There was plenty of action across college basketball on Tuesday night, but no game stood close in terms of matchup to the one that went down in Fiserv Forum. Two top 15 teams battled it out in Milwaukee, both coming off impressive victories.

The 6th-ranked Purdue Boilermakers came into Fiserv Forum at 4-0, most recently picking up a win over then-ranked #2 Alabama at home. The home team, Marquette, came into the game ranked 15th, jumping up a handful of spots after a road win last Friday at Maryland. Both teams had yet to take a blemish, but something had to give in this one.

We were blessed with a battle of two of the country’s top guards, both coming back to school after successful seasons and now looking to cement their legacy. Purdue’s Braden Smith didn’t have a tremendous night by his standards, but still impacted the game in a positive way for the Boilermakers, finishing with 11 points, four rebounds, and nine assists while committing just two turnovers. Marquette’s Kam Jones is the man that stole the show, logging a triple-double with 17 points, 13 rebounds, and 10 assists – the last of which came on Marquette’s final offensive possession. Jones had already shown his scoring prowess in Marquette’s first four games of the season, going for 32 against Stony Brook and 28 against Maryland, but the effect he had on every faucet of the game Tuesday night was key for Marquette getting past Purdue.

Even with the star-studded freshmen class we have this season, it’s still special to see these stars coming back to their schools as upperclassmen and leading the way. Jones is a guy I admittedly wrongly snubbed from my preseason All-American teams but is a guy that would very likely be a first teamer if the teams were selected today. I was scared a bit about this Marquette team preseason with the losses of Tyler Kolek and Oso Ighodaro, but Kam Jones has turned himself into the alpha of this team. Alongside his obvious leadership with the way he scores and handles the ball, there’s also been moments like the end of the George Mason game, where Kam Jones came sprinting in at the defense of his teammate Ben Gold after Gold took a hard foul in the final moments of the win.

As for how the game played out on Tuesday night, the Golden Eagles led for the final 30 minutes, but the game was a heck of a lot closer than the 76-58 final score. It wasn’t until the final eight minutes when Marquette went on an 8-0 run across a three-minute span to put the game to rest, going up 63-49. Stevie Mitchell led Marquette with 21 points, but the obvious story was Jones’ triple-double, the first for Marquette since Dwyane Wade’s against Kentucky in the Elite Eight of the 2003 NCAA Tournament.

My one question I still have for this Marquette team is where the consistent bench production will come from. The Golden Eagles got just six points from their bench tonight, and three of their five starters played 35+ minutes. The top five is extremely talented, but to compete with UConn at the top of the Big East and to make a deep run in March, you’re going to need at least one of Royce Parham, Caedin Hamilton, Zaide Lowery, or Tre Norman to step up in a big way. Right now, it’s hard to complain though, as Marquette sits at 5-0 with a true road win at Maryland and a top 10 win at home over Purdue.

Other Things to Note:

• Hunter Dickinson goes for 15 & 15 as #1 Kansas handles UNCW 84-66
• #2 UConn improves to 4-0 with dominant win over East Texas A&M
• #9 Kentucky goes for 97 in home win over Lipscomb
• Eric Dixon’s 23 puts Villanova back on track with Big 5 win over Penn
• C.M. Newton Classic in Birmingham pits #25 Illinois against #8 Alabama (9:00 ET, SECN)