Marquette Basketball: Golden Eagles off to strong start in 2025 recruiting class

In this era, Coach Shaka Smart and Marquette Basketball have gone against the grain when it comes to over-reliance in the transfer portal. They're the only D-I program to have gone the last two years without taking a transfer and considering that they've been a top-25 program, that seems to have worked out to the point.

What it does mean is that the Golden Eagles need to have continuous success in the high school pipeline. They have a top-30 incoming caliber freshman class, led by four-star forward prospect, Royce Parham. So far, the program has had early success with the 2025 group, having the largest group of current commits with four.

The latest commitment for the Big East program is Adrien Stevens, a 6'4 combo guard and consensus top-100 prospect. He's from the DMV area and is a talented scoring guard with size and fits the kind of guards that succeed in Coach Smart's system. The other key guard in the 2025 class so far is Nijel James, a top-100 ball-handler. With Stevie Mitchell and leading scorer Kam Jones set to leave after next season, there will be a need for the next group of guards to have an immediate impact, especially if the program doesn't add transfers a year from now.

The other two commits are wing/forwards. Ian Miletic is a 6'7 forward from Illinois, capable of shooting the ball and gives them versatility. Michael Phillips is a 6'6 wing from North Carolina and is the kind of three-star developmental prospect that can grow into a rotation piece down the line.

Marquette is still after some notable pieces, including top-50 guard prospects, Amari Evans and Davion Hannah. With the current core guards all being underclassmen, the Golden Eagles could use one more talented perimeter to round out an already good 2025 class.