One player who has completely flown under the radar in this year's transfer cycle is Furman Paladins transfer guard Marcus Foster. Foster fought through a knee injury in the middle of last season that led to his numbers not looking as good as they likely would have had he remained healthy all year. Because of that, he wasn't as highly touted on the transfer market as he should have been. Despite this, he still ended up receiving interest from a Xavier program that was using this offseason to completely revamp their roster for the better. I am incredibly excited for this new-look Musketeer squad, and I think Marcus Foster could be the X-factor for a group that may cement themselves as a top-25 team pretty early on. That said, what about Foster makes him the talent that I believe will put him in 2025 NBA Draft conversations despite him being a six-year college player? Let's break down Foster's game on both ends of the court and let me explain why I think he may be the biggest breakout candidate in the Big East.
pc: Furman University Athletics
Player Profile:
Marcus Foster is a 6'4" and 200lb shooting guard coming off of his redshirt-senior season, and fourth year actively playing for Furman University. He was an unheralded recruit coming out of Drew Charter High-School in the 2019 recruiting class. He signed with Furman and immediately redshirted for his true-freshman season. When he finally did get to see some playing time in the 2020-21 season, he wasn't overly eye-catching. However, he became a solid role player for the Paladins in the 2021-22 season, and this carried over to 2022-23. It wasn't until the 2023-24 season when Foster would get an opportunity to be the team's first option on the offensive end, and he took full advantage of this opportunity. To start his redshirt-senior season, Foster was averaging 25.8 points per game, 5.7 rebounds, 1.6 assists, 1 steal, and .4 blocks on shooting splits of 49.5% from the field, 27.5% from beyond the arc, and 83.8% from the free-throw line. This was until he got injured in an early December matchup against Princeton, which kept him off the court until January 17th. When he returned you could tell that he wasn't 100%, and his scoring numbers dropped because of this. By the time the season ended, he posted averages of 17 points per game, 7.5 rebounds, 1.8 assists, 1 steal, and .3 blocks on shooting splits of 42.5% from the field, 29.7% from beyond the arc, and 81.3% from the free-throw line. This up-and-down season was still good enough to land Marcus Foster on the All-Southern Conference Second Team and allowed him to take his talents to Xavier and the Big East.
Interior Scoring:
As I'm sure you could tell based on his subpar three-point shooting percentages, Foster does the majority of his scoring near the basket. That's not necessarily a negative, as Foster is one of the better around-the-rim finishers I've covered in this series. He's not a hyper-athletic above-the-rim finisher, but his under and around-the-rim finishing is elite. He's fast, he's powerful, and he has great feel for shots close to the hoop. No matter the scenario that he finds himself in, Foster looks incredibly comfortable converting on shot attempts at the rim.
Foster isn't a primary ball-handler, and he puts himself into scoring positions off the ball for the most part. As a two-guard this is somewhat normal, especially considering he was playing alongside a very good college point guard in JP Pegues. What matters most for Foster is getting downhill once he receives the pass. He's incredibly effective when he can pick up speed heading toward the hoop, as the faster he's moving the easier it seems for him to finish through interior defenders. We will talk about this a lot throughout this article, but Foster is a very strong guard both on and off the ground. He's able to absorb a ton of contact on his attempts at the rim and finish through it, which may be his most valuable trait as a scorer. In the last two clips above you can see this. In the first clip he floats through the defense, which he is capable of doing on these possessions when he gets off the ground farther from the basket. He's a super effective scorer around the rim both in the half-court and full-court, which we will talk about here in a moment.
While he does primarily operate off the ball, he doesn't do a ton of cutting. That said, when he does cut to the rim it tends to have positive results. Why? Because he's able to pick up more speed without the ball than he is with it, which we've already said benefits his scoring around the rim. In addition to that, this gives the interior defender less time to prepare for the attempt at the rim. Foster is already very effective finishing through contact around the basket, and a lesser prepared rim protector is going to offer an even weaker contest. All of this should tell you that Foster should be cutting off the ball more often than he did this past season, and I hope to see Xavier taking advantage of that this season.
Something that separates Foster from most other guards is his strength and ability to use that strength to his advantage in a myriad of ways. He's very good at backing down similar sized and smaller opponents and is skilled enough to convert once he's near the basket. He has solid burst when he spins off of his defender, allowing himself to get to the basket before the defender is able to recover. Finally, his ball security is fantastic. He doesn't allow the ball to get batted away by help defenders on these possessions, something that a lot of post-up players struggle with.
While Foster is great at applying rim pressure in the half court and on post-ups, I would argue that he's at his best scoring in transition. As I mentioned earlier, Foster is most effective scoring around the hoop when he's able to pick up speed. As I'm sure you can imagine, Foster picks up all the speed he needs when he's operating in the full-court. Not only can he use this speed to attack the rim with a certain ferocity you don't see from him elsewhere, but he's also capable of quickly decelerating to throw off opponents. This is also where he looks the most comfortable handling the ball, seemingly developing lead ball handler skills in the blink of an eye whenever he starts the fast break. I'm not sure what kind of offense we're going to see from Xavier this season, but if they want to get the most out of Foster, they will push the pace as often as possible. This will likely reign true for whatever team(s) he ends up playing for at the next level.
In-Between Game:
There's no doubt in my mind that the weakest aspect of Foster's offensive arsenal is his in-between game. This is surprising considering he does have an advanced post-up game, but I guess he simply prefers to finish those possessions at the rim instead of with jumpshots. In all of the tape I could find of him I didn't see him attempt a true mid-range jumper, with the closest he came to it being a turnaround push-shot. Now, does this mean he never takes these shots? No. For what it's worth, not all of Furman's games were available to me while studying his film. That said, I'm still very comfortable saying that Foster is very far away from having a translatable mid-range game at the moment, and that it's something I'd really like to see him work on going forward.
Taking more turnaround push-shots like the one you see above would be a great place to start for the development of his mid-range game. He should be able to leverage his already developed skillset to increase his volume from this range. You would hope that at some point he's able to develop a real and translatable mid-range jumper, but at the moment he's far away from doing so. However, if he's going to struggle from a certain region, I'm glad that it's in the mid-range instead of around-the-rim or beyond the arc. He has the touch necessary to be solid from this range, so for the time being I'm still hopeful that under the correct circumstances a mid-range game could present itself at some point.
Three-Point Shooting:
If you just look at the numbers from this season you may not be impressed by his outside shooting acumen. However, it's important to note that this was a down season for him from beyond the arc, especially after his knee injury. He shot north of 35% from deep in both his sophomore and junior seasons, and in his junior season he shot a similar volume to what he shot in his senior year. While I don't consider Foster to be a knock down outside shooter even after looking at those numbers, I am of the opinion that he's a far better shooter than his numbers from this year would lead you to believe. He's a versatile shooter, he has a quick release, and his mechanics are replicable and translatable. I believe he'll have a bounce back shooting year at Xavier, and potentially even a career year from deep.
Funny enough, Foster doesn't take a ton of catch-and-shoot stand still threes. This isn't a bad thing, because if he was shooting 30% on only these looks there would be some serious questions about his longterm outlook as a shooter. Seeing that that isn't the case, I think Foster looks super comfortable on these shots. Here you see a great example of how quick his release is and how smooth his shot motion is. The mechanics aren't perfect, but I don't see any sort of bad hitch or anything that would drastically throw off his shot motion. He slightly dips it on the catch, but because his release is so quick it doesn't particularly matter.
Catch-and-shoot threes like the two you see above are better examples of those that make up the majority of Foster's outside shooting volume. His movement shooting passes the eye test, both moving away and towards the ball. He's great at quickly relocating to create easy shots for himself, and that quick shot release allows him to get these shots off before a contest comes, even if he receives the pass before he reaches his spot. For the most part he's a consistent mover off the ball, constantly looking for the best shot possible and trusting his teammates to find him in those spots. Again, it was after his knee injury when he was forced to do less moving, and this injury also altered his verticality on his shots, both factors leading him to make these shots at a less efficient clip. He wasn't shooting great in the six games before that injury either, but the sample size was not big enough for me to feel good about critiquing his shot in those games.
Much like his interior scoring, it could be argued that Foster is at his best shooting the three when he's in transition. His comfort taking and making these shots when the game is moving as fast as it does on these possessions tells me how good of an outside shooter he could be. Much like his movement catch-and-shooting in the half court, Foster is set up for most of these shots well before he makes it to his spot. Still, he's able to gather a pass and put up a quick shot without altering his shooting motion or mechanics. Everything tells me that Foster should at the very least be an average three-point shooter, so I have no reason to believe that he won't have a good shooting year next season playing alongside better teammates in a better system.
Passing & Playmaking:
Because he's primarily a play finisher instead of a primary ball handler or playmaker, he doesn't get a ton of chances to show off his playmaking and passing. However, while studying his film it was actually an aspect of his game that I was impressed by. He's a solid passer with good vision who's capable of making decisions on the fly. This gives me confidence that he's a more than capable secondary playmaker, and I'd be curious to see what it looks like when his workload in this department is increased.
Foster excels at passing out of his post-ups, which is unique considering that's normally a trait you associate with frontcourt players. That said, it's a very real skill and his very real ability to score on these possessions opens up teammates around the perimeter. Passes like these aren't incredibly flashy by any means, but they create very efficient offense. There's a world where he gets even stronger (which would be very scary for opponents), and subsequently becomes an even more effective post-up scorer. This would open up even more space beyond the arc and would give Xavier good reason to increase his playmaking workload. That's just a hypothetical at the moment, but it's a good example of the offensive versatility that Foster could possibly offer his team in the future.
These two clips are good examples of his quick decision making and ability to put teammates in good positions to score using his passing. In the first he's able to deliver a pass to his cutting teammate once he realizes that the defense failed to stick with him on his path to the hoop. What's impressive here is that he felt comfortable leaving his feet to make this pass, which he had to do in order to get the ball over the two defenders. In the second he accelerates from the perimeter, mimicking his interior scoring in the half court, before avoiding the rim protector and setting his teammate up for an easy layup. Both of these clips show Foster making a pass as soon as the opportunity presents itself, as he doesn't seem to need much time in order to create offense for his teammates. This is impressive stuff, and it's something that I think he could do more of if he were asked to do so.
Defense:
An area where I think Foster could really make waves down the road is on the defensive end. At this point in his career, I'm not sure if I would consider him to be a defensive standout, but he's definitely a good defender with a ton of room to improve. His strength is a major positive for his impact on this end of the floor, and when you add his ability to quickly accelerate to that equation, you're looking at someone who is naturally preconditioned to be a good defender. He has good enough size to guard both backcourt positions and is strong enough to defend smaller threes. He's not the most versatile defender in the world, but he's never going to be the guy that the other team targets. Much like his outside shooting and overall scoring impact, his knee injury did negatively affect his defensive impact this season. I don't expect that to be an issue next year, and for that reason I believe he'll have a very solid defensive season at Xavier.
While I'm of the opinion that Foster is a fine point-of-attack defender, he does the majority of his work as a help defender. Much like his passing, he's a very smart decision maker on the defensive end. I never caught him losing his focus or found him setting up in the wrong spot, instead he regularly made the correct decision with precise timing in order to turn the opponent over. Whether it be stepping in to a driving lane to pick up a steal or baiting an opponent to throw a pass directly to him, he uses his IQ to make a difference as a help defender.
Look, relying on Foster to be a consistently helpful secondary rim protector would be silly. However, clips like the two above give you more reason to believe that he has built a defensive foundation in using his brain. In the first clip you can actively see him slowing down in order to perfectly time his block from behind. In the second he avoids the opponent with his body while finding the ball for the block. That second clip also show you how willing he is to immediately break into transition offense. That ability to disrupt an opposing offensive possession and then immediately force said opponent to get back on defense is an excellent one-two punch that Foster is primed to throw. That defense-to-offense pipeline creates efficient looks on the other end, and it seems like he has embraced this theory. I'm a big fan of this mentality, in fact, I'm a big fan of how Foster seems to think about the game in real time.
Summary:
Before I summarize what makes Marcus Foster a special prospect, I want to list out anything that I think is a weakness in his game. Remember, he's coming off of a season where he was very much injured, so some of these "weaknesses" may be overblown. There's a very real chance that getting healthy will cause these flaws to be somewhat muted next year, which I hope is the case. That said, it's still important to point out what Foster should work on going forward so that you can fully evaluate him as a potential professional prospect.
For being as quick as he is, especially considering his first-step acceleration on both ends, he's not a great vertical athlete. He's not a guy who's going to throw down poster dunks or pin shots off the backboard. Instead, his game around the rim is primarily based in skill and finesse. You just have to hope that the vertical athleticism gap isn't big enough to seriously harm his game at the next level.
While he does have solid footwork, he doesn't do himself any favors with his ball handling. He has learned how to thrive without the ball in his hands, but if he wants to raise his ceiling he will have to get better as a ball handler.
His mid-range game is a major flaw. At this moment he is nearly void of both shot making and shot taking from this part of the floor. Being a three-level scorer, especially when you're a guard, is incredibly important if a player wants to succeed at the next level.
While we did talk about why his three-point shooting took a hit this season, it's still important to note that this drop off could have very well been a real one. More than likely it had to do with his injury and time away from the game, but there's a chance he's just not a very good outside shooter. He will have to have a big year from beyond the arc next season to prove my original hypothesis correct.
As much as I do think he has the chops to be a good secondary playmaker, his ball handling could hold him back in this department. Again, he's not a bad ball handler, but he's not good enough to create real consistent advantages for himself and his teammates.
Defensively, he's just an okay point of attack defender. Now, most guys he will be guarding aren't going to be the best player on the opposing team, but I do wish he would learn how to leverage his strength and speed into being a better lead defender.
To summarize Marcus Foster, he's an uber-strong two-guard whose experience raises his floor while he maintains a higher ceiling than your average graduate student. He's an elite play finisher around the rim, both on and off the ball. It's when you begin to extend his game farther away from the rim when you run into issues. While he doesn't have much of a mid-range game, I am high on his shooting from deep from a longterm perspective. If he can cement himself as a good outside shooter while improving his in-between game, he would be an incredible all-around scorer. Despite being well into his collegiate career, his playmaking has yet to be truly tapped into, and I am of the opinion that he's a much better passer than his assist numbers would lead you to believe. Where he truly excels in all aspects of the offensive game is in transition, as he elevates his game on the fast break. Defensively, he's not a game breaker, but he's definitely capable of making a consistent impact on the game. He's a fantastic rebounding guard, something we didn't really dig into in this article. He's a smart and prepared defender who uses his IQ and feel for the game to disrupt opposing offenses. Overall, it's weird to see a guy Foster's age with so much room to grow, but with an already very high floor. I fully expect him to have a career year at Xavier this season, a team that I think could go very far in March.
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