Shaka Smart, Marquette poised for special season

Marquette’s Shaka Smart won the Associated Press Coach of the Year award last season. (Mitchell Layton/Getty Images)

NEW YORK — Carmine’s is an Italian restaurant chain with roots in New York City. Its flagship can be found on Manhattan’s Upper West Side, but there are locations in Times Square, Las Vegas, Washington D.C. and Atlantic City as well.

To begin to understand Shaka Smart’s bond with his players is to realize that there may be no better place in the Big Apple for the Marquette head coach to break bread with his team than the well-known, family-style establishment.

“To walk in [Madison Square Garden] with Tyler Kolek, Oso Ighodaro, Stevie Mitchell, Kam Jones and David Joplin, what more could a coach ask for?” Smart said at Big East Media day Tuesday. “For me, there’s nothing better than to spend time around these guys. We have a shared purpose, a shared understanding, we care about the same things, we care about each other, we care about the rest of the guys on our team.”

Smart, last season’s AP Coach of the Year entering his third season at the helm of the Golden Eagles, didn’t mention a single stat, tactic or game plan for a good portion of the day Tuesday when discussing his four returning upperclassman starters and Joplin, last year’s Big East Sixth Man of the Year and the likely replacement in the starting lineup for Olivier-Maxence Prosper, who went to the NBA after the 2022-23 season.

Instead he explained why Kolek is a “great leader” and was always a “safe bet,” praised Ighodaro and Mitchell’s intelligence and even joked about Jones’ outfit and Joplin’s (lack of) dunks last season. The bond, mutual respect and admiration Smart and his players have for one another shines through more than anything else.

“We’re all people,” Smart said. “The experiences that guys have are largely driven by relationships and relationships are largely driven by how we make each other feel. That’s something that we really put a lot of…

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Publish date : 2023-10-25 16:34:35

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