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. 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. 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. I had unbelievable respect for the tradition and the name. According to Crean, "Once Marquette became available, that's where my sights were. Tom Crean took over the program on March 30, 1999. 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. Two days later, Marquette defeated Dean Smith's North Carolina Tar Heels for the title. 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. In his final season as a collegiate head coach, McGuire led Marquette to its only NCAA basketball championship in 1977. McGuire coached with assistants Hank Raymonds and Rick Majerus, who would each have their own stints as head of the program following his departure. See also: List of Marquette Golden Eagles men's basketball seasons McGuire era Īl 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 game. 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. Marquette has also had 3 Naismith Memorial Basketball Hall of Fame and 4 National Collegiate Basketball Hall of Fame inductees. 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 first joined a conference in 1989, winning 5 conference regular season championships and 2 conference tournament championships. They were the national runner-up 1 time and have won 1 national championship. Marquette has made 35 NCAA tournament appearances, including 23 round of 32 appearances, 16 sweet sixteens, 7 elite eights, and 3 final fours. The team plays its home games at Fiserv Forum in downtown Milwaukee (also the home of the NBA's Milwaukee Bucks). 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.
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