After going 5-8 in its final 13 games this season, all Marquette men’s basketball can do is ponder what went into its late-season collapse.
It became increasingly evident as time went on this season that MU was not the same team in March as it was when it blew out then-No. 6 Purdue at Fiserv Forum in November, or the same squad that beat Wisconsin for the first time under head coach Shaka Smart in early December.
A season that once boasted so much hope and excitement with the prospect of a deep run in March seemingly within reach, ended painfully for the Golden Eagles 10 days ago in a crushing 75-66 defeat to New Mexico in the Round of 64 at the NCAA Tournament.
While the loss still sits fresh in the minds of many, the world of college basketball is currently crazier than ever. The transfer portal officially opened on Monday, giving every single college basketball player with remaining eligibility a chance to hop in the portal if they choose.
The transfer portal has become increasingly hectic since NCAA athletes were given the right to monetize their name, image and likeness at the start of July in 2021. According to CBS Sports, over 1,000 athletes have entered the portal since it opened a week ago — a number that only figures to rise over the coming days and weeks as more players come to decisions on what they believe to be best for their future.
With all that being said, here are some notes as we get further into the offseason:
Looking at Marquette’s current roster
Outside of David Joplin, Kam Jones and Stevie Mitchell, MU is set to return all its scholarship players from this past season, except one. It was reported by Verbal Commits on X that redshirt sophomore forward Al Amadou was entering the portal on Thursday.
There have been no other public announcements of anyone having intentions of transferring out of the program yet, but the portal doesn’t close until April 22nd, which obviously leaves the door open for someone to transfer in the coming weeks if they would choose to do so.
Marquette is set to return two starters in Chase Ross and Ben Gold next season. The remaining three spots will be up for grabs, but this is what the projected starting lineup for next year could look like.
- PG: Sean Jones
- SG: Zaide Lowery
- SF: Chase Ross
- PF: Royce Parham
- C: Ben Gold
Lowery flashed his upside potential on both ends of the floor countless times this season, most notably in his career-high 25-point performance in MU’s loss at Villanova last month.
Along with Lowery, Parham and first-year forward Damarius Owens came off the bench and showed why they were such highly-regarded prospects in high school. Owens and Parham combined for 28 points in Marquette’s 81-70 loss at Iowa State, draining over 50 percent of the team’s triples in the contest.
It will be interesting to see what happens with redshirt forward Josh Clark as well. The Houston, Texas native was a late addition to the recruiting class last spring, coming to MU to get an extra year of development and get stronger before ever stepping on the floor.
Clark’s 7-foot-5 wingspan already makes him a promising defensive prospect, but it will most likely take time for him to adjust to the speed and physicality of the college game before he’s ready to become a serious contributor.
The Golden Eagles will welcome the 18th-best recruiting class in the country to campus this summer, per 247Sports. Smart’s fifth recruiting class at the helm figures to be one of, if not his best yet, boasting a quartet of four-star prospects who are ranked inside the top 110 best players in the class.
Given the roles that first-years have had on past teams, it’s hard to project how much Nigel James, Adrien Stevens, Ian Miletic and Michael Phillips will play. Stevens and James seem to be the most game-ready right now, but a lot can change in five months based on schematic needs and player development.
Will this be the year Marquette takes a transfer?
After losing Emarion Ellis, Keeyan Itejere and Zach Wrightsil to the portal two years ago, Marquette did not lose a single player to the portal last offseason. And while there are no guarantees this time of year, Smart and his staff have been as consistent as they come in retaining players year after year since the Madison, Wisconsin native took over in 2021.
However, this year feels a little bit different, as MU prepares to go through what Smart has alluded to as a “stress-test” on the way they do things. The Golden Eagles currently have 13/15 scholarships filled going into next season, leaving room for a potential transfer, or another late, lower-ranked recruit that they bring in to redshirt. The latter seems more likely at this point.
Getting a veteran big man or guard transfer could help the Golden Eagles bolster their defense or shooting prowess. But it doesn’t seem likely that MU will get into any NIL bidding wars for any of the top transfers, even if they were interested in them.
At the end of the day, it all comes down to whether the coaching staff believes they have enough to compete. After the loss to New Mexico, Smart gave some insight into part of why they didn’t take a transfer last offseason.
“When you look at games that you can lose, you can say ‘You were missing this, or you were missing that,’ and that’s a fair assessment,” he said. “With that being said, we felt like we had the guys this year that we could compete with anyone. That doesn’t necessarily mean you’re going to win the game, but we could be competitive with anyone we played.”
Smart went on to explain how the timing of Sean Jones’s ACL injury last year affected the uncertainty of what the roster could look like.
“When Sean went down last year, it was about as bad of timing as you could get because we were hopeful to get him back this year, but we kind of knew, ‘Well, a year is late January.’ So, would he have helped us if he was fully healthy and played the whole year? Absolutely, but other teams deal with that too.
“I told the guys in the locker room, ‘For all of our returning guys, we have a lot of growing to do, a lot of growing to do.’ Honestly, there’s a lot of basketball growth that we’ve got to create, but more than anything, it’s personal growth that also informs who we are as players and coaches.”
So, will Marquette take a transfer? As of now, I would expect the answer to be no. That doesn’t mean it isn’t looking to see if there are potential fits, but the portal closes in 22 days and there haven’t been any reports of the Golden Eagles reaching out to anyone. It could still be happening behind the scenes, but the chances of MU taking a transfer this offseason appear to be low.
This story was written by Matthew Baltz. He can be reached at matthew.baltz@marquette.edu or on Twitter/X @MatthewBaltzMU.