Marquette head coach Shaka Smart had to be restrained by his own players as he tried to throw down with members of Kansas’ roster. Late in the first half of the game at the AllState Maui Invitational, Kevin McCullar Jr. drilled a corner three for the #1 Jayhawks. Then , he appeared to say something to the Marquette bench as he moved back down the sideline. Moments later, the benches cleared as Smart appeared to try and chase after McCullar. However, the third-year head coach was held back by his players, and nothing more than an exchange of words occurred. Regardless of the lack of violence, a team technical was called on the #4 Golden Eagles.
The incident aside, the game was all positives for Marquette. With school legend Dwyane Wade sitting courtside, the Golden Eagles knocked off Kansas 73-59. Despite the game getting the deserved hype of a top-four matchup, Marquette led for all but 22 seconds of the game. With #2 Purdue also advancing in the Feast Week tournament, Marquette will become the 10th team in NCAA history to play the top-two ranked teams on consecutive days and the first since 1972. However, the last time a team won both such games was in 1963.
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Smart Reveals History With McCullar Jr.
After the game, Smart praised his players for not letting the incident derail their focus. “At the end of the day, it had very little to do with the game. Our guys did a really good job of just basically ignoring what happened and just continuing to play, and that shows their maturity and their poise,” Smart said. However, he also revealed that he actually had history with McCullar Jr, dating back to his coaching tenure at Texas. At the time, McCullar Jr. was playing for Texas Tech.
“He’s always kind of enjoyed having dialogue with me. He probably oes that with all coaches but that probably started the dustup. Then their bench got involved and our bench got involved,” Smart noted. McCullar played three years at Texas Tech before transferring to the Jayhawks in 2022. He is expected to leave for the NBA draft at the end of the season. Smart coached Texas between 2015 and 2021, winning the NIT but never progressing past the first round of the NCAA tournament. Last season, he led the Golden Eagles to a sweep of the Big East but fell in the second round of March Madness.
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