Tyler Kolek has an easy time - and reaches a milestone - in Marquette's 93-56 victory over Southern

Ben Steele
Milwaukee Journal Sentinel
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The Marquette men's basketball team avoided the "Maui hangover."

The third-ranked Golden Eagles, fresh off a strong showing at the Maui Invitational, didn't look sluggish in their return from Hawaii and cruised to a 93-56 victory over Southern on Tuesday at Fiserv Forum.

MU (6-1) had its bench players on the court for most of the second half against the Jaguars (1-6).

BOX SCORE: Marquette 93, Southern 56

"Just getting back to the time zone, couldn't sleep for the first couple days," said MU junior David Joplin, who scored 10 points. "But just got to get back right.

"I think the biggest thing was just staying in the gym, trying to sweat if off. You still got to come out, got to compete. This is our job."

Marquette guard Tyler Kolek (11) scores on Southern University forward Delang Muon (35) during the first half of their game Tuesday, November 28, 2023 at Fiserv Forum in Milwaukee, Wisconsin.

Tyler Kolek goes over 1,000 points in college

Preseason All-American point guard Tyler Kolek played only 20 minutes, but that was enough time to score 16 points on 6-for-8 shooting.

His first basket of the game, a corner three-pointer, put him over the 1,000-point mark in college. The point guard is in his third season with MU after playing his freshman season at George Mason, where he scored 238 points.

Kolek is the fifth MU player to surpass 1,000 points and 500 assists, joining Tony Miller, Travis Diener, Dominic James and Aaron Hutchins.

"Really grateful for him," MU head coach Shaka Smart said. "When I heard about those numbers earlier this week, I just said 'Wow.'

"I'm a math guy so immediately I started thinking about what he can get to by the end of his career. But I'm really grateful for him.

"I'm really grateful for Oso (Ighodaro), the guys that have been the foundation of the program since we got here. Tyler, Oso, Stevie (Mitchell), Jop, Kam (Jones), Cam Brown. I've said it before, there's some titans in that group as people. So to see them have basketball success, like the milestone for Tyler, is pretty cool and it's fun to be along for the ride with them."

Kolek had his best shooting game of the season, knocking down 4 of 5 from long range, most of them coming on catch-and-shoot looks.

"He's a worker," Joplin said. "His work ethic is crazy. You see him in the gym all the time, either before practice or after practice or later that night.

"Nobody's surprised. He works on that all the time."

Southern's hot shooting keeps it close early

The Jaguars started the game 4 for 5 from three-point range and trailed, 20-18, after Jordan Johnson knocked in a triple with just under 12 minutes left in first half.

"We were overhelping off the ball," Smart said. "Particularly on the ball side, which is a no-no. And then they made a few that were really well-contested."

But the Golden Eagles hit back with a 15-0 run to take control and never looked back.

MU finished with 19 assists against six turnovers.

"Coming into it, we knew they were top 10, top 15 in the country in forcing turnovers," Joplin said. "So our big emphasis was not to let that happen to us.

"I think we did a great job the whole game. That was our biggest focus. We feel like if we can get a shot, we're one of the best in the country at scoring the ball."

Al Amadou and bench players see significant minutes

MU pushed the lead up to 72-42 with 11:40 remaining, and Golden Eagles head coach Shaka Smart put in little-used freshman big man Al Amadou.

At that point, four of MU's five starters had scored in double figures: Kolek (16), Jones (15), Mitchell (11) and Joplin (10).

Mitchell checked out with 8:37 remaining, and it was all bench players for the Golden Eagles the rest of the way.

Amadou's 12 minutes were twice his total from the first six games.

"I think Al's potential is through the roof," Joplin said. "His ceiling is so high. As you can see, he's freaky athletic. A great mover.

"We're just trying to get him right. In practice, he does lots of great things. Really active, he gets his hands on the ball. He caught, what, three lobs today? He's an athlete. He's going to get so much better. He's going to be a great player."

Indeed, all three of Amadou's field goals came on high-flying dunks. The 6-foot-9 freshman also had an eye-opening sequence in which he blocked two shots on the same possession.

"Man, I was impressed with Al on defense," Smart said. "He has that in him. He can get his hands on the basketball. The segment there where he had two blocks was really impressive.

"He can switch in different situations for us. He can guard different positions. I thought it was really impressive for him to just check in the game and be able to hit the ground running since he hasn't played very much.

"For a young player, whether it's Al or Tre (Norman) or Zaide (Lowery) who have played a little more, every time you get an opportunity it's an audition. It's a chance to show I can play our way here at Marquette."

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