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Oso Ighodaro and Tyler Kolek reckon with abrupt end to Marquette's March Madness hopes
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- Oso Ighodaro and Tyler Kolek reckon with abrupt end to Marquette's March Madness hopes
DALLAS – There were stunned faces, blank stares and lots of tears.
Only one team ends the NCAA Tournament in a happy locker room, but the Marquette men's basketball team has experienced especially painful ends the last two seasons after carrying lofty expectations into each postseason.
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The post-game scene at American Airlines Center on Friday night included a more poignant sadness, with the realization that Tyler Kolek and Oso Ighodaro most likely won't be wearing MU uniforms again.
As leaders of the Golden Eagles the last two seasons, they won Big East regular-season and tournament championships and also got MU to the Sweet 16 for the first time since 2013.
But they wanted more this season. The second-seeded Golden Eagles were in good position, facing 11-seeded North Carolina State, but MU's worst shooting night of the season ended all their hopes with a 67-58 defeat.
The Golden Eagles were red-hot going into last season's NCAA Tournament, but were upset in the second round by Michigan State.
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"We just lost," MU head coach Shaka Smart said. "Of course, it's a disappointment.
"It can be a disappointment whenever you lose your last game. We go into every game expecting to win, wanting to win. That's our goal. We just lost. Those guys ... did you see the game? Those guys gave everything they had.
"The amount of blood, sweat, and tears that they've shed over the course of this season, are we disappointed? Absolutely."
Marquette forwards Ben Gold and Oso Ighodaro are dejected after losing to North Carolina State in the NCAA Tournament.
Kam Jones, David Joplin, Tyler Kolek all struggle shooting
The number that everyone will point to that ended the Golden Eagles' season is the 4 for 31 that they shot on three-pointers.
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All of MU's usual sharpshooters had a hand in the wayward attempts: Kolek was 1 for 5 from deep, Kam Jones was 3 for 12 and David Joplin was 0 for 7.
"This is a team that at a lot of different points of the season has been terrific on offense," Smart said. "Led by Tyler and the way that he plays.
"So we were going to trust and lean into what's allowed us to be good. I think when we watch the tape, we will see that their physicality and aggressiveness disrupted us at times."
Kolek was stunned after the game.
"I'm just happy to be out there every time with my guys," he said. "Like Coach said, just disappointed that it's over."
Marquette guard Kam Jones (1) listens to head coach Shaka Smart during the second half of their game in the semifinals of the South Regional of the 2024 NCAA Men's Basketball Tournament Friday at American Airlines Arena in Dallas. North Carolina State beat Marquette 67-58.
Oso Ighodaro had tough NCAA Tournament. Was he hurt?
Ighodaro finished with six points and 10 rebounds against the Wolfpack. He had 20 points over MU's three games in the NCAA Tournament after averaging 14.4 per game in the regular season.
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Ighodaro banged his left knee in the championship game of the Big East tournament , but both he and Smart both insisted Ighodaro was OK.
"It wasn't injury-related," Smart said. "Oso cares deeply. He is one of the most conscientious basketball players that I've ever coached, one of the most unselfish. The most unselfish of the really good players that I've coached. I think he came to battle and fight for his team.
"I think there were some games where a couple of things didn't go his way. There's definitely some plays that we would want to have back. You know, listen, we win as a team. We lose as a team. The guy has been a huge part of winning more games than have been won in Marquette in a two-year stretch than I think anyone else. We love him. We're going to miss him. We're grateful for him."
Ighodaro didn't seem as explosive as he did during the regular season.
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"It doesn't matter," he said. "Everyone at this time is banged up.
"It's not an excuse. We just got beat today. Could have done a lot of things differently, but didn't."
Marquette guard Tyler Kolek turns the corner on North Carolina State guard Jayden Taylor.
Oso Ighodaro deals with finality of loss
Those are the vagaries of a single-elimination tournament.
A team can be ranked in the top-10 for most of the season , but one poor shooting night can abruptly end a season.
"It's been an absolute honor to coach this entire group," Smart said. "The worst thing about losing today is that we don't have practice tomorrow. We don't have another game to prepare for."
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Kolek and Ighodaro both can use fifth seasons of eligibility that the NCAA granted to athletes who participated in the COVID-impacted 2020-21 season. But both are seen as likely NBA draft picks, and Ighodaro has said he is unlikely to use that extra season. Kolek hasn't made a formal announcement.
"I just appreciate everything we built here," Ighodaro said. "The culture we built. The relationships we built.
"Just trying to really appreciate and try not to think about what we could have done."
This article originally appeared on Milwaukee Journal Sentinel: Oso Ighodaro and Tyler Kolek end their Marquette careers in Sweet 16
