Marquette holds open practice for fans at Al McGuire Center

 

MILWAUKEE (CBS 58) -- The Marquette men's basketball team held an open practice in front of fans at the Al McGuire center to wrap up their summer workouts.

Fans will see a new Golden Eagles team without NBA draft picks Tyler Kolek and Oso Ighodaro.

"One of the reasons we like to do this, one of the reasons we like to do the open scrimmage we have in October is guys need to get used to being who they need to be when your body feels a little bit different. You have different emotions because there's people watching you," said Marquette head coach Shaka Smart.

The returning players and new faces of the team are embracing that this will be a different team on the court in 2024-25.

"Different isn't always a bad thing as long as you approach it the way. We can grow from different. We can find our own way. Form a new but similar identity and just continue to play together and have fun," said senior guard Stevie Mitchell.

Even if the faces will change, don't expect a less intense squad.

"We have a bunch of goons," said returning leading scorer and senior guard Kam Jones. "We gone be a team that come into spots. We gone give you what we gone give youm and you know what it is, and you either going to deal with it or you ain't. We gonna make it as tough as possible to deal with it and that's going to be every single night."

On the injury front, Smart says junior guard Sean Jones is making daily progress coming back from a torn ACL. He is taking part in some 'basketball stuff', but not in any team capacity.

Fans will also get a chance to see the team at a Blue/Gold scrimmage on Oct. 5th also at the Al McGuire Center.