In the 44-year history of the Big East conference, no one has done what No. 10 Marquette did Saturday night at Fiserv Forum.
The Golden Eagles (23-6, 15-3 Big East), who were picked to finish ninth in the preseason coaches’ poll, claimed their first share of the Big East regular season title since 2012-13 by defeating DePaul (9-19, 3-15) 90-84.
“Coach came out of the locker room like ‘Don’t take for granted we won. We (know) we play better than that. But we clinched a share of the Big East, that’s not what we want to do but that’s just the fact of the matter right now,” Kam Jones said.
Previously, the lowest team picked in the preseason poll to win the conference regular season title was the 1989-90 UConn Huskies.
The Huskies shared the title with Syracuse and went onto win the Big Tournament.
Marquette now looks to do that itself.
What is needed to lock up the No. 1 seed
Though Marquette secured a share of the regular season title, it did not secure the No. 1 seed in the Big East men’s basketball tournament in two weeks.
The Golden Eagles still remain in a head-to-head battle with Providence (20-8, 12-5) and Xavier (21-8, 13-5). Both the Friars and Musketeers are set to face each other Wednesday night at Amica Mutual Pavilion in Rhode Island.
Due to not securing the outright win of the title, there was no postgame celebration other than high-fiving fans from Marquette.
Smart said it was a decision made earlier in the week from a conversation he had with Tyler Kolek and Oso Ighodaro.
“They said, ‘Lets try to win more,'” Smart said. “It’s a good time to be greedy in a good way. We don’t just want to share. We want to win outright so that’s the way our guys felt.”
Statistical leaders
Jones led the Golden Eagles on the night with 22 points. He went 7 -for-12 from the field, setting a new career-high with seven 3-pointers.
Kolek added 22 points himself on 5-for-9 shooting and an efficient 11-for-12 going from the charity stripe. Additionally, he finished with 14 assists and two steals.
Ighodaro and Olivier-Maxence Prosper followed with 12 and 10 points respectively.
Umoja Gibson did some damage for the Blue Demons, finishing with a team-high 20 points. DePaul shot 51.7% as a team on the night.
Finding a groove early
Jones, who was celebrating his 21st birthday Saturday, set the tone from the opening jump for Marquette.
The 6-foot-4 sophomore guard connected on three of his first four attempts from beyond the arc to give the Golden Eagles an early 11-6 advantage.
“When he starts bombing them in, I start laughing,” Kolek said. “He’s one of the best shooter’s I’ve seen and one of my favorite guys to play with.”
Ighodaro went to the bench early in the first half as he picked up two personal fouls. With Ighodaro’s absence on the floor, it opened up the opportunity for the Blue Demons to stay in reach of the Golden Eagles.
The final seven minutes showed why Marquette once held the No. 1 ranked offense on KenPom.com a few weeks ago.
Ighodaro sparked a 9-1 Golden Eagle run with three-straight layups forcing the Blue Demons to burn a timeout trailing 30-17.
Marquette also picked up its defensive presence down the stretch. Stevie Mitchell racked up two steals before coming up with a block on the other end when DePaul’s Eral Penn went up for a dunk.
Jones would hit two more triples before the half ended. He tied his career-high of five 3-pointers when Marquette went up 43-27.
Then in the winding seconds of the half, Jones hit his third halftime buzzer beater of the season to give the Golden Eagles a 21 point halftime advantage.
Kolek comes up short again
Earlier this season, Kolek came close to Tony Miller’s single-game assist record with 15 assists against Georgetown Jan. 7.
Saturday, Kolek looked to be on pace to break it as he had 11 assists in the first half.
“Tyler passes the ball at a high level all the time and they’re (assists) dependent on someone making a shot,” Smart said. “You have No. 1 (Kam Jones) bombing them in at high level, even that last play from almost half court, so that helps your assist numbers. But you got to make a good pass as well.”
But with the Golden Eagles having a sluggish second half offensive performance, he came three assists short of tying Miller’s record of 17.
Holding onto win
The first half it was all Marquette, the second half not so much.
DePaul woke up in the final 20 minutes as it outscored Marquette 41-29 in begin the half. But the Blue Demons still trailed by nine with 3:44 to play.
Smart said his team didn’t come out with the same edge and urgency as they showed in the first half.
“Human nature got us a little bit,” Smart said. “Mindset comes first and what comes after the mindset is either the appropriate violence, multiple efforts, energy or below the line. Thought for most of the second half on defense, we were below the line in those areas.”
Javon Johnson brought DePaul within six with 2:20 to go but it wasn’t enough to mount the comeback. Kolek scored 15, nine of which came off free-throws, of Marquette’s final 16 points to hold onto the win.
Next up
Marquette has two final tuneups before it heads to New York and Madison Square Garden for the Big East Tournament.
The Golden Eagles head to Hinkle Fieldhouse to play their final Big East road game Tuesday against Butler (14-15, 6-12) at 5:30 p.m. CST. A win over the Butler would clinch the outright regular season title.
This article was written by John Leuzzi. He can be reached at [email protected] or on Twitter @JohnLeuzziMU.
