Jayden Ross, UConn bench shine in blowout quarterfinal win over Xavier

Jayden Ross elevates for second-half dunk as junior forward keyed strong effort for UConn bench in Huskies’ win over Xavier. (Photo by Fox Sports)

By Sam Federman (@Sam_Federman)

NEW YORK — When UConn played its best basketball of the season during non-conference play, its bench was its biggest asset.

The Huskies not only survived the early part of the season while dealing with a hodgepodge of injuries to Braylon Mullins and Tarris Reed, Jr., but built up one of the nation’s top resumes.

While the Huskies have still lost just four games, the grind of Big East play has taken a toll on UConn’s depth, which has been inconsistent throughout the last few months. Now down Jaylin Stewart due to an injury of his own, it puts the onus on the three key reserves — Eric Reibe, Malachi Smith and Jayden Ross — to relieve the starters at the five, in the backcourt, and on the wing, respectively.

And they were all that they needed to be and more on Thursday, as UConn thumped Xavier, 93-68, to advance to a sixth consecutive Big East tournament semifinal. Ross was a plus-16 in 22 minutes, scoring nine points with four rebounds and three assists. Smith made two key threes in the first half and was a plus-14 in 23 minutes. Reibe scored nine points and grabbed four rebounds in 14 minutes when Reed sat on the bench.

“If we get that type of bench production,” head coach Dan Hurley said, “we’re going to win a lot of games the rest of this college basketball season.”

“They gave us a big spark,” Alex Karaban added. “When we got out to a big lead with the starting group, they came in there and just continued. There was no dropoff.”

Karaban may be the greatest beneficiary of the bench’s improved production.

When Hurley joked that his captain was “moving like a cargo ship,” after playing 25 minutes against Creighton, a game where the bench didn’t quite give enough, Karaban has had to play more and more minutes. He played 40 in each of the last two games of the regular season, including the loss to Marquette.

Because of how well Ross played on Thursday, Karaban only needed to play 30 minutes.

“Alex has been playing 40 minutes, and that’s not sustainable and it’s diminishing returns,” Hurley said. “So to be able to get Alex manageable minutes, and get J-Ross to 22 minutes, he brings an element on the perimeter defensively that we desperately need.”

“We’ve had a whole season to prepare,” Ross said. “And we’ve seen all the ups and downs of the season and almost all situations of the game. So I think now it’s just about putting it all together.”

Ross had two pick-sixes and helped limit Xavier’s wings throughout the night.

“It’s not anything new,” Smith said of Ross’ performance. “We know what he can do, you know what he does. When he’s just making plays, it’s just a boost for our team. Getting out in transition and getting dunks, those are game-changing plays, especially being in the Garden and being in Storrs South. It’s just amazing that he’s making plays, getting on the rim.”

Smith was also crucial. When Silas Demary, Jr. picked up two fouls in the first half, there was no dip when the backup point guard came into the game.

“The halftime situation could’ve been much different for us,” Hurley said. “But I thought Malachi was awesome in the first half.”

Even on one of Reed’s biggest nights of the season, Reibe gave UConn the one-two punch down low, and that more finesse-based look in the post.

Only one Husky starter played more than 30 minutes. Against Marquette, three UConn starters played more than 30 and another played 30. On nights where the bench thrives, UConn thrives.

“The level doesn’t drop with the substitution to the bench,” Reibe said. “We all just gotta keep it high and maybe even build up a bigger lead.”

Every year since rejoining the Big East, the Huskies have been one of the final four standing on Friday night. Against Georgetown, UConn will look to advance to its second Big East championship game of that stretch.

If it will, its reserves will be a massive part.

Villanova now shifts to Selection Sunday, NCAA Tournament, after shocking loss to Georgetown in Big East quarters

By Kyle Morello (@Kylemorello4)

NEW YORK — A night that was supposed to be the start of a new era of Villanova postseason basketball felt all too familiar on Thursday night at Madison Square Garden.

The Wildcats were outclassed by 11th-seeded Georgetown in the last game of quarterfinal Thursday at the Big East tournament, losing 78-64 and failing to make the semifinals for a fourth consecutive season.

Villanova entered the Big East tournament as the third seed, its highest finish since the 2022 tournament, when the Wildcats cut down the nets as the No. 2 seed. They were the clear third-best team in the league all season long and had rarely lost to a team worse than them. Only their home loss to Creighton in January was to a team not named St. John’s or UConn in Big East play. They had already beaten Georgetown twice this season. But as the old saying goes, it’s hard to beat the same team three times in a season. 

Especially on a stage like this.

“I think when you have a young basketball team that has played really well all year long, and has had some struggles in big games, that’s part of the growing process and the learning process,” head coach Kevin Willard said after the loss.

Georgetown used its interior presence to give Villanova fits all night. The Hoyas outrebounded the Wildcats, 46-25, and had as many offensive rebounds as Villanova did defensive rebounds (16). Georgetown also outscored Villanova 36-20 in the paint, and 17-8 in second-chance points. 

But it was more than that for Villanova. For a team ranked 42nd nationally in offensive rating according to KenPom, the Wildcats were anything but quality on Thursday. They had multiple stretches of scoreless streaks, including a 6:45 stretch to end the first half where they made just one basket. 

“I thought a little bit of our offense late in the first half dictated a little bit of our defense,” Willard lamented. “That was probably the first time all year that our offense kind of shifted to our defense, instead of the other way around.”

The offense and rebounding was naturally going to take a hit without starter Matt Hodge, who tore his ACL in the loss to St. John’s on February 28. Malachi Palmer has stepped up to fill Hodge’s role, but it’s left a hole in a bench unit that wasn’t very deep to begin with. 

“I think Malachi has done a really good job stepping in for Matt,” Willard said. “Where we struggle is when Malachi comes out of the game, so that’s something that I have a couple days where I’ve gotta try to figure out what we’re doing when (Tyler Perkins is) at the four. We just haven’t had much practice time since Matt’s gone down. We’ve been very delicate in practice.” 

As Willard stated, it’s something Villanova will have just a few days to work on. Selection Sunday is just two days away, and the Wildcats’ first NCAA Tournament game will likely be four or five days after that. 

As for figuring out how to win on the big stage, well, there’s no better time than their first game back in the big dance after a three-year drought.

Kevin Willard quote book: Georgetown

On what went wrong for Villanova:

“I thought a little bit of our offense late in the second half, late in the first half, dictated a little bit of our defense, and that was probably the first time all year that our offense kind of shifted to our defense instead of the other way around.”

On Madison Square Garden and its atmosphere playing a factor:

“I think when you have a young basketball team that has played really well all year long and has had some struggles in big games, that’s part of the growing process and the learning process. That doesn’t stop you from boxing out, though. I mean, I think, again, they had more offensive rebounds than we did defensive rebounds, so I don’t think it was so much the setting this time. I just think Ed’s done a great job all year with his team. They have eight losses of four points or less. They beat Clemson at home, they went to Maryland and won. Before the big guy (Vincent Iwuchukwu) got hurt, they were really playing well. So this is a good basketball team. And Jeremiah Williams, I’m happy for him, because he's back playing like he did when he was at Rutgers. When he’s aggressive and getting in the lane, they’re tough to stop.”

On Malachi Palmer at the four spot:

“I think Malachi’s done a really good job stepping in for Matt. Where we struggle is when Malachi comes out of the game, so that’s something that I have a couple days where I gotta try to figure out what we're doing when Perk’s at the four. We haven’t had much practice time because since Matty’s gone down, we’ve been very delicate in practice. So I think that was one of the issues we had with the offensive end, we just haven’t been able to practice as good as we’ve been able to practice all year.”

On adjustments before the NCAA Tournament:

“I’ve gotta help the young guys out a little bit in these games. We struggled a little bit to run offense when Malachi wasn’t in there and we kind of got stuck going a little bit one-on-one. That’s kind of what I mean. I gotta help them a little bit with not being able to put them in that situation so much. And it was just unfortunate, with Malachi going out and Perk in there, we just kind of get stuck with a very simplistic offense, where with Malachi and Matt, we were able to do a lot more.”

On shooting 7-for-29 from three-point range:

“I thought we got a lot of really good looks throughout the game. They’re playing big drop coverage. They were in huge drop, so you’ve gotta take advantage of that and be able to do it. And unfortunately, Dev had a tough night, but Dev’s been great all year. So again, you’ve gotta take the shots that they give you, and I thought they did a good job in drop. It’s just, you’ve gotta make some of those shots.”

On the NCAA Tournament serving as a clean slate:

“No, again, part of my message to these guys a little bit is just enjoying this a little bit. We’ll let this one sting, we’ll go back and watch film on Sunday. They’re going to get a couple days off, which I think is well-deserved. We’ll come back Sunday and practice and watch film, and after Selection Sunday, it’s a whole new season. You’ve gotta give Georgetown credit, they played really good tonight.”

UConn flushes Marquette disappointment with rout of Xavier in Big East tourney opener

UConn’s first response from loss at Marquette last week was a 93-68 win over Xavier in Big East tournament quarterfinals. (Photo by UConn Men’s Basketball)

NEW YORK — UConn’s season finale at Marquette was emotional for several reasons.

For starters, the 68-62 loss cost the Huskies a Big East regular season championship, as St. John’s won that title outright following UConn’s setback. Secondly, Dan Hurley’s ejection in the final seconds added to the story, with the coach’s sideline comportment again placed under the microscope. To compound the frustration of defeat, there was a thick layer of dismay among the principles in the locker room.

“There was the feeling of disappointment,” Braylon Mullins reflected Thursday. “We let Coach down. I thought that’s what everybody was going through, especially that Sunday and going into practice on Monday. It was just like, a bunch of tension, and I thought we just needed to get it out of our system coming into this week because it’s such a big week for us.”

And flush it, UConn did.

The Huskies opened the second season with a third authoritative takedown of Xavier Thursday night in their Big East tournament opener, pummeling the Musketeers from tip to buzzer in a 93-68 runaway. UConn (28-4) scored 90 or more points in each of its meetings with Richard Pitino’s squad, something Mullins’ teammates mentioned as an adequate and effective response from the letdown against Marquette five days prior.

“You’ve gotta erase what you did before,” Solo Ball said after pouring in a team-leading 19 points Thursday. “Whether it was good or bad, just capitalize and just trust your work. We’ve just been working constantly for the past ten months, so just continue to trust the work that you put in and trust the process, and then everything will fall into place.”

“We had to learn from (Marquette), but hold that pain inside of us,” Alex Karaban explained. “I thought for the most part, we did a good job of flushing it. Our first half was great, second half, we’ve got a lot of things to fix, but I thought it was a good response.”

Hurley placed the letdown in perspective, building Mullins back up despite his feeling of failure and reminding him it was not entirely his, nor his teammates’ fault that the circumstances that befell UConn happened as they did.

“I just wanted to let him know that I was as big a reason why we lost the game,” Hurley shared. “I was the main reason why we lost the game. I did a bad job leading, I did a bad job coaching. I was overly emotional and that showed in the end of the game. But I just think there’s so much love and connection with our team, culture, program. That’s the beautiful thing about our organization. Everyone cares so much and everyone feels bad that they let each other down. There’s not a lot of that everywhere.”

Say what you want about Hurley, and many people do, but the one constant is his love and respect for everyone in his program and sport. Ball shed additional light on the side of his coach that is often obscured, sometimes ignored, but as unrelenting as the trademark ultra-competitive persona.

“Coach just cares so much about this sport,” Ball said. “That’s one thing you have to appreciate the most playing for a coach like that. He wants to win so bad, and the rest of the coaching staff is like that as well. There’s no difference between Sad Dan or Angry Dan. When you have a coaching staff. That just cares so much about this sport, you want to just do anything you can to win.”

“They actually offered to pay parts of the fine,” Hurley quipped, citing the mutual love and respect he and his players have for one another in the fallout from the Marquette saga. “How nice a moment was that?”

UConn’s on-court travails Thursday were equally as pleasing for Husky fans, who now have a rejuvenated confidence mirroring that of the team they support. Hurley left nothing back in a Sunday film session, baring his soul in some aspects but not in his usual demonstrative fashion. This time, the coach wanted to subtly, but impactfully, tell his young charges exactly who and what they were, and still are. That message was reinforced Thursday.

“We just wanted to leave it in the room,” he said of the Marquette anguish. “I just wanted to remind the players we’ve been a Top 5 basketball team the whole year. We’ve played Top 5 basketball, we’ve been ranked in the Top 5 pretty much the whole year. Whether it’s strength of record, wins above bubble, we’ve been a Top 5 team the whole year. That’s who we are.”

“We don’t have anything to show for it yet. We don’t have a championship yet, we don’t have a Final Four yet, but don’t forget who we are.”

Sha Sounds Off: Creighton

On Seton Hall’s perimeter defense:

“I thought we came out, I thought we had good energy. We did a really good job the first half. In the first four minutes of the second half, we kind of lost our mind a little bit, and then once we settled down, kind of got back to it. Creighton’s a very, very good team, obviously well-coached, and they want to play in transition and get a bunch of threes, and it’s tough. The first four minutes of the second half, we kind of played into that, but once we settled down, I thought we were fine.”

On an opportunity against St. John’s in the semifinals:

“It’s funny, I was telling them this. I try to explain to these guys about the Big East tournament and the atmosphere, but playing tomorrow night, Friday night, in the semifinals against St. John’s in the Garden at home, that’s what you play basketball for, so (it’s) a great opportunity for us. We’ve just gotta get back right now and get hydrated, and make sure these guys get some rest and then kind of go from there.”

On his first Big East tournament win:

“Yeah, you know what? I didn’t even think about that. Yeah, I guess it’s not really my win, because when you get a bye, I consider that a win. I don’t have to play on Wednesday, so that’s a win for me, but no, it actually felt good to get the first one.”

On Seton Hall’s bench:

“Super important. That’s why I want to play 10-11 guys, right? I think if you only have six, seven guys and things don’t go well, you can’t go to your bench. Jacob came in and gave us great minutes, so did Trey Parker, and so did Tajuan Simpkins. So when you’ve got guys like that, when the starters are really not playing well, to come in with a bench — and we’ve been doing that the whole year — I think that’s been the key to some of our success.”

On what impresses him most about Budd Clark:

“I didn’t watch Budd at Merrimack. You gotta be careful with that, you can’t watch kids when they’re on other teams. You know what attracted me to Budd — wow, that sounds crazy — but what I liked about Budd was I like that he played with a chip on his shoulder. He played with the passion and the heart and the determination that I kind of played with, and I love the fact that people counted him out because of his size. I know if he gets with me and learns, because he’s got some things that you just can’t teach, and for ,him the good thing is that he’s still learning. I think once he continues to keep growing and learning, I think his game can go even higher.”

On Jacob Dar:

“That’s kind of what…that’s why he’s here. He’s different than Elijah, he’s different than Josh, he’s more athletic. Sometimes throughout the season, you kind of go through ups and downs, but give him credit, he always stayed ready no matter what. I always told him, ‘just stay ready.’ He practiced hard, just like he plays, and that kind of stuff is contagious.”

On Seton Hall’s NCAA Tournament chances:

“You know what? That’s above my pay grade, I don’t kind of get into that. Personally, I think we did enough. I know everybody thinks that the league is down. The league is not down. The problem, which you understand, is this league is good from top to bottom. I’m not disrespecting other leagues. Other leagues are top-heavy. Winning this game really helps, but all we can be concerned about is playing tomorrow night. We can’t worry about the future right now.”

On adjustments facing St. John’s again:

“I gotta get back — obviously, we just played them not too long ago. You’ve gotta get back, watch a little bit of film and come up with a game plan. They’re a very good team, obviously very well-coached, great players. But our guys played well throughout both games. We gonna do what Seton Hall do. We’re gonna defend, play hard, and what happens from there happens from there.”

5 Thoughts: Seton Hall gets heroic performance to overcome Creighton at MSG

Budd Clark was one of two Seton Hall players with 16 points as Pirates defeated Creighton in Big East tournament quarterfinals. (Photo by Seton Hall Athletics)

By Jason Guerette (@JPGuerette)

NEW YORK — Heading into the Big East tournament, the Seton Hall Pirates had no choice but to, in the words of their coach, “go in and take it.”

In the second half on Thursday afternoon, however, it was the Creighton Bluejays who were taking it, going on a big run and making the Pirates look like they were stuck.

But heroes in March in college basketball can take many different forms, and one of the most unlikely heroes of the season stepped up today in the form of Jacob Dar, who scored a season-best 16 points off the bench (all in the second half) to lead the Pirates to a 72-61 victory at Madison Square Garden, advancing them to the semifinal round on Friday night.

Here are the Thoughts from the World's Most-Famous Arena:

1. Survival and Advancement

For the most part in the first half, Seton Hall came out engaged defensively. They were able to stick in front of drivers and not get caught ball watching, and while the Bluejays (of course) were able to knock a few threes down, the Pirates made it difficult on them most of the time, holding them to 28 percent from deep (5-for-18).

Budd Clark, after an early offensive foul, continued to reward the trust from Shaheen Holloway and not pick up a second foul, and the combo of Stephon Payne and Najai Hines were able to control the paint. All told, The Hall led by seven at the break, and went into the locker room feeling pretty good about itself.

The second half started out in the exact opposite way. Greg McDermott’s team had it rolling on both ends, starting off with a Josh Dix three-pointer that Mike Williams was just a hair late in contesting, and rolling from there to a 14-2 run. This time of year, things aren’t going to go your way all of the time, and credit to Holloway for pushing the right button at the absolute perfect time (more on that in a second).

What transpired was a great March basketball game, full of twists and turns, and it was a great way to introduce this Seton Hall team to the wildest month of the season. Heading into a conference tournament setting, the first game is always about survival, and the Pirates were able to weather the storm. 

They also had to fight down the stretch for the third time this year against the Bluejays, persevering thanks to one of their mainstays, and one veteran who got his chance on the big stage and shone the brightest....

3. The Dar Knight

Time and again, Shaheen Holloway has said that the Pirates can beat you with several different guys, and it could be a different player nightly. In dire need of a spark as Creighton was rolling to start the second half, he inserted Jacob Dar into the game.

The Omaha native proceeded to provide one heck of a spark, scoring seven points in his first four minutes, getting The Hall back on track. Then, he kept right on doing it, ending up with 16 points on 5-for-6 shooting, 2-for-3 from deep (he was 2-for-15 this year before that), and 4-for-5 from the free throw line, eclipsing his previous season-best point total by 60 percent.

Dar did it on both ends of the floor, too, with his rangy style of defense helping Seton Hall tremendously. In fact, once he entered the game at the 14:56 mark, he never left the court again.

While he’s not been a main player in the lineup for the entire season, he’s had his moments for the Pirates, and had received double-digit minutes off the bench in four of the last six games coming into the Big East tournament. The effort Dar provided didn't exactly come out of nowhere, but the production certainly did, and it can definitely be said that without Dar, the Pirates would be going home.

It was a Coach of the Year-type move.

3. Coach Sha-f the Year

Yesterday, it was made public that Shaheen Holloway won the Big East Coach of the Year award unanimously, with every other coach in the league voting for him. To say that it’s well-deserved is an understatement, as the Seton Hall alum led one of the biggest turnarounds in recent Big East history.

Holloway put on a masterclass in this game, with the Dar move of course standing out. But the Pirates also drew up great plays out of timeouts several times in this game, one telltale sign of a great coaching staff. As someone who had yet to win a game at the Big East tournament, it represented a fitting way to earn his first one.

In the process, Holloway became the fourth person in Big East men’s basketball history to both play in the conference and win the Coach of the Year award, all of whom have a connection to the Pirates. Syracuse alum Louis Orr was Seton Hall’s coach in the 2000-aughts, Dan Hurley played for the Pirates before taking the UConn job, and Kevin Willard coached in South Orange for over a decade after playing at Pittsburgh.

Must be something in the water in North Jersey.

4. Budd-y System

One of the biggest keys in my mind to winning for Seton Hall today was that Budd Clark had to control the game, and he did. The point guard’s first Big East tournament game ended up as a 16-point, seven-rebound, six-assist affair, along with a plus-11 on the box score. He warded off an early charge, and was able to remain on the floor through several instances of near-fouls.

Clark had previously scored 20 points against the Bluejays in Omaha, and had eight points, four steals, and a plus-10 against them in Newark, and generally speaking is a very difficult matchup for Creighton, so it was good to see him continue the trend.

One of the other things you need to win in March historically is a point guard who can put the team on his back when needed, and Seton Hall has that. He had help from Mr. Dar, no doubt about it, but the Hall is going to need more of that from Clark tomorrow.

5. Red Storm Rivalry Renewed

The first time Seton Hall and St. John’s matched up this season at MSG, the Pirates had a 15-point lead, but could not hold it as the Red Storm rallied back to win. Last week in Newark, the Pirates gave the Johnnies everything they had, but it wasn’t enough to overcome Big East Player of the Year Zuby Ejiofor.

The third meeting tomorrow for the right to go to the Big East title game should be a very physical, very entertaining affair. After proving they can hang with the best in the Big East, playing St. John’s, UConn, and Villanova tough for large chunks of games, the question is can the Pirates overcome that and get over the hump?

It won’t be easy, but you can bet we’ll be watching it. 

St. John’s is all business in quarterfinal romp over Providence

Bryce Hopkins flushes dunk as part of double-double in St. John’s win over Providence in Big East tournament quarterfinals. (Photo by St. John’s Athletics)

By Sam Federman (@Sam_Federman)

NEW YORK — A month ago, St. John’s and Providence played one of the most emotional games of the season. Duncan Powell was ejected for a dirty play on Bryce Hopkins, and five other players got tossed in the ensuing moments. From there, the Johnnies, professionals they are, calmed down and went on a run to win the game by double digits.

In the first matchup between the two since then, St. John’s continued its momentum from that second half.

Rick Pitino’s Johnnies were strictly business, taking a 20-point first-half lead, and cruising to an 85-72 win over the Friars to advance to the Big East tournament semifinals. It’s no surprise for a veteran group that has remained steady as it should over the last few months.

This isn’t one of the best teams that Pitino has coached. It doesn’t compare to his national championship teams at Kentucky and Louisville, but it knows who it is, how it wins, and what it needs to do to win.

“When they had a bad game (against UConn), they handled it like pros,” Pitino said. “They don’t know why it happened, they were ready emotionally and physically, they just ran into a better team that night and what did they do? They came back against a good (Villanova) team and won by 32.”

“They act like professionals, they conduct themselves like professionals.”

So there was never going to be an emotional hangover for the first game of the Big East tournament. There was never going to be a slow start against a team that it had figured out its formula against. St. John’s was going to control the game from the first tip, and that’s exactly what it did.

Providence, playing with tired legs after the late afternoon matchup with Butler on Wednesday, ran into a physically prepared group and had no answers. The Friars didn’t make a field goal for over six minutes to start the game, and went down 20-5 in the first seven minutes.

When Zuby Ejiofor came out of the game for the first time, Providence made three consecutive layups, and Pitino called a timeout to put Ejiofor right back in the game. St. John’s responded with five quick points.

St. John’s was aggressive running the Friars off the three-point line, and with its supreme physical advantage inside the arc and on the glass, Providence’s offense struggled to find any sort of space. It’s the right formula against a Friar team that wins with its off-the-dribble jump shooters, who found space against drop coverage against Butler on Wednesday.

“I said the only way they’re gonna beat us is from the three-point line,” Pitino said. “So we were not going to let them have that edge.”

“You got to prepare quickly, move fast, and just go over everything,” Oziyah Sellers said. “So we watched a lot of our mistakes from previous games, found out things we can do better, and we went out there and tried to execute that.”

Providence attempted a season-low 14 threes. The three teams that have forced the Friars to attempt fewer than 18 threes – Florida, St. John’s, and UConn – are the three best defenses that the team faced all season.

And in a game played in the paint against a physical team, the Friars were overmatched.

“Since our game here January 3,” Kim English said of St. John’s, “they really doubled down on defense and rebounding in the paint, playing the three bigs. They’re dominating the possession game. This looks like a trend around college basketball. If you look at the best teams, the Arizonas, Floridas, Houstons, they’re doubling down on playing big.”

St. John’s attempted 77 field goals to Providence’s 56 thanks to going plus-21 on the glass, including 18 offensive rebounds. Hopkins and Ejiofor each finished with double-doubles.

The 13 rebounds was a season-high for Hopkins, and his third double-double of the last seven games after not having any in the first 25 games of the year.

“We’re physical, and we try to impose that night-in and night-out,” Hopkins said.

Pitino praised Hopkins’ professionalism as well.

“The thing I love about Bryce, is when he didn’t block out and made a bad defensive play,” Pitino said. “He said, ‘That’s my fault, coach, it’s not going to happen again.’ No excuses, no signs of weakness, just owned up to it and we moved on.”

While not flashy, that professionalism and consistency is St. John’s superpower. When it plays in the Big East semifinal on Friday night and the scene at Madison Square Garden is what we know it will be, St. John’s will be what we know it to be. Prepared, physical, and professional.

NEC Championship Photo Gallery

Photos from LIU’s 79-70 win over Mercyhurst in the NEC championship on March 10, 2026:

(All photos by Bob Dea/Daly Dose Of Hoops)

Marquette’s loss gives way to reflection and a productive offseason for Shaka, Golden Eagles

Shaka Smart now shifts to offseason after Marquette was eliminated from Big East tournament by Xavier, ending Golden Eagles’ season at 12-20. (Photo by the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel)

NEW YORK — Shaka Smart has only experienced two losing seasons in his career, the second of which being the 12-20 mark he and his Marquette team enter the record books with after Wednesday’s Big East tournament loss to Xavier.

Smart’s time-tested method of player development came under fire this year more than any other season, largely because of the ubiquity of the transfer portal and his steadfast commitment to the culture of his program. The coach relented during the season and admitted he and his staff would ultimately re-enter the portal this coming offseason after it yielded several payoffs in the early years of his tenure, but also recommitted to his holistic method of improving the incumbent talent already in the program.

“I thought more about roster construction this season during the season than I ever have before, obviously because of the changing landscape of everything,” Smart conceded. “You don’t want to necessarily determine your rotation for next year, but over the next couple months, we do have to determine our roster. I do think we have some young players — Michael Phillips showed it tonight — that can emerge and develop, and be part of a rotation playing heavy minutes. I think Damarius Owens has had games where he’s been really, really good. But at the same time, we’ll still have a lot of young guys next year, and that’s why the number one thing over the next several months is growth.”

“There’s a lot of things that go into that. (We’re) really following the formula that Oso Ighodaro, Tyler Kolek, Kam Jones, Stevie Mitchell, those guys laid out as young players when they went from freshmen to sophomores and sophomores to juniors. Exactly what they did is what these guys need to do.” 

Even in the face of the anomaly of a record, there were still moments where Marquette showed flashes of a group that had the pieces and potential to remain where it normally is. The Golden Eagles’ freshman duo of Nigel James, Jr. and Adrien Stevens, the former recognized as the Big East’s Freshman of the Year, offer strong building blocks for Smart, as does burgeoning big man Royce Parham. That is only the start of the process, and Marquette’s coach is cognizant of that.

“From New Year’s on, we were not in a good spot,” Smart acknowledged. “Sometimes that was reflected on the floor, sometimes we looked like a really young team that needed to gain toughness and needed to gain a defensive identity.”

“What goes into winning doesn’t change, so what I know to do is roll up my sleeves and once we get back together, as it relates to our team and growing, there’s a lot of basketball areas — and even cultural areas — where, in a game like tonight, we can be better. What will help with that is these guys’ continuing maturation, and more importantly, their connection with each other, and then I’ve gotta really help them understand all the little things that we have to own and do better to win close games.”

If anyone can readjust a ship that veered off course, Smart is one of the safer bets to do so. His passion for building relationships and connectivity is such that he was already looking forward to shaping his next outfit minutes before his current season culminated. But in the wake of the final disappointment of an arduous year, he was realistic in saying even he needed a step back to truly reassess his situation and encompass everything.

“My first thought when the game ended was, ‘I wanted to coach these guys another day,’ he said. “I wanted to get a chance to play again tomorrow. It wasn’t in the cards.”

“It sucks. There’s a lot of takeaways. When the season gets done, there’s always this time where you want to evaluate everything and you want to figure everything out the next day, but you need a little bit of separation from it to really have clarity. I think there’s a lot of basketball things where guys got better, but there’s a lot of areas where we just weren’t consistent enough this season.”