No. 6 Marquette beats Butler to clinch Big East outright

INDIANAPOLIS (AP) — Now that No. 6 Marquette has secured the regular-season Big East championship, more accolades could follow.

It would be hard to pick against Tyler Kolek for Big East player of the year or Shaka Smart for conference coach of the year.

Kolek had 21 points and 10 assists, and Marquette clinched its first outright conference title in 20 years by beating Butler 72-56 on Tuesday night.

Heading into the game, Kolek, a 6-foot-3 sophomore guard from Cumberland, R.I., was second in the NCAA in assists (7.8 per game). Over the past nine games, he has averaged 18.2 points. He shot 9 of 13 from the field and 2 for 3 on 3-pointers against the Bulldogs.

“To me, he’s the MVP of the Big East. He makes that team go,” Butler coach Thad Matta said. “He’s such an intelligent basketball player. He’s got a great pulse on that team. It looks like they really feed off him, and he embraces that leadership.”

The victory was the fifth in a row and 10th in 11 games for the surprising Golden Eagles (24-6, 16-3), picked ninth by the league’s coaches in the preseason poll.

This week, Marquette ascended to its highest ranking in the AP Top 25 since it was No. 1 in 1978.

Marquette, which had already earned at least a share of its first Big East title since 2013, had not won an outright regular-season crown since doing so in Conference USA in 2003.