The Marquette Golden Eagles Are Flying High Under First-Year Coach Shaka Smart

For the first time in a long time, it felt like old times again when Marquette played host to Butler Saturday afternoon in Downtown Milwaukee, where the Golden Eagles delighted a sold-out crowd by rallying late for a 64-56 victory over Butler that added yet another bona fide to a postseason resume that grows more and more impressive by the day.

With the victory, Marquette avenged an 85-79 loss to the Bulldogs earlier this month but more importantly, improved 18-10 on the year and 10-7 in the Big East with two games to play before the conference tournament opens March 9 at Madison Square Garden in New York.

It’s a pretty impressive run for a team that was projected finish ninth in the Big East and be at best a bubble team come March after losing all but two players from a team that finished 13-14 a year ago, bringing an end to Steve Wojciechowski’s six-season run as head coach.

To replace Wojciechowski, Marquette turned to a familiar name: Shaka Smart, the Wisconsin native who first gained fame by leading VCU from the First Four to the Final Four in 2011 then, after turning down overtures from Marquette in 2014, went on to Texas where he’d spend six seasons but like Wojciechowski, never won an NCAA Tournament game.

So it’s easy to see why there were few, if any, expectations of the Golden Eagles heading into the season.

“I can understand why people picked us ninth,” Smart said. “We have three returning players from last year. New coach. A bunch of new guys.”

But the very same factors that most observers thought would be problematic for Marquette were also the same factors Smart thought could help the Golden Eagles thrive.

A new coach combined few returning players meant plenty of playing time for players in the transfer portal and it couldn’t have worked out better for Smart, who landed Darryl Morsell, the reigning Big Ten Defensive Player of the Year; Tyler Kolek, a 6-3 guard who earned Atlantic 10 Rookie of the Year honors last season at George Mason; 6-10 center Kur Kuath, a graduate transfer from Oklahoma and redshirt freshman Oliver-Maxence Prosper, a Montreal native who saw little time on the floor with Clemson a year ago.

Sprinkle the new additions with a fifth-year senior in Greg Elliott, two recruits who stuck around despite the regime change and a couple of hungry freshmen and walk-ons and Smart had exactly the kind of young, talented and hungry roster he had in mind.

Even with the pieces in place, it took some time for things to come together. The Golden Eagles opened some eyes early with a stunning 67-66 upset of No. 10 Illinois, the highlight of a 5-0 start that all included victories over Ole Miss and West Virginia.

The streak was snapped with a loss to St. Bonaventure in the championship game of the Charleston Classic. It would be the first of five straight losses against ranked opponents and after falling, 75-69 to Creighton in double-overtime on New Year’s Day, the Golden Eagles sat buried at the bottom of the Big East standings with an 0-3 record (8-6) overall.

“We just got to clean up the little stuff throughout the game,” freshman forward Oso Ighodaro said after Marquette erased a 17-point deficit to force the first overtime. “Every little thing adds up and it can change the game at the end of the game.”

That’s exactly what the Golden Eagles did. Three nights after the painful loss to Creighton, Marquette routed No. 16 Providence to kick off a seven-game winning streak. Along the way, the Golden Eagles three straight ranked teams — including a one-point victory over No. 18 Seton Hall and a 57-54 nail biter at No. 11 Villanova, which had fallen to No. 12 two weeks later when Marquette rolled to an 83-73 victory in Milwaukee.

“It’s really impressive,” said Villanova head coach Jay Wright, who knows first-hand just how unforgiving the Big East can be. “It’s impressive for any team to do this, but there’s a lot of new guys and a new coaching staff. It’s really impressive to see that put together so quickly. I think Shaka and his staff deserve a lot of credit. “They’re not just talented, they’re a good team. They execute. They play well together. It’s very impressive.”

But for the Golden Eagles themselves, it’s not at all surprising.

“I done been around,” Morsell said. “I done played in the Big Ten for four years (at Maryland). I done been on championship teams. I kind of seen it early when I got here this summer, that this team could be special. “And then we approached the game the right way. We locked in playing for each other. Then we just got the crowd behind us. Playing together as a team, I feel like we’re just as good as any team in the country. So I knew it. I tried to warn people. I tried to tell people. Because I done been around, so I know what it looks like. We confident now and we’re just trying to keep this train rolling.”