No. 10 seed Marquette will face South Carolina in East Regional
Matt Velazquez , Milwaukee Journal SentinelPublished 4:46 p.m. CT March 12, 2017 | Updated 2 hours ago
The wait is over for the Marquette men's basketball team. The Golden Eagles are going dancing again.
Watching along with family and friends at the Union Sports Annex on Sunday evening, the Golden Eagles (19-12) burst into celebration upon learning they had earned the No. 10 seed in the NCAA Tournament's East Region and will face No. 7 South Carolina (22-10) on Friday in Greenville, S.C.
Outside of graduate transfer Katin Reinhardt, who made the NCAA Tournament with UNLV and USC, this marks the first time for the rest of Marquette's roster as well as the Golden Eagles' first NCAA Tournament trip in three seasons under head coach Steve Wojciechowski.
The berth into the NCAA Tournament came three days after Marquette dropped its Big East tournament quarterfinal to Seton Hall, resulting in a three-day, cautiously optimistic wait for Selection Sunday. The Golden Eagles' inability to make the postseason in any of the past three seasons, a skid that followed eight straight trips to the Big Dance, magnified any anxiety surrounding the program.
Sunday's bracket reveal served to throw the proverbial monkey off the back of Marquette's program. The Golden Eagles' inclusion in this year's 68-team field is not only representative of the success of this season's team, but also the rebuilding effort that began shortly after Marquette's Elite Eight run in 2013.
Changes that touched all aspects of the program began in December 2013 when Larry Williams resigned from his post as athletic director and former AD Bill Cords took over on an interim basis. Just over three months later, head coach Buzz Williams, fresh off guiding the Golden Eagles to the worst record (17-15) of his six-year tenure, left the program to take the same position at Virginia Tech.
Buzz Williams' departure opened the door for Wojciechowski, a 15-year assistant coach at Duke, who took the reins at Marquette on April 1, 2014. Later that fall, Bill Scholl, who had previously served as the athletic director at Ball State, was named Marquette's athletic director.
Since then, the program's core has been stable and united in its focus on rebuilding the program with an eye toward long-term sustainability. That process took time and followed a difficult path.
Three players transferred away from Marquette in Wojciechowski's first eight months on the job, leaving the Golden Eagles with just eight scholarship players during nearly all of the 2014-'15 season. The result was a short-handed team that despite its best efforts didn't have the depth or talent to compete with the top teams in the Big East and finished with a 13-19 record — the program's first losing season since 1998-'99.
Following another transfer after the season ended, only four players who had taken the court returned for the 2015-'16 season. Still, expectations were high as Wojciechowski landed one of the top recruiting classes in the nation highlighted by forward Henry Ellenson. One of the youngest, least experienced teams in the nation, the Golden Eagles got off to a shaky start before rattling off nine straight wins during nonconference play.
However, a weak strength of schedule and an 8-10 record in the Big East left Marquette on the outside of the NCAA Tournament looking in despite a 20-13 record. A record 15 automatic qualifiers for the NIT meant there wasn't any room for the Golden Eagles in that tournament, either. Ellenson, the Big East freshman of the year, unsurprisingly left for the NBA after one season and was taken 18th overall by the Detroit Pistons.
For his third season, Wojciechowski built his team around a quartet of strong shooters. He brought in Andrew Rowsey, a transfer from UNC-Asheville who sat out the 2015-'16 season due to NCAA rules, sharp-shooting freshmen Markus Howard and Sam Hauser and added Reinhardt as a graduate transfer.
Adding those players to those already on Marquette's roster, including slashing senior Jajuan Johnson and senior center Luke Fischer, the owner of the best field-goal percentage in program history (62.1%), created one of the best, most efficient offenses in the country. The Golden Eagles poured in points all season, ultimately leading the country in three-point percentage (43.0%) and finishing in the top 10 in effective field goal percentage (6th) and free-throw percentage (7th).
On the way, Marquette compiled a 19-12 record, scoring wins over Vanderbilt and at Georgia in the nonconference portion of the season. The Golden Eagles then went 10-8 in Big East play, including knocking off reigning national champion Villanova for the program's first regular-season victory over a top-ranked team.
After years of rebuilding, this season's efforts were enough to get Marquette back into the NCAA Tournament. Now a new challenge awaits — keeping the season alive.
http://www.jsonline.com/story/sport...quette-seeded-no-10-ncaa-tournament/98875222/
Matt Velazquez , Milwaukee Journal SentinelPublished 4:46 p.m. CT March 12, 2017 | Updated 2 hours ago
The wait is over for the Marquette men's basketball team. The Golden Eagles are going dancing again.
Watching along with family and friends at the Union Sports Annex on Sunday evening, the Golden Eagles (19-12) burst into celebration upon learning they had earned the No. 10 seed in the NCAA Tournament's East Region and will face No. 7 South Carolina (22-10) on Friday in Greenville, S.C.
Outside of graduate transfer Katin Reinhardt, who made the NCAA Tournament with UNLV and USC, this marks the first time for the rest of Marquette's roster as well as the Golden Eagles' first NCAA Tournament trip in three seasons under head coach Steve Wojciechowski.
The berth into the NCAA Tournament came three days after Marquette dropped its Big East tournament quarterfinal to Seton Hall, resulting in a three-day, cautiously optimistic wait for Selection Sunday. The Golden Eagles' inability to make the postseason in any of the past three seasons, a skid that followed eight straight trips to the Big Dance, magnified any anxiety surrounding the program.
Sunday's bracket reveal served to throw the proverbial monkey off the back of Marquette's program. The Golden Eagles' inclusion in this year's 68-team field is not only representative of the success of this season's team, but also the rebuilding effort that began shortly after Marquette's Elite Eight run in 2013.
Changes that touched all aspects of the program began in December 2013 when Larry Williams resigned from his post as athletic director and former AD Bill Cords took over on an interim basis. Just over three months later, head coach Buzz Williams, fresh off guiding the Golden Eagles to the worst record (17-15) of his six-year tenure, left the program to take the same position at Virginia Tech.
Buzz Williams' departure opened the door for Wojciechowski, a 15-year assistant coach at Duke, who took the reins at Marquette on April 1, 2014. Later that fall, Bill Scholl, who had previously served as the athletic director at Ball State, was named Marquette's athletic director.
Since then, the program's core has been stable and united in its focus on rebuilding the program with an eye toward long-term sustainability. That process took time and followed a difficult path.
Three players transferred away from Marquette in Wojciechowski's first eight months on the job, leaving the Golden Eagles with just eight scholarship players during nearly all of the 2014-'15 season. The result was a short-handed team that despite its best efforts didn't have the depth or talent to compete with the top teams in the Big East and finished with a 13-19 record — the program's first losing season since 1998-'99.
Following another transfer after the season ended, only four players who had taken the court returned for the 2015-'16 season. Still, expectations were high as Wojciechowski landed one of the top recruiting classes in the nation highlighted by forward Henry Ellenson. One of the youngest, least experienced teams in the nation, the Golden Eagles got off to a shaky start before rattling off nine straight wins during nonconference play.
However, a weak strength of schedule and an 8-10 record in the Big East left Marquette on the outside of the NCAA Tournament looking in despite a 20-13 record. A record 15 automatic qualifiers for the NIT meant there wasn't any room for the Golden Eagles in that tournament, either. Ellenson, the Big East freshman of the year, unsurprisingly left for the NBA after one season and was taken 18th overall by the Detroit Pistons.
For his third season, Wojciechowski built his team around a quartet of strong shooters. He brought in Andrew Rowsey, a transfer from UNC-Asheville who sat out the 2015-'16 season due to NCAA rules, sharp-shooting freshmen Markus Howard and Sam Hauser and added Reinhardt as a graduate transfer.
Adding those players to those already on Marquette's roster, including slashing senior Jajuan Johnson and senior center Luke Fischer, the owner of the best field-goal percentage in program history (62.1%), created one of the best, most efficient offenses in the country. The Golden Eagles poured in points all season, ultimately leading the country in three-point percentage (43.0%) and finishing in the top 10 in effective field goal percentage (6th) and free-throw percentage (7th).
On the way, Marquette compiled a 19-12 record, scoring wins over Vanderbilt and at Georgia in the nonconference portion of the season. The Golden Eagles then went 10-8 in Big East play, including knocking off reigning national champion Villanova for the program's first regular-season victory over a top-ranked team.
After years of rebuilding, this season's efforts were enough to get Marquette back into the NCAA Tournament. Now a new challenge awaits — keeping the season alive.
http://www.jsonline.com/story/sport...quette-seeded-no-10-ncaa-tournament/98875222/
