Scouting NC State basketball’s NCAA opponent: Marquette stands in the Pack’s way
Had things gone differently in 2011, when N.C. State was looking to hire a new basketball coach, it could have been Shaka Smart.
Smart had just taken Virginia Commonwealth from the NCAA’s “First Four” to the Final Four, beating top-seeded Kansas along the way. VCU also kept him from leaving after that season by offering an eight-year contract extension.
The Pack hired Mark Gottfried. Then, Kevin Keatts.
The years have passed quickly and the semifinals of the NCAA South Region will have Keatts and the Pack facing Smart and the Golden Eagles on Friday in Dallas.
Smart did leave VCU — in 2015, for Texas, where he spent six seasons. He left in 2021 for Marquette and the Big East, and the Golden Eagles have been in the NCAA Tournament each of his three seasons as he has built a 75-29 record.
Marquette’s Sweet 16 appearance is its first since 2013.
Here’s a look at the Golden Eagles:
How they got here
The Golden Eagles (27-9), ranked No. 8 in the AP poll, finished second in the Big East Conference’s regular season at 14-6 and were beaten 73-57 by Connecticut in the final of the conference tournament in New York.
Seeded third in the South Region, Marquette whipped No. 15 Western Kentucky 87-69, then outlasted No. 10 Colorado 81-77 in the second round to get to Dallas and the Sweet 16 for the 17th time in school history.
“Our guys never blinked, never wavered,” Smart said after the Colorado game. “We made some mistakes but we kept belief in each other.”
Marquette was 29-7 last season and 17-3 in the Big East but was knocked out of the 2023 NCAA Tournament by Michigan State in the second round.
Marquette and the Pack
The biggest encounter was the first: the 1974 NCAA championship game in Greensboro. The Pack, after vanquishing UCLA in the semifinals, picked up a 76-64 victory for the school’s first national title.
The two schools have met four times since 1974, with a 2-2 split. The Pack took a 77-73 win in Milwaukee in the most recent matchup, in the 2009-10 season.
Player who could send Pack home
Tyler Kolek. The senior guard, a lefty, was sidelined for three weeks late in the regular season with a strain of an oblique muscle. He was held out of the Big East Tournament.
“The risk of re-injury was greater than the reward of winning that tournament and we had our minds set on March Madness,” Kolek said after the Colorado game.
But Kolek is back now, says he’s pain-free and is playing well in the NCAA Tournament. He had 18 points and 11 assists in Marquette’s first-round win over Western Kentucky, then 21 points and 11 assists in beating Colorado in the second round.
Kolek, averaging 15.3 points, has size and strength at 6-3 and 195 pounds and terrific court awareness. He led Division I in assists with 7.9 a game.
A look at the stats
Kolek is not the Golden Eagles’ leading scorer. That would be junior Kam Jones, a 6-5, 200-pound guard getting 17 points a game. He has shot 3-pointers at a 41% clip and is the perfect complement for Kolek in the backcourt.
Jones has had four games with 30 or more points this season, with a high of 34, and scored 28 against Western Kentucky in the NCAA first round.
Forwards Oso Ighodaro (13.6) and David Joplin (11.0) also are double-figure scorers, and Ighodaro, a 6-11 senior, the leading rebounder with 6.8 a game.
The Golden Eagles, Marquette’s athletic nickname since 1994, are getting 78.6 points a game and allowing 69.9, and shooting 36% as a team from 3.
Marquette was 13-of-36 on 3-pointers against Western Kentucky and then 9-of-21 against Colorado. That’s 22-of-57 in the two NCAA games (38.6%).
Meditation time
The Golden Eagles have included a different twist to practice and game preparation: meditation.
An NCAA March Madness film clip shows team consultant Russ Rausch leading the team in meditation, asking that eyes be closed and saying, “You only have one game and you’re going to get lost in this fight right now.”
And it’s not just for the players. Shaka Smart is shown with his eyes closed, too, as if lost in the fight.
It has worked 27 times so far for Marquette.
Shaka’s hair
Many basketball fans once associated Shaka Smart with a freshly shaven pate. It was a part of his persona.
But Smart began growing his hair out during the COVID-19 pandemic in the summer of 2020 and later indicated it was a family decision. It did cause some double-takes — and still does.
