Too much young talent in the program to call this a rebuilding year for Marquette basketball

The departure of All-American Kam Jones and all-world defender/energizer Stevie Mitchell and leading rebounder David Joplin leaves many believing that this will be a rebuilding season for Marquette. 

Not buying it. 

If just 5 of 8 of the following developments, listed in order of most to least difficult to imagine, come to fruition, this could prove to be Shaka Smart’s best March team yet.

1. Chase Ross improves from a 36% 3-point shooter to 40%, becomes Marquette’s go-to scorer, earns second-team All-American honors and is projected to be drafted in the first round. From the moment Ross took the floor against Radford in his Marquette debut, it was obvious he had natural basketball instincts, especially defensively, where he always seemed to be right there to lend help. His rim-rocking leaping ability was obvious from the go as well. 

One of the nation’s best defenders, he can guard anyone from a point guard to a power forward and repeatedly has shut down the opposition’s top scorer, all while playing the passing lanes like few others in the college game. 

Football-tough, relentlessly aggressive and super smart (Academic All-Big East), he didn’t need to be a go-to scorer his first three seasons. Now Maquette needs one. He might be the guy. Going from 36% to 40% from outside the arc isn’t easy, but since when does Ross limit himself to easy challenges? 

2. Almost left this out so as not to create false hope. I have no sources at Marquette, so nothing I write here is based on any inside knowledge, but I do spend a lot of my idle time thinking about Marquette basketball, close to 365 days a year. Again, this one is a wild hope, not anything based on reality. 

Here goes: Freshman Sheek Pearson, earmarked for a redshirt season, makes so many strides the first couple of weeks of practice that the coaches determine he already is good enough to make Marquette significantly better this season and they decide to trade the redshirt for a blue-and-gold one and he’s all for launching his college career a year early. 

3. Damarius Owens, impaired by injuries last season, stays healthy and makes the biggest improvement of anyone on the roster. Long and quick and blessed with a soft touch and a guard’s handle, Owens might have the highest ceiling on the team. If this is the first year that he shows that in games, look out. He’s the first Marquette player I can remember from Rochester, NY, my hometown.

4. Royce Parham the sophomore has production similar to or slightly better than what Gold had as a junior, only with better rebounding numbers. In 25.3 minutes a game, Gold averaged 7.4 points, 4.3 rebounds and shot .371 from 3. If Parham earns that much playing time, would anybody be shocked if he gave Marquette 9 points and 5.5 boards a game and matched Gold’s 3-point percentage? 

5. Ben Gold has a healthier season, one without shin splints for example, and continues the climbing trajectory of his 3-point shooting percentage: 30.0 as a freshman, 35.9 as a sophomore, 37.1 as a junior, and improves as a rebounder, not an easy goal for someone who doesn’t appear to have rebounding instincts, but also not impossible to attain. 

6. Nigel James is ready to lead the team from the point guard position as a freshman. He has the confidence, the quickness and the skill to do it. He didn’t let the great competition he faced in practice and games send him into retreat mode at either end. 

I’ll never forget watching him on TV playing against La Lumiere, blocking Jack Smiley’s shot at the rim in a way that reminded me of a taller, less built version of another James, first name Dominic. 

7. Sean Jones is fully recovered from the ACL surgery that shortened his season two years ago and kept him out of games last season, and he embraces whatever role Shaka has for him, be it sixth-man energizer playing starters’ minutes or whatever. His great attitude makes him willing to embrace any role pretty much a given. As for the knee recovery, it takes most athletes about a year-and-a-half to regain the strength in the knee, which made a redshirt last season for one of college basketball’s fastest players a smart decision. 

8. Adrien Stevens’ game is developed enough for him to play major minutes. No reason to believe he won’t. 

Even without Mitchell, this team has more potential to force turnovers than any of Shaka’s Marquette teams. Always having two of the following, sometimes three and even four on the floor at the same time, will turn opponents sloppy: James, Jones, Stevens, Ross, and if he improves his shot enough to earn any minutes, Tre Norman. At this point, that might be a big if. But picture the first four on the floor with Gold, who moves his feet well enough that he’s not an automatic release for the opponent when pressing and that’s a lot of havoc for most teams to handle. 

Increased depth means Shaka can apply even more defensive pressure without worrying about exhausting his players or getting them into foul trouble. 

Bruce Kelley, Stevens’ high school coach at powerhouse Bullis, calls Stevens a “relentlessly hard worker.” 

Stevens’ family tree is as impressive as any Marquette player’s since Wesley Matthews, who earned $116.9 million in NBA salary. Stevens’ grandfather, Curtis Greer, was a first-team All-American defensive end at Michigan and played nine seasons in the NFL. Adrien’s father, Larry Stevens Jr., played linebacker at Michigan and spent two seasons with the Cincinnati Bengals, and his mother played soccer at Michigan. 

Even if it doesn’t end up being Shaka’s best March team, Marquette fans will be entertained more than followers of the vast majority of fan bases. Smart’s program-building strategy of developing instead keeping the transfer portal turnstile spinning makes 

Marquette a way more interesting program to follow than most. It deepens the connection spectators at Fiserv Forum feel with the players because they have seen them get better every year in a program that puts more emphasis than most on individual instruction. 

The difference between watching a player recruited out of high school by Marquette and a transfer feels a little like watching your own child play youth sports compared to watching one of your friend’s children. It’s just not the same. 

Plus, little by little, it figures to improve recruiting. A player can trust that he will be going to a school at which he need not look over his shoulder for an older player coming in from the outside to take his spot. The more that happens elsewhere, the more it helps Marquette’s future.