Right before the 16 minute mark of the first half in Cincinnati, TNT Sports sideline reporter Jared Greenberg unleashed perhaps the most important sideline report in the history of Marquette men’s basketball.
For posterity’s sake:
Marquette is the last high major men’s basketball program to resist going into the transfer portal, and now those days appear to be coming to an end. While Marquette is excited about building around their young core, Shaka
Smart told me last night he will absolutely continue to evolve and do what’s best to get back to winning, acknowledging the realities of college basketball in 2026. [Camera cuts to and a graphic identifies athletic director Mike Broeker] In speaking with multiple members of the athletic department, they all conveyed full support of this next step and of Shaka by providing the necessary resources to compete. It was also made clear that the Golden Eagles’ cultural values will never change as they remain committed to finding the right roster fit.
Short version: Marquette is going to make use of the transfer portal to fix the problems that are plaguing this roster right now and that would plague the roster if it continues as projected to next season.
I want to say this part to make sure we’re all on the same page: Jared Greenberg did not accidentally get Shaka Smart to say “we’re ending our avoidance of the transfer portal” so he could report that on national television, this is something that was put into Greenberg’s head and mouth by Shaka Smart on purpose. I’m not going to go back and double check, but I’m pretty sure this is the first time he’s called a Marquette game this season. I suspect this was a Greenberg said “hey, what do I know about your team, coach?” and Shaka told him nearly exactly what he wanted said on television. The follow up about speaking to multiple members of the athletic department and resources and supporting Shaka and the program while cutting to a shot of Mike Broeker with a graphic that had to be built to identify him indicates to you that everything about this was deliberate and on purpose.
Which means it’s time for the scholarship chart.
As you can see, the projection for next year is that Marquette will have just one open roster spot for the 2026-27 season. If we can reasonably conclude that Shaka Smart and Mike Broeker instructed TNT Sports to put that sideline report on the air, then we can reasonably conclude that Marquette will have more than one open roster spot as the transfer portal officially opens up after the season. You do not make a big deal about putting the word out if you’re not making significant changes.
I don’t have any inside information to relay about conversations that may or may not have happened at the McGuire Center, but again: If you’re putting that out to Greenberg to tell the country, I presume that there are multiple young men on this roster who have been told that their services are no longer needed after this season ends. I can’t tell you who that may or may not be, but I can read a stat sheet.
I can see that Tre Norman has played double digit minutes in Big East play three times and not played at all twice.
I can see that Caedin Hamilton has cracked double digit minutes just once while not starting since he was removed from the starting lineup for the first time this season.
I can see that Sean Jones is currently — there’s 12 minutes left in the Xavier game as I type this — missing his 12th straight game with a foot injury and Shaka Smart has said he’s not sure if the oft-injured guard will play again this year.
I can say roughly the same things about playing time for both Josh Clark and Michael Phillips as well, but both of those guys are freshmen who weren’t expected to contribute to this year’s team.
I can say that Ian Miletic, Sheek Pearson, and Nash Walker are in practice every single day and the coaching staff can tell if those redshirt freshmen are developing the way they need to in order to contribute minutes on the floor next season.
We’ll have to wait to see what happens, but the mystery and waiting to find out what Shaka Smart will do this offseason after Marquette is essentially guaranteed to end the year with a losing record is now over. He’s making the move that has seemingly been necessary for a while now, it was just a matter of finding out if he would actually do it. He is, and now it’s just a matter of time to evaluate exactly what decisions Smart makes.
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