Big East honors Marquette's Tyler Kolek and Shaka Smart as conference's basketball player and coach of year
NEW YORK - Shaka Smart and Tyler Kolek took a chance on one another in April 2021.
Smart, just hired as Marquette men's basketball coach, plucked Kolek out of the transfer portal to be part of the foundation of a program rebuild.
The results have been better than anyone could have anticipated. The Big East announced Wednesday that Kolek was the league's player of the year and Smart was the choice as coach of the year.
"I think it's special when people do a coach of the year and player of the year," Kolek said after the ceremony at Madison Square Garden. "It just goes to show how connected we are and the relationship that we built over these last two years.
"It's really been special. He's like a father figure to me. I would do anything for him and he would do anything for me."
League coaches vote for the award but aren't allowed to cast ballots for their own players. The pair also was chosen for the same awards by media members who cover the league.
They were pretty easy choices. Heading into Smart's second season as coach, the Golden Eagles were picked by the same league coaches to finish ninth in the 11-team Big East.
Instead, the Golden Eagles became one of the best offenses in the nation, went 17-3 in the conference to set a Big East record and won the league's outright title for the first time. MU also beat every team in the conference for the first time since it joined the league in the 2005-06 season.
All of the MU players, coaches, managers and support staff were on hand to see Kolek and Smart collect their awards.
"It just goes to show connected we are as a team and a group," Kolek said. "That's our biggest advantage and that's what we want to press going into these next postseason games."
Kolek has been one of the main drivers of this season's success. His 7.9 assists per game are second in the nation. He sealed the Big East player of the year award – and likely some All-American honors – in the final few weeks of the season as MU won the outright league title.
He knocked down two clutch buckets in the final minute of a crucial road win at Creighton. He followed that up by scoring 15 of MU’s last 16 points against DePaul. Over the final three regular-season games, he averaged 20.3 points and 11.3 assists.
Smart handed Kolek the keys to the offense last season, but the MU head coach didn’t know that he would be this good, this quickly.
"I'm just so happy for him," Smart said. "And happy for our team that the leap of faith that these guys have made and the trust that they've put in each other and in us as coaches is paying off.
"We're not done yet. But this is great recognition for our team. These are truly team awards. These are not individual awards and I'm just grateful for this group of guys."
Kolek has improved his numbers across the board under Smart. In his first season at MU after transferring from George Mason, he averaged 6.7 points and 5.9 assists per game. This season, he is averaging 12.7 points per game and his three-point shooting has increased from 28.1% last season to 39.6%.
"You can't even pigeonhole Tyler into being an assist man either," Smart said. "He's so multidimensional as a player.
"I think if you are gong to describe him in one word, the only word you can use is winner. He's a winning guy. He makes people around him better. He does what's required on the defensive end to get stops. He's scoring the ball at a really good rate. He's finishing really efficiently and shooting from the outside. And then his passing is truly, truly special."
Kolek joins Markus Howard and Jae Crowder as MU players to win Big East player of the year. Tom Crean and Kevin O'Neill were named coaches of the year at MU.
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This article originally appeared on Milwaukee Journal Sentinel: Marquette's Tyler Kolek and Shaka Smart Big East top player and coach
