From now until Villanova’s first game in Rome on November 1 against Notre Dame, WBR’s Andrew Kresin will run down the 10 other Big East programs as a MISE EN PLACE series. You can check out the rest of the series here.
General Information
- Head Coach: Shaka Smart (Sixth year at Marquette, 110-61 in Milwaukee, 382-203 overall)
- 2025-26 Record: 12-20 (7-13)
- 2025-26 Postseason: Lost to Xavier in the First Round of the Big East Tournament, no other postseason
- Coaches’ Poll Placement: Fourth (73 points, one first-place vote)
- Media Day All-Big East Members: First Team All-Big East member Nigel James Jr., Second Team All-Big East member Royce Parham, Third Team All-Big East member Sananda Fru
- 2026-27 Scoring Retention: ~62.2 percent of scoring across eight players
Key Returners
Sophomore guard Nigel James Jr. coming back to Marquette was one of the single greatest retentions across the Big East. In 32 games, 29 starts and 930 minutes with the Golden Eagles, James Jr. averaged 16.4 points per game on 47.0 percent shooting from the field. This shooting percentage was built on over 400 attempts, which made him a top freshman nationally in field goal attempts over the course of the season. As a defender, he was one of the best in the Big East, forcing 61 steals last season, but I think his offensive weight matters more in a scouting report. He became the heartbeat of Marquette’s offensive attack, doing everything for the Golden Eagles while working through those freshmen jitters—with a league-leading 89 turnovers—that plague some newcomers.
This hyperbole is warranted. James Jr. led the Big East conference in usage rate at 30.1 percent and assist rate at 37.3 percent. Alone, those percentages are not rare, but for one player to have both a 30+ percent usage rate and 35+ percent assist rate in equivalent minutes played to Nigel James Jr. is remarkable. Since 2013-14, only 28 players have reached these two marks in 800+ minutes—only seven players if you look exclusively at power conference teams—and the names on this list include NBA talents like Trae Young, Cameron Payne and Ja Morant. James Jr. became the focal point for Marquette as the season wore on, notching four 20+ point games in his final 10 appearances, and now enters 2026-27 as Marquette’s premier returning talent.
Coach Smart’s calling card at Marquette has been retention. He kept players like Oso Ighodaro, Kam Jones, Stevie Mitchell, David Joplin, Ben Gold, et cetera from freshman year to graduation, building a reputation for prioritizing his own high school commitments over transfers (more on that later). As a result, it shouldn’t be a surprise that junior forward Royce Parham decided to return to Marquette despite the team’s poor performance last season. Parham played nearly 900 minutes across 31 games and 20 starts for the Golden Eagles last season, shooting 52.2 percent from the field and 33.3 percent from three. He scored third most of any player on the team, averaging 12.5 points per game, and was second on the team in rebounding with 152 total rebounds over last season.
Marquette fans might be encouraged by Parham’s finish to the 2025-26 season, which was dominant. Parham saw increased minutes and a starting role, capitalizing on the opportunity to the tune of 16.3 points and 6.0 rebounds per game while shooting 65.2 percent from the field over his final 10 games. In this same 10-game stretch, Marquette went 4-6 against exclusively Big East foes, perhaps showing Coach Smart that he’s ready for a greater role alongside James Jr. this upcoming season. A strong base to build around, Parham and James Jr. both have shown extended flashes of strong play that have solidified Marquette as one of the biggest rising teams in the nation.
Adrien Stevens also returns to Milwaukee after an extremely promising freshman campaign. The 6-foot-4 sophomore guard averaged 7.9 points per game across 32 games and 23 starts while also shooting 37.5 percent from three on 144 attempts. The Golden Eagles’ best three-point shooter last season, Stevens was also adept in the backcourt defensively, stealing the ball a total of 44 times with 20 instances occurring in just his final 10 games. He also improved on his three-point percentage in his final 10 games, shooting 41.9 percent from three (26-of-62) in this span. Improvements from Stevens—and for that matter Parham—helps further the point that Marquette is going to be an improved team come this upcoming season.
Marquette has a trio of promising players to build around, but that point about retention also shines in the depth that Marquette returns. With Damarius Owens, Caedin Hamilton, Michael Phillips II and Joshua Clark, Marquette returns four players who combined for just 18 starts but also scored 327 points last season for an average of 2.9 points per game per player. Granted, not all those players made the exact same impact—Hamilton made all but one of those starts—but for Coach Smart to return four players with that level of experience exemplifies the continued emphasis that he has made on player retention and development.
Key Transfers
For a long time, the focus on retention was also the Achilles’ heel of Marquette. Coach Smart would not often go after portal additions, adding Tyler Kolek in 2021-22 but underutilizing the portal most seasons. That changed this year, as Marquette made a few marquee additions in the transfer portal for the first time in a while.
Sananda Fru, a senior forward transferring in from Louisville, played around 770 minutes in 35 games and 29 starts for the Cardinals last season. As Louisville’s starting center for the bulk of last season, Fru was third nationally in two-point percentage among players with at least 100 attempts within the arc and was good for an average of 9.0 points per game. He was a top rebounder in the ACC, averaging 6.1 rebounds per game over his 22.0 minutes per game, equivalent to a 15.5 percent total rebounding rate. He also had a 7.2 percent block rate, good for a top 50 mark nationally among players with at least 700 minutes played.
Fru will also assuredly fill the hole left behind by Ben Gold, a two-year starter at Marquette, but it will not be a one-for-one translation. For much of his career, Gold was a consistent three-point threat but was not a strong shot blocker and was not going to attack the glass on the offensive end of the floor. Across about 845 minutes last season, Gold managed 50 offensive boards (32 in conference play) and just 14 blocks (eight in conference play). Fru changed Marquette’s complexion down low, logging 99 offensive boards and 50 blocks in less overall minutes than Gold. On the flip side, Coach Smart is sacrificing his three-point spacing by deploying Fru who had a three-point attempt rate at just 4.7 percent.
Junior guard Nolan Minessale heralds from Wisconsin originally and had been playing at St. Thomas for the past two years. Minessale had a strong freshman season with 34 games played/started and a strong scoring average at 11.2 per game. Returning to the Tommies as a sophomore, he became much better at almost every major statistical category offensively. He was a high-usage player for the Tommies, taking 13.3 shot attempts per game with 13 games at 15+ field goal attempts. He even ended up leading the Summit League in points scored (674), made field goals (228), made free throws (174) and made two pointers (184).
Minessale’s impact goes beyond scoring. As a bigger guard, he averaged 4.6 rebounds, 4.3 assists and 1.6 steals per game last season. The notable point here is his assist rate, which hovered above 25 percent. When combined with his usage rate, these numbers show that Minessale made a similar impact on the Tommies that James Jr. made to Marquette last season. I will be curious to see what Minessale can do for the Golden Eagles as someone complementing the proven pieces at this level of competition.
Joining Fru and Minessale is fifth-year guard Colin Porter, a 135-game starter at Liberty over the past four seasons. Porter had been a consistent presence for the Flames up until last season, when his then-career average of 8.3 points per game bumped up 11.1 points for his senior season. He accomplished a higher percentage by shooting nearly two more shots per game, which lowered career-high shooting splits from his junior season back down to his career-average range. Porter’s career average of 3.9 assists per game shows he’s a passer, and he’ll help to fill in for James Jr. when he needs a breather.
Key College Newcomers
Marquette brought in three college newcomers excluding those late additions to last year’s squad that did not play last season. The most prominent of these newcomers is freshman forward Alex Egbuonu, a former top 100 four-star recruit from New Hampshire. In his senior year of high school, Egbuonu averaged 25.1 points and 10.3 rebounds per game shooting 49.9 percent from the field. As a member of Lawrence Academy in Massachusetts, he also won the 2025-26 Gatorade Player of the Year in the state.
Freshman guard Ethan Johnston, also a four-star ranked in the top 200 nationally, comes to Marquette by way of Queens, New York and The Hill School. He finished with 1,330 points at that program, third all time, and finished first all time in rebounding. Egbuonu and Johnston join freshman guard Colton Crowdis, an unranked Canadian prospect who played for Bridgton Academy in Maine. While at Bridgton Academy, Crowdis averaged 20.0 points, 7.0 rebounds and 6.5 assists in his final season.
Others
Freshman guard Nash Walker returns to the Marquette Golden Eagles after joining during the season last year and taking a redshirt year. He represented Australia in the FIBA U19 World Cup in 2025. Freshman forward Ian Miletic also took a redshirt last season after averaging 20.0 points per game as a senior at Rolling Meadows High School. Sophomore forward Braeden Brenn returns to Marquette as well after redshirting in 2024-25 and scoring two points across three games in 2025-26.
Outlook
Coach Smart continued his focus on retention while also grabbing strong transfers that address immediate needs for Marquette. Getting as many high-level pieces back—James Jr. and Parham come to mind—creates a much better floor than last season’s performance garnered, but to also improve on their poor rebounding numbers with Fru raises their ceiling as well. After missing the NCAA Tournament last season, Marquette will certainly be in contention to make it back to March, if not wear home jerseys in their first-round game.
Credits
Marquette player information (demographics, player stats from high school, et cetera) found on Marquette’s athletics webpage. Player stats from other schools found on Sports-Reference. Lists made with Stathead. Player rankings from high school found on 247Sports. Charts made in Microsoft Excel.