It makes sense why Shaka Smart went into Monday’s season-opener with the intention of playing all 12 of his available scholarship guys.
Consider two things. First, for the first time since 2022-23, the Marquette men’s basketball head coach needed to replace three or more starters. Second, the Golden Eagles were playing Albany, a team they paid to play at Fiserv Forum that came into the game ranked No. 259 on basketball statistics website KenPom.com.
Smart was given almost the luxury to go deep into his bench early, giving less proven, younger players the chance to get valuable minutes.
“The way that we’ve built our roster, the way we’ve built our team, I think we’ve got a few young guys, meaning [first-years] and sophomores. Let’s be honest, their best basketball is ahead of them,” Smart said. “But the way you get to that point of them playing their best basketball, [is getting] them some game reps.”
He wasted no time doing that, making multiple substitutions not even four minutes into the game when he swapped first-year Nigel James Jr. for senior Chase Ross and sophomore Royce Parham for redshirt sophomore Caedin Hamilton. Just over one minute later, first-year Adrien Stevens got in the game, too.
At the first half’s 4:42 mark — and with only a 10-point lead, far before the game turned into a laugher — all 12 eligible scholarship guys had made it onto the court. Despite the opposing Great Danes’ 1-3-1 zone causing offensive issues, Smart still chose to give everyone a chance.
“Every guy on our team worked,” he said, “and I thought earned the right to have an opportunity to get out there tonight.”
But the decision helped Smart, too: it gave him a better understanding of what his players look like in real action. Not inside Kasten Gym, wearing pinnies, against teammates, in front of only coaches and maybe a few outside spectators. But under the bright lights of an NBA arena, in actual jerseys, against actual opponents, in front of thousands of people.
It painted a picture of who he can call on when the going gets tough, essentially.
“I’m still trying to figure out, once the rotation does get a little shorter, who is going to be exactly in it?” Smart said.
It was not something as pressing on his mind the past three years, simply because his team was chalk-full of seasoned returners. There were still young, inexperienced players, yes, but there were less of them and more of those who had been around the block.
“We, for the last few years, had had probably a more clear delineation after our top five or six guys,” he said. “(Now), you got Chase Ross, who’s the best player on our team, and a guy we’re asking to do a lot of things, and you got a lot of guys after that, that are relatively close, which is good in a way.”
By the end of the 40 minutes, Smart had plenty to take away from his lineup tinkering — for good and bad. It’s clear the Golden Eagles have a surplus of athletic defenders to harass ball-handlers — on-brand for any Smart coached team — while, conversely, having some ironing out to do on the offensive end of the floor.
Sophomore Damarius Owens finished with a bench-most 11 points. James Jr. posted 11 deflections and three steals. Stevens made Marquette’s first two threes and went 50% (2-for-4) from deep. Overall, all but one scholarship Golden Eagle put points on the board, and the bench accounted for 39 of Marquette’s 80 points.
“Coach always talks about just playing your hardest,” junior guard Zaide Lowery said. “When the [bench] guys come in the game, they’ll be ready to go. So I feel like as a whole we did a good job of that tonight. And we got to keep it up.”
Smart admitted he cannot play the whole-roster-gets-minutes card every game this season, but when so many questions surround his team, the lesser opponents provide him the opportunity to experiment. And Monday night, he took full advantage.
“We just got to keep getting better in a lot of ways,” he said, “and figuring out what rotations make the right sense.”
This article was written by Jack Albright. He can be reached at [email protected] or on Twitter/X @JackAlbrightMU.
