If you are reading this blog, you have probably related a bit too much with his A-tier Tweet at some point.
In the moment, Marquette’s result affect my mood, my appetite and pretty much the rest of my day. It’s probably unhealthy, but it’s the truth.
And yet as time progresses, I find that the general ups and downs of a given season are usually replaced by the foggy memories we hold on to, whether good or bad. Which is weird right. I can spend a whole week riding high after a big win, and 3 years later all I’ll remember was the bad result at the end of the season.
So in order to best capture the vibes of any given week, I figured I’d start a running log using the least emotional measurement everyone uses. KenPom. I’ve taken the Adjusted Efficiency Margin he basis his ratings on from every Monday back through 2017 in order to give us some context.
This Year
For a 2nd straight week, Marquette has cruised to a double digit victory and the metrics are climbing steadily up. Even though Vegas had MU as a 3.5-point favorite, KenPom had them as a 1-point underdog to Butler, which models like KenPom’s really like.
The game wasn’t the most aesthetically pleasing, and Butler missing 2 starters didn’t help, but I’m not here to diminish any victories, when getting just 1 seemed like a legitimate concern at the start of January.
As noted in the Tweet below, Marquette isn’t necessarily a good team yet, but it is playing night and day better than it was in late December. Using Torvik’s rankings, you can see the the rise clearly.
And while this has nothing to do with metrics or odds or even Marquette on the court, seeing Tom Crean’s reaction and hearing his speech after having his banner raised at Fiserv hits right in the feels. An A+ for the vibes.
NCAA Tournament Odds
LOL, remember when I thought this was worth tracking? Marquette has to win the Big East Tournament, so basically 0%.
Player Impact
To make up for removing the NCAA Tourney section, here’s a new part, updating the player performances as measured by Hoop-Explorer’s Player Impact grade in my 2026 dashboard.
Chase Ross celebrated his birthday on National Marquette day, so it’s quite fitting that he had his best game of the season too. It also put him almost back at even for the Big East season in terms of Impact Score tabulated by game.
No, having your senior leader be at 0 after 13 games isn’t good, and tells us a lot about why this season is going as such, but he was at -20 just 3 games ago. If he can find even his 2025 junior year form, this team will continue to play much better and maybe even keep it close against the big boys. Maybe.
Shaka’s Tenure
Of course, even though this is meant to highlight a given week’s ups and downs, I still want to throw some context in there. Here’s a look at how Marquette has graded out in KenPom each week of Shaka’s tenure.
(The horizontal “Top XX” lines are set not at any given year, but at what the averages for the 10th, 30th and 50th ranked teams are.)
Marquette is currently at the lowest point in Shaka’s tenure by over 1.5 points.
Program History
And going back a bit further than that…
(The horizontal “Top XX” lines are set not at any given year, but at what the averages for the 10th, 30th and 50th ranked teams are.)
As of 2/9/26, this no longer lowest point in recent Marquette history. That low point was 4.91, and this team is sitting at 6.36.
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