by Dan Wolken, USA TODAY Sports

LEXINGTON, Ky. — Buzz Williams sat at a podium Thursday, still trying to process and analyze Marquette’s furious rally against Davidson minutes earlier, when his mind wandered to a player he had never heard of as recently as a year ago.

“Isn’t that something?” Williams said. “So proud of him. So thankful that he’s here.”

By all rights, shooting guard Trent Lockett should not be here starting for Marquette, trying to help the Golden Eagles get back to a third consecutive Sweet 16 on Saturday against Butler. He should be at Arizona State, a program where he had invested three years of his college career, helping build toward a possible NCAA tournament bid this season.

But last March, Lockett learned that his mother had been diagnosed with cancer for the second time. This time, it was lymphoma, following a bout with breast cancer when he was in high school. For Lockett, who lost his father to leukemia as a child, it was time to be closer to home.

“Transferring wasn’t in my mind at all until I got that news,” said Lockett, who grew up in the Minneapolis-St. Paul area. “It was hard to leave. I had grown so much at ASU, but given the circumstances, the best move was going to Marquette.”

And here’s where it’s worth a reminder that the hero of this story, in many ways, is none other than the NCAA. Yes, the same NCAA that embarrassed itself in the Miami investigation. The same NCAA that protects an obsolete ideal of amateurism while collecting $740 million in television rights from this very tournament. The same NCAA that can’t even get rid of rules nobody likes without a bureaucratic blowback or institute good ones like a $2,000 stipend without schools crying poor. The same NCAA that is fighting for survival against a rising tide of critics and lawsuits.

Even the signature moment of the NCAA’s signature event was tinged with internal angst, as Ole Miss’ Marshall Henderson said what many college athletes think: “I’m tired of doing all this stuff for free.”

But amidst all the criticism, Lockett’s case is one that … [For more on Marquette's Trent Lockett benefits from NCAA transfer rules, click here.]