Marquette men’s basketball losses this year mean more than an increase in the latter number on its season record. They mean more than a sad locker room, an angry or disappointed coach, disengaged fans or anything else other college hoops teams deal with after defeats.
While the Golden Eagles experience all of those each time their opponents get the better of them — most recently Wednesday night against Dayton — their losses come with more, unique baggage: being one of the few programs in the sport to spurn the NCAA transfer portal.
It leads to questions about the viability of head coach Shaka Smart’s grow-from-within methods. Talk of whether or not that kind of roster construction is sustainable. And, most of all, opinions about if Smart made a mistake this offseason choosing again to build from within and bet on his younger players, something many of his colleagues stopped doing years ago.
Now, with Marquette 3-3, back-to-back home losses for the first time since his first year in Milwaukee and an NCAA tournament berth looking less likely after every game, his choice is an even bigger talking point. And it will only become more prevalent if the season continues on this path.
Smart answered for his anti-portal process after the 77-71 overtime loss to the Flyers.
“Listen, we’ve had a lot of success around here the way we’ve gone about things. It’s not new,” he said. “What is a little bit different right now is that we’ve had, in the last couple years, six guys exit our program that — before you even talk about them as basketball players — who they were in terms of teammates and leaders and culture-builders, we’re responding to that. We’re having to react and grow from that.
“So, absolutely, we could have gone and recruited someone that was older. Maybe have had more experience. And absolutely it’s really easy to practice resulting right now. But, honestly, when the ball is up in the air and we’re playing basketball that’s not really winning or losing anyone games. It’s about how connected are you as a team.”
Given all he needed to replace this season, a lot of people expected Smart to dip into the portal. He did not. And while the start of the season has been far from ideal for his Golden Eagles, Smart did not question his ways, or display any regret for not portaling.
“We certainly have a group of guys that can win a game like tonight, whether we went in the transfer portal or not,” Smart continued.
“I’ve been doing this a long time. Criticism comes with the territory. But if you look at the way our process has gone, in the time that we’ve been here, I guess you could still criticize us now, but I think it’s been pretty good.”
This article was written by Jack Albright. He can be reached at jack.albright@marquette.edu or on Twitter/X @JackAlbrightMU.