NEWARK, N.J. — A week-long break is rare in college basketball. It can be a blessing or a curse.
For No. 7 Marquette men’s basketball Saturday, it was more of a curse.
The extra time off can mean fresh legs, which the Golden Eagles had at the start when they took a 23-13 lead.
But, it can also mean sluggish play and sloppiness, which manifested with Marquette giving up a 14-2 run in the first half to trail 42-39 at halftime. It showed when the Golden Eagles ended the opening 20 minutes with seven turnovers.
It showed when David Joplin mis-handled an inaccurate pass as Marquette trailed by three points with four seconds remaining — after calling its final timeout to draw up a play. It showed with the Golden Eagles getting out-rebounded 43-25.
Well-rested — possibly over-rested — Marquette had to walk into a hostile Prudential Center and face a Seton Hall team (10-5, 3-1 Big East) that upset Providence Wednesday night. The Golden Eagles (11-4, 2-2 Big East) left with their second loss in Big East play, falling 78-75 to the Pirates.
“We got up 10 (points) early in the game. I thought their (Seton Hall) response was as big of a stretch as really any stretch in the game. They cut the lead down quickly, and took the lead quickly,” Smart said. “We have a lot of things that we have to get better at from this game.
“Losing games exposes your issues that sometimes can be under the surface, but we’re not entitled to win. I keep telling our guys that.”
Three straight road losses
Marquette earned a statement road win in the second week of the season over Illinois. Since then, the Golden Eagles are 0-3 in away games.
They had two horrid offensive performances at Wisconsin and Providence. Then Saturday against the Pirates.
“It’s hard to win on the road, and teams are going to be very, very motivated on their end to win the game. And I think we’ve run into that in those games. But we try to focus on ourselves, we don’t really control the other team,” Smart said.
“So we spent some time as a group talking about resetting our road mindset coming into today, I thought in some ways our guys carried that over and then in other ways we didn’t.”
The Golden Eagles shot 28-for-65 (43.1%) from the field and 10-for-28 (35.1%) from deep. Senior guard Tyler Kolek had a poor shooting day, finishing 1-for-6 overall and 1-for-3 on 3-pointers, scoring a mere five points.
Junior guard Kam Jones also continued his stretch of lackluster shooting, ending 30% from beyond the arc.
“The way you get out of the shooting slump is you focus on everything else. You focus on defense, focus on your teammates, focus on getting lost in the fight. And then you jump up and shoot the ball like you know how,” Smart said.
“I’m a firm believer anytime a guy is even half a second out of the present — for whatever reason, there’s a million reasons it can be, half a second in the past, half a second in the future or more — you’re not going to shoot well and you’re not going to play your best.”
Chase Ross leaves game early with injury
Partway through the first half, sophomore guard Chase Ross went down with a shoulder injury while scrapping for a ball in the paint.
Chase Ross is being helped into the locker room by the Marquette training staff. pic.twitter.com/UzqydSX7GL
— CBS Sports College Basketball
(@CBSSportsCBB) January 6, 2024
He was helped off the court and taken to the locker room with the Golden Eagles’ trainers. He came back to the bench in a sweatshirt wearing what appeared to be a sling and was declared out for the remainder of the game.
“I believe he separated his shoulder and then it kind of went back into place. But I haven’t talked to the trainer or doctor yet, they just told me he was out for the game,” Smart said. “He was in a lot of pain. But they were already in there at halftime and after the game doing treatment. So we’ll just have to figure out how long he’s out.
“It was just an unfortunate play. And he’s one of our toughest guys. So for him to only play in a minute and a half, certainly hurt us. But at the same time, you go on the road, you can’t make any excuses. You have to step forward as a group and do what it takes.”
His timetable to return is unknown.
Statistical leaders
Senior forward Oso Ighodaro scored a team-high 22 points and eight rebounds and Joplin finished with 15 points.
“We don’t have everyone on our team on an equal level with Oso Ighodaro and his passion for winning,” Smart said. “And that starts in practice. And that has to improve.”
For Seton Hall, senior guard Al-Amir Dawes scored a game-high 23 points, shooting 7-for-10 overall and 4-for-5 from beyond the arc. Senior guard Kadary Richmond was right behind with 21 points of his own, also dishing out five assists.
Up next
Marquette will face Butler (10-5, 1-3 Big East) Wednesday at Fiserv Forum. Tip-off is scheduled for 8 p.m. CST.
“We just have to be ourselves, defense is something we take pride in, so that’s just what we have to do on the road. And we have to keep doing all those steps that goes into winning,” Ighodaro said.
“We keep talking about relationships and part of that is having each other’s back. We didn’t do that at a high enough level tonight. We got to help each other more, talk to each other more.”
This article was written by Jack Albright. He can be reached at jack.albright@marquette.edu or on Twitter/X @JackAlbrightMU.