Shaka Smart Revels in Marquette’s Win Over Kansas With Blunt Challenge
No. 4 Marquette picked up one of the biggest wins of the young college basketball season Tuesday night, defeating No. 1 Kansas in the Maui Invitational semifinals at Honolulu. The game itself got testy in the first half when Golden Eagles coach Shaka Smart appeared to jaw at Jayhawks coach Bill Self after Kansas forward Kevin McCullar Jr. had talked trash to Smart following a basket.
Smart initially needed to be held back but eventually calmed down following a conversation with the referees and Self. After the game, though, Smart explained that he isn’t afraid to defend his players and team.
“We’re Marquette. We are Marquette, and we don’t take a backseat to anyone,” Smart told 94.5 ESPN Radio in Milwaukee. “If someone wants to step up and challenge us, O.K., we’re going to challenge them right back.”
At his postgame press conference, Smart expanded on what started the chaos, as he and McCullar have familiarity with each other dating back to when Smart coached at Texas and McCullar played for Texas Tech.
“He’s always kind of enjoyed having dialogue with me—he probably does that with all coaches—but that probably started the dustup, and then their bench got involved and our bench got involved,” Smart said, via ESPN.
Smart is in his third year with the Golden Eagles, and he has already put together one of the best teams in the country. After earning a No. 9 seed in the 2022 NCAA tournament, Marquette won 29 games last year and the Big East tournament, on its way to a No. 2 seed in last year’s tournament.
Marquette will play No. 2 Purdue in the Maui Invitational final on Wednesday at 5 p.m. ET.
