After embracing portal, Marquette begins redemptive campaign vs. Mercyhurst

The head coach is the same. A handful of the promising young players are the same. And yet, it feels as though a new era may be underway at Marquette as the Golden Eagles begin the 2026-27 season on Monday against Mercyhurst in Milwaukee.

Shaka Smart, entering his sixth year as head coach, finally dipped into the transfer portal this offseason. Outside of the first year of Smart's tenure, he had never acquired players through the portal, favoring the traditional approach of recruiting through high school.

Most of those seasons involved a lot of winning. But following a disappointing campaign where the team finished 12-20 (7-13 Big East), the program embraced change.

"Our job is to evolve and learn. ... Continue to evolve and do what's best to get back to winning," Smart said.

Sananda Fru, who fills a clear need down low at 6-foot-11, and Nolan Minessale, a Wisconsin native, enter the program from Louisville and St. Thomas, respectively.

Yet despite the pomp and circumstance around utilizing the portal, it's the players Marquette kept from leaving the program after a tough season that are likely of larger significance.

Nigel James Jr., who averaged 16.4 points and 4.9 assists per game, along with Royce Parham and Adrien Stevens are the key cogs of this team from a year ago that now expect to be part of a winning team.

"Like Tyler Kolek, what (James) is best at is not always what he judges himself on," Smart said. "NJ is so good at creating closeouts and creating scoring opportunities, but he feels a level of responsibility and pride in his scoring. We need both."

Parham, a 6-foot-9 forward, averaged 12.5 with 4.9 rebounds, and Stevens became a reliable sharpshooter, shooting 37.5% from deep while averaging 7.9 points.

Mercyhurst enters the season picked to finish second in the Northeast Conference after finishing 17-17 (10-8) a year ago and falling 79-70 to LIU in the NEC championship game.

That would normally mean the program was one game shy of competing in the NCAA Tournament. However, Mercyhurst moved up from Division II to Division I in 2024, forcing a three-year reclassification transition and ineligibility from competing in the NIT or NCAA tournaments until next season (2027-28).

"I think we're ahead of schedule. Last year's run speaks volumes for the assistants and the players," head coach Gary Manchel said. "Unfortunately in the world we live in right now, that team is long gone. As far as guys that did play for us, it's really just Jake (Lemalman) and Cam (Johnson)."

Lemalman was second on the team in scoring (13.9 ppg) and had a team-high 108 assists.

--Field Level Media