The No. 11 Marquette basketball still can’t find a way out of a slump. After back-to-back losses to the No. 25 UConn Huskies and No. 12 St. John’s Red Storm, the Golden Eagles sustained a 77-67 Saturday loss on the road to the Creighton Bluejays, who successfully avenged their January 79-71 loss to Marquette in Milwaukee.
Marquette basketball head coach Shaka Smart did not hide his thoughts about the two biggest thorns in the side of the Golden Eagles in the rematch against Creighton, as he spoke highly of Bluejays seniors Steven Ashworth and Ryan Kalkbrenner.
Smart gave Ashworth his flowers for an impressive job of consistently setting up nice plays for the Bluejays, especially when orchestrating the offense alongside Kalkbrenner, whose size was a real headache for the Golden Eagles.
“Kalkbrenner’s awesome,” Smart said during the postgame press conference (h/t Matt Sottile of KETV NewsWatch 7). “I mean, I’ll be sending him a graduation present when he finally leaves,” Smart added before digging deeper into Ashworth’s role in Creighton’s victory.
“But Ashworth makes Kalkbrenner so much better with his passing and with his cutting and his ability to use ball screens. Because what happens is, he gets you behind and then now Kalkbrenner’s sprinting to the rim, and he already was bigger than the guy we had on him. But now if we end up having to switch because we’re behind on Ashworth, now he’s even bigger. As he said, when was his media session last night or the night before? You’re not going to grow six inches overnight. He’s right. So Ashworth, to me, [the] MVP of the game, because not only did he score 22, but his ability to orchestrate their offense.”
Marquette basketball on a downward spiral but should pick things up soon with light schedule ahead
While Creighton shot an efficient 52.9 percent from the field, Marquette seemed it bled for its points, scoring 67 points on 72 attempts from the floor. The Golden Eagles were also just 11-for-36 from deep while only getting four free-throw attempts.
Marquette dropped to 18-6 overall after the loss to Creighton. The Golden Eagles are also now just 9-4 in Big East play.
For More Green Bay Packers, Milwaukee Bucks, Milwaukee Brewers And Wisconsin Sports:
Follow us on Twitter at @WiSportsHeroics. Also, check out our Merchandise Here! Get 20% off with the code “WSH.” To read more of our articles and keep up to date on the latest in ALL of Wisconsin sports, click here! Green Bay Packers, Milwaukee Brewers, Milwaukee Bucks, Wisconsin Badgers. You can also read here more about the Marquette Golden Eagles.
