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5. Marquette Golden Eagles
2025-26 record: 12-20 (7-13)
Likely departures
- Chase Ross (14.3 ppg and 3.4 apg)
- Ben Gold (8.0 ppg and 5.8 rpg)
- Zaide Lowry (8.1 ppg and 2.9 rpg)
- Sean Jones (6.3 ppg and 3.9 apg)
Likely returnees
- Nigel James (16.4 ppg and 4.9 apg)
- Royce Parham (12.5 ppg and 4.9 rpg)
- Andrien Stevens (7.9 ppg and 2.6 rpg)
- Caedin Hamilton (2.9 ppg and 2.9 rpg)
Roster additions
- Nolan Minessale (19.8 ppg and 4.3 apg at St. Thomas)
- Sanada Fru (9.0 ppg and 6.1 rpg at Louisville)
Even with the brief run at the end, it was a miserable campaign overall for the Eagles, whose lack of portal usage backfired. That wasn’t the case this time around, landing Fru to replace Gold in the frontcourt and Minnesale to give them a backcourt mate for James.
Speaking of James, he’s going to be viewed as one of the best sophomores in college basketball after being the lone brightspot for Marquette this past season. It’s unlikely that Coach Shaka Smart will have two straight bad years and will have the benefit of the doubt over the younger coaches in the Big East. But will this group be good enough to compete in the top tier of the conference?
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