I love transfers. And not even in a “this is a new era and you need them” type of love.
Some of my best memories are with players like Jamil Wilson and Trent Lockett in 2013. The fact they started at Oregon and Arizona State didn’t dampen my fandom of them. In actuality, it increased my appreciation for them.
And that’s without even mentioning the JUCO pipeline Buzz Williams had established with Jimmy Butler and Dwight Buycks and Darius Johnson-Odom and Jae Crowder. Just because they had shorter eligibility windows transferring in from Junior College did nothing to minimize my attachment.
Rowsey, Reinhardt, Fischer, Carton, Carlin, Jayce weren’t able to win much and as such didn’t build as long lasting legacies, but one last time, when they put on the blue and gold jerseys, their status as transfers was soon relegated to passing factoid. They were Marquette players who had chosen to come and make an impact.
This love of transfers isn’t simply a personal fandom choice. We at Paint Touches invested heavy time into transfer content before “the portal” was even a thing. We were running transfer trackers over a decade ago!
Why am I rambling on and on about transfers, you ask? Because a sideline report during Saturday’s game against Xavier may have changed the trajectory of Marquette’s program.
It’s only 40 seconds and couched a bit in coach speak, but the phrase “continue to evolve and do what’s best to get back to winning” is a neon sign telling potential transfers Marquette is open for business. The rest of the segment is important too, panning to Athletic Director Mike Broeker while the reporter notes there is “full support of this next step and of Shaka by providing the necessary resources.”
The lights are on and the wallet is open.
For every other high major school, this would be another throwaway timeout segment, but for Marquette, which hasn’t taken a D1 transfer since the summer of 2021, the only high major program in the country not to, it is an earthquake of a message.
And a welcome one.
What was the deal with no transfers?
If you are not familiar with what the big deal about transfers at Marquette under Shaka is, I implore you to give this a read.
It’s from last March but I think it does a good job of laying out the logic behind Shaka’s Relationships, Growth, Victory (RGV) platform. If you don’t have the 5 minutes to spare (though again, I highly recommend it) it boils down to this: “If you buy into our program, we will give you every opportunity to showcase you can grow into a role.”
It worked better than anyone dreamed in 2023. It continued to work in 2024. It cracked in 2025. And then the floodgates of failure opened and drowned it this season in 2026. There is no denying what the record or metrics show. Relying solely on internal development is a gamble that has not worked and resulted in Marquette having its worst season in at least a decade.
What took so long?
The next logical question is probably, what took so long? I’ve been getting general transfer questions for months now from fans of all sorts, but generally ignored them, since I didn’t really have answers that weren’t a link to my article from March. But personally, I’ve been convinced Shaka would bring in multiple transfers since early December when the lack of talent was glaring.
The key to RGV is that the growth has to lead to wins. It has to. And it just hasn’t.
Giving those on the team an opportunity to succeed is the integral piece. When Kur ran out of eligibility, Oso was given full control of the 5 spot. When Morsell left, Kolek was the sole point guard. When Kolek graduated, Kam was tasked with becoming the lead. All 3 flourished beyond my wildest dreams and all are on the record as saying that faith shown to them by Shaka was one of the key components. He created the opportunity, they delivered.
But the thing about opportunity is it isn’t guaranteed. And if the talent and growth aren’t there without backstops, the failures become glaring. The seniors haven’t been able to become stalwarts. The juniors are a lost class. If this is the foundation for the future, there are scary times ahead.
Luckily for us MU fans, the future has looked brighter than ever this season with the emergence of Nigel James, Royce Parham and Adrien Stevens. Their growth into legitimate pieces that can already take the reigns of a team has changed everything. The results are still underwhelming, but the metrics are crystal clear. This is a trio you can use as a foundation.
And they need support for next season as I’ve started to say a bit more publicly.
We have 2 months to go into further detail into what those needs are and what the priorities might be, and we shall, but knowing it’s not just nuts with blogs thinking this way makes it a lot easier to have those conversations. I have no idea why Shaka decided a mid-February road game was the time to drop the bomb, and we may never know the stuff happening behind the scenes.
But we finally do know that we are not in fact taking crazy pills, and betting another season on just internal development is not an option.
Is RGV dead?
However, for those ready to put a stake in RGV, I wouldn’t bet on that changing much at all. The foundation will always rely on growing the young talent. I don’t expect Marquette to go big game hunting this offseason whether that’s through transfers or 5-stars.
What I do think will change will be the timeline given for upperclassmen to “prove” themselves. That will probably mean we see more transfers out than we have in any offseason. And an influx of at least a couple veteran players.
Take a look at the chart below, which maps out the Evan Miya BPRs by year for all MU players who have logged 100 possessions in a season. The junior class of Sean, Zaide and Tre has had a negative impact this season, and that’s with Zaide being a positive, and he’s already off the team.
Hope is not a strategy.
Shaka brought in Morsell and Kuath as proven, veteran floor raisers his first season in Milwaukee and that is what I think we will see this offseason. A big to support what has been a pretty terrible interior defense. And a ball handler to help take some of the load off of Nigel.
Retaining Nigel, Royce and Adrien is the top priority. If you can do that and supplement what you lose in Chase and Ben with veteran support, that’s a formidable core to continue the development process with pieces like Owens, Phillips and Sheek.
But the big thing is you don’t have to rely on absurd jumps from one year to the next from those that might not be ready for that responsibility just yet. Bringing in transfers won’t just help you win, it will help the long term development of the freshmen and sophomores.
Tactical, targeted transfers. It’s not an about face to RGV, but rather a logical extension. As Shaka told Ben Steele after the game, “we’ll be ready to move in ways we need to move.”
Game on.
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