Marquette men’s basketball (22-9, 13-7 Big East) has just finished its third consecutive regular season with 20 wins or more. But don’t let the record fool you, this season has been one full of ups and downs.
MU was 18-3 heading into its National Marquette Day matchup with UConn, but from there, it went 4-6 in its last 10 games. The Golden Eagles’ last Quad One win came against Xavier on Dec. 21. Marquette is 0-5 in Quad One games since then and has also lost a pair of Quad Two games as well (home against UConn and home against Xavier).
Despite the struggles, the Golden Eagles still find themselves firmly positioned inside the 68-team field set to make up the NCAA Tournament in just six days, while also doing enough to earn themselves a bye into the quarterfinals at the Big East Tournament later this week.
In the latest AP Poll, Marquette managed to hold onto a spot in the rankings, dropping five places to No. 25 after an excruciating 0-2 week. The Golden Eagles have been ranked for 50 straight weeks in the poll, the fourth-longest streak in the country behind Houston (104), Tennessee (78) and Purdue (57).
The start of the postseason is just two days away, so here are some thoughts heading into the Big East Tournament:
It can’t be one or the other
Shooting has been an area of interest throughout the season for this notebook, and this week’s numbers were no less fascinating than they have been before.
Wednesday at Gampel Pavilion in its 72-66 loss, MU shot a season-worst 13.6 percent from 3-point range, with senior forward David Joplin sinking the team’s only three makes of the night.
Even so, the Golden Eagles found themselves down just one point with 46 seconds to play. That was until junior forward Alex Karaban nailed a dagger triple to put the game away with 25 seconds left.
MU shot 13-for-16 from the free throw line in the loss, which was a big reason that it had a chance to win the game down the stretch. But Saturday was the exact opposite.
Against the Red Storm in front of a sold out crowd on Senior Day, Marquette was able to drain 10-of its-29 3-point attempts, which put the team a couple points above its Big East play 3-point percentage of 31.5. However, the free throw line was a much different story.
The Golden Eagles shot 12-for-22 from the charity stripe in the two-point loss, including going 2-for-4 in the last five minutes of regulation and 2-for-4 in overtime. The biggest miss of the game came with 21 seconds left in the second half when senior guard Stevie Mitchell missed the second shot of the double bonus, which allowed junior guard RJ Luis Jr. to go down and send the game to overtime.
“I think that it’s getting to a point of acceptance that ‘I’m shooting a shot that’s an important shot, but it’s not going to create a nuclear war in the world,’” MU head coach Shaka Smart said after the St. John’s game. “It’s a fine line, and then just having the poise to shoot it in.”
For Marquette, it feels like it’s been difficult for everything to click at the same time in the big games lately. When the 3-point shooting has been good, the free throw shooting has lacked, and vice versa. Or you can even go back to the 10-point loss at Creighton where Marquette shot 30.6 percent from three but only got to the charity stripe four times. Or there’s the game at St. John’s where Marquette shot 32 percent from deep but was minus 22 on the boards.
The point is that the Golden Eagles are going to have to string together total team efforts down the stretch if they want to make a run at Madison Square Garden or in The Big Dance. That may sound obvious, but MU’s struggles don’t seem to be just going away.
Marquette is well represented on the All-Big East teams
The Golden Eagles had three players honored on the All-Big East teams that were announced Sunday afternoon.
Senior guard Kam Jones was a unanimous pick to the All-Big East First Team. The Memphis, Tennessee native finished the regular season third in the league in scoring (18.9 points per game) and second in assists per game (6.1). His league-leading 3.5 assist/turnover ratio is fifth nationally.
Senior forward David Joplin was named to the All-Big East Third Team. The Milwaukee, Wisconsin native averaged 13.9 points per game this season, ranking him 17th in the conference. It’s the first regular season award Joplin has received since he was named the Big East Sixth Man of the Year in 2023.
Lastly, 6-foot-8 first-year forward Royce Parham was named to the All-Big East Freshman Team. He averaged 5.2 points and 2.3 rebounds per game, while also impressing in a 17-point outing against then-No. 6 Iowa State in December.
What’s on tap?
MU will have the five seed in the Big East Tournament, taking on the fourth seeded Xavier Musketeers on Thursday at 1:30 CST in the quarterfinals. The two teams went 1-1 against each other in the regular season, with both wins coming on the road.
The last time the Golden Eagles faced the Musketeers in the Big East Tournament was when they beat them handily in the championship game of the 2023 Big East Tournament.
The conference hasn’t affected seeding for Marquette too heavily in the past couple of years, but making a run in the tournament or even winning it can only help improve its seeding.
Currently, MU is projected to be anywhere from a 5-seed to a 7-seed. ESPN’s latest projections had the Golden Eagles as a 7-seed in the South Region, while CBS’s latest projections had them as a 5-seed in the East Region and FOX’s latest projections had them as a 7-seed (no region listed).
This story was written by Matthew Baltz. He can be reached at [email protected] or on Twitter/X @MatthewBaltzMU.
