Gardner signs in France after one of greatest Value Add runs at MU

Davante Gardner, who was the 55th best Value Add player in the country his junior season and still in the top 4% of all players his senior season, has signed a pro contract in France.

Gardner's sophomore year was the 32nd best of any Marquette player. Only four Marquette players matched three years at that level - Travis Diener, Lazar Hayward, Dominic James (now Dominic Wright) and Wesley Matthews.

Dwyane Wade's 2003 was the best of any player, when he had the 7th best season in the 12-year history of the Value Add database. Travis Diener had three of Marquette's top 10 seasons, and Jimmy Butler had two of Marquette's top 10 seasons.

I first saw Davante Gardner when I flew to Marquette for the Notre Dame game which he took as his visit from my native Virginia, and loved his play for all four years - believing he became easily Marquette's best player. We wish him and Jamil Wilson, who is fighting to become Marquette's 37th NBA player, the best of luck.

Below are the players with the top 50 Value Add seasons for Marquette, with notes on their pro careers after Marquette. Dwight Buycks' best season was actually the 56th best, but we include him as an honorable mention since he played in the NBA last year.

Top 50 MU Seasons	Player	Value Add	Year	Pro career after Marquette?
19	Acker, Maurice	5.08	2010	France is 6th pro country
38	Barro, Ousmane	3.34	2007
39	Barro, Ousmane	2.95	2008	Romania is 6th pro country
26	Blue, Vander	4.02	2013	3 NBA Games with Celtics
45	Blue, Vander	2.64	2012
5	Butler, Jimmy	7.79	2010	87 NBA Starts with Bulls
9	Butler, Jimmy	6.37	2011
42	Butler, Jimmy	2.81	2009
HM (56)	Buycks, Dwight	1.73	2011	14 NBA games with raptors
37	Cadougan, Junior	3.36	2013	Canadian National Team
49	Cadougan, Junior	2.46	2012
31	Chapman, Joe	3.7	2006	Japan
2	Crowder, Jae	11.12	2012	24 NBA starts, 156 games for Mavs
12	Crowder, Jae	5.83	2011
36	Cubillan, David	3.44	2007	Brief Israel contracts
40	Cubillan, David	2.94	2010
47	Cubillan, David	2.5	2008
3	Diener, Travis	9.31	2004	21 NBA Starts with Pacers, 179 games
4	Diener, Travis	8.92	2005
7	Diener, Travis	6.53	2003
43	Fitzgerald, Dan	2.76	2007	Spanish team is 8th pro team
11	Gardner, Davante	6.13	2013	France - just signed
22	Gardner, Davante	4.75	2014
32	Gardner, Davante	3.54	2012
8	Hayward, Lazar	6.49	2010	72 NBA games with Wolves and Thunder
15	Hayward, Lazar	5.52	2009
20	Hayward, Lazar	4.9	2008
21	Jackson, Robert	4.77	2003	None known
13	James, Dominic	5.69	2006	French career ended in 2013, name now Dominic Wright
17	James, Dominic	5.33	2008
24	James, Dominic	4.28	2007
30	James, Dominic	3.72	2009
18	Johnson-Odom, Darius	5.26	2012	7 NBA games for Lakers, 76ers
35	Johnson-Odom, Darius	3.46	2011
46	Johnson-Odom, Darius	2.56	2010
50	Lockett, Trent	2.36	2013	Top German League, D-League Select
10	Matthews, Wesley	6.19	2009	321 NBA starts Jazz and Blazers, 14.0 ppg
27	Matthews, Wesley	3.92	2007
28	Matthews, Wesley	3.84	2008
14	McNeal, Jerel	5.66	2009	Spanish team is 7th pro team
16	McNeal, Jerel	5.41	2008
33	McNeal, Jerel	3.5	2007
48	McNeal, Jerel	2.47	2006
29	Merritt, Scott	3.73	2003	Japan
6	Novak, Steve	7.46	2006	414 NBA games, 2085 points
23	Novak, Steve	4.65	2005
34	Novak, Steve	3.49	2004
41	Novak, Steve	2.85	2003
1	Wade, Dwyane	11.4	2003	710 NBA Starts, 24.3 ppg, 6.0 ast, 5.0 reb, 1.8 stl, 1.0 blk
25	Wilson, Jamil	4.2	2013	signs with Suns, trying to make team
44	Wilson, Jamil	2.73	2012

Unexpectedly busy Tuesday

The pod signal went up, so here we are. Once of sounds like he's calling on a Campbell soup can, but hopefully you'll survive because we have a lot to talk about. It was a hectic Tuesday, with the new AD announced and then the complete schedule rolled out. We are barely qualified to talk about basketball so we certainly aren't qualified to vet an AD hire....doesn't mean we don't try. While not a complete, in-depth analysis of the schedule, we spend a little time talking about our overall impressions. We also decided to put our "optimism" hats on(surprised we could find them) to discuss what things could happen that would result in a positive experience this season. Lastly, we turn to recruiting, welcoming Haanif Cheathnam, the latest MU player that will have his name misspelled and mispronounced for the next four years, That leads into a general recruiting discussion which includes the 900 pound gorilla in the MU recruiting room. #bringDraketoMadness Download this episode (right click and save)