It took Marquette men’s basketball 26 games to eclipse the 100 point mark last season. This year, it took 38 minutes.
With Kam Jones’s effortless scoring ability, Chase Ross’s career-best performance, Caedin Hamilton’s continually growing confidence and a defensive tenacity that seemed like it could’ve stopped the best of offenses, the Golden Eagles (1-0) showed, despite the departures of Tyler Kolek and Oso Ighodaro, that they’ve still got dudes, everywhere.
Here are three takeaways from Marquette’s 102-62 win over Stony Brook on opening night:
Marquette’s backcourt proves to be dangerous
If the Golden Eagles want to make a return trip to the Sweet 16 this year — and maybe go farther — their backcourt is going to be a huge reason why.
Ross and Jones combined for 55 points on 23-of-27 shooting from the field Monday night. Simply put, the duo was unstoppable.
Jones, who has undoubtedly comes into the season as Marquette’s most highly touted player, showed us why, finishing two points shy of his career-high of 34. He finished the first half with 20 points, hitting a fadeaway corner three in the waning seconds of the frame.
“That’s Kam Jones,” Ross said. “He just what he does, it does not it doesn’t surprise me.
“He’s just gonna keep it up, we need to move forward and not get too high off this one right here.”
Ross had a career-high 23 points and eight rebounds in the win.
“He’s been our most improved player from really the end of last season to now. It’s not even close,” Smart said. “The biggest thing is his confidence is on a whole different level than it was last year at this time.
“He knows he can do it. He knows we need it from him. He’s got an aggressiveness to him. He’s been shooting the ball very, very well in practice. Going to finish, he’s going to go in there and try to dump the ball, or he’s going to attack aggressively. So proud of him, but I still think he can keep getting better.”
Caedin Hamilton’s confidence is growing
Last spring, Marquette could have easily gone portaling to search for a big man to replace Ighodaro with — but it didn’t. Instead, Smart and staff decided to invest in the development of forward Caedin Hamilton.
Monday night, the redshirt first-year made his debut with the Golden Eagles, tallying six points and three rebounds in 12 minutes. It became increasingly apparent that Monday’s game progressed, so did Hamilton’s confidence. Smart agreed.
“He got much more comfortable as the game went on,” Smart said. “He was nervous early, you can see it on his face. I can read him like a book.
“The work he’s put he’s put in has been incredible, you’re talking about a guy who’s been on a metamorphosis going back to his junior year, where he barely played for his high school team and weighed over 300 pounds. Now, he’s come in here, he’s reshaped his body, he’s gained a ton of muscle, so he weighs more than he did when he got here, but he’s lost the bad weight and gained the good weight. So it’s really exciting.
All six of Hamilton’s points came in the second half.
A look into Marquette’s small-ball lineup
Hamilton wasn’t the only Golden Eagle that made his debut Monday as forward Royce Parham saw 18 minutes of action. Parham finished with four points, three rebounds and two steals. His scoring input included an emphatic breakaway dunk in the first half that drew a great deal of applause from the Marquette faithful.
“I was happy, I was excited to see him get that deflection and dunk,” Hamilton said.
At the time of the dunk, Marquette was running a lineup that lacked a true big man, making 6-foot-8 Parham the tallest Golden Eagle on the floor.
The game was tied at 17 a piece through the first eight minutes of play, but the small-ball lineup featuring Parham helped the Golden Eagles start to pull away, as they went on a 15-5 over the three and a half minutes he was at the five.
With Ben Gold and Hamilton both on the bench, Marquette has the ability to switch most matchups one-through-five with Parham’s ability to defend the perimeter. Nobody should be surprised to see the Golden Eagles experimenting with more small-ball lineups as they get healthier throughout the non-conference portion of their schedule.
This story was written by Matthew Baltz. He can be reached at [email protected] or on Twitter/X @MatthewBaltzMU.
