After coming up short in its first home loss of the season against Xavier last Saturday, Marquette men’s basketball is up a spot to No. 9 in the latest AP Poll after a 2-0 week.
Here are my thoughts from the Golden Eagles’ bounce back week:
Kam Jones starting to repossess his shooting stroke
Going into Tuesday’s game against Seton Hall, Kam Jones had been held to under 40 percent shooting from the field in each of Marquette’s previous four games.
Although the Golden Eagles were 3-1 in those games, Jones was missing shots that he didn’t usually miss — which led to uncharacteristically low field goal percentages from the senior guard.
After Jones’ 11-point performance against the Musketeers in which he shot 5-for-13 from the field, head coach Shaka Smart offered a suggestion as to why he thought Jones’ struggles had been persisting.
“This is Kam Jones man, this guy is special,” Smart said. “This guy’s out of this world, but he’s also a human being and he’s feeling a lot of pressure I would imagine.
“He hasn’t verbalized that, he’s been great in practice, he’s been an A plus teammate, A plus plus, and leader. But man, it’s just a lot expected from him on his shoulders, and I think right now when he rises up from outside, he’s feeling the weight of some of that.”
Heading into Tuesday, Jones was shooting 9-for-46 (19.6%) on 3-pointers in Big East games. For a guy who has made 37.5 percent of his attempts from beyond the arc during his career, it was an unusually poor stretch of shooting.
But Jones turned it around at Prudential Center, scoring 19 points on 7-for-11 shooting and, most importantly, went 4-for-6 from 3-point range.
“This was one of Kam’s better games all around,” Smart said after the game. “I thought offensively, he did a nice job managing the game, got going and made some threes, which was nice because he’s been cold from out there the last few games. And then again, his defensive activity was impressive.”
Jones also shot above 40 percent from the field for just the second time since the start of the new year in the Golden Eagles’ 87-74 win over Villanova. The Memphis, Tennessee native finished with 16 points on 6-of-14 shooting. He also claimed five boards and dished out five assists — marking the seventh time this season he’s scored at least 15 points, snagged five rebounds and had five assists. Marquette is 6-1 in those games.
Jones was announced as Big East player of the Week Monday morning, his third time receiving the award this season.
The Golden Eagles keep the nation’s leading scorer at bay
Villanova’s Eric Dixon has been one of the best scorers in the country this season. The senior forward came into Friday’s game at Fiserv Forum leading the nation in scoring, averaging 24.9 points per game.
Marquette was able to limit Dixon’s isolated possessions, while also keeping the ball out of his hands all together — especially in the first half. The Golden Eagles were able to hold the 6-foot-8 star to just three points in the first 20 minutes.
“We just wanted to do what we do,” Smart said. “Our game plan is such that, as we like to say, if we’re going to put two on the ball, then put two on the ball. We don’t want to be halfway with that.
“We want to be aggressive. Villanova, every time we play them they have a great attack against some of our traps where they’ve been able to pass the ball out and find open guys on the perimeter.
“They made some threes, but they also made probably seven or eight jumpshots after we kind of ran them off threes. They shot-faked, put it on the floor. Usually we’re okay living with those, but, man, they made a lot of those. Our game plan was to really be as tough-minded as we could be as a group of five guarding their best guys. Just so we didn’t put anybody on an island.”
Dixon finished the game with 18 points on 7-of-16 shooting. A usual 46.2 percent shooter from deep, he shot just 3-for-8 from beyond the arc. It marked just the fourth time this season that Dixon has scored less than 20 points.
What’s on tap?
Marquette is back on the road to take on Butler (9-11, 2-7 Big East) on Tuesday at Hinkle Fieldhouse. Tip-off is scheduled for 7:30 p.m. CST. The Golden Eagles have won eight of their last 10 games against the Bulldogs, including four of its last six inside of Hinkle.
After that, it’s the highly anticipated National Marquette Day game against back-to-back defending National Champion UConn on Saturday. The Huskies are down to No. 25 after dropping their sixth game of the season at Xavier Saturday night.
Tip-off for NMD is set for 7 p.m. CST. The Golden Eagles will look to pick up their first win against UConn since March 10, 2023, after losing to the Huskies three times last season.
This story was written by Matthew Baltz. He can be reached at [email protected] or on Twitter/X @MatthewBaltzMU.