Marquette Basketball: Role players a big reason why Golden Eagles are a Final Four threat

Fewer than 50 teams are left unbeaten after three weeks of college hoops. One is Marquette Basketball, which has wins over Maryland and top-10 Purdue to make itself an early standout. They’re led by Kameron Jones, who leads the team with around 20 ppg and produced a triple-double in the big win over the Boilermakers.

However, against the Georgia Bulldogs on Sunday, Jones was held to just 10 points due to both foul issues and short-lived injury. Yet the Golden Eagles were able to win the early matchup of the day, 80-69 to move to 6-0 on the season. 

The star of the game was David Joplin, who scored a career-high 29 points and made 6/11 from three-point range. The veteran forward has been a double-digit scorer and led them in rebounding heading into the game, but he also shot just 32% from the field. A performance like this will certainly boost those numbers.

But it’s not just Joplin who has stepped up alongside Jones are guards Stevie Mitchell and Chase Ross. The duo combined for 21 points, 10 rebounds, and six assists in the win against Georgia and collectively have helped make up for the absence of Tyler Kolek, the former Big East Player of the Year guard.

Marquette head coach Shaka Smart decided not to add a transfer from the portal this offseason, one of a few teams to make that move. There were concerns about whether the roster would be able to lose stars such as Kolek and Oso Ighodaro and remain nationally viable. But so far, that’s been the case, with Jones becoming a national star and the Eagles having one of the best all-around starting lineups in the country. 

The Eagles have a pair of big-time matchups in the non-con schedule in Iowa State and Creighton to help create a top-tier profile. There’s no question as to whether they made the right decisions in the offseason, and if guys like Joplin and others continue to excel, the odds of making a Final Four will rise.