1969 Marquette Basketball: One Shot From the Final Four
Al McGuire had Marquette basketball on the rise in 1969. In an era when only 25 teams made the NCAA Tournament, the Warriors made the field in ’68, the culmination of a four-year rebuild. In 1969, Marquette showed it was no fluke. They returned to the NCAAs and came within a basket of the Final Four.
GEORGE THOMPSON LEADS THE WAY
George Thompson had been the focal point of Marquette’s emergence under Al, and the senior guard had a big year in ’69, averaging 20 points/8 rebounds per game. Dean Meminger ran alongside him and produced a 16/6 line.
In the frontcourt, Ric Cobb and Joe Thomas did the dirty work, combining to average 20 points and 19 rebounds a night. The Warriors were well-balanced and they opened the season ranked #15 in the country.
LOOKING FOR FOOTING
After opening the season with a tuneup win, Marquette traveled up to the Twin Cities to play Minnesota. The Gophers were a mediocre team, but they sent the Warriors back to Milwaukee with a 75-73 loss.
Marquette got another cupcake win, and then lost again, this time a 68-63 decision to Drake, who was bound for the Final Four. In our own day, a couple of quick losses doesn’t raise an eyebrow. In this era, with the much smaller NCAA Tournament bracket, it created an early sense of urgency.
The Warriors got their record healthy by rolling past woeful Denver, dropping 103 points on Valparaiso, and then knocking off Western Michigan. On the weekend between Christmas and New Year’s, Marquette hosted what was their annual four-team Milwaukee Classic holiday tournament. They handed Bob Knight’s Army team a 62-42 loss and then beat mediocre in-state rival Wisconsin 59-56.
Those early stumbles had the Warriors out of the rankings, but they seemed to be getting their footing as the calendar moved to the New Year.
A STATEMENT WIN
What this momentum needed was validation from beating a genuinely good team. That opportunity came on January 4, a Saturday home date with the University of Detroit (today called Detroit Mercy). The Titans were ranked #7 and Spencer Haywood was on his way to an astonishing year where he averaged 32 points/22 rebounds per game.
Marquette not only beat Detroit, they did it comfortably, 85-71. Then the Warriors kept it going by racking up wins against more pedestrian competition from the Midwest Catholic university sphere. They beat Loyola-Illinois twice, DePaul and Xaiver.
A loss at Wisconsin briefly broke the string, but Marquette made a return trip to Detroit and pulled out a 75-74 win. They were back in the rankings at #17 nationally, with an 11-3 record as February arrived.
TAKING CARE OF BUSINESS
The Warriors added a couple of easy wins and paid a visit to St. Bonaventure. A good 17-win team, with Bob Lanier—one day to anchor the middle of the Milwaukee Bucks lineup—having a dominant season—the Bonnies handed Marquette their worst loss of the season, an 84-62 beatdown.
But that was a blip on the radar. Marquette came back home and won their rematch with DePaul. The Warriors closed by the season beating three mediocre teams in Tulane, Creighton, and Air Force.
By season’s end, they were 22-4 and ranked #14 in the polls. They were going back to the NCAA Tournament.
RETURNING TO THE SWEET 16
There was no seeding in the NCAAs, not for another decade, although the six-team Mideast Regional the Warriors were placed in had their informal favorites in Purdue and Kentucky, who received byes into the Sweet 16. Marquette would open postseason play in Carbondale, Illinois, facing Murray State.
The Racers were led by forward Claude Virden, who delivered a 24/11 per-game average, but they had not beaten anyone of note. The Warriors got 23 points from Thompson. Jeff Sewell was hitting his shots, going 8-for-11 from the floor, and scoring 17. Marquette led 42-36 at halftime and then pulled away to win comfortably, 82-62.
For the second straight year, Al was going to the Sweet 16 for a date with Kentucky. But unlike 1968, when the Warriors had to play the Wildcats in Lexington, this year’s regionals were scheduled for Madison, where Marquette could enjoy a home-neutral environment.
BREAKTHROUGH
Kentucky was coached by Adolph Rupp and led by future NBA Hall of Famer Dan Issel down low. Then, as now, the Wildcats were considered one of the gold standard programs in college basketball.
Marquette’s defense responded by simply reducing Issel’s opportunities. While he got 16 rebounds, the Warriors held him to 13 points, less than half his season’s average. And they key was limiting him to eight shots from the floor. This was part of an overall defensive effort that held Kentucky to 41 percent shooting. That’s a low figure in today’s game. In 1969, with no shot clock and no three-point line leading to higher offensive efficiency, it was even worse.
In the meantime, Al was getting contributions from everywhere on the floor. Thompson and Meminger didn’t have the greatest of shooting nights themselves, combining to go 13-for-28, but they also combined to scored 42 points. The efficiency came from Cobb, who hit seven of eight shots, en route to a 17/14 line. And Sewell continued his hot March shooting, banging home seven of nine shots and scoring 15.
Marquette got the biggest win to date of the McGuire era, 81-74.
ONE BASKET SHORT
Purdue, with All-American Rick Mount averaging 33ppg, was the last roadblock to the Final Four. The Warrior defense again did a good job on a star player. In this case, they couldn’t stop Mount from shooting, but they did make him inefficient, as he went 11-for-32 from the floor.
Thompson scored 28 for Marquette, and Meminger and Thomas hit the boards, keying a decisive Marquette advantage on the glass. But the Warrior lineup otherwise struggled to give scoring help to Thompson. And they did not hit their free throws, going 19/29 from the charity stripe, while Purdue cashed in 17/20 of chances. The game went down to the wire, tied 73-73.
Purdue got the last shot, and it predictably went to Mount. From 22 feet out, he nailed it. A crushing 75-73 loss ended the Warrior season.
NATIONAL CONTENDERS
Losing on a buzzer-beater one game shy of the Final Four is never an easy pill to swallow, but there was also no denying the positive trajectory Marquette was clearly on. Throughout the 1970s, the Warriors would become one of college basketball’s signature programs. Al got his first Final Four trip in 1974. And in 1977, his final year, he got the big breakthrough with a national championship.