College basketball rankings: No. 4 Marquette tops Butler with huge Big East showdown vs. UConn up next

UConn is the favorite to win the Big East in part because the Huskies have a two-game lead in the conference standings with just seven contests remaining. That means Marquette is unlikely to repeat as league champs this season. But that doesn’t mean things aren’t going well for Shaka Smart’s team because things are still going remarkably well for the Golden Eagles, evidence being how they improved to 19-5 Tuesday night with a 78-72 win at Butler that allowed Marquette to remain No. 4 in Wednesday morning’s updated CBS Sports Top 25 And 1 daily college basketball rankings.

Tyler Kolek was the star again.

The 6-foot-3 point guard took 21 shots, made 10 of them and finished with 27 points, seven rebounds and five assists in 36 minutes inside Hinkle Fieldhouse. He’s now averaging 27.0 points, 9.0 assists and 7.0 rebounds in Marquette’s past two games while shooting 55.3% from the field and 58.3% from 3-point range.

“He’s always motivated — but even more so [now] to be his best,” Smart said of Kolek. “When you get to this time of the year, [in your] senior year, you know, it’s go-time.”

This weekend, it’s definitely go-time.

That’s because, on Saturday afternoon at 3 ET, Marquette is playing the first of two scheduled games against the only school its chasing in the Big East standings — UConn. The Golden Eagles will enter two games back of UConn in the loss column of the league standings (provided UConn doesn’t lose Wednesday at DePaul, which it obviously shouldn’t). On a busy Saturday, Marquette-UConn projects as the Game of the Weekend, and if Kolek wants to repeat as Big East Player of the Year, turning in another monster performance in a matchup with his biggest competition for the trophy, UConn’s Tristen Newton, would obviously be the best way to continue moving the needle back in his direction.

Wednesday’s Top 25 And 1 rankings