By Justin Haberstroh | @JustinHaberstr1

Sports Capital Journalism Program

INDIANAPOLIS – With his team’s third straight NCAA tournament appearance starting Friday afternoon, Marquette All-American guard Tyler Kolek has fought through an oblique injury to rejoin his team for the first-round South region game against Western Kentucky.

“I’ve been practicing this whole week,” Kolek said at Gainbridge Fieldhouse on Thursday afternoon. “I feel good. I feel confident. At this point in the season, nobody is 100 percent. Everybody is battling through something.”

While Kolek has missed the last six games, including two losses to Connecticut and one to Creighton, his teammates have refocused on team basketball and stepped up to replace his impact.

Kam Jones, Oso Ighodaro, and David Joplin lead the charge in team basketball in Kolek’s absence, with Jones and Ighodaro scoring a combined 54 points against Xavier.

“I think when Tyler was out, everybody individually on the team just honestly played better,” Jones said. “We knew we would have to play better in Tyler’s absence. You can’t really replace the best point guard in the nation.”

With a new perspective on what their team was without Kolek, head coach Shaka Smart knew that this was an opportunity for players to prove themselves. Smart recognized that Ighodaro and Jones would have the ball in their hands more often. The coach also recognized two freshmen guards, Zaide Lowery and Tre Norman, helped fill the void.

“I thought Zaide Lowery and Tre Norman did a great job stepping forward,” Smart said. “Those guys have really grown up a lot over the last several weeks and put themselves in position where they can play significant, meaningful minutes against any opponent in the country.”

Now with Kolek back, the second-seeded Golden Eagles (25-9) are primed to make their deepest tournament run since an Elite 8 appearance 11 years ago.

Western Kentucky is ranked 19th in rebounds per game in the nation. But the Hilltoppers (22-11) aren’t spectacular in any other statistical category, ranking 272th in assist to turnover ratio, 178th in three point percentage, and 245th in opponent’s points per game.

Armed with this data, Marquette has one simple plan, box out and own the boards.

“Their bigs play really, they have high motors,” Ighodaro said. “I think that’s probably their biggest advantage. To go against that, we’ve been playing good rebounding teams all season long. We just have to rebound, us five guys, really have each other’s back, help each other out. But we’ve been preparing all season for this.”