Shaka Smart plans for the future.
He hasn’t touched the transfer portal much since he began coaching at Marquette in 2021, instead opting to develop his roster in-house for future success. Recently, he has been doing this for some of his coaching staff as well.
Now in their first year as graduate coaching assistants, Jack Anderson and Cameron Brown smacked the hardwood with two hands as Golden Eagles for one and four seasons, respectively. It’s the first time in Smart’s 17 years of coaching that he has given the position to past players.
“I’m excited about having that institutional knowledge,” Smart said.
Following his senior year, Brown never planned on going to grad school and Anderson was applying to the Miami Fire Department. Smart made the graduate assistant offer to Anderson on a flight to New York in February and to Brown while working out last November.
Both were surprised and neither formally agreed immediately, but Smart made the assumption that they would eventually.
Of course, he was right.
“If I would have left after a year,” Anderson said, “it would have been a disservice to myself.”
As graduate assistants, Brown and Anderson travel with the team and act as extensions of the coaches, giving them a lot of responsibilities: advising the players, participating in workouts and getting involved in drills, just to name a few.
They take it seriously. Anderson was playing hard enough during a practice that he separated his shoulder trying to get over a screen.
When they get a break, they’ll retreat to their office inside the Al McGuire Center to get schoolwork done. It’s not rare for a day to go from 6 a.m. to 6 p.m. with classes and assistant responsibilities. A night can even go as late as 9:30 p.m. if a player wants help getting some extra reps in on the court.
Those long days can be the most difficult part of Anderson and Brown’s work, all in lieu of getting ahead on a grad student’s amount of classwork, well-needed rest and free time.
“For me, most of the time, it doesn’t feel like work,” Brown said. “I enjoy being here and being around people that I know and love. It makes it easier to make those sacrifices.”
Sometimes, they’ll even take on responsibilities that aren’t part of the job description.
Throughout the summer and on the Fourth of July, Anderson lit up his grill outside his apartment to cook brats, burgers, steak, corn and wings. Not for himself. Instead, he’d text the team group chat, insisting that the players pick up the food he made.
The grad assistants enthusiastically give to a program that asks a great deal from them because they love seeing players develop. Brown and Anderson know how important it is because not long ago, they were the ones being coached.
When Anderson is helping a player on the stair climber and he increases the speed, or when Brown pulls a player aside during practice to tweak their jump shot, they know they’re asking a lot. But they also know what their teammates are capable of.
“It’s not empty words,” Anderson said. “It’s not just talking to talk. We were just there 12 months ago. We were there with you.”
Brown and Anderson only saw the court for a collective 15 minutes during their senior season. But that hardly matters. They have worked hard and built strong relationships with first-years and returners to know how each can succeed and grow.
At a practice this season, Anderson was standing next to sophomore forward Damarius Owens at the corner of the court. Owens’ defender moved up on him and instinctively, Anderson told Owens to cut towards the paint for a lob: “Go, go, go!” Owens listened and scored.
This moment embodied the shift for Anderson between struggling to find his voice and making an impact through his words.
Brown and Anderson each have five or so players they work with every day on strength, shooting and other technical skills that can translate into practice.
“They’ve seen a lot of what I need to work on,” junior guard Zaide Lowery said, who is part of Brown’s group. “I can go in there and not even have to tell them what I need to work on. They know it from the jump.”
The two assistants do this so well because they were molded for this position long before they got the offer, something only now looking back do they realize.
In his sophomore year, Brown was injured and missed the season. Despite this, he found a way to stay involved, giving teammates a new set of eyes and talking them through what was happening on court. Smart saw that.
During the 2022 Big East Tournament, Brown gave a speech during halftime of the St. John’s quarterfinal game to light a flame under his team. Marquette won that game and would go on to win the tournament. Smart saw that.
Anderson came from Division III Keystone College for his senior year, where he admits he put more emphasis on personal performance than team success. Stepping into Marquette’s program, he didn’t see the court much, which taught him to contribute value besides stats. Once again, Smart saw that.
That’s when both began wanting to be a part of something that was bigger than themselves. Smart already knew that.
“We try really hard to get our guys to think about life beyond basketball,” said Smart, who played Division III college basketball and dreamed to make it to the NBA. “And it was very difficult to get me, at that age, to think about anything but that.”
But look where Smart ended up. Maybe he wanted to give them a head start.
This story was written by Benjamin Hanson. He can be reached at benjamin.hanson@marquette.edu or on Twitter/X @benhansonMU.