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Gold-en touch?
Marquette will have its usual array of explosive guards this season, but its ultimate upside rests on how effective senior big Ben Gold plays. Plus: exhibition notes from Indiana and Rice, recruiting wins for Creighton, Akron and Troy, and tons of scheduling notes including the Players Era Festival's bold move.
Mike Miller
August 11, 2025
Good morning! Hope you had a great weekend. Let’s dive into the college hoops news from the last few days.
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1. Marquette’s big question: Scoring consistency
Ben Gold spent last week playing for New Zealand at the FIBA Asia World Cup — and Sunday’s 118-78 win might’ve been a promising sign of what’s ahead for the big man and Marquette.
In 22 minutes, the 6-11 senior was perfect from the field (5-of-5), including a 3-pointer, and eight rebounds. It was his best performance through three games in Saudi Arabia. Whether the Tall Blacks prevail in the event doesn’t matter a ton to the upcoming hoops season. I’m more interested if Gold can be an anchor for Marquette.
Gold started all 34 games for Marquette as a junior. His production (7.4 ppg, 4.3 rpg, 37.1% from deep) were career highs, but those stats don’t capture his ability as an efficient offensive weapon. He’s not the pick-and-roll weapon that Oso Ighodaro was, but a big man who’s a true stretch big. He shot 37% from beyond the arc last season, which spaced opposing defenses and helped Kam Jones find the room he needed as an elite rim finisher.
But there’s no Kam Jones this season. Sean Jones and Chase Ross can get to the rim, but could Gold be a bigger factor inside the arc? I asked Andrei Greska from Paint Touches if this Marquette team can flourish without Gold asserting himself more inside the arc given that he’s essentially the only big man on the roster. (Sophomore Joshua Smith should play some, but it won’t be big minutes). His response:
Having talked to [assistant coach] Nevada [Smith] a few times on this, being able to truly spread the floor is a huge boon for guards that can penetrate, and was a reason Kam started out so hot last year. There was just so much more room to navigate. However, as Creighton and a few other teams adjusted, they would put a 5 like Kalkbrenner (who was at a disadvantage vs Ben) on someone like Stevie, who wasn't able to make them pay. So Kalk would roam off of Stevie and clog the paint or provide help. So you really need shooters, or at least drivers, to make the 5 out advantage outweigh the size you give up inside.
As long as Gold’s a perimeter threat — he’s shot at least 35% on 3s on 115+ attempts the last two seasons — it’ll be huge for Marquette as it adjusts to life without Jones.
Does that mean Marquette struggles to score at times this season as its young talent develops? Perhaps. As Rob Dauster and Terrence Oglesby discussed in our Offseason Grades series, the progression of sophomores Royce Parham and Damarius Owens probably means the 2026-27 season is more akin to what Marquette fans have become accustomed to the the last three seasons under Shaka Smart.
That doesn’t mean 23+ wins and a top 4 Big East finish isn’t out of the question, but it’ll require significant jumps in production from several players. After all, the team didn’t just lose Jones, it also lost David Joplin and Stevie Mitchell, their second-and-third leading scorers.
Marquette will find ways to score. And it’ll certainly defend. How efficiently it can do both is the question. It’ll need Gold to provide a lot of that answer.
2. Notes from Indiana, Rice exhibitions (and UConn’s scrimmage)
Indiana’s summer tour in Puerto Rico had a fine start last week. Saturday may have been even better.
