Matching last season’s 15-3 record in the Big East was always going to be difficult for Marquette even if the Golden Eagles proved to be the best team in the country because even the best team in the country last season (UConn) didn’t go 15-3 in the Big East.
It’s a hard conference — much harder than Shaka Smart’s program made it seem a year ago. And if the Golden Eagles forgot as much last season while mostly cruising through the league, they were reminded of it last Wednesday when they lost 69-62 at home to Butler and dropped to 2-3 in the Big East.
That was a rough loss.
It cost Marquette in all computer and human rankings. But the Golden Eagles bounced back impressively and returned to their winning ways Monday with an 87-74 victory over Villanova that snapped their two-game losing skid and pushed the reigning Big East champs to 3-3 in the league.
“Any time you lose a couple of games, particularly the way we lost our last game and the way that we played on offense and shot the ball, there has to be some doubt [to] overcome,” Smart said. “I thought the guys did a great job of overcoming that today.”
The most obvious explanation for the turnaround is that Marquette’s stars got back to being stars. After combining to score just 34 points on 31.8% shooting in the loss to Butler, Tyler Kolek, Kam Jones and Oso Ighodaro combined to score 61 points on 70.3% shooting in the win over Villanova. The trio also added 20 assists, 18 rebounds and six steals. They were the biggest reasons the Golden Eagles shot 58.7% from the field against a Villanova team that’s been up and down, sure, but still owns victories over the schools ranked No. 4 (North Carolina), No. 7 (Memphis), No. 23 (Creighton) and and No. 24 (Texas Tech) in Tuesday morning’s updated CBS Sports Top 25 And 1 daily college basketball rankings.
Marquette remains No. 21 in the Top 25 And 1.
Next up for the Golden Eagles is Saturday’s showdown with St. John’s inside New York’s Madison Square Garden. Rick Pitino’s Red Storm are 26th in the Top 25 And 1 thanks to a 12-5 record featuring a 4-2 mark in the Big East.
Top 25 And 1 rankings
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