Marquette’s return to Big East title game a testimonial to Shaka’s gift of quickly building a winning culture

Marquette celebrates following Friday’s Big East tournament semifinal win over Providence, which advanced Golden Eagles to back-to-back conference championship games for first time in program history. (Photo by Porter Binks/Marquette Athletics)

NEW YORK — Shaka Smart arrived in Milwaukee three years ago amid mild criticism for not being able to replicate his success at VCU on a similar scale at the University of Texas. Despite the perceived failure and underachieving, his ability to get players to buy into his infectious positivity and set a benchmark for success from the jump has never dissipated.

No further evidence to that hypothesis is needed than Marquette's return to the Big East tournament championship game, a stage on which the Golden Eagles will return Saturday against the University of Connecticut, whom they defeated in the semifinals a year ago on the way to their first Big East crown.

Consider this: Before Friday’s win over Providence, no coach in Marquette's illustrious history had guided the program to consecutive conference tournament championship games. Not Al McGuire, who won a national championship, not Rick Majerus, Tom Crean, Buzz Williams. Smart is the first, and in just three short seasons, has completely flipped the script from the apathy and vacuum that marked the end of the Steve Wojciechowski era and replaced it with a circle of connectivity where each member of the program is in alignment with a common goal.

“Every game, we come in expecting it to be a war, and I think that’s the mindset we have,” junior guard Stevie Mitchell elaborated. “It’s all about winning. None of us care about it being pretty, we just want to win the game.”

Regular season and tournament champions in the Big East last year, Marquette has faced more adversity in this campaign. From the departure of Olivier-Maxence Prosper to the NBA, to now handling the absence of all-conference point guard and team nucleus Tyler Kolek due to an oblique injury, the Golden Eagles have not sacrificed the core tenets of their program without their central nervous system. Rather, the unit has become more fortified around one another as Chase Ross has joined Mitchell and Kam Jones to hold down the fort in the backcourt, while Oso Ighodaro and David Joplin anchor the front line. Sophomore Ben Gold, along with the freshman duo of Tre Norman and Zaide Lowery, have become reminiscent of the reserves Smart developed into cornerstones at VCU by getting equal opportunities to contribute off the bench where most programs would not offer the chance to shine in a lesser role. It all adds up to a shared belief in, and commitment to, each other, which embodies the bedrock concept of getting lost in the fight.

“I thought the trust that our guys have in our way, more so culturally than anything else, is why we’re sitting up here right now,” Smart said Friday. “We’ve played five games now without Tyler, and I’m really proud of the way that our guys have found ways to compete and found ways to win games.”

“It’s all about (Mitchell and Ighodaro), and Kam Jones, Tyler Kolek, the other guys that have built this program. There’s been a trust that they’ve had first and foremost in each other, and as we say, they’ve been dominoes to make each other better.”

The monumental nature of upending a UConn team that is a legitimate threat to become the first repeat national champion in 17 years is not lost on this Marquette team, nor is the chance to add to the historic magnitude of Saturday’s contest by winning a second consecutive Big East championship. Still, Smart paused for a brief second Friday to take in the significance of the moment that awaits his group, one he will undoubtedly motivate as the Golden Eagles look to avenge a regular season sweep at the hands of Dan Hurley and the Huskies.

“I have a reverence for this league because I grew up watching John Thompson and the other great coaches in the Big East,” Smart humbly remarked. “So for us to even be here in the Garden is very, very meaningful, and for us to have the type of team and high-character guys to put us in position to play (Saturday) is awesome.”