Michael Phillips Indicates That He’ll Return To Marquette
The question to ask: How many more return announcements are left?
Can Michael Phillips evolve into a notable rotation guy next year? | Photo by Larry Radloff/Icon Sportswire via Getty Images Since Marquette men’s basketball head coach Shaka Smart used TNT Sports to announce that he will be evolving the Golden Eagles roster for the 2026-27 season, it was reasonable to wonder precisely that would mean for most of the 2025-26 roster. We’ve already nailed down that Nigel James, the 2026 Big East Freshman of the Year, would be returning.
Same for Adrien Stevens, Royce Parham, and Damarius Owens. We also got word recently that Sean Jones and Tre Norman would not be returning as well. All of this matters because the evolution of the roster can only happen by way of available roster spots with an NCAA limit of 15.
On top of that, the official list of who’s coming back matters in terms of figuring out exactly what Smart and his staff need to accomplish in the transfer portal. All of that to say that it would appear that we’ve nailed down another piece of the puzzle by way of this Instagram post published by freshman Michael Phillips and co-posted with Marquette Men’s Basketball: View this post on Instagram The caption is simple: “Round 2” with an eagle emoji. We have to play internet detective there a little bit, but between the co-post with the team account and the use of the team shot video for the highlight package in the post… yeah, that seems pretty safe to draw the conclusion that Michael Phillips will be back in blue and gold for next season.
Phillips appeared in 28 games for Marquette as an 18 year old freshman this season, as he won’t turn 19 until early August 2026. For the full season, he averaged 8. 0 minutes and added 2.