The men’s college basketball transfer portal opened up on Tuesday morning, and as of Sunday morning, YOUR Marquette Golden Eagles have not evolved their roster with a commitment yet.
That’s not particularly surprising, as I don’t think that anyone expected head coach Shaka Smart to be quick about any of this, not with just three open roster spots to use. However, we are still waiting to see exactly how MU’s steward follows through on his declaration to change things up.
Thankfully, we have outlets
that we can trust to give us a little bit of insight as to how things are going for Marquette to this point. We can trust On3.com, as they have a stake in Not Looking Stupid in the recruiting scene, and when a Twitter account that’s followed by two different members of the Marquette coaching staff is saying that the Golden Eagles are looking into a particular guy, that feels trustworthy.
So let’s see what useful information we can glean here…..
Drew McKeever
With head coach Randy Bennett leaving Saint Mary’s for Arizona State, it only stands to reason that there were be some Gaels in the transfer portal. McKeever was at SMC for the past three seasons, taking a redshirt year in 2023-24. He played sparsely as a redshirt freshman, and earned himself 10 starts early in the season as a redshirt sophomore because fellow 7-footer Harry Wessels was dealing with a foot injury. McKeever played in every game, finishing up at 8.2 points and a WCC-best 9.2 rebounds per game in 23.2 minutes a night.
McKeever is a traditional big, as he’s yet to attempt a three-pointer in college, but that’s okay. Why? Well, the team lead in rebounds in just 23 minutes should have been a clue. McKeever finished the season with KenPom.com’s #2 ranking in offensive rebounding rate, and he’s #27 on the defensive end of the floor. In short: Elite rebounder. That’s a thing that Marquette desperately needs, and he’s not too shabby at shot blocking, either. He only averaged 0.8 per game, but in terms of rate while he’s on the floor, that was top 300 in the country.
With two years of eligibility remaining for McKeever, I’d imagine there’s more than one college basketball coach that would push their own grandmother to the ground in order to get in front of McKeever to sign him, so don’t hold your breath here.
Tylen Riley
Tylen Riley is listed as a 6’3”, 190 pound guard out of Las Vegas on Tulsa’s roster page. After two years of coming off the bench at Cal Baptist, he transferred to Tulsa and started in all 38 of his appearances for the Golden Hurricane. His stat line is solid: 15.0 points, 3.9 rebounds, 4.4 assists, and just under a steal per game.
He may be a player that requires consistent and longer playing stretches to be effective. After shooting 20-for-87 behind the three-point line for Cal Baptist across two years, Riley had more makes in one season in Oklahoma along, going 28-for-72, which is 38.9%. He did only shoot 28% in Tulsa’s 18 game American Conference schedule, which is a problem. We can’t even say it’s a situation where Riley will be fine if you get him around better shooters, as Tulsa was #10 in the country at three-point shooting percentage last season.
With Nigel James and Adrien Stevens returning, Marquette would seem to be set at guard, so selling Riley on a backup job in the Big East might be difficult. However, he did play point guard for Tulsa, or at the very least, he was their leader in assists per game. Those 4.4 per game work out to the #78 assist rate in the country, which is obviously very good. If Marquette is going to stick to the same “Dunks & Threes Only” offense without Nevada Smith around, then there is a spot in the rotation for a guy with Riley’s ability to find the open man, even if it is in a three-guard rotation with James and Stevens where two of them are always on the floor.
Kennard Davis was on his third year of eligibility this past season after spending his first two college campaigns at Southern Illinois. You can see why the Cougars grabbed him up: 16.3 points, 4.9 rebounds, and 2.6 assists while playing 34 minutes a night for the Salukis. The question is then what is he looking for that he didn’t find in Provo?
Davis started in all 32 games he appeared in last season, which excludes three early season contests that he missed altogether. He ended up fourth on the team in scoring at 8.5 points per game, but he had to have known he was signing up to be behind both AJ Dybantsa and Richie Saunders at the very least. Listed at 6’6” and 218 pounds, he fits into the Marquette roster as a wing, although I would be curious to find out if Shaka Smart thinks that Davis’ 14.5% assist rate from his sophomore year at SIU can return and turn into something productive as a rotation point guard, much like we were just talking about with Tylen Riley.
There is a question to be asked about his shooting, as the Saint Louis native only hit 32% last year and just 27% in Big 12 action. He was a 38% shooter for Southern Illinois the year before on essentially the exact same number of attempts, so perhaps there’s a question to be asked about what kind of shots was Davis taking. If he was more of an off the dribble shooter in Carbondale and more of a catch and shoot guy in Utah, then there’s questions to be asked as to whether or not he’s a fit if Marquette’s offensive structure is staying the same without Nevada Smith around. If it’s the other way around and Davis was better as primarily a catch and shoot guy, I can see how he fits pretty easily, even if it’s just for the one season of eligibility he has remaining.
And now, the scholarship chart.
I think the fits for Drew McKeever and Tylen Riley are pretty clear for the Marquette roster as it stands right now. If Davis isn’t really a rotation point guard type of player and is more of a wing type, then I don’t see how he fits. I would rather roll the dice with the collection of Damarius Owens, Michael Phillips, Ian Miletic, Nash Walker, and Alex Egbuonu to fill the third guard/small forward position on the court. All of this comes down to what does Shaka Smart see in the player and what is the player interested in doing next year……
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