Our long national nightmare is over: After a DNP-CD on December 17 and a Did Not Travel — Personal Reasons on December 20th, Marquette men’s basketball announced on Sunday night that junior Zaide Lowery is no longer a part of the team.
For posterity’s sake:
Junior guard Zaide Lowery will not return to the Marquette University men’s basketball program, head coach Shaka Smart announced this afternoon.
“I would like to
thank Zaide for his many contributions to our program over the last two and a half years,” Smart said. “We wish him the best in all of his future pursuits on and off the court.”
Lowery played in 73 career games for the Golden Eagles and started in nine of his 11 appearances in 2025-26, contributing 8.1 points and 2.9 rebounds per game.
I find the phrasing interesting.
The tweet and the graphic say “departs program.” The text of the release in the graphic say “will not return to the program” as announced by the head coach. That feels like two different things, doesn’t it? “Departs” sounds like it’s Lowery’s choice…. “will not return” doesn’t quite get to that same point.
Zaide Lowery came into his junior year with a bright future as a contributor for Shaka Smart and the Golden Eagles. He closed the 2024-25 season strong, and with the departure of three starters from that season, it made all the sense in the world for Lowery to leapfrog off that strong finish to a spot in the starting lineup. That’s what we saw from him this season, and in Marquette’s first nine games, he averaged 9.0 points, 3.4 rebounds, 2.1 assists, and 1.2 steals in over 25 minutes per game.
However, he was also shooting just 38% from the field and 32% from behind the three-point line, and in the wake of a 5-4 start for Marquette and coming off an 0-for-5 from the field performance, Lowery was swapped out of the starting lineup in favor of freshman Adrien Stevens against Wisconsin. Lowery played 14 minutes in that contest, and 12 against Purdue, both poor showings for the Golden Eagles in road losses.
On December 17th, Marquette opened up Big East play against Georgetown, and Lowery didn’t play at all. After the game, head coach Shaka Smart had this to say on the topic:
“It’s a coach’s decision,” Smart said. “We’re continuing to try to evaluate and figure out what the best lineups are and what guys we need to have in the game.
“From the standpoint, first and foremost, of who truly wants to pour into the other four guys with him out on the floor and be all in on Marquette. So that goes into who we play.”
On December 20th, right at the Big East required deadline to announce player availability for that night’s game against Creighton, Marquette announced that Lowery didn’t make the trip to Omaha with the team to face the Bluejays for personal reasons. That can be a lot of things, of course, and after the game, Smart gave zero indication that anything was out of line regarding Lowery’s status with the team. Ben Steele from the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel point blank asked Smart if Lowery was suspended or leaving the team, and both times, Smart answered “Nope.”
Those answers may have been true at the time, so I’m not going to jump up and down and demand accountability from Smart on that one….. but eight days later, Lowery is in fact leaving the team, presumably for reasons stemming from/related to Smart’s lack of interest in putting the Missourian on the floor against Georgetown.
Although…. Steele seems to imply here that Smart’s answers were not 100% on the level at the time.
I’m not wrong, correct? “Not traveling with team as future plans got sorted out” definitely sounds like the departure was already in the works when the team left for Nebraska, right? Just something to think about.
And so, it’s time for a new scholarship chart.
Lowery’s departure opens up spot #15 for the 2026-27 season. That alone will not cause Shaka Smart to head to the transfer portal for any new faces next season. Marquette will add two new freshmen this summer in Alex Egbuonu and Ethan Johnston, while Ian Miletic, Sheek Pearson, and Nash Walker will finish their redshirt seasons and move to the active roster in the fall of 2026. Finding playing time for 14 guys is hard enough, and when you’re mixing in that many new guys, why overcomplicate things with just one player who almost assuredly will not be someone who will make a major impact.
Of course, that’s operating under the idea that Marquette is projected to have 14 guys on the roster when the ball goes in the air for real in November of 2026. Whether or not Zaide Lowery is the first departure from this team…. that’s something we’re going to have to wait until April to know for sure.
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