Shaka Smart Is Telling Players They Don’t Need Agents at Marquette

Nearly every college basketball player projected to go in the first round of this summer’s NBA draft already has an agent. Most of them list their agent’s contact prominently on their social media pages, and many have had representation since high school.

And then there is Marquette guard Kam Jones, one of the nation’s best players. On his Instagram, it simply reads: “Agent: @coachshakasmart.”

That’s no coincidence.

Smart has been refusing to negotiate with agents this spring, telling his players and recruits that they’ll get the same money from Marquette’s collective with or without one, a source familiar with Marquette’s NIL (name, image, and likeness) negotiations told Front Office Sports. 

The pitch from Smart’s camp is that agents won’t help them get more of Marquette’s limited NIL budget, and will only collect commissions, according to the source.

Marquette is a private Catholic university without a football team, limiting the amount of money it can spend to lure players. Famous alum Dwyane Wade did recently pledge $3 million to the school, but the gift was not limited to basketball. The portion of the gift focused on sports was dedicated to Marquette’s facilities, a choice some famous athletes prefer to NIL donations.

Every Marquette scholarship player has a deal with the school’s collective, Be The Difference NIL, run by former Marquette players Travis Diener, Rob Jackson, and Steve Novak. 

Smart and the Marquette collective did not respond to text messages and emails requesting comment.

No current Marquette player lists an agent on their social media pages, and a scan of their RealGM pages does not have an agent listed for any player. 

Several players list a contact for Madison Dunker, Marquette’s NIL GM. Dunker works for Altius Sports Partners, a consulting firm that helps colleges with NIL strategy. She directed requests for comment to Marquette’s athletic department.

Schools trying to end-run agents is not unheard of, but the lack of agents is extremely unusual for a national power. (Marquette currently sits at No. 25 in the Associated Press poll.) Seasoned NIL attorney Darren Heitner told FOS there is a “0% chance” any other top-25 or power conference team has a similar situation; he added that refusing to deal with a player’s existing agent could raise legal issues.

From the school’s perspective, the lack of agents provides an obvious advantage: An agent could help a prospective player find a richer deal on the open market. 

It’s not the only old-school way Smart does business at Marquette. He has also almost entirely eschewed the transfer portal. Marquette is the only men’s team in Division I that has not signed a transfer in the last three years, an approach that players have appreciated. “He always says he’s not going to throw us back in the water like we’re fishing,” forward David Joplin told the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel last month.

Smart has rebuilt his reputation in Milwaukee. He was a wunderkind when he led Virginia Commonwealth to the Final Four in 2011, but failed to win a single tournament game in his next stop at Texas, where he left after six years in 2021. Under Smart, the Golden Eagles made their first Sweet 16 in a decade last year, and they’re currently ranked in the top 25 as the Big East tournament tips off in New York on Thursday afternoon. Most bracket projections have them safely in the NCAA tournament as a No. 8 seed.

Agents aren’t wholly foreign to Smart’s program. Last year, when Tyler Kolek was famous enough to garner his own marketing offers, Smart encouraged him to sign with an agent to handle off-the-court brand deals, Kolek told the Milwaukee Sentinel Journal. Kolek and Jones both appeared in a Skims campaign last year, and Jones has hawked Crush Soda on social media this year.

The patient approach has paid off for Jones, who in four seasons at Marquette has gone from bench rotation player to one of the nation’s best point guards. Jones is one of 15 finalists for the Wooden Award as the nation’s best college player. He currently projects as the oldest player in the first round of this summer’s NBA draft, where he’ll likely need to hire an agent.