1972 Marquette Basketball: A Perfect Season Upended

By 1972, Marquette basketball had settled into a consistent pattern under Al McGuire. Over the past four years, they had grown into nationally elite program, but one that was still seeking its first Final Four trip. The 1972 Marquette Warriors were in position to get that breakthrough, until one of the more dramatic early departure decisions in college basketball history altered their trajectory.

JIM CHONES ANCHORS A CONTENDER

Jim Chones was the heart of the Warrior lineup. The 6’11” center averaged 21 points/12 rebounds per game and keyed a strong Marquette front line. Bob Lackey and Larry McNeil were the forwards, going 6’6” and 6’9” respectively and combining for 28 points/17 boards a night.

Marcus Washington, a sophomore, ran the floor show, chipping in 12ppg while handing out four assists. The Warriors were not deep, but they had a solid core, and they were ranked #4 in the preseason polls.

AN UNBEATEN START

After a tuneup win over Bowling Green started the season, Marquette moved into a series of challenging December games. Memphis, coached by Gene Bartow, would win the Missouri Valley Conference. The Warriors went on the road and nipped the Tigers 74-73. MU beat an 18-win Fordham team and a respectable Michigan squad.

The biggest early win came at home over Minnesota. The Golden Gophers would win the Big Ten title and had a forward in their lineup named Dave Winfield. In a grinding game, Marquette won 55-40.

In the annual Milwaukee Classic, a four-team holiday tournament the Warriors hosted, they doubled up lowly Georgetown 88-44 and then beat NCAA Tournament-bound Marshall by a bucket.

On January 3, Marquette hosted the annual rivalry game with Wisconsin. A so-so- Badger team put up a good fight, but the Warriors escaped with a 72-70 win. They were 8-0 and had nudged up to #2 in the polls, trailing only John Wooden’s UCLA.

A BIG NATIONAL WIN

Six days later, Marquette was in South Carolina for a high-profile showdown with the fourth-ranked Gamecocks, coached by the legendary Frank McGuire (no relation to Al). The Warriors pulled out a 72-71 thriller.

Even with the NCAA Tournament inviting only 25 teams in this era, and even with independents like Marquette often at a disadvantage, the Warriors were riding high and well on their way to March. They traveled across the country, cleaned up a bad Nevada team and came back home to settle into a sequence of games against their Midwest Catholic brethren.

RUNNING THROUGH THE MIDWEST

Marquette’s ability to win close games continued against a competitive 18-win team from the University of Detroit. The Warriors nipped the Titans 68-66. Loyola-Chicago wasn’t particularly good, but the Ramblers were built around LaRue Martin, on his way to being the #1 overall pick in the NBA draft. Marquette beat them twice, 80-70 at home and 69-67 on the road.

DePaul was going through a mediocre stretch under the legendary Ray Meyer, and the Warriors got two wins over the Blue Demons, 70-61 in Milwaukee and 79-61 in Chicago. Notre Dame was generally good in this era, but first-year head coach Digger Phelps was going through a major roster transition this year. The Warriors beat the Irish 71-62.

MU blew out mediocre Xavier by 20. It was early February and if a critic wanted to look closely enough, they could find a lot of narrow escapes. But no matter how closely a critic looked, the one thing they wouldn’t find was any defeats. Marquette was 17-0, holding steady at #2 in the country behind UCLA.

THE OFFER THAT CHANGED EVERYTHING

The Warriors cruised through home wins over Air Force and Butler. Then MU knocked off the University of Jacksonville, a competitive program in this era. They had now won 53 straight regular season games, not having lost outside the NCAA Tournament since a one-point loss at Notre Dame in 1970.

This was taking place in the context of professional basketball going through some tumult. The American Basketball Association (ABA) was becoming a credible challenger to the NBA, credible enough to force a merger five years later. In 1972, the ABA was aggressively going after stars and top college prospects.

And one of the ABA’s franchises, the New Jersey Nets, set their sights on Jim Chones.

Chones received a lucrative contract offer, but it came with a tight deadline. He had ten hours to decide whether to sign. And the condition was that he left Marquette right away to join the Nets.

Chones signed the deal.

McGuire adamantly stood by Chones. The head coach insisted that he could never in good conscience have discouraged Chones from taking the steps needed to provide for his family.

In the meantime, Marquette’s season, and college basketball’s chase for the Final Four, had been turned upside down.

MOVING ON WITHOUT CHONES

The Warriors won their first game after Chones’ departure, beating Eddie Sutton’s Creighton. But a week later, Marquette went to Detroit and took a 70-49 drubbing. After beating Xavier and Tulane, the Warriors dropped their season finale to New Mexico State, a solid 19-win team coached by Lou Henson.

Marquette closed the regular season 23-2 and ranked #7 in the country. But without their best player, it was hard to feel optimistic about the upcoming NCAA Tournament.

With just 25 teams in the field, eight were bracketed directly into the Sweet 16. But the tournament was not formally seeded, and Marquette was not one of those eight teams. They had to play in the first round. MU was in the Mideast Region (the organizational forerunner of today’s South bracket) and sent to Knoxville for the opening round.

OPENING WITH OHIO

Ohio had won the MAC title, but the Bobcats were a pedestrian 15-11, and had played just .500 ball outside their conference. Marquette held Ohio’s leading scorer, guard Tom Corde, to just seven points. McNeil and Lackey each went for 20-point games. The Warriors were up 32-20 by halftime and cruised to a 73-49 win.

ALL OUT OF ANSWERS

Marquette’s string of Sweet 16 trips now went back to 1968, broken only in 1970 by McGuire’s famous refusal of an NCAA bid to play in the NIT. But this Warrior team was going to Dayton for the regionals overmatched without Chones.

They hung in there with Kentucky as well as could be expected, even leading 34-33 at the half. Lackey scored 21 points. But Washington had an awful shooting night, and the Wildcats could wear down the Warriors up front. Kentucky beat MU on the boards, pulled away and won 85-69.

Regional play included a consolation game through 1974, and Marquette had a rematch with Minnesota to finish the season. McNeil had a 21/10 line, but this time it was Lackey’s turn to struggle shooting the ball and the Warriors dropped a 77-72 decision.

THE GREAT WHAT-IF

1972 was a deflating finish, a vintage what-might-have-been scenario for a program that was getting hungry for more. Marquette was knocking on the door. It would be 1974 that Al finally got his Final Four breakthrough and 1977 that he ultimately won it all. 1972 remains one of the big what-ifs, not just for Marquette, but for anyone in college basketball.