If a good magician should be able to perform tricks without letting anyone see how they are done, then whoever magicked-away the men's basketball season qualifies as a veritable Houdini.
One minute, the Golden Eagles are beating Wisconsin and playing close against Arizona, and the next, they are losing by 47 points to Louisville and barely showing up on Senior Day against conference-bottom feeder Saint Louis.
"It's hard for me because I don't really know what to say," senior forward Todd Townsend said. "We got off to a really good start, and expectations were raised for us.
"The next thing you know, injuries hit, (freshman point guard) Niv (Berkowitz) transferred. One day I woke up and it was like a whole different team as far as game time. I don't know what to say. I'm just surprised we ended the season the way we ended it."
The first half of the season offered no hints of the rocky ending to come. Marquette played excellent basketball to win the Black Coaches Association Classic, a three-day season-opening tournament held at the Bradley Center.
No one knew it then, but this would be one of the few times the Marquette offense would run at peak operating condition with all its parts healthy. Senior point guard Travis Diener made the offense go and created scoring opportunities for the entire team.
In leading Marquette in victories over Western Carolina, Illinois State and Air Force to win the tournament, Diener had 77 points and 15 assists, underscoring just how integral he was to the team.
The tournament also marked the emergence of senior forward Marcus Jackson, who established himself as a sorely-needed rebounding presence in Marquette's frontcourt.
Jackson would finish the season averaging 8.5 rebounds per game, good for fifth in Conference USA.
The team cruised through its non-conference schedule for the next month, amassing an 8-0 record before facing the Wisconsin Badgers at the Bradley Center Dec. 11. Diener and junior forward Steve Novak killed the Badgers from the perimeter, and Jackson and junior forward Chris Grimm combined on one of Marquette's best defensive efforts all year to shut down Wisconsin's leading scorers Mike Wilkinson and Alando Tucker. Marquette beat its intra-state rivals, 63-54.
The momentum from that win carried over to a hard-fought loss to Arizona — Marquette was able to hold the Wildcats to just 48 points — and a win over Nebraska. With a 12-1 record the Golden Eagles seemed ready to start the C-USA season.
Little did anyone know that what had looked like a slight ankle injury Diener suffered — and played through — during a win over South Dakota State Dec. 7 was about to pull the rug out from under Marquette's season.
After losing at Memphis and DePaul, it was revealed that Diener's injury was worse than previously thought, and the point guard was forced to miss the next three games.
Diener's absence was like an abyss on the floor, and Marquette was annihilated at Lousiville, 99-52. The next two games were not any better, as the team needed two overtimes to beat Saint Louis and dropped a home game to Alabama-Birmingham.
By the time Diener came back against Southern Miss Feb. 5, the Golden Eagles were sliding towards the lower third of the conference standings with a 3-5 C-USA record. Heartbreakers against Texas Christian and Louisville negated the wins against Southern Miss and Eastern Carolina, and the team was staring at a 5-7 C-USA record and an uphill climb to make the NCAA Tournament.
The last respite of the season came Feb. 20, when Marquette beat DePaul, 67-57. Diener scored 15 points with seven assists, three rebounds and one steal in his last game in a Marquette uniform.
The following Tuesday, Diener broke two fingers in his left hand in a freak accident in practice, and his season came to an end. Running an offense designed around a star player without that star player never really works out, which was the unfortunate reality the team faced as it won just one more game — against Houston March 2 — before bottoming out against Saint Louis at home.
The Golden Eagles scored just 39 points against the Billikens on Senior Day, and looked as sluggish and downtrodden as ever.
Despite playing well against Texas Christian for most of its opening-round matchup in the C-USA Tournament, Marquette displayed an inability to beat the press in the closing minutes and lost in overtime. Failing to make the NCAA Tournament, the Golden Eagles drew Western Michigan in the first round of the National Invitation Tournament — and rivaled their performance against SLU, scoring just 40 points and disappearing at home.
Just like their season.
This article appeared in The Marquette Tribune on April 7 2005.