Shaka Smart spoke like a car mechanic.

Asked about what his team needed to clean up after two nerve-racking wins over lower-level teams and before it faces its first real opponent on the road at Maryland Friday at 7 p.m. CST, he spewed out a laundry list of issues in a manner indicative of an autobody repair worker trying to upsell customers.

“Transition defense. Defensive rebounding. Offensive rebounding. The way that we move the ball and hit teammates in the chin on our passes. Delivering the ball on time and on target,” the Marquette men’s basketball head coach said Wednesday.

“Our attack, versus certain things that teams do, whether it’s pick-and-roll coverages, whether it’s changing defenses, press, zone, one-on-one defense, whether it’s in the post, or whether it’s on the floor. Helping each other. Guarding screens off the ball.”

Except, unlike car mechanics, he’s not fudging anything.

The 15th ranked Golden Eagles (3-0) are undefeated, but last Friday’s victory over George Mason was closer than the box score will tell you and their 70-62 Central Michigan win Monday was even further in doubt until the final buzzer.

In his index of issues that need improvement, Smart mentioned the defense a little bit and the offense a lot. That’s not a coincidence.

The Golden Eagles were 15th in offensive efficiency on basketball statistics website KenPom.com after their season-opener 40-point win over Stony Brook. They’ve since dropped 21 places to No. 36.

Marquette’s offense was always going to be bumpier than the picturesque last two years because of the departures of Tyler Kolek and Oso Ighodaro. But the inefficiencies have made life more difficult than most would have thought.

Zone defense causing Golden Eagles trouble

Marquette is placing an emphasis on paint touches this season.

“That’s what we call ‘Category One,'” Smart said. “That’s the most important shots we can get, is being in the deep paint.”

But opponents have stymied this approach by switching to a zone defense.

Monday night was a prime example of this.

Marquette spent the first half aggressively attacking the paint and living at the line (they made 13 of 16 free throws) to lead 42-27 at halftime. Then the Chippewas went to zone and the Golden Eagles stopped driving downhill as much, instead operating primarily outside the arc in an inefficient manner (5-for-17 on 3s in the second half), allowing their lead to be slowly chipped away.

Smart, when talking about how to better punish zones, referenced a play from the Central Michigan game in which Kam Jones drove to the free throw line and then bounce-passed the ball underneath the lowest layer of the 2-3 zone to Caedin Hamilton, who put in an easy layup.

Asked Shaka Smart how Marquette could better attack zone defenses, and he specifically mentioned this pass by Kam Jones against CMU.

Add it to his growing collection of dimes. #mubb pic.twitter.com/5ymqFEU1RJ

— Ben Steele (@BenSteeleMJS) November 13, 2024

“Do that more,” Smart said.

The Golden Eagles aren’t shooting particularly well from deep — 30-for-102 (29.4%) — and opponents will continue to benefit from a zone until that changes.

Fighting through early season shooting slumps

The unattractive box scores have been due in part to some early shooting woes from a few players, but particularly Ben Gold.

The 6-foot-11 big man went 0-for-5 from deep in the season-opener, 2-for-7 from deep against George Mason and 2-for-9 from deep against Central Michigan. That adds up to a meager 19% on 21 3-point attempts.

Synergy Sports numbers provided by MU stat blog PaintTouches, show all 21 of Gold’s threes have been catch-and-shoot, and 16 of them have been deemed open. He leads the nation with 16 unguarded threes but has only made three of them.

Per Synergy, there are 37 players in D1 with 10+ unguarded spot up 3s this season.

Ben Gold ranks first in attempts: 16
Ben Gold ranks 35th in 3PT%: 18.8%

Will try to dig in a little deeper this week, but found that wild.

— Paint Touches (@PaintTouches) November 12, 2024

Those open looks are the kinds of shots Smart always wants Gold to take when he gets them, so don’t expect that to stop any time soon.

But the more noteworthy statistic is that of Gold’s 26 shots, only five have been twos, so, to Smart, getting more “Category One” looks for him is important.

“There’s absolutely different ways to do that,” he said. “Whether it’s cutting, offensive rebounding, transition. Rolling, sometimes off of pick and roll, we’ll have a roll. Short rolls where he can catch it and attack. He had to dunk the other night, where he drove his man.

“So there’s a lot of opportunities for him to get in the paint. It just so happens the way that he’s been played lately, and we’ve been played, he’s gotten a lot of good looks from outside. That will even out over time, and we’re confident in him.”

This article was written by Jack Albright. He can be reached at [email protected] or on Twitter/X @JackAlbrightMU.