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
Marquette has only 1 game last week, that fit a fairly familiar pattern. It digs a bit of a hole, spends an exorbitant amount of energy climbing out of said hole, but ultimately runs out of gas for a “they didn’t play poorly loss.” And sure enough, despite a 76-70 loss to St. John’s at home in its sole contest, Marquette did see its Adj EM climb a tad, crossing the 7.0 mark for the first time since late December.
Since January 1st, a 13 game sample, Marquette is playing like a top-60 team in the country, and 5th best in the Big East. That’s not necessarily something to be overly enthusiastic about, but it does give this roster a bit of hope going forward, particularly with potential external additions.
This team is no longer an embarrassment and has potential, which in a lost season, is something to hold on to.
I highly recommend the great discussions from this week’s Scrambled eggs on this and a lot more.
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.
Player Impact is great and all, but this is what we’ll be talking about for decades to come.
And in case you want to re-live the real-time reactions…
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 below the lowest point in Shaka’s previous seasons by 1.15 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 2/23/26, Marquette is officially above the 2015 team, so not the worst in 20+ years.
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