‘Disrespected’ Marquette Seeks First Big East Men’s Basketball Tournament Championship

Tyler Kolek couldn’t help himself. The Marquette point guard had to speak his mind during Friday night’s Big East tournament semifinal game against Connecticut.

Several times, Kolek jawed with Green Bay Packers running back Aaron Jones, who was sitting courtside at Madison Square Garden wearing UConn gear. Tristen Newton, UConn’s starting guard, is Jones’ cousin. So, naturally, Jones was rooting for the Huskies even though Jones had attended a few Marquette home games this season. That didn’t sit well with Kolek.

“I was actually saying to him he should be repping the home team,” Kolek said. “He’s been to more of our games than their games.”

Kolek backed up the trash talk, as Marquette won, 70-68, to advance to its first Big East championship game on Saturday night. The No. 1 seed Golden Eagles will face No. 2 seed Xavier, which defeated Creighton, 82-60, in the other semifinal. Xavier has appeared in one other Big East final, losing to Villanova in 2015. It is the first time the top two seeds will meet in the Big East championship game since 2004.

The teams split the season series with each winning at home: Xavier won, 80-76, in Cincinnati on Jan. 15, while Marquette won, 69-68, in Milwaukee on Feb. 15 when Olivier-Maxence Prosper tipped in a missed layup with a second remaining.

Despite winning its first Big East regular season title, Marquette has had a chip on its shoulder all year. Before the season, the league’s coaches selected the Golden Eagles to finish ninth in the 11-team league, prompting Kolek to say “F—- ‘em” when asked about the projection.

Kolek was named the Big East’s Player of the Year after averaging 12.7 points and 7.9 assists per game with a 3.3 assist-to-turnover ratio. Shaka Smart was the conference’s Coach of the Year after leading the Golden Eagles to a 17-3 league record in his second year at the school. And forward David Joplin won the league’s Sixth Man Award after averaging 9.2 points and 3.4 rebounds per game.

Still, the Golden Eagles have never lost their edge. They entered Friday night as the betting underdog to UConn, which had won nine of its last 10 games, including an 87-72 victory over Marquette on Feb. 7 in Hartford. Marquette had won the first matchup, 82-76, on Jan. 11 in Milwaukee.

“I want to say this in the most respectful way possible, but it felt like a lot of people were giving UConn the game coming in,” Smart said. “And there was some comments made about who own the Garden and that kind of stuff…We said, ‘Wait a minute. We won this league,’ so we’re not taking a back seat to anybody.”

Said Kolek: “Tonight, we proved that the disrespect is not warranted. Even UConn, they were disrespecting us, as well. We just took a hold of this game.”

It wasn’t easy. UConn trailed, 56-46, before tying it at 60-all midway through the second half. But Joplin and Kolek committed their fourth fouls within the next two minutes, sending them to the bench alongside starter Oso Ighodaro, who also had four fouls.

Still, Marquette’s reserves kept pace with UConn and were ahead, 70-68, when Kolek and Ighodaro checked back in with 2:14 remaining. Neither team scored again, as Marquette stopped UConn on its final five possessions. Suddenly, the chants of “U-C-O-N-N” that had emanated throughout the Garden stopped, and Marquette celebrated in an arena filled with dejected Huskies’ fans.

“I think our crowd traveled pretty well tonight, too,” Kolek said. “Obviously UConn fans were pretty loud, but we like to say energy is energy. You can use opposing energy and you can use your own crowd energy in any way you want. We kind of feed off it both ways.”

As Kolek spoke, he was sitting on a chair in the locker room where the New York Knicks usually dress. He and his teammates will be back there again on Saturday looking to win a league tournament championship for the first time since 1997 when Marquette was in Conference USA.

“What more could you ask for than Saturday night at the Garden?,” Kolek said. “If you can’t get up for that game, then I don’t know what game you’re going to get up for.”