Last Year: 27-10; 14-6, Second in the Big East Conference, lost in the Sweet Sixteen of the NCAA Tournament
Head Coach: Shaka Smart (Fourth Year; 75-30 at Marquette, with three NCAA Tournament appearances)
Projected Starting Lineup
G Stevie Mitchell – 6’3″, 200 Senior
G Kam Jones – 6’5″, 205 Senior
W Chase Ross – 6’5″, 210 Junior
F David Joplin – 6’8″, 225 Senior
F Ben Gold – 6’11”, 235 Junior
Experienced Reserves
G Sean Jones – 5’10”, 185 Junior
G Tre Norman – 6’4″, 210 Sophomore
G Zaide Lowery – 6’5″, 200 Sophomore
F Al Amadou – 6’9″, 210 Sophomore
Freshmen
F Damarius Owens – 6’7″, 200
F Royce Parham – 6’8″, 230
F/C Caeden Hamilton – 6’9″, 250 (redshirt)
F/C Joshua Clark – 7’1″, 225
We’re approaching another interesting moment in Shaka Smart’s coaching career. Marquette’s 47-year old head coach has been on the job for 15 years now, with three different schools. He’s already won 347 games, been to 11 NCAA Tournaments, and Smart guided VCU to the 2011 Final Four.
Despite a line of tremendous players who joined Smart on the road to tremendous seasons, repeating that sort of late-March success has eluded Smart’s teams. After all, making a healthy, upset-free run to the Big Dance’s final weekend is among the toughest things to do in all of sports. In Richmond, then Austin, and now Milwaukee, Smart has had all the pieces, but has been unable to re-reach the sport’s summit. Frustratingly, the Golden Eagles thought they had a golden opportunity to make just such a journey last year.
Fate and fortune conspired against them late, unfortunately. By the time postseason play began, many of the key players in Smart’s rotation were either actively injured or playing through the pain of something that had knocked them out of the lineup earlier in the campaign. All of those injuries took their toll. Still, Marquette’s season ended in the Sweet Sixteen. Not every team can absorb big hits and yet emerge with 27 wins, a trip to the Big East tournament title game, and earn two victories at the Big Dance. It wasn’t the glory Marquette had envisioned back in October of 2023, though.
Now, shorn of two program icons following the exits of Tyler Kolek and Oso Ighodaro, Shaka Smart’s latest program is taking a long look at what the future can be. His team still has three proven stalwarts, and they’re expecting to see themselves advancing in March once again. Mostly what they see, though, is a whole lot of Kameron Jones.
This season, the man called Kam is out to make Milwaukee into his very own little kingdom. With the Golden Eagles retooling around a young core that hasn’t yet hit its stride, Jones will be the unquestioned star of this year’s team – and he’s an outstanding place to start.
The team’s leading scorer each of the past two seasons and an outgoing, smack-talking, upbeat kinda guy, Jones appears to be ready to take over as his team’s Mr. Everything. Over his three years as a Golden Eagle, Jones has endeared himself to the team’s fans while establishing his reputation as a must-cover sniper. He’s racked up 1,391 points over that span, and Jones has done so on shooting efficiency that’s the stuff of coaches’ dreams. Despite seeing plenty of aggressive, physical defensive attention, Jones has made a sensational 67.9% of his field goal tries near the basket the past two seasons, per Bart Torvik. The threat of his jumper and handle are more than enough to pull defenders away from help and onto an island, allowing Jones to attack in a host of ways – and he knows how to take advantage.
“He’s not messing around. He’s here for a reason. He’s here for a purpose,” Smart has said of Jones. “At the same time, when it’s time to have fun, he’s definitely the life of the party. He’s a guy dancing in the locker room with his teammates after games. So really, really grateful to have him.” Last season, Jones evolved his game in new ways which should only enhance his readiness to be the go-to guy this winter. He became more comfortable distributing the rock and more composed reading ball screens as the play-driver. Intriguingly, he was considerably more efficient than Kolek last year in that regard. In pick-and-roll situations, Jones produced 1.025 points per possession, as compared to Kolek’s 0.886 figure, per Synergy Sports. He also focused more of his attention inside the arc than beyond it, and with Jones working harder to get higher-percentage looks for his high-percentage shots, the hope is that he can remain efficient even with a jump in volume.
An ankle injury knocked Jones out of the lineup after five minutes against Seton Hall and entirely out of the Golden Eagles’ next contest. Following his return, Jones played with a vengeance. Over Marquette’s final 16 tilts, he dropped four different 30-pieces, and Jones averaged 21.4 points on 67.7% true shooting through the end of the season. Obviously, it helped immensely to have incredibly creative players like Kolek and Ighodaro (usually) by his side, but Jones can go ham all on his own, too. In what may be a preview of things to come, Jones had to do his thing with Kolek sidelined for a half dozen games late in the season, and he showed out. He put up 20.8 points, 4.7 assists, and 4.5 rebounds in those games, and Jones did so while shooting 50.5% from the floor and 45.7% from three. Strangely, the free throw line has long been an occasional struggle for Jones, but he’s improved his rate each year so far. Being that he’s going to get hacked often this winter, Smart would love to see his star scorer hit 75% at the stripe for the first time.
After filling a valuable supporting role the past two years, David Joplin is going to be counted on for a significant jump in production. A local favorite from the Milwaukee area, Joplin is a quality shooter who settled in nicely as a stretch-4 next to the multi-talented Ighodaro. He was named the Big East’s 6th Man of the Year as a sophomore, and last season Joplin made the move to the Golden Eagles’ starting lineup. It wasn’t a perfect transition; some had expected a big jump in offensive production from Joplin, but his first campaign as a starter was fairly similar to his 2022-23 effort. That’s not to say it was disappointing, it’s just that it wasn’t particularly special, either. This fall, Smart is going to need more from the fourth-year forward.
Many one-on-one skirmishes after practice have helped Joplin and Jones to establish a close bond, and the veterans constantly push one another to be better. This year, as the guys who have done it all before, they will carry the lion’s share of Marquette’s offensive burden. Whether setting up on the wing or working a screen and then popping off of it, Joplin is a tremendous shooter. He’s splashed 139 over the past two years, and Joplin has done so at a 37.5% rate. On spot-up opportunities, few in the Big East were better than Joplin last winter. He made 50.0% of his 140 spot-up jumpers, per Synergy Sports, and Joplin’s jumper has become very nearly as effective from 20+ feet out as it is on turnarounds from the elbow. This season, Smart will need the rest of Joplin’s game to continue taking valuable strides forward. An increasingly effective shot blocker and solid area rebounder, Joplin knows how to battle against the Big East’s quality big guys. If he can put his experiences together with his best offensive season, Joplin could become the second star this team really needs.
This team’s third proven veteran is about as abrasive and annoying as it gets. Defensively, that is – and mostly if you’re asking the other team. In Milwaukee, they love Stevie Mitchell. The hope is that he can become a better distributor and ballhandler than ever this winter in order to help Jones, but there’s no doubt about Mitchell as a defender. He ranks fourth all-time in Big East history in steal percentage, and last year, Mitchell piled up the third-most thefts in the league despite missing four games due to a hamstring injury. The Golden Eagles’ glue guy is a prototype perimeter pest: Mitchell is a combative, physical, and highly capable defender who will do anything to get a win.
“You can’t quantify what he brings. We try to quantify it. We keep track of EGB’s (what Smart and his staff call ‘energy-generating behavior’), we keep track of deflections, other energy stats, and he always grades out off the charts in that stuff,” Smart describes Mitchell. “You can’t really put a point total that comes out of his energy, but it is high if you could. We always tell our guys being the first team ready is worth about four, six, eight points in the game. Well Stevie Mitchell’s energy alone is worth a lot of points…he’s one of the toughest guys I’ve ever been around.”
“How I play, I’m going to, you know, play kind of reckless,” Mitchell admitted when asked at the NCAA Tournament last year about his fighting through frequent injuries. “For me, I feel like it’s just the pain in the locker room after we lost to UConn the Big East tournament, the pain in the locker room last year when we lost to Michigan State. That’s worse than any bumps or bruises that anybody’s dealing with.”
“Stevie Mitchell’s energy alone is worth a lot of points…he’s one of the toughest guys I’ve ever been around.”
– Shaka Smart
With his relentless approach, Mitchell has become one of the top stoppers and ‘intangibles’ guys in the Big East. Now, Smart is hoping that he can become a consistent scorer and distributor, too. He’s not a liability on offense; Mitchell is skilled at getting inside on cuts, drives, or crashes to the rim for a tip-in. He piled up 20 stickbacks last year and converted 66.7% of them per Hoop-Math, and Mitchell’s willingness to bring the noise makes him seem bigger than his 6’3″ stature. From the outside, though, Mitchell must improve. His rate from the land of trey has fallen each year of his career, and Marquette would be at a disadvantage by playing a guy who shoots less than 26% from deep for 30+ minutes per game this winter. He’s extremely efficient around the paint; some big guys wish they owned Mitchell’s 57.9% career rate on two-point tries, and last year Mitchell converted 74.1% of his shots close to the rim, per Bart Torvik. Whether or not he adds a quality jumper, Mitchell will be an indispensable part of this team. For the Golden Eagles to reach their potential, though, he must offer more.
Will this be the year when Chase Ross detonates? Golden Eagles fans have been expecting fireworks pretty much since the first time Ross stepped onto the floor, but the grand pyrotechnics have not quite gone off yet. The rangy wing from Texas sure looks like a Smart player. He’s long, quick, energetic, and Ross has serious hops. His shooting splits have been coming along, he defends well, and Ross brings more of the high-effort ‘EGB’ plays that the Marquette coaches love.
“As I describe him, as much as anybody on our team or more, he’s a real dude,” Smart appraises Ross. “He’s the one guy on our team if – I coached a guy out of VCU named Mo Alie-Cox that plays for the Indianapolis Colts. If a football team was looking for a guy, Chase could be that, too, but we love him on the basketball court.” Despite taking over Joplin’s 6th man role and graduating to a 22-minute role, though, Ross has not gotten untracked offensively. A shoulder injury knocked Ross out of the lineup for most of January, which didn’t help anything. He wasn’t able to consistently make the disruptive defensive plays he’s become known for after coming back and playing through the pain, but Ross did show what he’s capable of with 12 clutch points, two steals and two blocks to nudge the Golden Eagles past Colorado and into the Sweet Sixteen. This season, the minutes, shots, and encouragement will be there for Ross to truly emerge. He’s got the athleticism and two-way responsibility needed to become an every-game force, and Marquette is ready to see it all come together.
That’s four projected starters, and the Golden Eagles largely know what to expect from each of them. What, then, to expect from the backup who’s trying to step into Ighodaro’s spot on the floor? Ben Gold has two years’ worth of experience in Smart’s system, plenty of size, and enticing offensive potential. Can he hang as the main frontcourt force for 25 minutes per game for a Big East contender, though? A sweet-shooting native of New Zealand, Gold has been a useful reserve and has caught some opponents off guard by not just launching from deep but tossing in clusters of triples. His sophomore year wrapped up with Gold having made 42 triples at a 35.9% rate, and he provided a great contrast to Ighodaro’s more paint-oriented scoring. He also cashed in when Marquette’s stars fed him the rock inside; he only tried 28 shots near the rim, but Gold made an excellent 82.1% of them, per Bart Torvik.
This year, the opposition will be ready for Gold’s jumper, and they’re going to drag him inside whenever possible and test him near the rim. Last year, in his 16.8 minutes per game, Gold proved that he’s got work to do in that regard. He’s not a poor defender – Smart doesn’t recruit guys who don’t bring it on that end of the floor. He’s been limited thus far, though, and Gold needs to show added strength plus the attitude to use it this fall. If he can provide average-or-better post defense and show a bit more physicality on the glass while consistently pulling the other team’s post defenders outside, Marquette will be reasonably pleased with their Kiwi.
| Five Sats Which Tell The Tale (with national ranks) |
| 47.8% – Team FG Percentage (25th) |
| 15.6 – FT Attempts Per Game (335th) |
| 70.3% – Team FT Percentage (261st) |
| 15.9 – Assists Per Game (35th) |
| 8.6 – Steals Per Game (29th) |
In a perfect world, Sean Jones would have played a full sophomore season as the backup and heir to Kolek at the point, and he’d be ready to take over and take off right about now. This world relentlessly reminds us of its imperfection, though, and as such the exciting youngster suffered a non-contact ACL tear just 16 games into his second season. Moving forward, the status of Jones to start this year healthy is very much a question, but Smart has said that he does expect to have the young point guard back this season.
Tre Norman and Zaide Lowery each played about nine minutes per game last year as rookies, and now they will move up to provide the primary depth at guard. Both of them can shoot the ball, but they didn’t do so at a consistent level as rookies. Both of them were rated as Top 100 recruits by some services a year ago, and following their fairly standard inefficiency as rookies, both Lowery and Norman worked hard on their jumpers during the offseason. Though Norman made just 18.9% of his three’s on the year, his shot was better late in the year, and if he can make a deep ball per game in the year to come, it will make his quickness and strength as a cutter all the more dangerous. He’s also a food, intuitive passer and should get to show more of that this season. Lowery was also a football star in high school, and it shows when he drives towards the goal or won’t let his man get comfortable defensively.
The frontcourt around Joplin and Gold will be young, but it’s full of promise. Al Amadou played in 14 games last year, but only saw 52 total minutes. Amadou plays with a high-revving motor, and he worked very hard when he saw the floor as a freshman. He’s long and mobile, capable of chasing down rebounds and getting vertical to finish inside, but Amadou will have to scrap for his minutes against as a sophomore. Three freshmen will battle it out and offer skills which overlap in helpful ways. A fourth – mobile seven-footer Joshua Clark – will redshirt for now.
Caeden Hamilton is coming off of a developmental year of his own, while newcomers Royce Parham and Damarius Owens played with one another before coming to Marquette, so it’s not quite as raw a group of rookies as things may seem at first glance. With his time off last winter, Hamilton added a significant amount of muscle to his frame. His powerful frame will help Hamilton to hang with the large, veteran players he’ll see in the Big East. He’s comfortable on the block, and Hamilton shows good, reliable hands inside and increasing touch around it. He even has range as a shooter that’s starting to legitimately extend out to the three-point arc. With some functional awareness as a passer, Hamilton can find cutters and benefitted from working with and against Ighodaro last year.
| Five Out-of-Conference Games to Keep an Eye on |
| @ Iowa State – December 4 |
| vs Purdue – November 19 |
| @ Maryland – November 15 |
| @ Wisconsin – December 7 |
| @ Dayton – December 14 |
Together at Western Reserve (OH) Academy, Owens and Parham won the National Prep Championship last year. Following their title-winning success as post-graduate stars, the Top 100-rated duo should be able to help the Golden Eagles right away. Owens is an oversized wing with great vertical athleticism and quickness. He’s going to be dangerous in transition, and Owens will get up to hammer lobs home in the halfcourt. His jump shot is improving, and as he hits his stride from the outside, Owens ought to be a matchup advantage for Smart to deploy. A smooth face-up big man who’s in no way shy about utilizing his strength inside, Parham looks ready to go. He’s got an aggressive scoring mindset, and Parham knows how to take advantage of defenders wherever he exposes a deficiency. A tough defender who can swat shots deep in the post or outside of the lane, Parham shows some veteran touches already, and might earn Big minutes fairly quickly.
The Golden Eagles have set out to test themselves with a very tough non-conference schedule. It’s the sort of slate which will help to prepare them both for conference play and to win beyond once March arrives. There aren’t many teams that will face four true road tests tougher than visits to Dayton, Maryland, Wisconsin, and Iowa State, but Marquette is built to face such challenges.
Last season was one of Smart’s very best efforts from a coaching standpoint. Coaches can’t keep the whole team from getting hurt though, and once guys who play the same position start dropping, it frays the overall unit. Still, Smart held his guys together and Marquette advanced well into both of their postseason tournaments. That shows the qualities of desire, toughness, and responsibility that Smart has built into his program, and it’s the stuff champions can be built upon.
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