Marquette
In a way, there’s a lot of guesswork that happens at the beginning season, even if much of the previews and early-season rankings involved educated guesses. We all saw how Shaka Smart struggled at Texas for the most part across the last six seasons, but we expected he’d make a positive impact at Marquette. In a season where the Big East is off to a fantastic start (and we’ll see them on this list more than once), Shaka Smart is already making himself felt. We knew it was coming; we just didn’t expect that the impact would come so soon.
The opening week was solid for Marquette, picking up two uninspiring wins over mid-majors, but week two has been simply fantastic. First, the Golden Eagles defeated #10 Illinois at home in a defensive struggle, pulling the upset by a single point late. Then, they headed to the Charleston Classic and have made quite an impact in South Carolina, knocking off favored Ole Miss and West Virginia on back-to-back nights, two games in which the offense played efficient ball and the defense was just good enough.
Marquette is still way down at 71st in the KenPom rankings, but these are the kinds of wins that will dearly help the Golden Eagles down the stretch. If Illinois has another Big Ten championship type of season, then that win is going to give Marquette some leverage on the bubble in March.
Adding on two top 100 wins against the Rebels and Mountaineers only helps not only build their resume but helps this team grow together in Smart’s new system. Marquette is not a top 25 team (not yet anyways), but this program is absolutely trending in the right direction.