COLUMBUS, Ohio – Head coach Shaka Smart preaches to his players to stay in the moment, so the Marquette men’s basketball team wasn’t feeling the weight of history.

But every fan of the program knew that it had been 11 days shy of a full decade since the Golden Eagles had won a game in the NCAA Tournament. Smart also hasn't been part of a victory in March Madness since 2013 when he was at Virginia Commonwealth.

The ignominious skids are no more.

Second-seeded MU exorcised all that existential dread thanks to a man-possessed performance by sophomore guard Kam Jones in the second half of a 78-61 victory over Vermont in the first round on Friday at Nationwide Arena.

BOX SCORE:Marquette 78, Vermont 61

More:Reporter Jamie Erdahl drinks a milkshake during her post-game interview with Shaka Smart and Kam Jones

“We're playing a basketball game,” Smart said. “It's March 17th, 2023 with this team. This team has very little to do with the last nine teams or however many teams you're talking about.

“It's a group of guys that truly cares about one another and wants to win for each other. I think the vulnerability with that is .. if things are not going perfect, sometimes guys worry about letting each other down.

“And if we want to continue playing in this tournament, the focus for us has to be on, hey, I'm going to go after the current play to the best of my ability for my teammates. And then I'm going to be willing to live with whatever comes out of it.”

MU’s last NCAA Tournament victory came against Miami in the Sweet 16 on March 28, 2013. The Golden Eagles (29-6) will face seventh-seeded Michigan State in the second round on Sunday.

Tyler Kolek hurts thumb but returns to action

All those familiar NCAA terrors probably hit the MU faithful when point guard Tyler Kolek, the Big East player of the year and consensus All-American, started flexing his hand three minutes into the game.

“My thumb got caught on a jersey and bent backwards,” Kolek said. “But I’ll be alright.”

Kolek hit a three-pointer after the injury, but then went into the back of the arena with MU trainer Brandon Yoder.

Kolek came back with his right hand taped up. The left-handed guard ended up playing 26 minutes though he was also hampered by foul trouble. He finished with eight points and four assists, shooting 3 for 11 but having trouble finishing around the basket.

Smart seemed sure that Kolek will play on Sunday.

“He's about as tough as they come,” the MU head coach said. “So if he can play, he's going to play. You probably have to cut his thumb off to keep from playing. Even then he'd still try to play.

“I'll have to get back and get with the trainer to find out the exact protocol in terms of what we want to do from here. But he's an absolute warrior. So I imagine he'll be out there on the floor”

Kam Jones scores 18 straight points for Golden Eagles

Jones was also in early foul trouble, with MU’s leading scorer playing eight minutes in the first half and taking only one.

The Catamounts, who have one of the oldest rosters in college basketball,  kept hanging around and they cut MU’s lead to 45-40 on a layup by Finn Sullivan with 15:44 remaining.

That’s when Jones sank a deep three-pointer off a nice pass from Oso Ighodaro and followed it up by slicing his way to a crafty layup.

That 5-0 burst prompted a timeout by Vermont coach John Becker.

But Jones wasn’t done.

He answered a three by Vermont by getting fouled on a drive and hitting one free throw. By the time he added two more three-pointers and three more layups, the Golden Eagles’ lead was 63-46.

“Coach, previously in the huddle, 30 seconds before, he told me to be myself and I'm not letting anybody down,” Jones said. “Just play my game. Go out there and just have fun playing.

“And after that three I hit from Oso, that just made the basket look wide. So I was just able to get it going.”

After a turnover, Jones had the ball on a breakaway but he gave the ball up to Olivier-Maxence Prosper, who converted a three-point play.

The sizable contingent of MU fans could feel that the NCAA Tournament drought was over.

“That's what we came here for, why we came to Columbus,” Jones said. “To win this first game and focus on the next and take it one game at a time.

“We're putting all our focus on Michigan State now. That's what we're focused on, and just take it one play, one game at a time.”

Oso Ighodaro, David Joplin and Olivier-Maxence Prosper help out

Kolek is the engine of MU’s offense, but the Golden Eagles have been successful this season because they don’t rely on one or two players.

Ighodaro finished with 14 points, five rebounds and five assists. David Joplin (12 points), Prosper (11) and Stevie Mitchell (10) also scored in double figures.

“We're better together,” Smart said. "It's a team effort. We've never been a team that depends on one guy to score all of our points or even close to that. I thought Oso when he got single coverage on the back down was very effective. He only missed one shot all day long.

“Jop gave us a huge lift in the first half. Other than Kam, Jop's got the most natural scoring ability of anyone. He ended with 12. I thought he could have had closer to 20. Maybe he was saving some for the next game. But the lift he gave us in the first half was big.”

That balance has helped MU have a historic season, winning the outright Big East regular-season title and the tournament championship for the first time.

Now the Golden Eagles have put an end to a skid that wasn’t in the record book, but it hung like a dark cloud over the program. Last season, most of the players on this team suffered an ugly, 95-63 loss in the NCAA first round to North Carolina.

“It means everything,” Joplin said. “I’m just excited to be able to get the win. Last year we failed to do so.

“This group, this is the first time we’ve gotten an NCAA Tournament win with Shaka since he’s been here. A big goal of ours was to get that first win so we can keep going in the tournament.”

Marquette vs. Vermont:A look at matchups and what to watch in the first round of NCAA Tournament

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This article originally appeared on Milwaukee Journal Sentinel: Kam Jones' big second half leads Marquette past Vermont in NCAA opener