Marquette Areas For Growth: Pick and Roll Ball Handlers

As the names declaring to enter the portal flew hot an heavy the past 2 weeks, I wanted to write extensively on what are some areas I think Marquette could really target in transfer market.

To do that I mapped out what the offense looked like under the hood in Synergy based on the primary play types compared to last season.

The big takeaway is that from a foundation perspective, this was the exact same offense as last year. It’s heavy on pick and roll sets to either create spot up opportunities or have the handler attack himself, while looking to push in transition at every opportunity. The top 3 play types didn’t change and composed 63% of all plays this season compared to 62% last season. Again, it was a very similar offense (with fewer pick and pops or handoffs without Joplin and more cuts inside).

However, while the play types didn’t change, the efficiency sure did.

Spot ups fell by 0.006 PPP (a 1% drop) and were in the 24th percentile of D1.
P&R Ball Handler plays fell by 0.159 PPP (a 17.5% drop) and were in the 34th percentile of D1.
Transitions fell by 0.092 (an 8% drop) and were in the 39th percentile of D1.

Add it all up and it’s quite easy to diagnose how an offense ranked 35th in KenPom last season cratered to 118th this year, the worst since 2015 and 2nd worst this millennium for a Marquette team.

Taking a look at the Shaka era, the spot up drops are worrisome and a very easy issue to see. Marquette has been a poor 3-point shooting team the last 2 seasons and it has to improve, simple as that.

But I want to focus on the other play type in the image, P&R Ball Handler. Offenses around the country all use P&R heavily, but very few do to the extent Marquette does. And you don’t have to take my word for it. Here is where Marquette ranks for P&R BH as a percent of play types nationally under Shaka.

2026: 96%ile
2025: 99%ile
2024: 98%ile
2023: 77%ile
2022: 99%ile

This structure has yielded an incredible run of efficient offensive teams, so it isn’t an issue, per se. What I want to note again, is just how reliant Marquette is at having elite guards that can score by themselves off of pick and roll. Moreso than all but 2 teams since 2022.

Ok, I think I made it clear why seeing a giant drop mattered so much this season, but the question still remains, what caused that drop? And while nothing in life is ever straightforward, I do think this one is relatively easy to answer. The players were worse.

Now, Kam Jones is one of the greatest pick and roll scorers we’ll ever see (more on that below) so that isn’t necessarily surprising that losing him would hurt efficiency. But the extent of the drop surprised me. Here’s the breakdown from Synergy.

At the top, Nigel took 254 P&R BH possessions, which is the most for a freshman at Marquette, and while a PPP of .803 isn’t amazing, it’s above average. It is also incredible for that volume. More on him in a bit.

But while Nigel performed better than anyone could have really expected, the upperclassmen guards were quite poor. Chase, Sean and Tre combined for .621 PPP on 185 P&R BH Poss. That’s just not going to get it done. Not only were they easy to guard in P&R scoring situations, it made it harder to use P&R as a way to create for others. The lack of an effective 2nd creator was a huge detriment to the offense last season.

And this is where Shaka Smart’s evolution on the transfer portal fits in. Although you can count on Nigel being an All Big-East level guard next season, you have to fill in those 180 possessions lost from Chase, Sean and Tre. Adrien might see a jump but I don’t think he’ll be a regular creator in this way. Royce and Damarius won’t come close. Maybe one of the redshirts or freshmen surprises us, but I would hate to leave it to chance.

Instead, replacing that lost production with an upperclassmen, you’d be able to immediately upgrade an area of intense need. Not only would that help the offense as a whole, it would help Nigel immensely.

In the Shaka era, only Kam Jones as a senior had as many P&R BH possessions in one season as Nigel had last year. He had to, there was no other (efficient) viable choice.

But what that does it puts a huge load on him physically and forces him into lower quality shots, decreasing his efficiency. Listen .803 PP isn’t bad at all, it’s right at the average mark, but it should be a baseline for Nigel, not a goal.

Tyler went from 0.455 -> 0.809 -> 0.886
Kam went from 0.943 -> 1.025 -> 0.964

Kam got worn down towards the end of 2025, jumping from 157 poss to 302 his senior year. He didn’t have anyone else on the team who could create in the P&R, and MU paid the price for it the last month or so.

You don’t want Nigel to be in a similar space where there are no other options. Whether it’s in the form of a combo guard that plays with Nigel or a backup point guard to spell him (and ideally both), I’d hope Marquette is looking for an experienced guard with plenty of pick and roll experience.

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