Marquette 73, Kansas 59: Golden Eagles beat No. 1 team; No. 2 Purdue is up next

HONOLULU - Down goes No. 1.

And up next is a battle with No. 2 in less than 24 hours.

The fourth-ranked Marquette men's basketball team pulled off one of the program's biggest regular-season victories in recent memory by knocking off top-ranked Kansas, 73-59, in the semifinals of the Maui Invitational on Tuesday at SimpliFi Arena at Stan Sheriff Center.

MU (5-0) will play second-ranked Purdue (5-0) in the championship game on Wednesday afternoon.

If there were any doubts that the Golden Eagles are national championship contenders, they were erased with a dominant victory over the Jayhawks (4-1).

MU brought the fight to Kansas - literally. There was a dustup in the first half that featured players and coaches jawing at each other until peace was restored after several minutes.

"Our guys did a really good job just basically ignoring what happened and continuing to play," Smart said. "That shows their maturity and their poise.

"The staff was worried about me getting kicked out of the game. I never intended to even get a technical foul. But the one thing I'm going to make clear is we don't take a backseat to anyone. That's how we go about things and that's the only way you beat Kansas."

Shaka Smart and Bill Self have words in the first half

That fracas started when Kansas forward Kevin McCullar Jr. knocked down a three-pointer and had something to say to the MU bench.

Smart, who has a long history with McCullar after Smart's six seasons as head coach of Big 12 foe Texas, took exception to McCullar's words and expressed that while taking several steps on the court.

After that, the benches streamed onto the court. Both sides were given technical fouls.

"Kevin McCullar is one of the best competitors I've coached against in a long time," Smart said. "He played at Texas Tech. He always just brought an edge that was different. And then he's always kind of enjoyed having a dialogue with me."

When Self and Smart were called over by the officials, it seemed like more words were exchanged between the coaches.

Self didn't seem to care for Smart's version of the events.

"I doubt it was accurate," Self said. "Just so you know, and I don't even care. I'm not going to talk about it, but I guarantee you it wasn't accurate."

Smart often talks about wanting his team to be "lost in the fight." After that dustup, the crowd was into the game and MU thrived off the energy. McCullar's shot cut MU's lead to 33-28, but the Golden Eagles pushed that to 38-28 at the break.

The Golden Eagles put the game away early in the second half, taking its biggest lead at 63-46 when Oso Ighodaro dropped in a jump hook with 8:27 remaining.

"I didn't really see what happened," Ighodaro said. "I just saw Coach get into it. We talk about 'Compete forever.' He's as competitive as it gets.

"I thought we did a great job being lost in the fight the whole first half and the second half, the whole game. We weren't worried about the little stuff. We were really pouring into each other."

Oso Ighodaro gets the best of matchup with Hunter Dickinson

Ighodaro finished with 21 points and nine rebounds, getting the best of Kansas All-American Hunter Dickinson (13 points and eight boards) in a high-profile matchup of big men.

"I just wanted to win," Ighodaro said. "That's really the biggest thing for me.

"They have good players. They're a great team, obviously. I just wanted to do what I could to win."

Ighodaro is thriving against a murderer's row of opposing centers. He faced UCLA's Adem Bona on Monday, Dickinson on Tuesday and will get Purdue's 7-foot-4 behemoth Zach Edey on Wednesday.

"I don't think you can line up three better bigs for him to play against," Smart said. "It's almost like they get better every game. They do get better.

"Bona was phenomenal, Dickinson's an All-American, and Edey already has been the best player in the country previous years, and he's gotten better.

"We're really big on pressing our advantages, not trying to be exactly what someone else is. We're not trying to do what they do well as well as them. Oso has quickness, Oso has a mind that's incredible, Oso can handle the ball, he can pass the ball, he plays out on the floor."

Bench players Sean Jones, Chase Ross and Ben Gold come through again

MU needed a long list of contributors to win despite shooting 6 for 24 (25%) on three-pointers. Kam Jones made MU's first two threes of the game, including one where he chirped at the Kansas bench while the ball was in midair, but after that the Golden Eagles did their damage in the paint.

MU scored 46 points in the paint to Kansas' 26. The Golden Eagles also got 27 points from their bench, including 12 from sophomore forward Chase Ross.

Sophomore speedster Sean Jones added nine points and three assists, fearlessly attacking the basket despite his 5-foot-10 frame.

Sean Jones and Ross were also big parts of MU's swarming defense. The Golden Eagles soared over Smart's goal of 32 deflections by the midway point of the second half, and forced Kansas into 18 turnovers.

"We played sped up," Self said. "I think they're extremely quick. The changing defense didn't bother us. A couple of times we threw it away in the first half when they soft-pressed us or did whatever, but I just think a lot of it was just our carelessness."

Not to be left out, sophomore big man Ben Gold drained back-to-back three-pointers after Kansas got within 53-44. with 11:02 remaining.

"I love playing with Ben," Ighodaro said. "I love playing against Ben, and he's going to be a really great player. He battles, he plays hard, he's tough. Yeah, he played great tonight. He was a spark off the bench."

When is the last time Marquette beat the No. 1 team in the AP poll?

MU improved to 3-11 against teams ranked No. 1 in the Associated Press poll.

The last four times the Golden Eagles have played the top-ranked team, it has been Villanova. The most recent matchup was on Jan. 28, 2018, when Jalen Brunson scored 31 points to lead the Wildcats to an 85-82 win at the Bradley Center.

The only other time MU beat the top-ranked team in the regular season was against Villanova on Jan. 24, 2017, at the Bradley Center, when the Golden Eagles overcame a 17-point deficit in the second half behind the stellar play of Katin Reinhardt.

MU also beat No. 1 Kentucky in the Elite Eight of the 2003 NCAA Tournament thanks to a triple-double from Dwyane Wade.

Tuesday's game also marked the first time since the 1976 NCAA Tournament regional semifinal that MU played a matchup in which both teams were in the top five of the AP poll. In that game,No. 1 Indiana earned a 65-56 victory over No. 2 Marquette. The Hoosiers went undefeated that season en route to the national championship.

Ighodaro is in his fourth season at MU and his third with Smart in charge of the program. When Smart took over, Ighodaro debated about starting fresh somewhere else. Now the Golden Eagles have a chance to be the top-ranked team in the country if they beat Purdue on Wednesday.

"I wasn't really thinking that far in advance," Ighodaro said. "I was just trying to get on the floor andget some playing time. So it's been a long journey since then."

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This article originally appeared on Milwaukee Journal Sentinel: Marquette Golden Eagles vs. Kansas in Maui Invitational Oso Ighodaro