Marquette basketball breaks NCAA Tournament losing streak, now faces Michigan State

The Marquette Basketball program snapped a decade-long NCAA Tournament losing streak when they beat Vermont in the first round.

Marquette went 3,641 days without a win in March Madness.

Kam Jones went off in the second half to get the Golden Eagles to the second round for the first time since 2013.

The victory also snapped a personal seven-game coaching losing streak for head coach Shaka Smart in the tournament.

Marquette won despite Big East Player of the Year and consensus All-American Tyler Kolek having a poor game. He briefly left the game early due to a thumb injury. He does not expect the injury to impact his game for the rest of the tournament.

Up next for the Marquette Golden Eagles is a second-round matchup with NCAA Tournament mainstay Michigan State.

Michigan State drew the seventh seed. They dispatched USC in the first round.

Now the Golden Eagles have to face an always troublesome Michigan State Spartans. A team should always worry about facing Michigan State in the tournament because Tom Izzo still roams the sideline.

The legendary coach is one of the best coaches in March Madness history.

While this is not his best team, he always seems to take his teams with lesser expectations on a deep run.

Also, he is trying to change a narrative like Marquette. Izzo has only made the Sweet 16 once in the last eight seasons. This a guy who has been to eight Final Fours.

Michigan State can score and defend with the best of them. They are in KenPom.com’s top 40 in offense and defense.

The Spartans are deadly from beyond the arc. They rank in the top five in three-point shooting percentage.

The Marquette Golden Eagles are more athletic. They also pose matchup problems for the Spartans.

It all depends on who can impose their will on the game.

The Golden Eagles will also face a familiar face to the fan base in Joey Hauser.

Hauser played his freshman year at Marquette. His brother Sam Hauser and Joey left the program after the 2018-2019 season.

It was stunning at that time because if the brothers did not transfer, the Golden Eagles were projected to have a top-10 team.

Also, there was speculation that the family wanted the brothers to be the focal point of the program and not star guard Markus Howard.

The official stance was Joey Hauser was just looking for a better fit. It left a bad taste in the Marquette community’s mouth, however.

The program was set back and Steve Wojciechowski was fired two seasons later.

Although if Joey Hauser stuck around, Marquette may not have made the move to get rid of Wojo, and this Golden Eagles team might not exist. Maybe Joey did Marquette a favor. It still does not mean the Golden Eagles fan base would love to possibly end Joey Hauser’s college career.