No. 4 Marquette takes down No. 1 Kansas in Maui: What went wrong for the Jayhawks

HONOLULU — This one felt personal. On a night when benches cleared and coaches had to be separated, No. 4 Marquette dominated No. 1 Kansas almost from start to finish in a 73-59 win.

The Golden Eagles are making their claim as the best team in the country. They were clearly the better team on this night on both ends against the top-ranked team in the country. Now up is No. 2 Purdue and Zach Edey on Wednesday.

Marquette already has a blueprint, as it swarmed KU star Hunter Dickinson and held him to a season-low 13 points. Marquette was faster to every loose ball and the Jayhawks struggled to find any offensive rhythm. It was a clinic on playing defense with active hands and energy.

Marquette’s speed was also too much for Kansas on the other end of the floor. The pass-happy Golden Eagles had the Jayhawks back on their heels. The Jayhawks usually dominate games in the paint. Marquette outscored KU 46-26 in that part of the floor. The other big difference was Marquette’s depth. KU’s bench has struggled at the Maui Invitational while Marquette’s sophomores off the bench have thrived — Chase Ross , Sean Jones and Ben Gold combined for 27 points. Oso Ighodaro was the other star, outplaying Dickinson and scoring 21 points to go along with nine rebounds and two assists.

Marquette coach Shaka Smart, who sent home one of Bill Self’s best teams in 2011 in the Elite Eight when 11th-seeded VCU upset the top-seeded Jayhawks, struggled to beat Self in his years at Texas. Self won 10 of their 13 meetings, but Smart is now 2-0 when coaching against KU and not at Texas.

(Photo: Darryl Oumi / )