Marquette Golden Eagles Men's Basketball

The Marquette Golden Eagles men's basketball team (formerly the Marquette Hilltoppers and Marquette Warriors) represents Marquette University in NCAA Division I college basketball and competes in the Big East Conference. The team plays its home games at Fiserv Forum in downtown Milwaukee.

Marquette has made 34 NCAA tournament appearances, including 23 round of 32 appearances, 16 sweet sixteens, 7 elite eights, and 3 final fours. They were the national runner-up 1 time and have won 1 national championship. Marquette first joined a conference in 1989, winning 4 conference regular season championships and 1 conference tournament championship. Marquette has had 3 national coaches of the year, 4 conference coaches of the year, 1 national player of the year, 9 consensus all-americans, 4 conference players of the year, and 16 all-conference first team selections. Marquette has also had 3 Naismith Memorial Basketball Hall of Fame and 4 National Collegiate Basketball Hall of Fame inductees. Additionally, 39 Marquette players have gone on to play in the NBA combining for 7 NBA championships, 25 NBA all-star selections, and 11 all-NBA selections.

History

McGuire era

Al McGuire became the head coach in 1964 and brought the program to national prominence, earning an NIT Championship in 1970 and a Final Four appearance in 1974 against the North Carolina State Wolfpack, where McGuire became the first coach ejected from a championship McGuire coached with assistants Hank Raymonds and Rick Majerus, who would each have their own stints as head of the program following his departure. In his final season as a collegiate head coach, McGuire led Marquette to its only NCAA basketball championship in 1977. Led by Alfred "Butch" Lee, Maurice "Bo" Ellis and Jerome Whitehead, the team beat UNC Charlotte in the national semifinals after Whitehead received a full-court pass and subsequently made a last-second shot. Two days later, Marquette defeated Dean Smith's North Carolina Tar Heels for the title. The team set a record with seven losses going into the NCAA tournament, the most losses up to that time for a team that would win the NCAA Championship.

Crean era

Tom Crean took over the program on March 30, 1999. According to Crean, "Once Marquette became available, that's where my sights were. I had unbelievable respect for the tradition and the name. When I thought of Marquette, I thought of a true basketball school and to me that had a lot to do with it." Crean immediately made a number of changes at Marquette, creating a new team image by increasing the significance of the team's media day and instituting a "Midnight Madness" event commonly held by schools on the night teams are allowed to begin practice. Crean's first recruiting class was considered by experts to be among the top twenty in the country, Marquette's first in a long time.

In his nine years with Marquette, Crean's teams earned five NCAA tournament bids, one more than the previous four Marquette coaches had in the 16 years prior to his arrival. During his tenure there Crean recruited, developed and coached a number of skilled players that made significant contributions in both the NCAA and NBA, including Dwyane Wade, Dominic James, Steve Novak, Wesley Matthews, and Travis Diener.

Over his final seven seasons at Marquette, Crean compiled an aggregate record of 160–68 (.702). The 2002–03 season was one of the best in Marquette history. The team made a Final Four appearance for the first time since winning the NCAA Championship in 1977. Crean has referred to the team's run as "one of the greatest four or five days of my life."

Later that year, Marquette accepted an offer to leave Conference USA for the Big East Conference after the 2004–2005 season. Big East commissioner Mike Tranghese cited his friendship with Crean as contributing to the invitation, saying, "That, to me, was one of the great appeals, to get Tommy as well as Marquette into the league."

Williams era

After Crean departed for the head job at Indiana, Buzz Williams was hired as the new head coach for the 2008–09 season, leading Marquette to a 25–10 record in and a second round loss to the Missouri Tigers in the 2009 NCAA tournament. He coached Marquette to a 22–12 record in the 2009–10 season, which ended with a close loss to the 11th-seeded Washington Huskies in the First Round of the 2010 NCAA tournament.

During the 2010–11 campaign, Williams led the Golden Eagles back to the Sweet Sixteen for the first time since 2003. His team went 22–15 including a 9–9 Big East Conference record. They lost in the quarterfinals of the 2011 Big East men's basketball tournament to Louisville. Marquette received an at-large bid in the 2011 NCAA tournament. There they defeated Xavier in the second round (formerly the First Round) and Syracuse in the Third Round to advance to the Sweet Sixteen. In the Sweet Sixteen, they were defeated by No. 7-ranked and No. 2-seeded North Carolina.

Wiliams' 2012 team returned to the NCAA tournament after finishing second in the Big East regular season, finishing 14–4 in conference play. As a No. 3 seed in the NCAA tournament, they defeated BYU and Murray State to advance to their second straight Sweet Sixteen. There, they lost to No. 7-seeded Florida.

After winning a share of the Big East Men's regular season championship, Marquette received an at-large bid in the 2013 NCAA tournament as a No. 3 seed. There, they earned come-from-behind victories over Davidson in the Second Round and Butler in the Third Round. In the Sweet Sixteen, the school's third straight under Williams, they defeated ACC regular season and conference champion Miami to earn a trip to Williams's first Elite Eight, where they lost to Syracuse.

The 2013–14 season was Williams' worst at Marquette, finishing 17–15 with a loss to Xavier in the Big East tournament.

Wojciechowski era

On April 1, 2014, Steve Wojciechowski was hired as the new Marquette head basketball coach, replacing Buzz Williams, who left for Virginia Tech.

On March 19, 2021 it was announced that Marquette had fired Wojciechowski after seven seasons.

Smart era

On March 26, 2021, Marquette University hired Shaka Smart to replace Wojciechowski as the Golden Eagles' head coach.

Postseason results

NCAA tournament

Marquette has appeared in the NCAA tournament 34 times. Their combined record is 41–35. They were National Champions in 1977.

NIT

Marquette has appeared in the National Invitation Tournament 16 times. Their combined record is 23–15. In 1970, Marquette was ranked 8th and received an at-large bid to the NCAA tournament. The NCAA slotted Marquette into the Midwest regional rather than the closer Mideast regional. Al McGuire was so displeased about this that Marquette actually turned down the NCAA bid and chose to instead play in the NIT, which they won. Marquette is the only university to spurn an NCAA tournament invite. The NCAA later instituted a rule which forbade an NCAA Division I men's basketball team from spurning an NCAA bid for an NIT bid. An antitrust case by the NIT ensued over this issue, and the NCAA settled out of court.

NCIT

Marquette appeared in the last National Catholic Invitational Tournament in 1952 and won the NCIT championship.

Coaches

Awards and honors

Coaching

National Coach of the Year
*Eddie Hickey (1959)
*Al McGuire (1971, 1974)

Great Midwest Conference Coach of the Year
* Kevin O'Neill (1993, 1994)

Conference USA Coach of the Year
*Tom Crean (2002, 2003)

Individual

National Player of the Year
*Butch Lee (1978)

Consensus All-America First Team
*Dean Meminger (1971)
*Jim Chones (1972)
*Butch Lee (1978)
*Dwyane Wade (2003)
*Markus Howard (2020)

Consensus All-America Second Team
*Earl Tatum (1976)
*Butch Lee (1977)
*Sam Worthen (1980)
*Markus Howard (2019)

Great Midwest Conference Player of the Year
*Jim McIlvaine (1994)

Conference USA Player of the Year
*Dwyane Wade (2003)

Big East Conference Player of the Year
*Jae Crowder (2012)
*Markus Howard (2019)

All-Midwestern Collegiate Conference First Team
* Tony Smith (1990)

All-Great Midwest Conference First Team
*Ron Curry (1993)
*Jim McIlvaine (1994)

All-Conference USA First Team
* Brian Wardle (2001)
*Dwyane Wade (2002, 2003)
*Travis Diener (2004, 2005)

All-Big East Conference First Team
*Steve Novak (2006)
*Dominic James (2007)
*Jerel McNeal (2009)
*Jae Crowder (2012)
*Darius Johnson-Odom (2012)
*Henry Ellenson (2016)
*Markus Howard (2019, 2020)
*Justin Lewis (2022)

Retired numbers

;Notes

Hall of Fame inductees

Naismith Memorial Basketball Hall of Fame

*Tex Winter (Contributor)
*Eddie Hickey (Coach)
*Al McGuire (Coach)

National Collegiate Basketball Hall of Fame

*Tex Winter (Coach)
*Eddie Hickey (Coach)
*Al McGuire (Coach)
*Rick Majerus (Coach)

All-time career leaders

Lists are accurate through the 2019–20 season.

Points

Rebounds

Assists

Steals

Blocks

Players in the NBA

Current

All-time

Players in international leagues

*Niv Berkowitz (born 1986), Israeli basketball player in the Israeli Basketball Premier League
* Joseph Chartouny, Lebanese Basketball League
*Sandy Cohen (born 1995), American-Israeli basketball player in the Israeli Basketball Premier League
*Henry Ellenson, Liga ACB
*Jayce Johnson (born 1997), basketball player in the Liga Națională
*Markus Howard, Saski Baskonia
* Jamil Wilson (born 1990), basketball player for Hapoel Jerusalem in the Israeli Basketball Premier League

References

External links

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