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
Weeks like the one Marquette just had are exactly why I wanted to do this post every week. We’ve been noting for a while that MU was on an upswing, but with a blowout victory on the road at Providence and a shocking upset win as 9 point underdogs to UConn, have taken that gradual upswing and shot it straight up.
By KenPom’s AdjEM rating, Marquette improved 2.52 points just last week alone, which is unheard up for this late in the season, with 30 game’s worth of results already baked in. It’s the 3rd largest 1-week swing in the Shaka era, and the 5th largest since the 2014 season.
When you dig into what has driven this surge (other than winning games you were not favored to win) it has been a completely defensive approach. The offense barley budged while the defense jumped up 36 spots in 2 game. I’m going to sound repetitive, but that’s just insane.
But aside from all the numbers, which is the point of this endeavor after all, what this last week gave Marquette is results for the effort is has not stopped giving through all the bad moments and games.
In this portal era, it’s very difficult to keep a losing team from cashing checks and mailing in the performances. There are a few teams in the Big East that have clearly exemplified it. But despite being mired in the worst season in recent Marquette history, I never felt that the team had quit. And now we have something to build off of all summer.
NCAA Tournament Odds
Marquette has a 0.6% chance to win the Big East Tournament. So mostly dead.
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.
The future is bright. Really, really bright.
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.)
For the first time in month, we are no longer below the lowest mark of previous seasons.
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 3/9/26, Marquette is officially above both the 2015 and 2016 teams, so not the worst in 20+ years. I love the perspective this chart provides.
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