UConn vs. Marquette: Can Marquette Compete Without Tyler Kolek?
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00:00 [MUSIC]
00:03 Another top ten tilt as we move it forward on this Wednesday night.
00:08 It is second ranked UConn on the road in Milwaukee against an eighth ranked Marquette.
00:13 A five and a half point number, John, in favor of Dan Hurley's Huskies because we know in this game that the reigning Big East Player of the Year, Marquette's Tyler Kolick, will not be out there for the Golden Eagles.
00:25 How do you break down this matchup without Kolick in the lineup for Marquette?
00:29 Well, obviously it's a tall task for Marquette, but I think we need to look at right now the level of domination that UConn has portrayed since Donovan Klingen came back to the lineup.
00:39 Since Klingen returned for UConn in the middle of Big East play, the Huskies are giving up a little bit over 61 points per game and they're averaging near 80 points per game.
00:50 That means the average margin of victory with Donovan Klingen in the lineup over the last month or so, or five or six weeks, is about 18 points per game in the Big East Conference.
01:02 UConn isn't just winning games in this league, they are winning games convincingly.
01:08 UConn, again, is primed and set up to finish the regular season at Marquette in Providence, then go down I-95 to Madison Square Garden to play the Big East Tournament, go home to stores for a couple days, go back to Brooklyn to play at the Barclays Center,
01:27 and then have a little stop off in stores and go to Boston to play Sweet 16 and Elite 8 games at TD Garden. There will be no plane trip for UConn until it goes to the Final Four in Arizona.
01:42 And you have to remember this, there has been very good karma for UConn playing meaningful NCAA tournament games in the state of Arizona.
01:51 1999 Regionals, first time UConn went to a Final Four, it went through Arizona. Same thing in 2004, same thing in 2009 when Jim Calhoun obviously went to the Final Four for the third time.
02:04 So, there's a lot of good vibes in the state of Arizona for the University of Connecticut.
02:08 [MUSIC]