The #5 Marquette Golden Eagles did not have Tyler Kolek due to an oblique injury in an 89-75 loss on the road on Saturday afternoon against the #12 Creighton Blue Jays. This was the first game missed this year for Kolek.
However, there is an update on Kolek’s oblique injury. Marquette’s Men’s Basketball posted on its Twitter page on Monday morning that he will miss the final two games of the regular season and will be reevaluated prior to the Big East Tournament opener on March 14.
What this means is that his regular season is over and that he can very well come back for the playoffs. This is 100% the right call for the basketball program. They didn’t win the Big East regular season and that belonged to the #3 UCONN Huskies.
It is more about trying to win the Big East Tournament and get ready for March Madness. Why risk the Tyler Kolek injury even more in meaningless regular season games where head coach Shaka Smart can just rest him until the playoffs?
The final two games of the regular season will be at home on Wednesday against the #3 UCONN Huskies and also against the Xavier Musketeers on the road on Saturday. During the regular season, he averaged 15.0 PPG, 4.7 RPG, 7.6 APG, 0.1 BPG, and 1.6 SPG. He is shooting 48.6% from the field this season.
Marquette Golden Eagles Point Guard Tyler Kolek Needs To Be Healthy To Go Deep in March
Marquette has the talent to make a run in March. The Kolek injury could potentially derail everything. Hopefully, they are just holding him out for precautionary reasons until then for head coach Shaka Smart’s squad.
Tyler Kolek is a playmaker for this basketball team and always hits a clutch shot when they need it. For now, they will be projected to be one of the #2 seeds in the NCAA Tournament. If they don’t have Tyler Kolek for March Madness, their seeding can drop drastically.
Tyler Kolek should still be named to either the first or second-team All-Big East despite missing the last three games of the regular season. Marquette has not been to a Final Four in over 20 years. This is there best shot to do it, if they can get Kolek back on the court by either the Big East Tournament or the NCAA Tournament.