Marquette will be without star guard Tyler Kolek for its final two regular-season games due to an oblique injury, the team announced Monday.
Kolek is the reigning Big East Player of the Year and has averaged 15.0 points, 7.6 assists (most in the nation) and 4.7 rebounds per game this season for No. 5 Marquette. The Golden Eagles are 22-7 on the season but are coming off a 89-75 loss to Creighton.
Kolek’s absence will particularly sting Wednesday as Marquette looks to avenge its loss to defending national champion UConn. The Huskies, who were the No. 1 team in the country at the time, beat the Golden Eagles 81-53 on Feb. 17.
Guard Tyler Kolek (oblique) will miss the final two games (vs. UConn, at Xavier) of the regular season & be re-evaluated prior to the team’s BIG EAST tournament opener on March 14.#MUBB | #WeAreMarquette pic.twitter.com/YdAPsb6SfO
— Marquette Basketball (@MarquetteMBB) March 4, 2024
Marquette’s regular-season will conclude Saturday against Xavier before the Big East tournament opens March 14. The program announced Kolek will be re-evaluated before the tournament.
There are few players in the country not named Zach Edey who are more important to their team’s success than Kolek. He’s arguably the best and most creative passer in the country, and he had been making a charge to win back-to-back Big East Player of the year honors over the past month, including a school record 18 assists against DePaul.
Oblique injuries can linger, so it’s a good idea to rest Kolek as much possible now. Marquette wasn’t going to win the Big East regular-season title anyway — UConn clinched that Saturday — and now looks highly unlikely to beat UConn at home Wednesday.
While the NCAA Tournament selection committee will take injuries into account, a missing or compromised Kolek could cost the Golden Eagles a shot at a No. 2 seed, where they were placed by the committee in the early top-16 reveal last month. But the most important thing is getting Kolek close to fully healthy by the time the first weekend of the big dance starts in a little more than two weeks.
Marquette knows this all too well. Kolek injured his right thumb in a first-round win over Vermont last year, and then he struggled as the No. 2-seeded Golden Eagles lost their next game to No. 7 seed Michigan State, 69-60.
Kolek was the No. 26 prospect on The Athletic’s most recent NBA Draft big board.
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