Friday was a day to forget for Marquette Golden Eagles fans and that’s what some of Shaka Smart’s players from the starting five are probably feeling, too.
The Wildcats successfully avenged their January 24 loss to Marquette, 81-66, by shutting down the latter’s starting unit.
Kam Jones, the team’s top scorer, only had 11 points while Chase Ross had 11 on limited shooting.
The rest of Golden Eagles’ first five were just listless throughout the night.
David Joplin, the second best scorer in the team, went two out of ten for four points. Stevie Mitchell only managed two points in just one field goal attempt while Ben Gold recorded just three points.
That is a polar opposite of how the Wildcats performed. Jhamir Brickus and Eric Dixon had 21 and 23 points respectively.
As a team, Villanova shot 57 percent from beyond the arc and 45.3 percent overall from the field.
Aggressiveness is what doomed the Golden Eagles. The Wildcats trooped to the line 20 times while Marquette went 8-out-of 8.
Shaka Smart benched Marquette Golden Eagles veterans
It was a blow out win and Smart took out members of his starting five early in the second half.
But it was not because they have given up and they are reserving their energy for the next game. Although that should be a good reason, too.
Smart decided to sub off David Joplin, Stevie Mitchell, and Ben Gold who together combined for just four field goals out of 15 tries.
He said they needed to be more aggressive.
“Fill in the blank … passion, effort, violence, hunger,” the coach told reporters when asked about the trio.
“And the other guys were playing better.”
The other guys he’s referring to is Zaide Lowery who had a career-high of 25 points in a very efficient nine out of 10 shooting.
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