NEW YORK — Marquette men’s basketball will always have March 7 on which to look back.
When the Golden Eagles board their charter flight back to Milwaukee after the offseason’s early arrival, they can think about last Saturday’s upset over No. 4 UConn at Fiserv Forum.
How they finally won a game close down the stretch. How their defense held the Huskies to 3-of-24 from beyond the arc. How they ended the regular season with the year’s best win — what head coach Shaka Smart called a “highmark” — and strutted into the postseason with swagger.
There won’t be much else to think about from this wretched 2025-26 season, though. At least not in a positive light.
Because, four days after its inspiring toppling of UConn, Marquette fell victim to the same issues plaguing Smart’s fifth season at the helm in an 89-87 loss to Xavier in the Big East tournament’s first round.
Starting with the shooting, the Golden Eagles finished 31-of-73 (42.5%) overall and 11-of-40 (27.5%) from beyond the arc, its bucket-getting leaving when they needed it most.
Now, onto the clutch time heebie-jeebies. Marquette erased its once-10-point deficit with 1:56 remaining before clanking two free throws and turning over a critical possession in the final minute and change.
And, finally, the defense. After playing like a top 10 defensive team in February, the Golden Eagles gave up too many open looks and the Musketeers finished 33-for-64 on the day and 19-for-30 (63.3%) in the second half.
“A couple bad bounces down the stretch, and then a big, big basket by Tre Carroll to extend the lead for them. Really proud of how our guys fought,” Smart said.
“I told the guys in the locker room, when we had a defensive identity, I think we were really, really tough to beat this year. It just wasn’t consistent enough, including today. But you got to give Xavier a ton of credit for that.”
When the Golden Eagles trailed 60-50 with 11:39 to go, their season was on a knife’s edge.
Their surviving seven first half minutes without Nigel James Jr. due to early foul trouble to enter the locker room tied 38-38 was for naught. So were Michael Phillips II’s contributions off the bench, and their holding Carroll to four points on 2-of-7 shooting, including three missed 3-pointers.
Those pluses were negated by the minuses of a 15-2 Xavier run over nearly four minutes, which included 11-straight points. But, Marquette quickly cut its deficit to three thanks to Phillips’ 10th and final point, the blue & gold looking unready to go home.
From there, the Golden Eagles always kept the Musketeers uncomfortable.
A James Jr. 3-pointer — one of his only two makes on nine attempts — made it 70-68 with 6:56 remaining. Another from Chase Ross — one of his two on five shots — made it 80-78 with 2:32 to go. Two free-throws from James Jr. evened the score at 80 at the 1:56 mark.
Then, Jovan Milicevic scored his team-most 21st point to put Xavier back ahead and Carroll hit the deadly fadeaway jumper Smart harped on. After a few game-sealing free throws from the Musketeers here and a couple futile points from the Golden Eagles there, the final buzzer rang with Marquette trailing by two points.
And just like that, 2025-26 was over. A February to remember after a November, December and January to forget amounted to all the same: defeat.
“That’s what sucks. Because, honestly, my first thought when the game ended was I wanted to coach these guys another day,” Smart said.
“Sometimes when you have a season like we had this year, there could be a mentality of, well, it’s just not our year. Man, the way our guys have been growing and improving, I wanted to get a chance to play again tomorrow.”
The Golden Eagles end the year with 20 losses for only the second time in the program’s 109-year history and will miss the NCAA tournament for the first time under Smart — and by a country mile, it should be noted.
Now, Smart enters perhaps the biggest offseason in his tenure in Milwaukee, with Division I transfers inbound for the first time in four seasons and a rebuild around three young cornerstones underway.
“You don’t want to necessarily determine your rotation for next year, but over the next couple months we do have to determine our roster,” Smart said.
“We will still have a lot of young guys next year and that’s why, man, for me, the coaching staff, for these guys, the number one thing over the next several months is growth.”
This story was written by Jack Albright. He can be reached at [email protected] or on Twitter/X @JackAlbrightMU.
