches

But we weren’t satisfied with just getting one team out of him, we needed to dig deeper. So we asked Travis to pick 2 teams, the best possible defensive group if you needed to get 1 stop, and the best offensive group if you didn’t care about defense one bit.

Top D

Jimmy Butler ($5), Wes Matthews ($4), Dominic James ($3), Vander Blue ($2), Ousmane Barro ($1)

“Nique at PG was the best on-ball defender in the country his senior year with his strength and athleticism,” Diener said. “With this lineup, we can switch 1-4, maybe even 1-5 at times.”

Top O

Markus Howard ($5), Jerel McNeal ($4), Henry Ellenson ($3), Davante Gardner ($2), Andrew Rowsey ($1)

“With Howard and Rowsey we may give up 200, but we’d score 250. Henry averaged close to 20 points a game his year at Marquette and was a mismatch everywhere,” Diener mused. “Jerel is the 2nd all-time leading scorer. Gardner was impssible to guard and was almost automatic down low.”

If you haven’t submitted your squad yet, we are still open for business. Here are a few higher profile selections for motivation.