Marquette’s Shaka Smart talks about overtime victory at DePaul
The Golden Eagles stayed undefeated in the Big East with an overtime victory over DePaul on Tuesday.
CHICAGO – The Marquette men’s basketball team avoided ignominy on Tuesday night.
David Joplin continued his hot streak at Wintrust Arena, but the seventh-ranked Golden Eagles needed a gutty effort to pull out an 85-83 victory in overtime over DePaul.
The Blue Demons (9-8, 0-6 Big East) have lost 39 straight conference games. They haven’t won since Jan. 18, 2023, when they beat Xavier, which came into that game as a top-10 team that was undefeated in conference play.
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MU (15-2, 6-0) avoided that fate, thanks to Joplin. He nailed 2 three-pointers to start overtime and the Golden Eagles were able to hold on despite a frantic, late comeback from DePaul.
BOX SCORE: Marquette 85, DePaul 83 (overtime)
“It was his type of game from the standpoint of we shot 37 threes,” MU head coach Shaka Smart said. “They’re playing zone defense, we’re going to be able to play five-on-four against any team that sticks their biggest guy at the basket.
“So we’re going to get threes. He’s going to get threes. He shot 13 of them tonight, so his kind of came. He loves the rims here. He’s played well here going back to his sophomore year where we stayed at that hotel here and scrimmaged Missouri in October. And we needed every bit of those 30 points.”
David Joplin has 21 threes over last three games at Wintrust Arena
Joplin always credits his success in the building to staying at the Marriott Marquis that is connected to Wintrust via a walkway.
“It feels good to shoot in here,” Joplin said. “I love Chicago. The hotel is great. Eat great, sleep great.
“I don’t know what it is. But I love playing here and this is my last time, so I wanted to make it a good one.”
Joplin finished with a career-high 30 points in 41 minutes, topping the 29 he had against Georgia in the Bahamas earlier this season. He hit 7 three-pointers on Tuesday to give him 21 over his last three games in Wintrust.
After his two triples to start overtime, MU built its lead to 79-69 with just over a minute left and the game felt over.
But DePaul’s Isaiah Rivera had nine points in a 21-second span, and MU committed a couple ugly turnovers.
The Blue Demons had the ball with five seconds left, but lost the ball out of bounds against aggressive defense from MU.
“We had to keep being us,” Joplin said. “We kind of got away from being us for stretches of the game.
“They had too many open threes. That was their whole game plan was to shoot.”
Kam Jones hits big three, but his shooting slump continues
Kam Jones’ final numbers look good with 18 points, 11 assists against one turnover and six rebounds.
But he was just 1 for 10 on three-pointers, including missing his first seven attempts. Jones has struggled from long range in MU’s six conference games, going 8 for 40 (20%).
The one he hit was crucial. His triple got MU within 65-64 with 44 seconds remaining, and set the stage for a wild ending.
MU’s Stevie Mitchell forced a backcourt violation against DePaul’s Conor Enright with 25 seconds left.
After a timeout, MU worked the ball around on offense, then Mitchell penetrated and found Chase Ross for a triple with six seconds remaining to give the Golden Eagles a 67-65 lead.
Enright then raced down court and had a layup seemingly blocked by MU’s Ben Gold. But goaltending was called to trigger a replay, and the call was upheld to tie the game after a lengthy review.
Jones missed a good look at the end of regulation after weaving down the court with 3.1 seconds left.
“I thought our guys did a way better job in overtime of just jumping up and shooting them,” Smart said. “I tell the guys ‘No half-shots.’
“Kam is such a conscientious, awesome guy. I wouldn’t trade him for anyone in the world. But sometimes he holds on so tight, he wants it so much, that it can affect his shooting. But, man, he let that one fly at the end, the one he made.”
Stevie Mitchell hears adulation from the crowd
Mitchell’s efforts are never fully reflected in the box score. His two plays late in regulation in forcing a turnover and assisting on Ross’ crucial three-pointer are examples of his winning plays.
“He’s a winner,” Smart said. “He’s about as much of a winner as anyone I’ve ever coached.
“He had a hard time breathing tonight. He’s been under the weather. He told me before the game, he said, ‘Hey, if you see me struggling to breathe, just sub me but I’m going to go after it.’ “
That Mitchell fouled out just before DePaul made its crazy final push in overtime underscores his importance to the team.
The sizable MU contingent in the arena showed their appreciation by chanting ‘Ste-vie! Stev-ie!” late in overtime.
“That was the greatest thing I think I ever experienced in college,” Joplin said. “At an away arena? That’s just a testament to who he is. That’s my guy.”
Shaka Smart wants to see more from the bench
MU struggled in many areas in this game, allowing DePaul to shoot 59.3% in the first half and 38 points in the paint overall.
But the most glaring concern for the Golden Eagles is that no bench player scored in the game, combining to shoot 0 for 5.
“Listen, our way is to develop these and grow them up from being high-school kids coming in,” Smart said. “And they know that that is going to be a gradual climb.
“It’s not going to be any quick-fix. But I thought tonight those guys – and I’m generalizing, but I can lump them together in this – we didn’t have enough of a mentality of competitive intensity.
“Particularly after we scored 16 points after the first media timeout. That wasn’t them that scored 16 points, that was the starters. Sometimes it can mess with you mentally a little bit and make you think ‘Oh, this is going to be easy.’
“You come in here and trade baskets. We experienced that here in Kam, Stevie and Jop’s freshman year. That’s a recipe for losing. And we almost lost. And so, for us, hopefully we can gain some humility from this game. Hopefully the guys coming off the bench can gain humility from this game and we can be better in our next game. And they can play more in the next game. And then we won’t have zero points off the bench.”
Guards: Kam Jones, Stevie Mitchell, Chase Ross
Forwards: Ben Gold, David Joplin
Guards: Conor Enright, Jacob Meyer
Forwards: CJ Gunn, Troy D’Amico, NJ Benson
Odds courtesy of BetMGM as of Tuesday
- ODDS: Marquette by 13.5
- O/U: 147.5
The Blue Demons have shown signs of life in Chris Holtmann’s first season as coach and are attempting a lot of three-point shots. They will take down a Big East foe sooner rather than later. But that will not be against MU. The Golden Eagles feast off turnovers, and DePaul coughs up the ball a lot. That will lead to a lot of easy baskets, and an easy victory.
Prediction: Marquette 84, DePaul 68
- TV: CBS Sports Network
- Stream: You can stream the game on the CBS Sports app through your television carrier. Also, FUBO has a free trial for new subscribers.
- Announcers: Chris Lewis (play-by-play) and Steve Lappas (analyst) will call the game.
- Jan. 18: Xavier, 1 p.m.
- Jan. 21: at Seton Hall, 7 p.m.
- Jan. 24: Villanova, 6 p.m.
- Jan. 28: at Butler, 7:30 p.m.
- Feb. 1: UConn, 7 p.m.
