Marquette basketball came into 1968 gaining steam under the leadership of head coach Al McGuire. Starting from close to rock bottom in 1965, Al had gradually improved the Warrior program and in 1967 reached the finals of the NIT. In ’68, Marquette took the next step—they reached an NCAA Tournament that then took just 25 […]
Al McGuire had inherited a Marquette program that was at rock bottom in 1964, coming off a 5-21 season. Over the next two seasons, Al nudged the Warriors up to .500. It was in 1967 that Marquette basketball made the definitive stride forward that set the stage for a decade of success in Milwaukee. MODEST […]
The Marquette basketball program came into the 1982 season needing a comeback year. In 1981, a ten-year streak of NCAA Tournament bids had ended. The program, then one of the Catholic independents of the Midwest, was struggling in a new world where the Big East was rising and cutting off old recruiting pipelines. In 1982, […]
Marquette basketball came into the 1981 season on a run of ten straight NCAA Tournament appearances, and in an era when March Madness was considerably more restrictive than it is today. But 1980 had shown some warning signs, as they slipped to the bubble and were blown out in the first round. In 1981, the […]
Marquette had been a national power going back to 1968. Under the leadership of the charismatic Al McGuire, the Warriors made the Final Four in 1974 and won a national title in 1977. When McGuire handed the reins to his top assistant, Hank Raymonds, Marquette continued to be a legitimate national contender in 1978 and […]
Marquette basketball had grown accustomed to being a national contender by 1979. Over the last decade, the Warriors were consistently one of college basketball’s marquee teams. That included a Final Four season in 1974 and a national championship in 1977. And while 1978, the first year after the retirement of legendary head coach Al McGuire […]
Marquette basketball was facing a new world in 1978, one without Al McGuire. Their great head coach had gone out in a blaze of glory in 1977, winning the national championship after announcing his retirement. Al’s top assistant, Hank Raymonds, was promoted to the head job. Throughout the regular season, it looked like nothing had […]
The 1977 Marquette basketball team had come off a strong run in 1976 that ended in a tournament loss to Bob Knight’s undefeated Indiana team in a regional final. Al McGuire, later to gain fame as an NBC commentator was the head coach. McGuire was out of New York, colorful, witty and bombastic and in the days before the Big East got control of the New York area, was able to successfully recruit the Big Apple and get talent back to the Midwest
Al McGuire successfully integrated several new players into the Marquette lineup in 1975 while keeping the Warriors on the national landscape. In 1976, that growth continued. Marquette was again a nationally elite team. In fact, this team came very close to perfection and was only blocked from the Final Four by a team that actually […]
Marquette was coming off a breakthrough Final Four appearance in 1974, but Al McGuire’s program had some rebuilding to do. Maurice Lucas, their great power forward, had left early for the NBA. The only senior starter, center Jerry Homan, didn’t average in double figures. The Warriors didn’t match their ’74 performance. But with the emergence […]
As he entered his 10th season on the sidelines at Marquette, Al McGuire had turned the Warrior basketball program into a consistent winner. He was routinely winning 20-plus games and making the NCAA Tournament, in an era when both objectives were far less commonplace than is the case today. What he hadn’t yet done was […]
The 1977 Final Four was the year Al McGuire rode into retirement in a blaze of glory with the Marquette Warriors. It was also a year when Jerry Tarkanian made his first appearance on college basketball’s big stage, when Cornbread Maxwell led upstart UNC-Charlotte and when Dean Smith’s North Carolina team might have won it all if not for an untimely injury. Here’s a look back on the road all four teams took to Atlanta.