Last season, Marquette men’s basketball found themselves in the Sweet 16 for the first time since 2013, but that’s as sweet as things would get. After losing to NC State, All-Big East team honorees Tyler Kolek and Oso Ighodaro announced they will be entering their names into the NBA draft.
This leaves two huge holes for Smart and staff to fill, and it’s going to take more than relationships, growth and victory to do so. Marquette’s recruiting class contains only two first-year forwards in Damarius Owens and Royce Parham.