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Marquette basketball: Tyler Kolek’s March Madness status gets crucial update from Shaka Smart

Originally posted on ClutchPoints | By Ryan Bologna | Last updated 3/17/24

The Marquette basketball program is set to play in its first NCAA Tournament game on Friday against Western Kentucky, and Shaka Smart gave a good update on star player Tyler Kolek, who has been dealing with an oblique injury as of late and sat out this week at the Big East Tournament.

“We’re planning on him playing on Friday,” Shaka Smart said, via CBS Sports. “Now, he does have to go through a progression starting in practice on Tuesday. As long as everything goes well, he will be in uniform on Friday.”

"We're planning on him playing on Friday. He does have to go through a progression starting in practice on Tuesday. As long as everything goes well, he will be in uniform on Friday."

—@MarquetteMBB head coach Shaka Smart on the status of Tyler Kolek pic.twitter.com/Ul4G9Uh8wW

— CBS Sports College Basketball (@CBSSportsCBB) March 18, 2024

Smart went into what Tyler Kolek said he felt when he suffered the oblique injury against Providence on Feb. 28. The good news for Marquette is that Kolek is not feeling pain anymore from the oblique injury.

“Well he’s not in pain anymore, but when he got hurt, it was Feb. 28 against Providence at home, and he subbed out of the game and he said, ‘it hurts to even breathe,'” Smart said, via CBS Sports. “And he’s got a really high threshold for pain, so we knew at that point it was pretty serious.”

All things considered, Marquette fared well without Kolek on the floor at the Big East Tournament this week, beating Villanova and Providence before losing to UConn in the championship game. Marquette enters the tournament as a two seed for the second year in a row. With Kolek likely back on the floor, Marquette has a good chance to make a run into the second weekend and potentially further.

This article first appeared on ClutchPoints and was syndicated with permission.

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