The hearts of out-of-state Marquette men's basketball fanatics probably sank after glancing at the schedule for the upcoming 2005-'06 season.
The feeling of letdown would result from two games: home games against powerhouse Connecticut (Jan. 3) and rival Cincinnati (Jan. 7) fall during winter break. But students from outside Wisconsin are not the only ones disappointed.
"The one troublesome thing is that school won't be in session (when UCONN and Cincinnati visit)," said head coach Tom Crean. "We're going to need to be creative in getting students back."
Crean said he was trying to organize a way for buses to transport students in
neighboring cities to the pair of high-profile games. This grassroots effort to
maintain high student interest in the program exhibits how seriously Crean is
taking his squad's first season in the new 16-team Big East.
Another example of this is Marquette's non-conference schedule, which, aside
from the Great Alaska Shootout and games at Nebraska and Wisconsin, lets the Golden Eagles play comfortable games at the Bradley Center.
"If you look around at other schedules … they don't play a lot of non-league
games away from home," Crean said. "We're just kind of following the blueprint laid out by other teams in the Big East."
He cited the non-conference schedules of Syracuse and Pittsburgh in recent years as examples. Syracuse will participate in the Coaches vs. Cancer Classic in New York and will have one true road game at Towson University in Maryland.
The Panthers will play just two non-conference road games this year, only one of which will be outside of Pittsburgh (at South Carolina).
Marquette opens its season Nov. 18 against Rice as part of the Blue & Gold Classic at the Bradley Center.
Out of 16 Big East games this season, Marquette will play 10 teams once and three teams (Notre Dame, DePaul and Pittsburgh) twice. The Golden Eagles will face neither Syracuse nor South Florida in the regular season.
This article was published in The Marquette Tribune on September 13, 2005.