PROVIDENCE, R.I — It was a feeling that the Friar faithful hadn’t felt in over three decades.
Whether they showed up an hour before tip with the tallboy beers in hand that head coach Shaka Smart described after the game to look like they were “a foot tall”, or they scooted in the door right before tip-off, Providence fans showed up ready to support.
Ready to support a program that for the last six years, has dominated Marquette in every way inside Amica Mutual Pavilion. Ultimately, they were ready for a pre-New Year’s Eve two-and-a-half-hour long party, and why shouldn’t they have been?
No matter how hard the Golden Eagles had battled in previous years, it just hadn’t been enough.
38 points from Markus Howard in 2021? I’ll raise you at least 10 different points from six Friars en route to an 84-72 victory for Providence. How about two years ago when Tyler Kolek put up a season-high 29 points in a double overtime thriller? Didn’t matter, because Bryce Hopkins put up an absurd 29-point, 23 rebound performance which led to a 103-98 demise of the Golden Eagles.
And who could forget about last year, where Big East Player of the Year Devin Carter and Providence just dominated then-No. 6 Marquette from from start to finish.
But Tuesday night was different.
No, the New Year hadn’t quite officially rung in on the East Coast yet, but the Golden Eagles had an early celebration after handing the Friars their worst home Big East loss since 1990.
For the first time since 2019, No. 8 Marquette men’s basketball (12-2, 3-0 Big East) left Providence victorious, snatching a 78-50 win over the Friars (7-7, 1-2 Big East) Tuesday evening.
See, no matter how they showed up Tuesday night, Providence fans all left with the same feeling: overwhelming disappointment.
For the Golden Eagles, it was a win that meant a lot for a couple of reasons — the first being how it was achieved.
Multiple times this season Marquette has gotten out to double-digit leads on the road. A couple weeks ago at Dayton, the Golden Eagles led by as many as 13. Then again at Xavier not too long after, Marquette grabbed an early lead that grew as big as 15. In both of those games, its opponent would eventually end up coming back to take the lead.
Leading 47-20 at half, the Golden Eagles looked themselves in the mirror, refusing to let history repeat itself in Rhode Island at the hands of the Friars.
“We talked about that at halftime,” Kam Jones said when asked about Marquette not easing off the gas after gaining a bid edge. “We usually write the score out at halftime, but the score on the board just said 0-0.
“That’s how we wanted to attack, that was pretty much our mission.”
Among the 11,604 in attendance was former Marquette guard Tyler Kolek. The two-time All-American — who would go on to play a combined 52 minutes for both the Westchester Knicks and New York Knicks the next day — was treated to his former teammates and coaching staff doing something that he was unable to accomplish in his time with the program — beat Providence.
“You know, normally when you see a former great player that’s sitting close to you, it’s kind of depressing because, you know, he’s not on the court,” Smart said. “But, we’re fortunate again that the game was going the way it was going, you know we really wanted to win here for him.
“The last three years, we were not able to get it done, we were close a couple of years. Last year we were completely out to lunch when we came up here. Just proud of him, he’s a man. We say relationships, growth and victory, the guys have grown up now. He’s going through that next version of having to prove himself at the highest level, and I have no doubt that he will.”
Long after the game was over and the dust had settled, players reunited with their families, holding boxes of pizza and drinking their usual road-victory milkshakes. Vibes were high, as Marquette men’s basketball relished the fact that it just did something that no MU team had done in nearly six years.
A feeling that indeed is unfamiliar for some, but is more than welcomed in the hearts of those who experienced it.
Onto Creighton.
This story was written by Matthew Baltz. He can be reached at [email protected] or on Twitter/X @MatthewBaltzMU.
