Shaka Smart provided updates on the Marquette men’s basketball team’s health Wednesday at a media availability.
The last time the Golden Eagles’ played in front of other people Oct. 5 at the Blue & Gold scrimmage, first-year Damarius Owens (groin) and sophomore Tre Norman (shoulder) sat out with injuries — along with Sean Jones as he recovers from an ACL tear he suffered in January.
Since then, Marquette has played two closed-door scrimmages, one against Missouri and the other against Oklahoma.
“We’re still dealing with some different things,” Smart said. “We’ve got some guys dealing with some different bumps and bruises associated with play.”
Damarius Owens ‘unlikely to play’ in first game
Last Saturday against the Sooners, Owens picked up a toe injury, Smart said.
“I don’t have the exact results from,” he said. “They’re doing some different testing, but he’s unlikely he’ll play on Monday, and he may be out for a while.”
Owens recovered from the groin injury and “had gotten back into practice and was doing great,” according to Smart.
How is Sean Jones progressing?
At the Blue & Gold scrimmage, Smart said that Jones was “making good progress” and that he was hopeful sometime “early in the season.”
Wednesday, Smart said that Jones has started working against “live defense” but still isn’t ready for full-court 5-on-5 basketball.
“He was going on defense, chasing screens, chasing over the top of screens, contesting shots,” Smart said. “Most of what we’re doing is still relatively scripted. But man, he’s gaining strength. His attitude has been great…
“You want him to be able to come back as soon as he possibly can and go out there and experience the success in basketball that he’s used to experiencing, but at the same time, you can’t rush that process.
“So no, he won’t be out there on Monday in our first game, but we’re optimistic and hopeful that that he will be out there soon.”
The rest of the squad
Smart never explicitly mentioned Norman or anyone else on the team by name, but he did say “hopeful that we’ll have everyone ready to play on Monday,” outside of Owens and Jones.
This article was written by Jack Albright. He can be reached at [email protected] or on Twitter/X @JackAlbrightMU.
