Ky McKeon

EDIT: Shout out to William B. aka Pops, the ticket checker in my section last night. He was the man. Glad the Eagles could pull out the win for him.

The Marquette Golden Eagles kicked off the Gavitt Games in dramatic fashion, scoring an opening victory for the Big East over the 11th-ranked team in the land. The crowd at Fiserv Forum was loud, and the student section was out in full force.

The only way Marquette was ever going to win this game was to make it an ugly affair. Muddy things up. Push Illinois around. Shaka Smart rolled out a 1-2-2 three-quarter court press that slowed the Illini’s offense down and wreaked havoc on their smaller guards. With guys like Darryl Morsell (6’5”), Justin Lewis (6’7”) and David Joplin (6’7”) manning the point of the press, Illinois was overwhelmed with length as it stared through spider webs made of arms.

Shaka was his usual self, playing phantom defense on the sideline and pumping the crowd up during big moments and timeouts. His energy fueled the fans, and his players wanted this win like blood.

The first half was a slugfest and a turnover-fest. Illinois and Marquette combined for 25 turnovers through the first 20 minutes and shot a combined 21/63 (33.3%) from the field. This was exactly the type of style Marquette needed to come away with a victory. They led 28-27 at halftime.

There was a cool balancing act for the halftime show, which involved ridiculous feats of strength, but no need to recap that in detail here.

Illinois controlled the start of the second half, as the Golden Eagles came out flat, unable to find the bottom of the net. But, as he would do several more times in the remaining minutes, George Mason transfer Tyler Kolek got the crowd back on their feet with an enormous 3 to cut Illinois’ lead to just two points with 15:30 to play.

And then Trent Frazier happened.

Frazier was a firehose, constantly putting out the Marquette fires as they only began to start. Every time it seemed the Eagles were on the cusp of breaking through, Frazier was there with another clutch bucket. He led the game in scoring with 23 points and was a scorching 6/10 from 3-point land.

At the under-12 media timeout, Illinois was finally in cover range, leading the Eagles by nine.

It got worse for Marquette after that. Illinois was V from V for Vendetta walking through the flames. They expanded the lead to 12 points with 10:14 to play and had at that point a 97% chance of winning per KenPom. The once raucous crowd was silent. The annoying guy behind me could be heard throughout the entire arena.

Like a Phoenix, or Fire Eagle I guess, Marquette rose back to life. Justin Lewis converted an Illinois turnover into a layup at the other end, cutting the Illini lead to five with just under 8 to play. Marquette had a nice pattern of forcing stops, getting fouled… and then missing free throws. The Eagles were just 18/31 from the charity stripe and it almost cost them the game.

Questionable calls sparked a 5-0 Illini run and a dazzling Coleman Hawkins tip-slam extended their lead to 8 again with 5:33 left to play.

Like Bonnie Tyler, the Eagles needed a hero. And that hero’s name was Kur Kuath.

Kuath swatted two shots in a span of one minute (he tallied five blocks for the game), acting as a one-man shot eraser in the paint. Illinois guards were stopped dead in their tracks when trying to convert layups near the rim. Kuath scored just seven points, but he arguably saved the game for Marquette.

Marquette kept scrapping and Illinois kept fouling, and before the crowd knew it the score was 66-65 Illinois with under two minutes to play.

Andre Curbelo was erratic over the last two minutes. He forced the issue time and time again, and Brad Underwood astutely pointed out in the post-game that he was trying to do too much. Curbelo turned the ball over several times down the stretch and took very questionable shots, completely ignoring the hot hand of Trent Frazier.

Stevie Mitchell was sent to the line for two shots down one with 32 seconds left… and he missed them both. Mitchell had an awful offensive performance, checking in with a ZERO o-rating. His defense was important, but he was a liability on the other end of the floor.

With those misses, Marquette’s chances at winning looked bleak. Illinois brought the ball past the timeline, but instead of fouling, Shaka did something very “Smart”. As Curbelo dribbled the ball and turned his back, Shaka yelled for Kolek to come trap the ball hard from the opposite side. The trap worked to perfection – Kolek forced the steal, converted a layup on the other end and took a foul in the process. Of course, he missed his free throw.

With one possession left, Underwood opted not to call a timeout with 17 seconds to play. In the post-game, Underwood explained he doesn’t like to call late timeouts, as his guys know what he wants them to do offensively, and he doesn’t want to give the opposition time to reset its defense. Curbelo brought the ball up once more… and turned it over again. He ended the night with seven turnovers and was just 4/18 from the field.

Marquette had won the game. The crowd was going wild, but strangely didn’t rush the court. Selfishly, I wanted to see that action, but I guess the fans had too much pride. Alas.

It was clear Illinois missed Kofi Cockburn, who was still suspended for stupid reasons I won’t get into right now. Underwood emphasized several times after the game how important Cockburn is to Illinois’ attack, and it certainly showed down the stretch.

For Marquette, the win was a statement, both for the program in a midst of a rebuild and for Shaka Smart, who notched his first major victory as the head coach in Milwaukee. The Golden Eagles proved they could hang with one of the best teams in the country and should be a force in the Big East going forward.

Click the pic below for some post-game clips from Underwood and Smart (via our Instagram @3MW_CBB):