2024 - 25 Marquette Basketball Thread

[nate82]

The nothing easy is spot on for Marquette this season and their offense.

[patrickgpe]

18 hours ago, folly412 said:

Hope Shaka bites the bullet and hits the portal.  Ross, Gold, and Lowery are not the core of a good Big East team.  Parham might be good.  He should remember the 2/3 of the players who went onto the NBA were transfers in.

Basically 4 top 100 recruits coming in next year, incoming class is. #16 in the country. 

[nate82]

52 minutes ago, patrickgpe said:

Basically 4 top 100 recruits coming in next year, incoming class is. #16 in the country. 

But that is usually another year until they are developed enough.  They will still need to hit the portal.

[patrickgpe]

McNeal and Howard are getting their numbers retired next season. Well deserved, not great pros but they made their mark on Marquette's program. Crean will be recognized as well. 

I do wonder how far jersey retirements will go. Kolek would deserve it then as well. 

[nate82]

I loathe team’s retiring numbers.  Just put a jersey up in the rafters no need to retire the number unless they are an all time great and even then just put the jersey up there.  

[patrickgpe]

1 hour ago, nate82 said:

I loathe team’s retiring numbers.  Just put a jersey up in the rafters no need to retire the number unless they are an all time great and even then just put the jersey up there.  

for college it is silly. Its a little easier to do now that 6-9 can be used, but when all numbers were between 0-5, its easy to run out.

I get retiring the jersey of pro's that made the HOF. What the bucks did under Kohl was silly with regards to retiring numbers. 

Both players had great Marquette careers, despite not doing much after. They should be recognized. I tend to agree with you that jersey retirement may be a little much. 

[LouisEly]

Markus Howard is the all-time career scoring leader at Marquette and it isn't even close.  He has 700 more points than Kam Jones and 1,000 more points than anyone who played for 3 years before freshmen were eligible.  He was a 2x All-American and led the nation in scoring his final year.  

If anybody deserves to have his jersey/number retired, it's him.

[patrickgpe]

@LouisEly @nate82 I was mistaken. #22 and #0 are not getting retired, but rather their jerseys are. Marquette no longer retires numbers for anyone. 

[HarryDoyle]

Not basketball related but very sad news.

Two Marquette men's lacrosse players killed in car wreck - ESPN

[HarryDoyle]

Nice warmup game to kick off the season.

[patrickgpe]

Maryland is a team that Marquette has to beat. I have no issue with losing to Indiana although I wish they were in the game at least. Maryland is #60 in KenPOM, Marquette is 51.  

[HarryDoyle]

Another winnable game lost. This might be a long season.

[Cool Hand Lucroy]

More of a Badger fan (ducks), but I always enjoy hoops more when Marquette is good, and I really like and respect Shaka. College basketball is better when the Big East is operating at the top of its game. Give me a basketball-first conference all day long. 

Worried not just about Marquette (without a Kolek or Jones, their scoring ability is really limited, and I think this group is usually the less athletic bunch, meaning their defense can only get so far on toughness and verve), but about the whole of the Big East. A really bad noncon for them so far. UCONN is predictably great, maybe Nova and Butler are better than advertised, but with Creighton and Marquette looking like they're taking a step backward, this could be a three-bid league. LONG way to go, so hopefully there's some course correction. Maybe Seton Hall is better than we thought? Georgetown? I trust Saint John's will get back up to form. 

Big question with MU is whether Shaka will start prioritizing transfer portal adds a little or a lot more in the future. Honestly? I hope this team gels and gives him a reason to stick to his current strategy. Better game when all kinds of philosophies can operate.

[folly412]

Over/under for Big East wins might be 3.  This team is really bad.  Can't not get a high major player for two recruiting classes in a row yet be too stubborn to take a transfer to fill that gap.

[LouisEly]

On 12/2/2025 at 10:41 AM, Cool Hand Lucroy said:

Big question with MU is whether Shaka will start prioritizing transfer portal adds a little or a lot more in the future.

He has always had a handshake agreement with his recruits that he won't portal over them if they don't portal out from under him..

From what I can tell, he's only had two players transfer out.

[BigWoo53]

Marquette stinks. Doesn't help the bigs are pretty horrendous. Hamilton is awful and Gold is Charmin sawft. 

[folly412]

Getting blown out every game.  The conversation's going to have to be whether Shaka wants to do it in the NIL and portal era or if he joins the Tony Bennett club.  Trying to be the one who does it differently is program suicide.  Other than James, there's not much to be excited about on the roster.

[HarryDoyle]

This is going to be a long season.

[LouisEly]

Not much to write home about this year, but couldn't have written a better way to end the season.

Really surprised that the fans didn't storm the court.  That's one where a court storming was warranted.

Suck it, Hurley.

[patrickgpe]

@LouisEly I think that is frowned upon in general and Fiserv Forum does what they can to avoid that. Plus its a bad look to storm the court winning game #12.

I agree, not much to write about but Nigel James has shown he can be a star in the Big East. Stevens and Parham really did improve in February / March, so there are some building blocks if Marquette can keep them out of the portal.

Will be an interesting offseason. Shaka has stated that he intends to use the portal this offseason so hopefully he can pluck away a decent player or 2.

[patrickgpe]

This is behind a paywall, but Nigel James confirms he wont' be in the portal this summer.

https://www.jsonline.com/story/sports/college/marquette/2026/03/11/big-east-freshman-of-year-nigel-james-jr-returning-to-marquette-next-season-ncaa-transfer-portal/89097409007/?gnt-cfr=1&gca-cat=p&gca-uir=true&gca-epti=z116350p119450c119450e1179xxv116350d--43--b--43--&gca-ft=33&gca-ds=sophi&tbref=hp