Coming off a 23-10 regular season run, the 7-seed Golden Eagles fell short of making it deep into this year’s NCAA tournament. They had the kinetic energy to get it done, the pieces just didn’t seem to fit together. When a piece is missing, there isn’t much you can do besides fill it in.
When Shaka Smart arrived at Marquette in 2021, he was met with a five-player roster that he built up through the transfer portal and previous recruiting from his time at Texas. Currently, Marquette is the only power-conference team that hasn’t signed anyone from the D1 portal since the 2022-2023 season.
Smart hasn’t transferred players in, and no one had transferred out since 2023 until last week when Al Amadou announced his departure.
The 2024-2025 roster does feature one transfer from a Division III institution. Jack Anderson is a senior guard from Florida who transferred in from Keystone College in 2024. Before Anderson, Zach Wrightsil was the last player to come in from the portal in 2022.
Smart has stated before that the lack of use is purposeful, which is evident in the continuity of his starters over the last few seasons. Eight players have started for Marquette since the 2022-2023 season; Tyler Kolek, Oso Ighodaro, and Olivier-Maxence Prosper left the current starting lineup behind when they entered the NBA.
Following MU’s loss to 10-seed New Mexico March 21, Smart said there’s a lot of growth ahead of the team, both within the game and personally. That being said, a huge part of the loss came from a lack of action and aggression in the paint. Missed shots and minimal rebounding have cost the Golden Eagles a game several times before.
Going into the season, it felt like anything was possible with this year’s roster. Marquette men’s basketball values community and relationships, the starting lineup remained the same for the entirety of the season for this reason. But in the words of Smart, the team was not poised to advance in the tournament.
For a team that started its season on an 8-0 run, making a first-round exit because of repeated mistakes should be a hint that it might be time for a change.
Smart prefers focusing on the roster he has and approaches his coaching with player-development in mind. But without senior starters David Joplin, Stevie Mitchell, and Kam Jones, growth may not occur without trying something new.
Use of the transfer portal would allow for the introduction of a player who can contribute to the team immediately, rather than waiting for younger players to develop. A player that’s able to fill in a missing piece right away allows more room to focus on what must be developed. Specific skills and plays cannot be transferred in, but a new piece can enhance existing progress and provide a new foundation to build on.
It’s been two seasons since a Division I transfer has been introduced to the roster. Kolek was one of the last major additions that came through the portal, and his impact on the program is undeniable. His departure, alongside Ighodaro at the end of the 2023-2024 season, left gaps that Smart hoped to fill internally with his rising seniors.
Moments at the start of the season, such as a dominant win over Purdue just five games in, felt like the roster wouldn’t be impacted much. The first-round exit was the culmination of a roster that is missing a piece. Without reinforcement of the pre-existing roster, Marquette’s basketball program risks losing momentum and continually falling short of championship aspirations.
The culture Smart has developed is one defined by what players bring to the program. It shouldn’t matter how they got here, and at this moment, bringing in the right player could be the difference between another early exit or a deep tournament run next March.
This story was written by Lilly Peacock. She can be reached at lilly.peacock@marquette.edu or @lillypeacockMU on Twitter/X.