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Baltz’s Book: Mitchell flashes offensive prowess, first-years starting to make serious impact

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No. 15 Marquette men’s basketball notched wins against Central Michigan and Maryland last week. Here are some thoughts from the week that was for the Golden Eagles:

Mitchell steps up big

In the inaugural ‘Baltz’s Book’ I published last week, I wrote a subsection about Marquette needing to find its Robin. Kam Jones — Marquette’s Batman — is currently averaging 24 points a game to go along with five assists. His 28-point masterpiece against Maryland has people talking about him as a potential national player of the year candidate.

However, as we all know, Jones can only do so much. Enter Stevie Mitchell.

Coming into the week, Mitchell was averaging just six points a game. Everyone knows Mitchell as the Golden Eagles’ do-it-all glue guy. The guy who has historically set the standard for what it means to be an energy generating behavior at Marquette.

Last week though, the senior guard sung to a particularly different tune. After David Joplin and Chase Ross had their auditions to star as Robin this season, Mitchell threw his name into the hat Monday night, scoring a team-high 17 points on 5-of-8 shooting on a night the Golden Eagles desperately needed it.

When Jones was forced to head to the bench when he picked up his fourth foul with 10:27 to play, Mitchell stepped up as the offensive figurehead. The Reading, Pennsylvania native scored nine points down the stretch to help Marquette seal the deal on a victory against the Chippewas.

“I think we all know Kam’s our guy on offense,” Mitchell said Monday night after the game. “So when he goes out, the mindset changes. Like, all right, we all need to step up offensively or be a little more aggressive because he’s not in right now.”

While Jones didn’t struggle nearly as much with putting the ball in the basket in College Park, Mitchell continued to thrive offensively, scoring 18 points and grabbing five rebounds.

His most important moments came at the time when it mattered the most — crunch time.

First, it was flying in to rebound a badly missed three-pointer from Joplin and putting it back up with 1:08 to extend the Golden Eagles’ lead to eight.

But after the following 60 seconds included some unhinged and unstable college basketball, Mitchell was once again at the free throw line with five seconds to go with a chance to put the Terrapins away for good. He sunk both, effectively bailing Marquette out of what would have been an epic collapse with a minute to play.

The rookies have arrived

The Golden Eagles have been the embodiment of ‘the sum of a machine’s parts need to be greater than its whole’ this season.

And so far, the first-years have done that to a tee.

First-year Royce Parham has been a revelation for Marquette. The forward went off for nine points in the first half against Central Michigan, and helped ignite a previously somnolent Fiserv Forum with a vicious and-one dunk.

“He’s a phenomenal offensive player. I mean, this guy is going to score a ton of points here,” Smart said after the win. “Just a matter of him gaining a comfort level with everything we do.”

Parham exited Monday’s game with cramps, but was back on the floor Friday night. If you were wondering what the status of his health was heading into the Maryland game, your questions were quickly answered in the first half, as Parham came in off the bench to add five points and a steal in the first 20 minutes alone.

Parham added another five points in the second half, and has quickly began to make his case for being the first man off the bench for Smart moving forward.

Redshirt first-year Caedin Hamilton saw a career-high 13 minutes against Central Michigan due to Ben Gold getting himself into foul trouble. Hamilton played good minutes for Marquette off the bench, tallying two points and a rebound — but most importantly, he played like a force down low.

It was more of the same against Maryland, as Hamilton saw 12 minutes of tick due to more foul trouble from Gold. He didn’t score, but he did pull down four rebounds and dish out two assists. Hamilton played a huge role in holding former All-Big Ten honorable mention forward Julian Reese to just two points on three shot attempts.

Highly touted first year forward Damarius Owens — who was sidelined with a toe injury for the first three games of the season — made his debut Friday night. He played just four minutes, but tallied two points and a steal.

It’s unclear how much Smart will turn to Owens off the bench moving forward — especially given the difficulty of the Golden Eagles’ next two opponents. However, now that Owens is ready to go, his play will be something worth monitoring over the course of the next couple of weeks as Marquette continues to get healthy.

What’s on tap?

Marquette takes on No. 6 Purdue (4-0) Tuesday night at Fiserv Forum at 8 p.m. CST. Then, it’s off to the Bahamas to take on Georgia on Saturday. The tip for that one is scheduled for 10 a.m. CST.

This story was written by Matthew Baltz. He can be reached at matthew.baltz@marquette.edu or on Twitter/X @MatthewBaltzMU.