There’s no sugarcoating it: Marquette men’s basketball is struggling right now.
During its biggest and toughest three-game stretch of the season, the Golden Eagles threw up a goose egg in the win column. With losses to St. John’s and Creighton this week, Marquette (18-6, 9-4 Big East) is down seven spots to No. 18 in the latest AP Poll.
Here are my thoughts from the Golden Eagles’ 0-2 week:
Marquette is generating a ton of shots, just not converting
During Marquette’s three-game skid, there have been a lot of oddities in the final box scores of the contests. Let’s start with the eight-point loss to UConn.
The Golden Eagles attempted 21 more field goals than the Huskies on National Marquette Day while also forcing them into a season-high 25 turnovers. Per ShotQualityBets, a website dedicated to giving a predictive final score based on the quality of shots that a team takes throughout any given game, Marquette was expected to win by 23 points solely based off the looks they were getting and the players that were taking them.
However, predictive analytics are rarely even remotely correct, and that was proven to be the case against UConn. Simply put, UConn knocked down shots, and Marquette didn’t. Seems simple enough, right?
The Huskies shot a season-high 63.2 percent from 3-point range along with sophomore guard Solo Ball going for a career-high 25 points and draining seven triples. UConn got hot at the right time, so maybe you tip your hat, try to correct what went wrong defensively and move on to the next one.
So, after a tough loss in Madison Square Garden in which MU got dominated on the glass and in the paint, it headed out west to take on the Bluejays of Creighton.
Once again, the Golden Eagles created 21 more shot attempts for themselves than Creighton could shoot. However, all those missed shot attempts did was hurt Marquette as it fell once again in rather excruciating fashion at CHI Health Center Saturday afternoon.
Riding the back of 18 offensive rebounds, Marquette finished the contest with an expected score of 72 points to the Bluejays’ 66. Of course, that doesn’t change the fact that the Golden Eagles lost 77-67 to the clutch shots of senior center Ryan Kalkbrenner and senior guard Jamiya Neal. What it does prove though, is that Marquette’s offense has been generating lots of quality looks for itself over the course of this losing streak, the shots just aren’t falling.
Lol. Pardon my English, but gosh, darn it, Marquette has broken SQ for a third straight game.
Marquette snatches 17 offensive boards and takes 23 more shots, but Stevie Mitchell goes ice cold in a game that Creighton shoots 52%
pic.twitter.com/HeCg2wlkmJ
— ShotQualityBets (@ShotQualityBets) February 9, 2025
“We had to have 18 offensive rebounds because we missed so many shots,” head coach Shaka Smart said. “I’m grateful for the way our guys went to the glass, it was a point of emphasis.
“… I thought [Joplin] was better on the glass today, Royce was way better on the glass, but we got to score more after we get the rebound. That was the game within the game today, if you get 18 offensive rebounds, if you could score 25 points off that it might be a different game. But Creighton had a lot to do with that, they deserve all the credit today.”
Kam Jones is doing his best to carry the boats
A lot was expected from senior guard Kam Jones coming into this season. After all, his decision to return for his senior year led to him being widely regarded as one of the best guards in the country this season. Despite being named to the John R. Wooden Award Top 25 Midseason Watch List and Lute Olson Award Early Season Watch List already this season, there is only so much one player can do.
Early in the season, performances like senior forward David Joplin’s 29 points and five rebounds against Georgia and senior guard Stevie Mitchell’s 18 points against Maryland helped take some of the load of the shoulders of Jones. Marquette has gotten 15 or more points from someone not named Jones in each of the last three games, but the rest of the lineup has been struggling to pull its weight on offense.
Junior forward Ben Gold, who has averaged 8-10 points a game consistently for the Golden Eagles this season, has scored just two points total in the last three games. He’s also only pulled down two rebounds in that time.
Junior guard Chase Ross — Marquette’s third leading scorer heading into Saturday — was held to just two points on 1-of-4 shooting from the field against Creighton. The Dallas, Texas native picked up three first-half fouls and was unable to get into rhythm from there.
“It’s hard to play with fouls,” Smart said after the loss. “But at the same time, as an upper-level player, which we believe Chase is, you have to find a way to play through that.
“Chase is a warrior. He’s battled through a lot of things this year, he’s not necessarily at 100 percent right now, but certainly, you know, for us to be at our best, our job, my job, is to help him be in position to play better, even if he has fouls.”
Circling back to Jones, the Memphis, Tennessee native has notched an average of 33 minutes a game this season, a team high. Between the scoring, playmaking and defensive assignments he earns on a nightly basis, Jones is expected to do as much as any player in the country.
“He played well, I mean we asked him to do so much, he was tired,” Smart said after the Creighton game. “He really got tired down the stretch, I probably should have subbed him a bit earlier, but at the same time it’s a Catch-22. He’s such a key for us on the offensive end, and it’s different guarding us when he’s not in the game.”
Despite the heavy workload he has been tasked with this season, Jones said that physically, he feels all right.
“I’m fine man,” Jones said. “It’s just that typical February 8th feeling, nobody’s 100 percent out there playing, just go out there and give it all you got every night.”
What’s on tap?
With home games against DePaul and Seton Hall looming over the next nine days, the schedule appears to be letting up a little bit. But those who have watched Big East basketball for many years know that nothing comes easy in this conference.
Marquette will try to snap its three-game losing streak Tuesday when it welcomes the Blue Demons (11-13, 2-11 Big East) to Fiserv Forum for round two against its foes from down I-94.
The first matchup didn’t lack any excitement, as DePaul nearly upset Marquette on Jan. 14 in a game the Golden Eagles barely eked out in overtime. A career-high 30 points from Joplin proved to be the saving grace a month ago at Wintrust Arena.
After that, Marquette gets a week off before Seton Hall makes the trip out to Fiserv for another Tuesday night matchup on Feb. 18.
This story was written by Matthew Baltz. He can be reached at matthew.baltz@marquette.edu or on Twitter/X @MatthewBaltzMU.
