The Big East handed out their tippy-top end awards on Wednesday morning before the 2024 conference tournament got started, and Ben Steele from the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel — amongst other media, I presume — got a chance to speak with Marquette men’s basketball head coach Shaka Smart. In theory, it was because senior center Oso Ighodaro was named the Big East’s Scholar-Athlete of the Year, but the availability of senior guard Tyler Kolek came up as well.
Kolek has not played for the Golden Eagles since leaving MU’s February 28th game at home against Providence during the second half. He was diagnosed with an oblique muscle injury, and that’s the kind of thing that just needs time and that’s about it to heal up.
Here’s what Smart said about Kolek as the Golden Eagles prepare to play in the fourth of four Big East quarterfinal games on Thursday:
“He’s still day-to-day,” Smart said on Wednesday. “Not planning on him playing tomorrow.
“I mean, he’s close. He practiced for part of our session today. He’s been working out. Continuing to get treatment. I would say if you had to put a label on the rest of the Big East tournament, it’s probably questionable.”
We’re going to go ahead and call “not planning on it” as Smart ruling Kolek out no matter what on Thursday, whether it’s #6 Villanova or #11 DePaul that emerges from Wednesday night’s first round game to advance and face Marquette. It also leaves open the possibility that Kolek could play on Friday if Marquette gets to the Big East semifinals or on Saturday if they reach the conference tournament title game.
Smart continued to elaborate on his All-American point guard’s status:
“The plan is absolutely for him to play next week (in the NCAA Tournament). He’s really made good progress.”
“It’s important for him to get healthy,” Smart said. “That’s the most important thing. To get back to full health.
“It’s a unique injury. So it’s not really one that any of us have a ton of experience with. So there’s a little bit of cautiousness there, because of what our ultimate goal is.
“If today was the national championship game, he would be playing. The Big East tournament is obviously a big deal and we want to win, but we also have to make sure we get back on that airplane from New York to Milwaukee feeling better about coming out here in terms of his health.”
I think any Marquette fan that’s been watching Tyler Kolek for the past three seasons can surmise that sitting on the sideline for the last three games has been gnawing at the Rhode Island native’s competitive spirit. But as Smart noted himself with the “ultimate goal” mention in that quote, winning the Big East tournament is not the point of this season, at least not with Kolek’s availability up in the air.
The goal is to make a big huge NCAA tournament run, something that the Golden Eagles have not done in either of Smart’s first two seasons in Milwaukee. In Year 1, they reached the tournament but got caught by a thermonuclear hot North Carolina team in the first round. In Year 2, even with a #2 seed, the best seeding in the tournament in program history, Marquette exited in the Round of 32……. And that exit was, to one extent or another, because Tyler Kolek injured his hand early in the first round game against Vermont.
This group of players and coaches knows exactly what the margins are on making a big tournament run. They experienced it last year, and because sometimes things rhyme, they’re experiencing an injury to the exact same player. Smart and his staff are protecting Kolek not only to help them win games next week and hopefully beyond, but because it’s the right thing to do for their player’s physical health. Does that mean maaaaaybe sacrificing a game at Madison Square Garden this week? If that means Kolek is one step more rested and ready for an NCAA tournament game, then I think that’s a fair trade.