After pulling the plug on Wojo in Spring of ‘21, the question of who the next coach would be seemed to focus on mid-major rising stars (looking at you Dennis Gates) and a Majerus disciple (looking at you Porter Moser). Coming off a Big XII tourney title and 3-seed in the tournament, whatever hot seat Shaka Smart was on, seemed cooler despite flaming out in round one of the dance.
As it turns out, that wasn’t necessarily true and Shaka Smart took the Marquette job. A few narratives emerged, including the thought he was running away instead of to in taking it. I was skeptical of the hire. His track record since 2011 isn’t terrible, but the shine had worn off.
Fast forward to today and we seem to have found a coach and program that found each other at the right time. Both are reinvigorated and an apathetic fan/alumni base has also become reinvigorated.
Entering the season, MU was picked to finish 9th in the Big East which got this response from junior guard Tyler Kolek, “fuck ‘em”. And that’s exactly what he’s been doing running point for the 3rd best offense in the nation.
Running and offense that averages 70 possessions per game, the Golden Eagles have the nations second best effective fg%. In last nights win, MU averaged 1.45 ppp in the second half against a KenPom top-10 defense. That’s almost certainly more impressive than the 1.65 ppp in the second half Saturday against Georgetown.
Some other fun offensive numbers include the nation’s best 2pt. fg % of 60.2 and the 24th best turnover %. The guards have been fantastic at creating and protecting the ball. This is a far cry from other really good offenses seen when Wojo was coaching.
Is there cause for concern? Yes. The defense isn’t good enough to be more than a second weekend team and I’m not sure it can be better than it is given the lack of heft inside. Having the a defensive effective fg% of 51%, 206th in the nation limits the ceiling of the team at the moment. The staff recognizes this and has focused their efforts on deflections and turnovers. MU has a defensive turnover % that’s 38th best. Rebounding on both sides is poor. These issues limit how good they can be but the offense is strong enough for them to be a legit regional finalist which is incredible given the expectations by many before the season.
While I list the numbers, I’d be remiss not to talk about the eye test as well. What’s probably most remarkable has been the improvement from last year to this by the guys that returned and how the freshman continue to improve through the course of this season. There will likely be attrition but if not, the whole roster is eligible to return in 2023-24. And if we want to look at the numbers, we’ll the individual parts are pretty impressive.
Kolek 9th in assist rate, 3.2% steal rate
Kam 119.2 ORTG, up from 105.5 last year
OMP 46th in effective fg%, 35tg in TS%
Oso 29th in effective fg%
Mitchell, a sophomore guard with a TO% of only 9.9% which was 22% last year
If your a Golden Eagles fan, you might be done crawling out of the desert and the future looks brighter than the desert left behind.
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