Miami Heat: Past ‘Golden Eagle’ v. Past ‘Golden Eagle’ gets intense

Miami Heat forward Jimmy Butler (22) reacts during the second quarter against the Brooklyn Nets(Brad Penner-USA TODAY Sports)
Miami Heat forward Jimmy Butler (22) reacts during the second quarter against the Brooklyn Nets(Brad Penner-USA TODAY Sports) /
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The Miami Heat are a quirky team if there ever was one. That’s because they have a ton of them about them.

Being one of the hardest-working and most physically imposing teams in the league is one of them. Being able to find guys that typically wouldn’t be on the radars of other teams is another.

Ironically enough, they have also have a ton of success when it comes to rostering guys from Marquette University. Yes, it’s really a thing, well, there are quite a few of note anyway.

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The greatest Miami Heat player of all time, Dwyane Wade of course, is a former Golden Eagle of Marquette University. When you look at the Miami Heat’s best player at this exact moment, Jimmy Butler, he too is a guy that got his collegiate basketball chops at that university in Milwaukee.

Well, that’s after spending his freshman season at Tyler Junior College. You then also have a guy that’s been rumored to, potentially, be looking to head back down to South Florida.

He too was once a member of the Marquette Golden Eagles basketball program. That would be Jae Crowder.

The Miami Heat have had success with former Marquette University guys. And the two they have on the roster now had a battle that may show why.

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And just like clockwork, as they couldn’t allow too many years to get by before they got their claws on their next Golden Eagle, the Miami Heat may have another really good one on their hands.

While Jamal Cain did play his last season of collegiate hoops at Oakland University in Michigan, his graduate transfer season, he would suit up for four years at Marquette. And just like those before him to go on to wear the Miami Heat uniform, Cain seems to have a certain level of grit, toughness, and multiplicity to his game.

Seen here going back and forth with his teammate in Jimmy Butler, he also seems to want to be great on the defensive end. He’s competitive and he has just enough of that mentioned edge to him.

He showed a lot in the preseason for the Heat and enough so to warrant him snatching Darius Days’ two-way deal right up from under his nose. Cain’s path is one that you can easily see or imagine going as Caleb Martin’s did with Miami just one year ago.

Here’s the thing though and while Martin is the better player at this moment, Cain might be further along at the beginning of his Heat tenure than Martin was and he is just a physically bigger human being but capable of doing some of the same things Martin can.

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Either way it goes, the Miami Heat seem to have, perhaps, found another one and this “former Golden Eagle” on “former Golden Eagle” action is just one bullet point in that presentation.