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Once Underdogs, They’re Still Playing With Chips on Their Shoulders

Near the start of the college basketball season, a reporter told Marquette point guard Tyler Kolek that the Golden Eagles had been picked to finish ninth out of 11 teams in the Big East Conference.

Kolek, staring at a board that depicted the predicted standings of the conference’s teams, dismissed the assessment and those who had made it with an expletive.

“We knew we were better than that, and we’re proving it now,” Kolek said last week during the Big East tournament.

Indeed they are. Kolek, a cocky but skilled 6-foot-3 point guard from Cumberland, R.