There were twists and turns, but Marquette's Tyler Kolek and Oso Ighodaro ended up in ideal spots in the NBA draft.

It was kind of like the rest of their basketball careers, as they dealt with adversity and doubts on the way to reaching the pinnacle of basketball.

Kolek was expected to be a first-round pick on Wednesday, but he fell to the second round the next day. He was picked at No. 34, landing with the New York Knicks after a trade with the Portland Trail Blazers. The Providence native will play for a strong Eastern Conference team at Madison Square Garden, a place where Kolek has found success, for a coach in Tom Thibodeau who might be as basketball-obsessed as Kolek.

Ighodaro wasn't sure where he was going to land in the draft as a unique big man with defensive versatility and ball-handling skills. He was picked at No. 40, then after some more trade machinations the Phoenix-area native landed with the Suns. He'll play on a team with championship hopes, with new coach Mike Budenholzer trying to mold the talents of superstars Kevin Durant, Devin Booker and Bradley Beal.

MU head coach Shaka Smart was in New York for both days as his star players learned their future paths.

"Really happy for both guys," Smart said. "They're both at championship-contending organizations.

"They both are going to play for head coaches that are very, very excited about them. As just kind of an added bonus, in Oso's case he's really close to home and, in Tyler's, he's relatively close."

Tyler Kolek disappointed not to be first-round pick

Smart and several members of his coaching staff were at the Barclays Center in Brooklyn on Wednesday, hoping they could celebrate with Kolek when he heard his name called by NBA commissioner Adam Silver.

So there was certainly a measure of disappointment when they had to wait until Thursday.

"Those guys are competitive," Smart said. "They don't believe they take a backseat to anybody.

"And neither do we. Definitely leaving the Barclays Center not yet having been drafted, there were some emotions there. Some motivation there.

"You want to get on a team. That's the thing, these guys haven't been on a team ever since the NCAA Tournament ended. So now you got to wait one more day to figure out whose team you're on. But as of a couple hours ago, they know.

"Man, they're just guys who did it the old-fashioned way. They earned it. They didn't skip steps. They made their team win. They value relationships, they value growth, they value victory. And now they both are in unbelievable positions."

Tyler Kolek and Oso Ighodaro helped establish Shaka Smart's program

After the nerves and NBA destinations were settled, Smart thought about what Kolek and Ighodaro meant to the MU program.

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"I was emotional," Smart said. "Yeah, it was a very, very special moment for me.

"And it happened so quick. One went 34 and then one went 40. It was an emotional day, definitely shed some tears. We've been through a lot together. I think back to the first phone call I had with Tyler. I think back to the first week of workouts with Oso when we put him through the week from hell. It was a special feeling when they got picked."

Ighodaro and Kolek became cornerstones for Smart when he became MU's coach in 2021. Kolek was an unheralded transfer from George Mason, and Ighodaro played just 38 minutes as a freshman for the Golden Eagles' previous coaching staff.

"Well, it goes beyond any verbal description," Smart said. "Because of the way they have made people feel in the last three years. It's special.

"I said many times these guys, first and foremost, are exceptional people. And they had a willingness to grow and a willingness to connect that allowed them to just keep getting better and better over the course of that three years. And allowed them to end up to where they are now."

Smart can keep momentum going at MU by pointing out to recruits that Kolek and Ighodaro are joining Olivier-Maxence Prosper, a first-round pick last season, in the NBA.

"We all get in our little bubbles, with our own people, our own support system, our own team, our own fans," Smart said. "There's some thinking that this (making the NBA) should happen for me.

"When you come to this thing (the NBA draft), you realize the magnitude of what it means to be one of the top few dozen players in the world trying to get into the NBA. And so, of course, every player at our level has that goal and why shouldn't they?

"But we've had three now in the last couple years, and again they've done it the old-fashioned way. They earned it through work, through growth, through pouring into people around them and through winning. And so, if this is what you want to do, then that is the process you have to follow."

This article originally appeared on Milwaukee Journal Sentinel: Marquette coach Shaka Smart happy for Tyler Kolek and Oso Ighodaro