It’s time for Marquette basketball to move on from head coach Shaka Smart.
After the dismissal of Steve Wojciechowski, Marquette welcomed Shaka Smart to Milwaukee. The goal was to bring Marquette basketball back to where it has been in the past. The move showed that the Golden Eagles wouldn’t accept “average” seasons anymore. Smart immediately brought a new identity and culture to the team. Unfortunately, this season’s results, along with Smart’s refusal to use the transfer portal, have left the team with no choice but to fire him.
Marquette Basketball Should Fire Shaka Smart
Things started out decently enough for Steve Wojciechowski in Milwaukee. In the 2018-19 season, the Golden Eagles finished with a 24-10 record. Unfortunately, over the last two years of his tenure at Marquette, the team went just 31-26. As a result, Marquette decided to cut ties and brought in Shaka Smart to revitalize the program.
Immediately, Marquette basketball saw results with a clear identity and culture shift. Over the next three years, Marquette went 79-28. The Golden Eagles had a few big seasons where they were consistently ranked in the AP Polls. The one spoiler was the lack of results in the postseason.
Marquette’s ability to win the Big East regular season and postseason championships in the 2022-23 season was impressive. Unfortunately, they couldn’t find any success in the NCAA Tournament. It has been a massive issue for Smart at other stops, and has become an issue at Marquette. In 2022, Marquette got demolished by eight seed North Carolina by 32 points. The next year, Marquette beat 15th-seeded Vermont before falling short yet again to a Michigan State team that was just a seven-seed in the second round.
The next year, Marquette had the draw and results go perfectly in their favor. As a two-seed, Marquette saw massive upsets result in them playing three straight double-digit seeds. While they beat the first two, including a close call against 10th-seeded Colorado in the second round, they fell at the hands of NC State, which was the 11-seed. It didn’t get any better as they again lost in the first round to the 10-seed New Mexico in 2025.
It’s not realistic to expect Marquette to get to the Final Four or even Elite Eight each year. With that being said, going 3-4 with five of those games coming against double-digit seeds is inexcusable. It’s also been a trend for his whole career. Since his 2011 VCU team went on a storybook run to the Final Four, Smart’s teams at VCU, Texas and Marquette have a combined 5-11 record.
Marquette Basketball Transfer Portal Issues
To put it bluntly, Marquette has been one of the worst teams in Division I this season. It was expected that the team would drop a little this year. Any team would when they lose several key players, but few expected this heavy a drop off. After losing Kam Jones, Stevie Mitchell and David Joplin, everybody and their mother knew Marquette needed talent to replace those losses. Instead, Shaka Smart stayed true to his belief in not using the transfer portal.
To be fair to Smart, Nigel James has been incredible as a freshman. Unfortunately, it was always an impossible ask to try to get the freshman class to replace what was lost, as 72% of their scoring was not returning to the team.
There should be no issue with any coach who doesn’t want to go to the transfer portal. Unfortunately, there are times when it’s a necessity and teams have to use it. While coaches may not want to use the portal to solve some issues, it’s frankly stupid to refuse to use it at all.
Assuming Smart continues this trend, he will lose at least Chase Ross and Ben Gold after this season. If he again plans to have the recruiting class fill those holes, what does he expect to happen? Even if they do perfectly replace those two players, this team is 6-13 and has only beaten one team that isn’t from a minor conference. Even against minor teams, they’ve struggled, as seen by a hard-fought win over Central Michigan and needing overtime to beat Valparaiso. Is that really the standard that Marquette fans are okay with?
Road Too Bleak to Continue Down
Let’s assume that Marquette can get back to where they were in the 2022-25 seasons under Smart, which is a big ask. Is that something that Marquette is okay with? Marquette basketball fired Wojciechowski due to mediocre results. Is making the NCAA Tournament just to get upset every year much better? That is assuming Smart can even get this team back to where they were without the transfer portal.
It doesn’t matter whether it’s liked or not; the fact of the matter is that NIL has changed college sports, and they will never be the same again. For teams to be able to succeed long-term, using the transfer portal is now a necessity, as seen by programs like Wisconsin and Houston using it. If the Golden Eagles stand behind Shaka Smart and his policy of not using the transfer portal, especially after this season’s results, they will die out just as quickly as Smart’s career will. Unless being irrelevant is something Marquette wants, they need to fire Shaka Smart before he drags them there.
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