Buzz Williams explains absence of Julius Marble

Texas A&M forward Julius Marble is not participating in team activities while “going through a university process,” head coach Buzz Williams said.

“He’s not able to take part of team activities,” Williams said during Thursday’s Local Media Day. “He’s going through a university process. I’m not privy to any of that so I can’t comment on it further. But that’s that’s where it stands.”

Marble transferred to Texas A&M ahead of the 2022-23 season from Michigan State after three years with the Spartans. He started 30 games last season for the Aggies while averaging 9.1 points and 4.1 rebounds. He averaged double-digits against conference opponents.

He played in 90 games with 13 starts at Michigan State, averaging 4.3 points in 10.2 minutes per game. Across all four of his college seasons, Marble has been an efficient shooter. The 6-foot-8 forward has shot 56.0% from the field during his career. However, his game has not extended out to the 3-point line, taking only 10 shots from beyond the arc.

Marble is set to be a key player for the Aggies, which are predicted to finish second in the conference. Teammate and star guard Wade Taylor IV was the Preseason SEC Player of the Year.

Losing Marble for any number of games would be a major loss for Texas A&M on the court due to the tough nature of the conference.

Auburn head coach Bruce Pearl described the SEC as the best conference in the country, and that it is well above anyone else.

“In men’s basketball, it just hadn’t evolved that way. And they really made a commitment to it,” Pearl said. “Great coaches, better facilities, we’re recruiting better players. We got a commissioner now of basketball, when Dan came in, now Garth [Glissman] is here. We hired people that were involved in the Big East. Mike Tranghese was an adviser for a while. We would get advisors on officiating from NBA officials.

“In other words, the league went ahead and said, ‘Look, we’ve got to figure this out.’ So they brought in really good administrators to help Commissioner Sankey figure out how do you schedule, what tournaments do we need to play in, what do we need to do to elevate our brand? They’ve done it. And the SEC Network. The SEC Network also kind of came in about the same time that basketball started to improve. I think there’s a direct correlation to our contract with ABC, ESPN and the SEC Network.”