Marquette Golden Eagles were the team to beat in their match up with the St. John’s Red Storm on Tuesday. They definitely received a beating to the point that Shaka Smart thought they played violent.
The Golden Eagles fell to a second straight loss after end-game struggle against their hosts, 64-70.
Physical defense is how Red Storm managed to fend off the stormchasers that are the Golden Eagles and Smart thought it was incredible.
“Heck of a game by St. John’s. Hats off and much respect to Coach Pitino and the whole program. They played with incredible violence and were the more aggressive team for the majority of the game,” he said post-game.
Foul trouble is another thing that doomed the Golden Eagles.
David Joplin used up all of his available fouls while he was also limited to just six attempts on the field for five points while top scorer Kam Jones, Ben Gold, and Stevie Mitchell finished with four fouls each.
It appeared that Marquette tried to match their opponents’ physicality but failed.
Smart has this to say:
The best teams do the best job of striking the balance of playing with violence without fouling — or without the foul being called.”
Shaka Smart: “The best teams do the best job of striking the balance of playing with violence without fouling — or without the foul being called.” (#SJUBB #MUBB)
— Rumble In The Garden (@rumbleSBN) February 5, 2025
Good takeaway from the game for the Golden Eagles are bench as Royce Parham and Zaide Lowery (12 points career high) combined for 20 of their 64 points while Tre Norman added 4 points.
Tough stretch continues for Shaka Smart
Not much rest is waiting for the Golden Eagles as the team will then take on Creighton Bluejays who overleaped them in the Big East standings.
A few days ago, they bowed to NCAA 2024 Tournament winners UConn Huskies which Smart said was a good way to gauge their strength against the best of the best.
Creighton are on a hot streak, winning their last seven.
Marquette are not exactly a bad away team but the main suspect for them is their bad start in each quarter.
Against the Red Storm, they took a 31-30 lead entering the halftime but surrendered eight straight when the game resumed. They had to chase the Red Storm since then until they ran out of time.
The Creighton-Marquette game will be held at the CenturyLink Center Omaha on February 8.
They will then go back to Fiserv Forum to face DePaul which they already beat two weeks ago.
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