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
In last week’s vibe check, we noted a discrepancy between what our eyes were telling us (hey this team has started to put it together) and what the data was telling us (worst MU team in over a decade).
This week, on the heels of a 24-point blowout of Creighton, the metrics have decided to validate what has been coming for a few weeks, and saw Marquette’s Adj EM jump up by 1.73 points, putting Marquette at its highest level since the first week of conference play.
And while unexpected blowouts (MU was the underdog in that game) will always make a dent in bad numbers, even a close loss didn’t hurt them metrically, as there was a small bump up after a 5-point loss to Seton Hall. Yes, that small bit of number inflation is no salve to losing a game you led by double digits in, but at this point, we can all agree that our expectations have been raised from “please don’t embarrass us” to “we should have beaten a tournament team on the road.”
And again, to validate some of that feel, Marquette’s 5-game rolling Game Score average (which measures individual team performance) is at a season-high 76.8. That isn’t necessarily “great” as that would put MU around 69th over a full season, but it’s miles ahead of the low points of late December.
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.
Adrian Stevens had himself a week, despite not getting many headlines himself. With him, Nigel and Royce (much more on him coming) Marquette has a great core building.
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 2 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 2/2/26, this no longer lowest point in recent Marquette history. That low point was 4.91, and this team is sitting at 5.68.
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