Marquette has no shortage of big nonconference wins in Shaka Smart’s tenure, so Tuesday’s victory over Purdue wasn’t anything “new” in the grand scheme of things.
But as I was doing my morning scroll of all the content I could consume, it quickly turned into the afternoon, with more and more high quality content being posted. It felt like every college basketball outlet, and even some general sports ones, was talking about Kam Jones and Marquette.
Part of it is the triple double aspect, no doubt, but for maybe the first time I can remember, Marquette’s victory was the only game of importance that night. There were no other high majors playing each other, let alone 2 ranked in the top 15. KenPom had graded the matchup as a 79.1 (out of 100) on his thrill score rating. The next best game that night, per his rankings, was Santa Clara vs UC Riverside, which was a 42.6 on KP’s thrill score.
All of this is to say, with so much good stuff to watch, read and listen, I wanted to put the best links I found (as well as some random thought) in one place.
Purdue vs Marquette Film Breakdown
Joe Jackson and his site “Feed The Post” are incredible follows for anyone that is into Xs and Os, and his use of videos makes him stand out from most analysis I see. However, he’s primarily a Big Ten follower, so there isn’t always space to share his content. But with Marquette facing a Big Ten team, we were treated to an awesome video dissection.
Link: https://feedthepost.substack.com/p/purdue-vs-marquette-film-breakdown?r=sqdgz
It’s 15 minutes long, so not something you can digest on the fly, but I promise, it is so worth your time.
The Rauf Report – Why Kam Jones Should Be The NPOY Frontrunner
Parrish and Nordy
As an example of how bright the next day spotlight was, Gary Parrish and Matt Norlander spent almost 20 full minutes discussing Marquette and Kam Jones, I can’t remember the last time that happened.
Matt Painter Praise
You’ve probably seen it by now, but in case you haven’t, take 2 minutes and watch Purdue’s coach sum up why Marquette’s program under Shaka is so special.
David Joplin, Defensive Specialist
I still get a bit of pushback from time to time on Twitter, but if you think Jop is a poor defender, I’m going to need you to stop living in the past.
Ben Steele of the Journal Sentinel had a wonderful defensive montage of Joplin that you can see at the link, or in the video below.
https://x.com/BenSteeleMJS/status/1859286079729201372
And no, a few plays from 1 game isn’t enough to say Joplin is a defensive maven. But luckily we have 5 games of data now to draw from, and based off Evan Miya’s DBPR, which measures defensive impact, Jop has been Marquette’s 3rd best defender this season.
Compare that to where he finished the season in that same metric last year.
There is a lot of season left, so we’ll see how his play holds up the rest of the season. But for now, he’s been a new man and it’s important to recognize that.
In-House Sound
For those of us not in Fiserv, this video was much needed. Hearing the crescendo as Mitchell gets the ball, the hush as it flies, and then the roar as it splashes down hits way different than the TV feed.
Spoiled
Lastly, I just want to acknowledge how spoiled we’ve been the last few years.
2022: Illinois
2023: Baylor
2024: Texas
2025: Purdue
Each of Shaka’s 4 season has seen huge non-con victories at home. All 4 have been on weeknights, funny enough, which lets us see the attendance progression (with Purdue in 2019 added for context as well).
I think the 16,801 that showed up on Tuesday may be the 2nd largest midweek night crowd in Fiserv history, behind only the 17.8K that showed up against UConn in March.
In any case, I love the way the fans have already embraced this squad.
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