Can the bigger than expected freshman make a bigger than expected impact?
The 2024-25 college basketball season is right around the corner, so let’s dive into the Marquette men’s basketball roster and take a look at what to expect from each player this season. Going forward in these Player Previews, we’ll be going in this order: The two true freshmen in alphabetical order by last name — skipping past Josh Clark who is not expected to play this season — then the redshirt freshman, then the returning players in ascending order of average minutes played last season.
We’re going to organize our thoughts about the upcoming season as it relates to each player into categories, as we always do:
- Reasonable Expectations
- Why You Should Get Excited
- Potential Pitfalls
With that out of the way, we finish up the Class of 2024 recruits portion of our program by talking about the guy who transferred to go play with Damarius Owens……..
Royce Parham
Freshman — #13 — Forward — 6’8” — 230 lbs. — Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania
While Damarius Owens is the more notable Marquette freshman between the two Class of 2024 prospects on the roster this year, it’s not like Royce Parham is some kind of slouch himself. 247 Sports has him just outside the top 100 in their Composite rankings, coming in at #103 in the country and the #23 power forward. Internally, they had him as a top 100 guy at #93 and #17 amongst power forwards. In both cases, Parham was the #3 prospect coming out of the state of Ohio…. but that’s also because Parham spent his senior season at Western Reserve Academy with Damarius Owens. If Parham were still back home in Pittsburgh for his senior year, he would have been the #5 prospect in the state, coming in a bit behind fellow Big East newcomers Ahmad Nowell at UConn and Thomas Sorber at Georgetown.
Elsewhere in the recruiting multi-verse, Parham came in at #93 in On3’s internal setup, and their Industry Ranking has him at #91. Rivals has him at #93 in the country, down from a one-time high of #63, which means yep, ESPN is jerks. Since they only go out to a top 100, we can say for certain that Parham’s not a top 100 prospect in the class for the Worldwide Leader, and that’s what’s dipping his two compilation rankings. He can’t be that far outside the top 100, as he is a four-star prospect in their eyes and shares a Scout Grade number of 82 with everyone from #71 on down.
Parham was only at WRA for one season after getting his prep career going in Pittsburgh at North Hills High School. He was a two-time all-Pennsylvania honoree, and left on a high note with 28.3 points, 10.6 rebounds, and 3.0 blocks per game as a junior. That included breaking the school record with a 47 point game and posting an overall record of 46-9 in his last two seasons there. At Western Reserve, Parham “only” averaged 20.7 points, 8.7 rebounds, and 1.1 blocks per game….. but he was named the Pioneers’ Most Valuable Player in that one season, and when they won the National Prep School championship, it was Parham who was named tournament MVP. Again: He was playing with the Marquette freshman who is more highly regarded as a prospect, and beat him out for 1) season long team MVP honors and 2) national tournament MVP honors.
Not saying, just saying.
While WRA had a clear “big three,” with each member showing their ability to individually assert themselves at various points, Parham’s consistency and total impact earned him the tournament’s Most Valuable Player award. From a scouting standpoint, the biggest takeaways were the gains in his three-point shooting and assertiveness around the rim. While his mismatch tools were already known in the frontcourt thanks to ability to put the ball on the floor and pass, being able to stretch the floor consistently, as he did here, adds another completely new dimension to his attack and makes him a much more difficult cover defensively. Additionally, he was finishing inside much more emphatically than I had seen before, hammering big dunks at every opportunity. Even defensively, he was more engaged than in previous settings.
You know what’s helping getting more engaged on the defensive end? His mother, Kim, is still today Penn State’s all-time leading shot blocker. She was the first ever Nitanny Lion with more than 200 swats and at 268, she still has a more than 50 block lead on any other player. Word on the street is that she’s not worried about calling her son out for what she perceives as dogging it on the court…. even when she’s essentially sitting right next to Shaka Smart while he’s visiting and checking in on Parham.
How about some highlights? This is a nine minute video from March 2024 that includes clips of Parham’s teammates at Western Reserve Academy, so you’re watching out for #22…… although #3 is fellow Marquette freshman Damarius Owens, and you can read his preview here.
Reasonable Expectations
At 6’8”, Parham does have a certain advantage to getting on the court this year. Marquette does have a lot of guards and wings on the roster, and more importantly, a lot of experienced guys there. When it comes to the 4 and the 5, we’re looking at David Joplin at one position and Ben Gold at the other…… and that’s about it. Between the two spots, there’s at least 20 minutes that need to be filled one way or another. Someone has to do it, and it’s going to have to be a guy who hasn’t played at all for Marquette before doing it, or at least someone who’s never played notable minutes. (Looking at you, Al Amadou.) If Parham is capable of defending the way that Shaka Smart and his staff need a big guy to defend, then that’s going to get him on the floor. It’s probably not going to be in a starring role, but hey: Freshman year, etc.
If you want to put some actual numbers on it, BartTorvik.com’s projections are on the low end of things. 2.3 points, maybe a rebound, just 6.4 minutes per game. Exceeding that will be a clear success of a season, that’s for sure. I think Parham’s going to be called on to play a role, but Role Player is definitely a reasonable spot to set expectations.
Why You Should Get Excited
Scroll back up for a second, and please note that Marquette lists Royce Parham at 6’8” and 230 pounds. I don’t know exactly when they did those measurements, but here’s what I do know:
- 247 Sports: 6’8”, 200
- On3: 6’9”, 200
- Rivals: 6’8”, 205
- ESPN: 6’8”, 210
That’s interesting, isn’t it? Obviously, the recruiting ranking company listings are well behind things, they could be as much as a year old at this point. But I find it intriguing it seems that Parham’s first summer with strength and conditioning coach Todd Smith may have resulted in something of a major physical development for him. What if that means that Parham is more ready for Big East/Division 1 basketball than the recruiting services were giving him credit for? What if he’s actually slightly underrated as a prospect as a result? Remember: He beat out the more highly regarded Owens as team and tournament MVP last season when they were teammates. Parham’s clearly a heck of a basketball player, and what if his newfound physical acumen just accentuates that?
12 points, three rebounds, 5-for-9 from the field, 1-for-3 from long range in the open scrimmage, by the way. He can hang with his teammates, at the very least, and Parham was actually leading the team — which included Kam Jones, by the way — in scoring through three quarters. I’ll be shocked if Parham ever plays 29 minutes in a game all season long as he did in the scrimmage, but he can clearly do a thing or two.
Potential Pitfalls
There’s the standard issue freshman problem of course. If the game just isn’t coming to him, if he’s not catching up to the speed and physicality fast enough, that’s going to limit Parham’s playing time. It’s probably not going to be great for Marquette if Parham can’t at least carve out a tiny role for himself on this roster, given the general depth in the front court, but Shaka Smart has to assemble wins out of parts that work for him.
That’s the other part of it: Parham has to be able to defend. This isn’t a secret. Shaka Smart’s saying it out in public, not specifically about Parham, but about his whole team. Without Tyler Kolek and Oso Ighodaro around to make the offense hum, this year’s roster has to be able to grind out stops on the defensive end to generate value on the offensive end. If you’re going to play for the Golden Eagles in 2024-25, you have to create a positive impact on the defensive end. If Parham can’t do that, it’s going to be a long season of figuring things out for him.