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INDIANAPOLIS — Kam Jones had been talking for some time with teammate Tyler Kolek about getting away from Marquette when classes finished last spring for a vacation in Los Angeles. Jones, a 6-foot-5 guard from Memphis, had never been to the West Coast and wanted to soak up the sun and see the beaches. Spending quality time together seemed like a great idea to Kolek, the other half of the Golden Eagles’ dynamic backcourt, so they booked a flight and an Airbnb and headed out.

The two, apparently, had very different ideas about what the trip would be.

“I’m telling you, my mindset going into that trip was we’re going to L.A. for a vacation,” Jones said. “We did a lot of basketball stuff, which wasn’t my plan. I pretty much was just following Tyler to the gyms.”

On one occasion, Jones recalled falling asleep in the car after the pair spent a few hours at the beach, thinking he’d wake up when he and Kolek arrived back at their room. When the car stopped, Jones opened his eyes to find they were outside the gym at Loyola Marymount University. They grabbed their bags, walked inside and went to work.

“Any vacation for me, I’m always going to still work out, trying to get better no matter what,” Kolek said. “It was a lot of people out there, a lot of pros, a lot of pre-draft stuff. So we were just kind of getting in the gym with whoever, just playing one-on-one, working out, individual workouts, five-on-fives. I had some connections out there. He had some connections out there. So every night, we would figure it out and go wherever the wind took us.”

All those hours on the court together over the past three years, whether in gyms across Los Angeles or on campus at Marquette, have helped forge a bond between two players with different personalities but with the same goal in mind: use their talent and competitiveness to elevate the Golden Eagles to a place they haven’t been in a long time.

After beating No. 10 seed Colorado in the second round, Marquette has reached the Sweet 16 for the first time in 11 years. The second-seeded Golden Eagles (27-9) will play No. 11 seed NC State (24-14) on Friday night in Dallas with an Elite Eight berth on the line. Win two games in Dallas, and Marquette is in the Final Four for the first time in 21 years. Win two more after that, and the Golden Eagles can capture their first national championship in 47 years.

“If you ask anyone in here, that’s our goal,” Jones said. “That’s what we work for. We just want to do everything we can because we can’t get this time back, and it’s a very special group we’ve got, especially with the relationships that we have.”

Tyler Kolek broke Marquette’s single-game assist record when he dished out 18 in a February win against DePaul. (Mark Hoffman / USA Today)

They are dreaming big because they believe they have the right mix of players to pull it off under third-year Marquette coach Shaka Smart. Oso Ighodaro, a 6-11 forward, can score inside, leads the team in rebounds and blocked shots and is a willing passer who ranks second in assists. Forward David Joplin is a matchup problem because of his ability to play physically down low and also stretch defenders to the perimeter, where he has made 72 3-pointers. Guard Stevie Mitchell provides energy and leads Marquette in steals. The top two subs, guard Chase Ross and forward Ben Gold, have combined to make 67 3-pointers and went 3-for-3 from behind the arc in the second half against Colorado.

But it all starts with Jones and Kolek. According to CBB Analytics, Marquette is plus-245 when both players are on the floor together and plus-69 in any other situation — including minus-19 when both are off the court. They are the team’s two leading scorers for the second consecutive season but play with differing approaches, with Kolek looking to facilitate first and Jones looking to score. They have been around each other so long that Mitchell said, “It’s like they can just read each other’s minds.”

“We know if we want to win, we give those two the ball,” Joplin said. “And they know once they have the ball, they can go out there, they can make plays happen. This is going on year three of us making magic happen. So we’re extra confident with those two having the ball, and they’re showing up.”

Jones averages 17.1 points per game and has significantly increased his efficiency. He shoots 50.3 percent from the field and 41.4 percent from 3. During Marquette’s 81-77 victory against Colorado, he scored 18 points despite playing just 24 minutes while being saddled with foul trouble. Jones’ quickness, athleticism and ability to create his own shot make him difficult to defend. It doesn’t hurt to have Kolek, who has assisted on 48 of Jones’ made field goals.

“I think he’s one of the most underrated players in the country,” Kolek said. “He’s had big games in the NCAA Tournament, big games in the regular season. He didn’t make any all-conference team, which is crazy to me. He’s still one of the most underrated players in the country.”

Kolek, a 6-3 point guard from Cumberland, R.I., earned the 2019 Rhode Island Gatorade player of the year honor and spent his first college season at George Mason before transferring to Marquette. His ability to control the game, to probe defenders off the dribble until he creates enough space in the lane to flick in a left-handed layup or to know where all his teammates are to find them for open shots, is uncanny. Kolek is second on the team in scoring at 15.3 points per game and leads the country in assists per contest at 7.9. Smart said Kolek’s playmaking ability couldn’t be taught or replicated and noted he believed Kolek would play in the NBA.

Although Kolek missed Marquette’s final six games before the NCAA Tournament with an oblique injury, he has been outstanding since returning. He became the first player with at least 10 points, 10 assists and five rebounds in consecutive NCAA Tournament games since Cal’s Jason Kidd accomplished the feat in 1993.

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Kolek, who is a two-time All-American, said his feel for the game came from growing up playing two-on-two or three-on-three with his dad and brother. His mom worked the night shift as a waitress, so his dad would take the boys every night to play at the YMCA or the local Boys & Girls Club. His dad, Kevin Kolek, played Division III basketball at UMass Dartmouth from 1984-88, where he scored 2,027 points and set the program’s career record for assists (670) and 3-point field goal percentage (.505).

Tyler said his dad, a retired police officer, “can still shoot it better than me just standing there, catch and shoot” and plays daily lunchtime games at his local Y. Tyler’s older brother, Brandon, played at Division II Franklin Pierce University in New Hampshire. On the day between Marquette’s victories against Western Kentucky and Colorado, Kolek said his dad and brother showed up at the Irsay Family YMCA in Indianapolis, where they were challenged to a series of two-on-two games and held the court as winners until they were done.

Jones’ love for the game likewise began at a young age. He was introduced to basketball on an Air Force base in Colorado when his mom would take him to see his dad play on an intramural team. His dad, Kevin Jones, was an Air Force master sergeant, and they would share court time at the YMCA. The family eventually returned to Memphis, where Kevin was from, when he joined the Air Force National Guard.

Jones, who is one grade younger than Kolek, said their relationship began to grow when he arrived on campus in the summer before the 2021-22 season. It wasn’t long before they engaged in several heated one-on-one games.

“He busted my ass before, I busted his ass before,” Jones said. “But the one-on-ones were so fun and tricky. He would do things and you would think, ‘I should probably use that.’ He’s a very good player, and he’s an All-American for a reason.”

They have become two of Marquette’s stars in much different ways, Kolek more serious and Jones more brash and outgoing. Jones enjoys fashion — he has posted Instagram photos wearing Prada, Versace, Dolce & Gabbana, Gucci and Amiri, to name a few — and loves to joke around and rap in the locker room. Jones will play a game with teammates and even some local reporters, in which he casually holds a hand with four fingers out by his side. If someone looks down and sees it, he will swipe his hand on the back of their neck. Jones said he is simply staying true to himself, which helps him perform better while keeping his teammates loose.

“Kam’s kind of a free bird, free spirit type of guy,” Kolek said. “It takes a lot to kind of earn his respect because he’s always goofing around. With me, he’s a little more serious just because that’s my demeanor. I’m a little more serious. But you’ve got to let him be him at points. But when he needs to lock in, he knows when it’s time and when I give him that look.”

Kolek said they’ve thrived because they have developed a “love and acceptance” for each other about how they operate. Not everyone has to be the same person on a team. They just have to share in a desire to work hard and win for the team to succeed. On that, Jones and Kolek certainly agree.

“They have a very high level of mutual respect for one another,” Smart said. “And I think any time that there’s respect plus a genuine care and concern for the other player as a person, then you have something really powerful.”

(Top photo: Mark Smith / USA Today)