1971 Marquette Basketball: Perfect Until March

Marquette basketball was rolling coming into 1971. Al McGuire had the Warriors on a run of three straight 20-plus win seasons in an era when that threshold was a key benchmark for victories. MU made the Sweet 16 in 1968 and 1969. In 1970, a highly ranked team turned down an NCAA bid and won what was then a more prestigious NIT. In 1971, Marquette reached one level higher—an undefeated regular season before heartbreak in March left them short of the Final Four.

A DYNAMIC DUO

Marquette was led by the inside-outside combo of Jim Chones and Dean Meminger. Chones, a 6’11” sophomore, anchored the low post and averaged 18 points/12 rebounds per game. The 6’1” Meminger, a senior on his way to being a first-round pick in the upcoming NBA draft, dropped 21ppg and was an All-American.

McGuire surrounded his two stars with quality support. Gary Brell was on the wing, and averaged 13 points/9 rebounds/3 assists. Bob Lackey, another forward, scored 13ppg and went to the boards, averaging nine rebounds a night. And the coach’s son, Allie McGuire, ran with Meminger in the backcourt and passed for four assists per game.

Expectations were high in Milwaukee, and Marquette opened the season ranked #6 in the country.

OUT OF THE GATE QUICK

The Warriors opened the season with a 95-72 win over St. Louis, a team that went on to win the Missouri Valley Conference’s regular season title. At 3-0, MU hosted a good Long Beach State team, one bound for the Elite Eight and delivered a decisive 83-66 win. Late in December, the Warriors hosted the two-day Milwaukee Classic holiday tournament, knocking off both Dartmouth and a bad Wisconsin squad.

When the calendar flipped to the New Year, Marquette was 7-0 and had moved up to #3 in the polls. This was an era when the regular season had to be played with more urgency, as only 25 teams qualified for the NCAA Tournament. But even by that stricter standard, the Warriors were looking good.

A RIVALRY COMES ALIVE

After rolling through mediocre-to-bad Midwest Catholic rivals in the University of Detroit (today’s Detroit Mercy), Loyola-Illinois and Xavier, Marquette was set for a showdown with ninth-ranked Notre Dame.

Simply the fact that two Top 10 Catholic schools from the Midwest were squaring off made this a big game. But further juice was added by the fact this was the first time since 1959 the Warriors and Irish had met. McGuire, and Notre Dame counterpart Johnny Dee, got the game back on the schedule and with both schools at their height, it would be a staple of college basketball in the decade to come.

This Irish time had a 38ppg scorer in Austin Carr and were bound for the Sweet 16. But Marquette sent them back to South Bend with a 71-66 loss. Then the Warriors beat another eventual NCAA Tournament team in New Mexico State, coached by Lou Henson.

The Warriors went on to roll DePaul, where Ray Meyer was suffering through a miserable season. On that same January Saturday, Notre Dame knocked off top-ranked UCLA. When the new polls came out, Marquette was #1 in the nation.

THE ROAD TO PERFECTION

McGuire’s troops continued to roll in late January and early February, dropping 80-plus points as they cruised through rematches against Loyola-Illinois, Wisconsin, and DePaul. They went on the road to play Air Force and Creighton, both teams hovering around .500 and won both, although Eddie Sutton’s Creighton made it a close 66-61 battle.

During this stretch, UCLA, winners of six of the seven previous NCAA titles under John Wooden, won a high-profile battle with USC where both teams were ranked in the top five. The Bruins returned to the top of the rankings. Marquette just kept churning forward.

On February 25, McGuire took his team to Madison Square Garden to play Fordham. The Rams were ranked #11 in the country and would get an NCAA bid. They had a charismatic first-year coach named Digger Phelps, who wound up at Notre Dame a year later.

The Warriors nipped the Rams 85-80 and their last big test of the regular season. They rolled through the final three games against Tulane, Bowling Green, and Xavier to complete their 23-0 masterpiece.

Now it was time to see if McGuire could make the big breakthrough and get to a Final Four.

MARCH BEGINS WELL

The NCAA Tournament was not seeded, not even informally. That’s evident by the fact that the #2 team in the nation did not get one of the eight byes into the Sweet 16. Marquette, placed in the Mideast Regional (the organizational forerunner of today’s South bracket), had to play a first-round game in South Bend.

Miami-Ohio was the opponent. The Redskins won the MAC and had a balanced lineup, although with four players averaging between 10-12 ppg, they had no clear go-to guy.

Marquette played tough defense, holding Miami to 38 percent shooting and the Warriors dominated the boards to the tune of 42-21. Meminger scored, getting 21 points. Lackey rebounded, with 12 boards. Chones did both, posting a 21/14 line. Miami hung with MU for a half, trailing only 23-21. But the Warriors shot 58 percent, heated up after intermission, and cruised to a 62-47 win.

ONE POINT SHORT

Big Ten champion Ohio State awaited down in Athens, GA. Coached by the great Fred Taylor, the Buckeyes had a 7’0” big man in Luke Witte who could match up with Chones. They had scorers in the backcourt, with Allan Hornyak and Jim Cleamons.

A defensive battle ensued. Marquette and Ohio State both shot under 40 percent. Chones got his numbers against Witte, going for 18/10, although he the MU big man didn’t shoot well. Games like this are often determined by which player finds that offensive gear. On this Thursday night in Georgia, that was Cleamons. He hit seven of his 13 shots and the dream Warrior season ended with a crushing 60-59 loss.

The NCAA played consolation games in the regionals through 1974, so Marquette had to come back and play Kentucky. Meminger poured in 30, while Chones racked up a 27/12 line and the Warriors won easily, 91-74.

STILL CHASING GLORY

There’s no denying two things—that the 1971 Marquette squad was McGuire’s best team to date. And that the Warriors had reached the point where getting to the NCAA Tournament and even the regionals were starting to become core expectations, not measurements of success.

For better and for worse, the next two years held more of the same—good Top 10 teams that reached the Sweet 16 and came up short. But McGuire and Marquette kept coming. In 1974, they broke through and reached the Final Four. And in 1977, they took the final step and won it all.