Tyler Kolek didn't believe Shaka Smart, so he helped the Marquette coach beat his old team

The obvious story line was hard to ignore, with Marquette men's basketball coach Shaka Smart facing Texas for the first time since he spent six seasons in charge of the program.

So All-American Tyler Kolek brought it up in one of his pregame meetings with Smart.

"He was like, 'I don't really care, I coached there and a lot of the other guys on the staff coached there,'" Kolek said. "I was, like, bull(expletive), I know you care."

Kolek is always looking for an edge, so fueled by perceived vengeance for his coach he had one of his best games for the No. 8 Golden Eagles with 28 points, eight rebounds and six assists in an 86-65 destruction of the 12th-ranked Longhorns on Wednesday night at Fiserv Forum.

Box score:Marquette 86, Texas 65

"After the game, I grabbed him and said, 'This one is for you,'" Kolek said. "I know how much it meant to him, even though he's probably not going to say that or let that be out there.

"Whatever went on out there left a little sour taste in his mouth, I'm sure. He's never really spoke anything negative about Texas or anything like that. But I know deep down it really meant something to him."

Tyler Kolek helps Marquette turn the page from loss to Wisconsin

Kolek already had some motivation, after not having an All-American-level performance in a loss to Wisconsin on Saturday.

Kolek responded with 16 points, five rebounds and three assists in the first half against Texas.

"I think even if I didn't have the first half that I did, I'd still play my game," Kolek said. "I'm a veteran in college basketball now.

"I've seen everything under the sun. Whether I play my best, play my worst, I play good and the team doesn't play good. There's a lot of different scenarios that can go on. I'm just trying to stay even-keeled through everything and help my team win."

Kolek hit 4 of 7 three-pointers and his teammates followed his lead. The Golden Eagles (7-2) finished 14 of 30 (46.7%) from long distance.

Kolek is shooting 45.7% on his 35 attempts from deep this season.

"Against Wisconsin, we, not just Tyler, allowed them to go under a lot of our actions, a lot of our pick-and-rolls, handoffs, without really making them pay," Smart said. "And literally from our first possession on, Tyler said, nah, you're not doing that.

"It's kind of the last frontier right now that teams utilize in trying to guard him. They've tried every other way and I don't want to say he's mastered it, but he's pretty good against really any other coverage. And now they're saying, we'll go under and just live with it. He can shoot, too."

Kam Jones, David Joplin, defense help first-half runs

Texas (6-2) started the game by knocking in its first 3 three-pointers for a 9-3 lead.

But MU's defense locked in. The Golden Eagles made six straight stops – a "skunk" in Smart's parlance – to fuel each of their two big runs in the first half that gave them control.

First, Kam Jones hit 2 threes and David Joplin added another in an 11-0 spurt that gave the Golden Eagles a 29-23 lead.

Then MU scored 13 unanswered points to end the first half, thanks to 3 three-pointers by Kolek, including one just before the buzzer at halftime.

That shot gave the Golden Eagles a 42-28 advantage at the break. They kept rolling out of the locker, pushing their lead to 32 points with just over four minutes remaining.

"It's hard to get a skunk against a good team," Smart said. "That's the No. 12 team in the country. And that's hard to do, six stops in a row.

"So to get two was big for us. That's how you extend the lead, obviously. Chase Ross was a dude today. We saw it last here when we played Baylor. I think being from the state down there, there was an extra level of motivation that we as a staff have to learn to tap into every game."

Shaka Smart deflects from Texas story line

Smart, of course, was also once a resident of Texas. He went 109-86 in his six seasons with the Longhorns. Smart bounced to MU in 2021 after Texas fans started getting restless with his lack of NCAA Tournament victories at the school.

Six of Smart's staff members at MU worked with him at Texas. Brock Cunningham is the only scholarship player remaining from Smart's time at Texas, and the two shared a warm embrace before tip-off.

As Kolek predicted, Smart didn't want to make a big deal out of playing his old team.

"Six great years at Texas," Smart said. "Grateful for all the people I got to spend time with and be around there.

"But I'm an in-the-moment guy, and if you can't be in the moment here at Marquette in that arena with this group of guys and this schedule and this opportunity we have, then something is wrong with you."

But Smart also showed his appreciation for his blunt, All-American point guard.

"It's meaningful when people demonstrate genuine love and care and concern for their teammates or for their coaches," Smart said. "And, again, that's the way we try to do it at Marquette.

"And we're not perfect. We still have work to go in terms of developing ultimate trust across the board. But our guys really care about each other, they really care about us and we really care about them. And that's a heck of a start."