Marquette men’s basketball has struggled to beat its in-state rival in the five seasons that head coach Shaka Smart has been atop the program.
Saturday, the Golden Eagles (5-5) fell 96-76 at Wisconsin, dropping to 1-4 against the Badgers since 2021. Marquette is now in danger of falling under .500 for the first time since the 2020-21 season.
Here are some thoughts from the beatdown by Bucky:
The Golden Eagles are trying to find solutions, but nothing is working
From the 2022-23 season to 2024-25 season, the Golden Eagles started just eight different players.
“We’ve had unbelievable continuity in those lineups,” Smart said.
Coming into this season though, Smart knew that with the departure of guards Stevie Mitchell and Kam Jones, along with forward David Joplin, his lineups were going to look a lot different. And so far, they have — and it hasn’t been pretty.
Smart made the decision to give first-year guard Adrien Stevens his first career start on Saturday. Stevens slotted in for junior guard Zaide Lowery, who played just 15 minutes on Wednesday against Valparaiso and finished shooting 0-for-7 from the field with zero points. Lowery played a season-low 13 minutes against the Badgers.
“I told [the team] this year, I have a feeling it’s going to be different,” Smart said. “We’re not doing it different just to be different, but, we just don’t really have a set five that we know for sure is going to be the five we have to have in the game.”
Smart made another lineup change at the start of the second half on Saturday, starting the half with sophomore forward Royce Parham on the floor instead of redshirt sophomore forward Caedin Hamilton.
“I just thought Royce was playing better,” Smart said. “That’s why we made that change.”
Despite the lineup changes, the result wasn’t nearly what Marquette needed it to be. Even with Stevens’ team-high 15-points and the better play of Parham, not to mention the return of Sean Jones from a shoulder injury after one month, the Golden Eagles once again found themselves defeated in the locker room after falling handily to a high-major opponent.
Marquette’s rotation problem is not that Smart is just neglecting to find answers to his team’s issues, it’s that his options are limited and the solutions have not been working — on either end of the floor.
“We have, as you saw at the end there, a lot of young guys that we believe in, that we need to grow up,” Smart said. “We have been blessed and fortunate to have some really good teams as of late, and this team is behind those teams right now, that’s a fact. We need to get better, and we will.”
Marquette’s season-worst day at the charity stripe
The Golden Eagles finished with single-digit free throw makes (9) for the first time all season on Saturday. MU shot 47.4% (9-for-19) from the line against Wisconsin, also a season low.
“It was at one point in the second half, I think [Wisconsin] got the lead to maybe 11,” Smart said. “and I looked at the stat sheet and I’m like, ‘Man, if we make our free throws, it’d be more like four or five.’”
Getting to the free throw line had been a strength this year for the Golden Eagles — who shot three more free throws per game on average than their opponents. The issue has been pressing that advantage.
MU is shooting 71.9% to its opponents 74.6%. The Golden Eagles had already missed 10 or more free throws twice before Saturday, and those issues from the stripe continued to rear their ugly heads much to the pleasure to almost all of the 16,838 fans at the Kohl Center.
The Golden Eagles have gotten to the foul line more this season than years prior, but only shooting 19 free throws while letting your opponent make 24 isn’t going to cut it often times.
The charity stripe is an especially important for Marquette right now, something Smart has been transparent about, because its offense is continuing to struggle from the field — ranking 254th in the country in 3-point percentage and 218th in 2-point percentage as of Dec. 8.
What’s on tap?
The blue & gold travel to West Lafayette, Indiana to face No. 1 Purdue at Mackey Arena on Saturday. The Golden Eagles have played the Boilermakers in each of the past three seasons, dropping the first two matchups at Mackey and in Maui before snagging a win last season at Fiserv Forum.
Tip-off is at 1 p.m. CST.
This story was written by Matthew Baltz. He can be reached at matthew.baltz@marquette.edu or on Twitter/X @MatthewBaltzMU.