With all the questions surrounding No. 15 Marquette men’s basketball heading into the season after the departures of Tyler Kolek and Oso Ighodaro, we got our first and second glances at the new-look Golden Eagles this week.
Here are some thoughts from Marquette’s 2-0 start:
Kam Jones is as good as advertised
Coming into the year, it wasn’t a question of who, but how.
Everyone knew Kam Jones was going to be the guy, but it was what his play would look like with all of the attention on him that had people questioning. There’s no more wizardry from Kolek or versatility from Ighodaro to distract defenses away from the fact that Jones is one of the most naturally gifted scorers in the entire country. All eyes will be facing his direction now.
In Monday’s season-opener against Stony Brook, he could do no wrong. The Memphis, Tennessee native shot 14-for-16 from the field en route to a 32-point performance. Jones’ only misses came from beyond the arc, as he finished the night a staggering 10-for-10 from two-point range.
“He’s one of the best finishers for a guard that I’ve ever seen, and he was able to get down there and just create a lot of short shots,” head coach Shaka Smart said after the win Monday. “He’s a very good post player. You don’t really think of guards that way, but he’s good at turning his back to the basket and then using his craftiness to create.”
In his encore performance Friday night in the Golden Eagles’ student-only game at the Al McGuire Center, Jones was just as effective. After tallying just three assists Monday, Jones flashed his playmaking ability even further in Marquette’s 82-73 win over George Mason, racking up eight assists.
The senior guard finished with 24 points on 9-of-14 shooting, and snagged five rebounds.
All this culminated in Jones being named to the first Big East Weekly Honor Roll of the season, after averaging 28 points on 76.7 percent shooting.
Finding Robin
Every Batman needs its Robin, and for Marquette, that means someone else rising to the occasion alongside Jones.
If Jones continues to play the way he did last week, he will easily average north of 20 points a game this season. But you, I and everyone else in between knows that others are going to step up in spots where they might not have been previously expected to.
Take Chase Ross for example. The junior guard’s career-high coming into the season was 13 points, a number he quickly blew past Monday night. Thanks to an efficient 81 percent (9-for-11) from the field, Ross worked his way to a career-high 23 points and team-high eight rebounds against Stony Brook.
“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.”
Who says Ross has to be the full-time Robin though? After all, it would be unfair to David Joplin to not give him a shot at the role after his stirring audition Friday night.
After trailing 37-36 heading into the break against George Mason, Marquette needed a spark.
“We shot 28 percent in from the field in the first half,” Smart said. “It’s easy when that happens to get down, and to get away from a focus on your process, which I thought happened at times in the first half.
“But, I thought in the second half our guys’ intentionality was much better, which is why we ended up scoring 46 points and defending very well in the second half as well.”
One of those guys who came out of the locker room with that aforementioned intentionality was Joplin. The senior forward posted 19 points and 10 rebounds alone in the second half, en route to a 27 point, 10 rebound performance — his second double-double of his career.
They probably won’t have it down to an exact science, but moving forward if the Golden Eagles can find consistent double-digit scoring from players not wearing the No. 1, they will be a force to be reckoned with.
What’s on tap?
Marquette welcomes Central Michigan (1-1) to Fiserv Forum tonight at 8 p.m. CST. Then, it’s off to College Park, Maryland Friday to take on the Maryland Terrapins (2-0) at 7 p.m. CST in what will be the Golden Eagles’ first road test of the season.
This story was written by Matthew Baltz. He can be reached at [email protected] or on Twitter/X @MatthewBaltzMU.
