Marquette Basketball: Sacar Anim to redshirt for Golden Eagles

One of Marquette basketball’s highly coveted recruits in the class of 2015 will redshirt in his sophomore season.

With a lot of young pieces fighting for minutes, Marquette Golden Eagles sophomore guard/forward Sacar Anim will redshirt during the 2016-17 season.

Anim only played 5.2 minutes per game in his freshman campaign, while averaging 1.2 points, 0.4 rebounds and 0.1 assists per game. He shot 47 percent from the field, 40 percent from beyond the arc and just 17 percent from free throw line.

From the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel:

“It was a discussion that I had with Sacar and his family and I think it was in the best interests for his development,” Wojciechowski said after Saturday’s 106-53 exhibition win at the BMO Harris Bradley Center. “He’s a young guy — he’s over a year younger than the other guys in the sophomore class. We have a lot of perimeter players and I think he’s a guy who can be a valuable asset to our program, but he needs to use his year to continue to get better as a player, stronger as an athlete.

“I think it’s a really good decision for his development.”

“…They actually were all surprised,” Anim said. “A lot of guys were like, ‘Why’d you redshirt? You were going to play. You were going to play good minutes.’ I tried to explain to them what Coach said how this was best for me. …”

The former four-star guard/forward in the class of 2015 was ranked as the 37th shooting guard and the second best player in the state of Minnesota. Anim has good length, is a solid athlete and he excels when playing in transition.

In the half court, Anim uses his quick first step to slash to the basket and is capable of finishing over length.

However, as head coach Steve Wojciechowski alluded to after the team’s preseason win, Anim needs to improve his strength. Anim, who is currently up to 205 pounds, would have played a lot of three and four in 2016-17 due to the lack of bigs currently on Marquette’s roster. But would Anim be able to hold up over the course of the season even if his minutes weren’t heavy from game-to-game?

Beyond senior Luke Fischer, the Golden Eagles have only one player that stands taller than 6’7″: Matt Heldt (6’10”). Marquette will have to use plenty of small lineups with Sandy Cohen III, freshman Sam Hauser, Jajuan Johnson and/or Katin Reinhardt sliding down to the four and maybe even the five position on occasion.

This will create major mismatches on the offensive end the floor and allow the Golden Eagles to make more plays in transition.

Anim would have factored into the rotation in 2015-16, but with an extra year to work on his overall game, the guard/forward has an opportunity to be a key role player over the next three years. Marquette still has a chance to finish between 5th and 9th in the Big East even without the presence of Anim, so this is the best bet for the future of both the player and the program.