Tyler Kolek showed why he should be considered the best point guard in college basketball.
The debate might be over with what a record crowd of 18,095 fans witnessed on Saturday at Fiserv Forum.
The 6-foot-3 senior for the seventh-ranked Marquette men's basketball team put on a master class with 27 points, 13 assists and seven rebounds in a 86-75 victory over St. John's.
BOX SCORE: Marquette 86, St. John's 75
More: Tyler Kolek delivered an assist that you have to see to believe
"This is one of the best games that Tyler Kolek has ever played at Marquette ," MU head coach Shaka Smart said. "He completely orchestrated everything that we did."
The Golden Eagles (18-5, 9-3 Big East) have won seven straight games, and also swept the season series with the Red Storm (14-10, 6-7).
MU was getting pushed around in the first half.
St. John's took a 47-38 lead into the locker room behind Daniss Jenkins' 13 points.
The biggest advantage for the Red Storm was on the boards. St. John's grabbed 11 offensive rebounds and scored 17 second-chance points.
Kolek hit a three-pointer at the first-half buzzer to give the Golden Eagles some momentum.
"For me, when I hit a three, everything else just falls into place," Kolek said. "It opens up so much more.
"Even going into halftime, coming out, we're doing layup lines and I'm shooting threes, even it feels better. It didn't even feel good when I shot it, and it went in. But then, now I made one and I feel good, and in the layup lines making shots. It's just a domino for the rest of it."
But, first, MU had to clean up the rebounding. In the second half, St. John's had six offensive boards but just three second-chance points.
"I can't say enough about the way our guys flipped the rebounding disadvantage that we had," Smart said. "They were just bludgeoning us on the glass in the first half, and in the second half our guys really fought and battled.
"They still got some, but they didn't score nearly as many second-chance points. That was a big difference. Just overall we defended with more desperation and then that allowed us to play with aggression on the offensive end, too."
Kolek began cooking on MU's first possession of the second half by knocking down another three-pointer.
He hit back-to-back triples a few minutes later to cut the Red Storm's lead to 51-50.
"When I'm playing a game, I kind of just take what they give me," Kolek said. "Sometimes to my fault.
"But in the first half they were playing zone. It wasn't really like I was coming off screens. I didn't have the ball much. We were trying to move the ball around, get it to the middle of the zone. I didn't have many opportunities, I think I shot three or four times in the first half. I don't know how many shots I had for the game, maybe 15, something like that."
When St. John's started switching their pick-and-roll coverages, with a big man often getting stuck on Kolek, the MU point guard started feasting.
Kolek had 22 points on 9-for-13 shooting in the second half. The Golden Eagles shot 8 for 15 (53.3%) on three-pointers in the final 20 minutes.
"We come out, we bang some threes," Kolek said. "They got to come out of the zone. They start going man, then it's just barbecue chicken from there."
Kolek wasn't just knocking down shots, he was also handing out highlight assists.
He had a stunning, wraparound pass to a cutting Mitchell that tied the game at 62-62.
Kolek spilled a secret about that dime.
"He's always in the right spot," Kolek said. "I don't want to tell on myself, but that was to Chase Ross on the wrapround and Stevie was just coming in at right time.
"Jop (David Joplin) was in the corner and his guy shifted down, so I was wrapping around to the wing, to Chase. Stevie was right there. So thanks for the assists, Stevie."
Kolek gave Ross a proper assist on a cross-court beauty for three-pointer that gave MU a 67-65 lead.
Kolek had the go-ahead bucket for a 71-69 advantage. Then Mitchell stole the ball and dropped in a layup.
Kolek had yet another eye-opening assist to a cutting Mitchell that made it 75-71 and the home fans could sense the victory.
Mitchell had a season-high 14 points.
"I wore my Stevie Mitchell glue-guy merchandise two days ago," Kolek said. "I love playing with him.
"He's a winning guy. I always tell him, he makes every winning play for us. They were up 10 or 12, I said come on, start us off, give us your energy. Because he's always the one that jump-starts the run with a steal, with a layup. His energy is just contagious to all of us."
Kolek put a stamp on the game down the stretch.
In the final 3:01, he had five points and three assists, punctuated by a three-pointer for the final margin with 36 seconds on the clock.
That set off one of the largest roars from a MU crowd at Fiserv Forum. The Golden Eagles have set attendance records in multiple games this season. The school opened up standing-room only tickets on National Marquette Day.
"First of all, so grateful for the crowd," Smart said. "I don't ever want anyone to get that confused, and I speak for our whole program.
"The chance to play and coach in this building, another record crowd here at Fiserv, is humbling. And it's just awesome, man. It's hard to put it in words. When National Marquette Day comes around, you really want to win for the fans. Because there's a feeling that, hey, we kind of need to win in order for National Marquette Day to be everything that everyone wants it to be. But a team comes out and they want to win really bad, too. So you got to get back to the process and the focus.
"Tyler, he's got a flair for just understanding that these things work for me if I'm really, really aggressive. I thought he attacked. There were some plays where he might've gotten bumped, didn't get a foul call, kept playing, kept attacking."
Last season, Kolek went on a tear in February and early March to win Big East player of the year while MU cruised to the regular-season conference title.
The Golden Eagles are trailing top-ranked Connecticut (22-2, 12-1) in the conference standings, but the teams haven't played yet. Round 1 comes next Saturday after MU plays at Butler on Tuesday.
Kolek seems like a player on a mission for more hardware.
"We kind of let the chips fall where they may," Kolek said. "But I'm going after it again, that's all I'm going to say."
This article originally appeared on Milwaukee Journal Sentinel: Tyler Kolek with 27 points and 13 assists in Marquette's win over St. John's
