Marquette men’s basketball hasn’t looked the same since the start of Big East play. I know it, you know it and head coach Shaka Smart knows it.
The Golden Eagles dropped another five spots to No. 21 in the AP Poll Monday, the lowest they’ve been ranked this season.
After grabbing just its second win in February against Seton Hall on Tuesday, Marquette dropped to 2-4 this month with its loss at Villanova Friday night.
“We did not have the requisite fire and passion required — particularly our starting lineup — to be able to come in here on the road and then come back from a deficit,” Marquette head coach Shaka Smart told ESPN Milwaukee broadcasters Steve “The Homer” True and Tony Smith after the Villanova game. “We have a lot to figure out with our starting group in terms of coming into the game with a level of hunger and passion that we have to have.”
Here are my thoughts from the week that was for the Golden Eagles:
Looking at the pandemonium in Philly
Coming into Friday, Marquette was coming off one of its best shooting performances of the season against the Pirates, and was facing a team that it had not lost to since Smart had been the head coach at MU. But the Wildcats couldn’t have cared less.
After Villanova got out to a 46-33 lead at halftime thanks to shooting 12-for-15 from 3-point land in the opening 20 minutes, the Golden Eagles knew they had to come out firing if they wanted to get back into the game.
But they didn’t, and the Wildcats lead never reached single digits during the second half as they rolled to an easy 81-66 upset at Wells Fargo Arena.
Junior forward Ben Gold’s struggles continued, as he scored just three points while pulling down one rebound in a season-low 14 minutes of action. The same went for senior guard Stevie Mitchell, who also played a season-low 14 minutes while tallying a rebound and two points.
Smart was so displeased with his upperclassmen’s effort Friday night that he pulled them entirely from the floor entirely down the stretch. Marquette’s bench outscored its starters 36-30, which is great for depth purposes, but not so good for the starters.
The one bright spot for MU in the loss was sophomore guard Zaide Lowery. The Springfield, Missouri native scored a career-high 26 points on a super-efficient 9-for-10 from the field. Lowery also nailed all five of his 3-point attempts, grabbed eight rebounds and played his usual high-level defense.
ZAIDE LOWERY CAREER HIGH
25 points
-9/10 FG
-5/5 3PT#MUBB | #WeAreMarquette pic.twitter.com/t5HTqtnKp6— ESPN Milwaukee (@ESPNMilwaukee) February 22, 2025
Despite the recent struggles of some of the starters, it seems unlikely that we’d see a change to the starting lineup at this juncture of the season, but Smart did have a telling quote Friday night about the way minutes might be managed moving forward.
“I’m going to have to do a better job figuring out a five-man group that we can put on the floor at crucial moments, where everyone has that level of hunger,” he said.
The 3-point shooting seems to be coming around
Despite what most are going to consider a bad week for Marquette, there was a net positive to come out of the two games this week.
The Golden Eagles shot a combined 21-for-57 from deep (36.8 percent). It marks the first time that MU has made 10 or more triples in back-to-back games since they made 11 at Providence on New Year’s Eve and then made 11 against Creighton at home three days later.
Lowery has been a major contributor to the uptick in made threes. Since the start of Big East play, he’s shooting 54.8 percent from deep (17-for-31), and has easily been Marquette’s best threat from deep.
His emergence, paired with junior guard Chase Ross shooting 44 percent from beyond the arc across the last six games, has helped the Golden Eagles start to become more effective from beyond the arc again.
“We try to control the controllables,” MU guard Tre Norman said after the Seton Hall game. “Whether we make or miss a shot, as long as we trust in the process, we’ll live. We’re not a team that wants to live and die by making shots, that’s why we have a huge emphasis on crashing and getting second-chance points.
“We have to trust regardless of if we make it or miss shots. We got players like Kam Jones. We got players like D-Mar (Owens), Zaide.”
What’s on tap?
The Golden Eagles are back home at Fiserv Forum for their third consecutive Tuesday night home game. This Tuesday, its Providence (12-15, 6-10 Big East) rolling into town. There’s no doubt the Friars will be seeking revenge after MU handed them their worst home loss in over 30 years on Dec. 31.
After that, it’s off to the DMV to take on Georgetown on Saturday. Marquette snuck by the Hoyas in Milwaukee earlier this season thanks to a career-high 27 points from Ross.
This story was written by Matthew Baltz. He can be reached at matthew.baltz@marquette.edu or on Twitter/X @MatthewBaltzMU.
