Marquette’s Transfer Portal Approach Explained

Today is the first day the transfer portal is open, and so most of the morning and afternoon wasn’t spent discussing the results of the first weekend of the NCAA Tournament, but rather who is leaving where and who is talking to them.

As a Marquette-based blog, we’ve had it pretty good over the last 3 seasons, as Marquette hasn’t been involved with many transfers, and only taken one, Zach Wrightsil from an NAIA college. So we haven’t had to keep a running tab of who MU has contacted or where interest may lie.

Yet, we realize the way of the world means things change. I don’t expect Shaka Smart to upend his philosophy of investment and development in high school players, but also understand that transfers are a two-way street. No rotation players really left Marquette in the last 3 seasons, so there was no need to fill the gap.

The only outlier was OMax Prosper leaving for the NBA draft, and there is where Wrightsil was a like-for-like replacement.

And so before going any further, here is where you will inevitably hear, and probably believe, that Shaka Smart hates the transfer portal and is stubborn for not catching up with the times.

1. Shaka does not hate the transfer portal. He has been asked the same thing for 3 seasons now and his response is always a variation of, Marquette will prioritize the players it already committed to, and look into bringing in transfers when the roster situations calls for it. He has never, not once, said he won’t bring in a transfer. He has, however, made it clear he won’t get into bidding wars, and any player that does come in will do so with an understanding that the financial terms are not negotiable. You can agree or disagree, but just make sure when you send your hate Tweets my way, you properly understand the logic.
   
2. Shaka Smart isn’t stubborn, per se. He isn’t avoiding transfers simply because he wants to prove he can win this way. Marquette has done very well (and frankly gotten a bit lucky) to bring in players that bought into the system, and didn’t leave at the first chance for a huge payday. If Kam Jones tested the portal last season, he would have been a top-3 paid player in the country. No doubt about it. That would have upended the roster projection, and we would have definitely seen transfer(s) come in. So it is a bit of both fortune and retention that has kept Marquette where it is.
   
3. So long as players are committed to the program, Marquette’s first priority will be the players on the roster.

I wanted to make sure I typed this out at length, because it matters greatly to both the future of the program, as well as an analysis of the season that was.

Going into last offseason, there was plenty of talk about Marquette needing a point guard and a big man after losing Tyler Kolek and Oso Ighodaro, and how dipping into the pool of experienced players could help shore up some of those questions. While there were mild rumblings of interest here and there on certain players, the staff decided to bet on the team they had.

They trusted Kam’s small sample at PG when Kolek went down would translate over a full season, and boy did they hit that out of the park.

They trusted Ben Gold and Caedin Hamilton could patrol the paint, with Royce Parham providing spot minutes as he grew into his role. The results here were a mixed bag. Gold wasn’t bad, but he was too perimeter oriented and had a tough time impacting the game when the 3-point shots weren’t falling. Hamilton wasn’t ready for a real role and only played spot minutes sparingly. Parham proved to be a nice surprise, making the All-Big East freshman team and becoming the team’s first option on the bench. He had a steep learning curve and is better suited for the 4 than the 5, but he’s a bet that paid off handsomely.

They trusted either Sean Jones would be back in January, or Tre Norman/Chase Ross/Stevie Mitchell/Damarius Owens would be able to step up and handle the point when Kam needed a breather, or even to give some him minutes off the ball. This turned out to be the team’s Achilles heel. As good as Kam was, he was still human, and playing his first season ever as full-time point guard took a toll on him physically. No one will ever convince me that some of his shooting struggles in Big East play weren’t fatigue based.

In any case, the unifying theme behind these three outcomes was a specific bet on the existing player’s potential and the staff’s ability to develop them. Obviously, all the bets did not pay off, but the logic behind the decisions seems pretty straightforward. We will give you an opportunity to showcase you can grow into this role.

So what does this mean for 2026 and beyond. I think the number of mentions about Marquette needing “to portal” would be in the hundreds the last month or so. But before you look outside, you have to understand the team is adamant it won’t push out anyone that is committed to staying and growing.

So here is what the roster looks like as of 5p.m. ET on Monday.

Regardless of how you personally might rank the depth chart or any individual player, you have to look at the roster through this lens first. If Shaka brings in an established 5-man, yes I read all your replies, what does that mean for the rest of the bigs. Ben and Royce can theoretically (and probably realistically) play the 4 so their minutes won’t take much of a hit, but it might mean losing Caedin or Clark.

Now you may be reading that and say to yourself, “and that’s bad why?” but I’m not arguing whether it’s good or bad, simply noting that every addition will come with a possible subtraction. At some point, Shaka and the staff may have conversations with players that their path to playing time doesn’t look great in the future, and help that player find a landing place, but we have no real clue if/when that line is crossed.

So for now, it may be best to see that seemingly endless list of players looking for greener pastures, and paydays, and not necessarily start photoshopping Marquette jerseys on them. It isn’t that no transfer will ever make it through the doors, simply put, until we start to see significant pieces leaving, I’m not going to hold my breath anticipating any arriving.

---

---