Pirates

INDIANAPOLIS (AP) &mdash; Tyler Kolek had 21 points and 10 assists, and No. 6 Marquette clinched its first outright Big East championship by beating Butler 72-56 on Tuesday night.
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&rsquo;s coaches in the preseason poll.
Marquette, which had already secured 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.
Olivier-Maxence Prosper added 14 points and Oso Ighodaro had 12 for the Golden Eagles, who will be the top seed in the Big East Tournament at Madison Square Garden &mdash; an event Marquette has never won.
Jayden Taylor scored 13 and Jalen Thomas had 10 for Butler (14-16, 6-13), which finished 4-6 in Big East home games.
NO. 3 KANSAS 67, TEXAS TECH 63
LAWRENCE, Kan. (AP) &mdash; Jalen Wilson scored 21 points in his Allen Fieldhouse farewell, fellow senior Kevin McCullar Jr. added 14 points and nine rebounds, and Kansas clinched a share of the Big 12 regular-season championship.
Dajuan Harris had 16 points for the Jayhawks (25-5, 13-4), who would capture the outright crown if ninth-ranked Texas loses to No. 22 TCU on Wednesday night. Otherwise, the Jayhawks &mdash; now with an NCAA-leading 64 conference championships &mdash; would need to beat the Longhorns in a head-to-head showdown Saturday in Austin.
De&rsquo;Vion Harmon had 15 points to lead Texas Tech (16-14, 5-12), which was just 3 of 16 from the 3-point line. Kevin Obanor added 14 points, Fardaws Aimaq had 13 points and 18 rebounds, and Pop Isaacs finished with 11 points.
NO. 12 TENNESSEE 75, ARKANSAS 57
KNOXVILLE, Tenn. (AP) &mdash; Olivier Nkamhoua scored 16 points and Tennessee earned its second consecutive win.
Despite the victory, the Volunteers (22-8, 11-6 Southeastern Conference) may have sustained a significant loss. Three minutes into the game, sophomore point guard Zakai Zeigler, who brings energy on offense and defense, went down with an injury to his left knee. The extent of the injury wasn&rsquo;t immediately known, but he did not return.
Santiago Vescovi, who took over the role of point guard for Zeigler, added 14 points and Josiah-Jordan James scored 11.
Anthony Black and Davonte Davis each scored 13 for the Razorbacks (19-11, 8-9). Nick Smith Jr. scored 14 and Ricky Council 11.
NO. 13 VIRGINIA 64, CLEMSON 57
CHARLOTTESVILLE, Va. (AP) &mdash; Jayden Gardner had 12 points and nine rebounds, Armaan Franklin and Isaac McKneely each scored 12, and Virginia stopped a two-game skid.
The Cavaliers (22-6, 14-5 Atlantic Coast Conference) moved into a tie for second place in the league with No. 16 Miami with one game remaining.
PJ Hall led the Tigers (21-9, 13-6) with 19 points and Hunter Tyson had 17. Clemson got within 59-55 with 33 seconds left, but Virginia made five free throws and had a steal, sending the Tigers to their fifth loss in eight games.
IOWA 90, NO. 15 INDIANA 68
BLOOMINGTON, Ind. (AP) &mdash; Kris Murray scored 26 points, Tony Perkins flirted with the first triple-double in Iowa history and the Hawkeyes defeated Indiana.
Perkins had 23 points, 10 rebounds and a career-high eight assists for Iowa (19-11, 11-8 Big Ten).
Trayce Jackson-Davis led the Hoosiers (20-10, 11-8) with 26 points and 13 rebounds. He became the school&rsquo;s career rebounding leader with 1,096 &mdash; on a night the Hoosiers lost their fourth in a row in the series.
BOISE STATE 66, NO. 18 SAN DIEGO STATE 60
BOISE, Idaho (AP) &mdash; Max Rice scored 26 points and reeled off 12 straight points in a 14-0 run to close out the game and Boise State remained perfect at home in conference play.
The Broncos (23-7, 13-4 Mountain West Conference) avenged a 20-point loss to San Diego State on Feb. 3. It was the Broncos&rsquo; first win over a ranked team this season. Tyson Degenhart scored 14 for Boise State, while Naje Smith added 10.
San Diego State (23-6, 14-3), which had already claimed a share of the conference crown with its buzzer-beating win over New Mexico on Saturday, failed to hold onto a late nine-point lead. Matt Bradley paced San Diego State with 16 points, and Micah Parrish chipped in 11.
NO. 24 TEXAS A&amp;M 69, MISSISSIPPI 61
OXFORD, Miss. (AP) &mdash; Tyrece Radford scored 13 points as Texas A&amp;M erased an early 12-point deficit to beat Mississippi.
Wade Taylor IV added 12 points and seven assists and Julius Marble scored 10 for the Aggies, who went 13 of 16 from the free-throw line in the second half to stave off the Rebels&rsquo; attempt at a late rally.
Texas A&amp;M (22-8, 14-3 Southeastern Conference) trailed 20-8 after seven minutes but took a 29-26 lead on Taylor&rsquo;s 3-pointer with 4:06 left in the first half. The Aggies never trailed again.
Matthew Murrell made 8 of 11 from 3-point range and scored 26 points to lead Ole Miss (11-19, 3-13).

The Golden Eagles had not won an outright regular-season crown since doing so in Conference USA in 2003.

No. 6 Marquette clinches first outright Big East title

The <a class="c-link" tabindex="-1" href="https://www.basketballnetwork.net/toni-kukoc-reveals-a-special-fine-phil-jackson-had-for-big-men/" target="_blank" rel="noopener" data-stringify-link="https://www.basketballnetwork.net/giannis-antetokounmpo-shares-why-he-doesnt-associate-or-practice-with-other-nba-players-in-the-offseason/" data-sk="tooltip_parent" data-remove-tab-index="true">following article</a>&nbsp;first appeared on&nbsp;<a class="c-link" tabindex="-1" href="http://basketballnetwork.net/" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer" data-stringify-link="http://BasketballNetwork.net" data-sk="tooltip_parent" data-remove-tab-index="true">BasketballNetwork.net</a>:
Reaching the mountaintop gives a man perspective. For Toni Kukoč, joining the Naismith Basketball Hall of Fame was that mountaintop. He achieved everything a basketball player could ever dream of, and it gave Kukoč the freedom to talk about the game with as little bias as possible.
As a key member of one of the greatest teams ever to play, Kukoč is often asked to compare teams to the 1990s Bulls. The &ldquo;back in my day&rdquo; arguments are often superficial, but the Croatian big man sees something good in them &mdash; fire and passion about the game that never leaves a true champion&rsquo;s heart.
&ldquo;Everyone&rsquo;s going to say their generation played the best basketball and everyone has their arguments," Kukoc <a href="https://www.index.hr/sport/clanak/ekskluzivno-toni-kukoc-za-index-se-potpuno-otvorio-i-dao-najveci-intervju-u-zivotu/2309354.aspx?index_ref=naslovnica_sport_prva_d" target="_blank" rel="noopener">told Croatian online newspaper Index.hr</a>. "The older generation will say &lsquo;If only I had private jets, massage therapists, nutritionists and a million dollars to spend on oxygen chambers, and YouTube to watch other players and learn from them.' When I hear that, and I want to be clear, there&rsquo;s a case to be made there; I&rsquo;m happy because it means the old guys still have the competitive spirit and would like to take on the younger generations.&rdquo;
Most of the time, we hear a guy saying, &ldquo;Get off my lawn&rdquo; when discussions like that start. That&rsquo;s where age and experience can provide perspective. It&rsquo;s easy to say older players are haters when pointing out the circumstances they had to play in vs. what the league is today, and social media programs us to take people at their worst. What Kukoč is saying is that we should take them at their best. It&rsquo;s not hate; it&rsquo;s the competitive drive that made those from the previous era the champions they are.
However, that doesn&rsquo;t mean Kukoč won&rsquo;t compare his era to today&rsquo;s NBA. He just does it without any bitterness or an ax to grind.
&ldquo;You could get away with more in my day. I&rsquo;m primarily talking about defense when I say that It was a more physical game," Kukoč <a href="https://www.index.hr/sport/clanak/ekskluzivno-toni-kukoc-za-index-se-potpuno-otvorio-i-dao-najveci-intervju-u-zivotu/2309354.aspx?index_ref=naslovnica_sport_prva_d" target="_blank" rel="noopener">said</a>. "Detroit, Boston, New York, Indiana &mdash; all East teams played a similar game. Back then, the consensus was East teams played better defense and West teams played better offense. Games were a lot stronger back then &mdash; not quicker, but stronger. The NBA&rsquo;s put in a lot of effort to protect the best players. We won&rsquo;t see the heavy fouls as we use to on [Isiah] Thomas, [Larry] Bird or [Michael] Jordan. And that&rsquo;s normal.&rdquo;
Kukoč disagrees with older fans who fell in love with basketball in the '90s when they say today&rsquo;s game and the players are weak. He believes the modern game has a lot more speed, and still has strength and new elements that make it a lot more dynamic. His Bulls were avant-garde by playing Dennis Rodman as a small-ball 5. Still, they did certain things the old way, and there was a price to pay if you broke the rules.
&ldquo;I remember we had a rule [with] the Bulls. 4s and 5s could only shoot the three if it was the last second of the possession," Kukoč <a href="https://www.index.hr/sport/clanak/ekskluzivno-toni-kukoc-za-index-se-potpuno-otvorio-i-dao-najveci-intervju-u-zivotu/2309354.aspx?index_ref=naslovnica_sport_prva_d" target="_blank" rel="noopener">said</a>. "If they launched one with more than a second on the clock and missed, Phil [Jackson] would fine them $500. Players like that [today] are expected to launch it early in a possession.&rdquo;
The drawback to power forwards and centers having free reign to shoot from behind the arc is that some players never develop an inside game. But that doesn&rsquo;t mean shooting is terrible &mdash; it just means the pendulum swung way too much in that direction. Still, a time where guys in Chicago got fined on rangier shot attempts simply because of their size also wasn&rsquo;t great. You don&rsquo;t get a Dirk Nowitzki if he had so much pressure every time he took a shot.
The pinnacle of basketball is a complete game. The players we adore the most, like MJ and Kobe Bryant, were special because they could do it all. Speed it up, and slow it down. Drain it from outside, go to work in the mid-range and back a smaller guy down.
Toni <a href="https://www.index.hr/sport/clanak/ekskluzivno-toni-kukoc-za-index-se-potpuno-otvorio-i-dao-najveci-intervju-u-zivotu/2309354.aspx?index_ref=naslovnica_sport_prva_d" target="_blank" rel="noopener">said it best</a>: &ldquo;The game is fast, beautiful, and I like it this way, but that doesn&rsquo;t mean I have a bad word to say about the game back then.&rdquo;
Check out more articles from BasketballNetwork.net <a href="https://www.basketballnetwork.net/" target="_blank" rel="noopener">here</a>.

Toni Kukoc spoke on how the current NBA product differs from the past — and why that's okay.

Najee