Basketball means an awful lot to Trent Lockett.
The senior guard played three years at Arizona State, where he was the star of a very mediocre squad. Last season, Lockett averaged 13.0 points and 5.8 rebounds per game to lead the Sun Devils in both categories. He was lights-out from all over the court, shooting 49.8 percent from the floor overall and 41.2 percent from behind the three-point line.
But as impressive as his stats may be, it wasn’t all basketball that drove Lockett to make Marquette his new home. After his mother, Judy, was diagnosed with cancer last spring, the Golden Valley, Minn., native wanted to be closer to her.
Lockett earned his degree in business communications last year from Arizona State, but he still had one year of eligibility left, and Marquette fit the criteria he was looking for.
“The transition has gone really well, it’s been nice to be a lot closer to home,” Lockett said. “The commute is a lot better, and I’m looking forward to seeing my mom throughout the course of the year. She’s doing very well.”
Moving from one of the warmest states in the country to one of the coldest might be the hardest part of that transition so far.
“I definitely have to bulk up my winter wardrobe,” Lockett said. “And I have to say my walking times have definitely decreased. I’m walking and making it to class in a lot shorter time because of the cold weather.”
With three years of experience under his belt, Lockett said he’s seen the ups and downs of the game, and he’s hoping to give a lot of advice to his younger teammates. In regard to his game, Lockett feels he can be a contributor in all facets.
“I like to think I’m fairly versatile,” Lockett said. “I like to mix it up with the bigs. I rebound very well for a guard, and I feel like I have a very well rounded game.”
Besides a well-balanced array of skills, Lockett has already shown coach Buzz Williams that he possesses all of the intangibles every coach loves to work with. Williams lauds him as a “stud of a human being,” someone who is “never late and always early” and “who is always prepared, really cares and is a great teammate.”
“He walked into a hornet’s nest relative to what he was accustomed to, into what we do, and has handled it superbly,” Williams said. “The expectation for him is to be a stud human being every day, because I hope that by being around him I become a better person, too.”
Lockett’s roommate, redshirt junior forward Jamil Wilson, was perhaps the most excited during Lockett’s recruitment process. Wilson has known Lockett since his high school days, where the pair played against each other in AAU competition and attended a few camps together. They also squared off on opposing sides at the NCAA level while Wilson was still at Oregon.
“Trent’s a good guy,” Wilson said. “I was really excited when we were recruiting him. I was texting him all the time asking him about the schools he was looking at. They hooked us up when he got here, and now we’re roommates and we’re boys.”
Lockett said the culture at Marquette is tremendous and that he’s excited to compete in what he called without a doubt the best conference in college basketball. His biggest expectation for himself is to simply work hard every day and continue to learn more and more through his unique transfer experience.
“I think I’ve grown a lot through this transition by not only being a year older but experiencing a whole new basketball culture, school culture and off-the-court culture,” Lockett said. “There have been a lot of new experiences, and I think I’ve grown a lot from them.”
