Dick Weiss on College Basketball
VILLANOVA, Pa.– Tyler Kolek should be used to this by now.
Marquette’s pre-season senior All-America guard Tyler Kolek expects to be the villain when steps on the court wherever he plays, much like Christian Laettner and JJ Redick were at Duke.
The Villanova student section was no different.
“When we go on the road, they’re yelling ‘You can’t read.’ and tonight I heard, ‘Where were you Jan. 6,’ the extraverted Kolek said. “I figure they’re telling me I can’t play.
All this bleep. I love this stuff. It fires me up. I walk out, they’re booing me. It’s fun for me.”
Be careful what you wish for.
Kolek went off for 32 points, six rebounds and nine assists in 39 minutes. He shot 10 for 20, made 5 of 8 threes, taking over the game when 10th- ranked Marquette needed it most as
the Golden Eagles jumped out to a 23-4 lead, then held on for a 85-80 victory last night at the Finn.
This was Marquette’s third straight win on Nova’s Main Line campus arena.
“I’m undefeated against Villanova” he said while sipping on one of Marquette’s signature victory milkshakes. “I’ve never lost them in three years.”
Marquette is now.16-5 and are tied for second in the Big East with a 7-3 record. Villanova has dropped to 11-10 overall and 4-6 and mired in ninth place in conference play. Big East. They have lost five of their last six games and are listed as first for out in Joe Lunardi’s latest bracketology. There were scattered boos from a normally loyal crowd when Villanova’s second year coach Kyle Neptune walked out for pre-game introductions. And with Wright seated five rows from the floor, the crowd voiced their frustration again after Marquette threatened to turn the game into an early blowout. One Villanova student wore a T-shirt with “Fire Neptune” scrawled on the front.
“I didn’t hear anything,” Neptune said. “My job is to come out and prepare these guys as well as I possibly can.”
Kolek has ruined a lot of coaches’ nights. He is the latest in a long line of great point guards to play in this arena. He is in many ways of clone of Villanova’s Ryan Arcidiacono, Jalen Brunson and Collin Gillespie, all stars of the Cats’ two national championships and three Final Four runs in 2016, 2018 and 2022.
He is a Wooden Award finalist and the best point guard to come out of Rhode Island since Ernie DiGregorio, the legendary Providence guard who was a flamboyant, creative passer, ball handler who led the friars to the 1973 Final Four and later went on to become the NBA Rookie of the Year in 1974. “I got a chance to meet him a couple years ago when we played at Providence,” Kolek said. “Had my picture taken with him and (another Providence great) Joey Hassett, who does color on their radio broadcasts.”
Kolek couldn’t get a sniff from Providence when he played for St. Andrew’s Prep. He wound up signing with George Mason and was the Atlantic–10 Rookie of the Year before transferring to Marquette after freshman year. “We knew he had great basketball IQ,” Marquette coach Shaka Smart said. “But we had no idea he’d turn out to be this.”
Kolek personally took over the game after Villanova rallied from painfully slow start and a 20-point deficit to take a 48-47 lead. He scored or assisted on Marquette’s next 17 points.
During that stretch, the student section made the mistake of chanting “Air ball” when Kolek missed a three.
Poking the bear is never a good idea.
Kolek promptly made two in a row to send the Golden Eagles up 56-51, then another as they increased the lead to 62-56 and one more for a seven-point lead as Marquette held on for a tough road victory, surviving despite the fact guard Kam Jones, a double figure scorer, was out with a shoulder injury.
“He was the best player o the court tonight,” Smart said. “And I don’t know what the percentage is, but when you have the best players on the court, you typically win.
“He showed guts. He showed character. He showed toughness. He wanted to take the big shot. He was resilient where there were some plays that didn’t go his way because of the physicality or good plays by Villanova, It shows a lot about what he’s got inside.”
