First, a disclaimer: I like to think I know a thing or two about sports, but recent evidence shows there’s a strong possibility that I actually know nothing about sports.
My bracket is more busted than Yao Ming’s metatarsals, so what I’ve been writing all year may have been nothing more than the incoherent ramblings of a madman.
But, as they say, there’s a fine line between genius and insanity.
Before the season, I predicted Marquette would make the “Sweet 16” in the NCAA Tournament. When the men finished with 14 losses and a .500 conference record, I found myself landing in the insane column.
I learned Sunday it can be pretty comfy in the cuckoo’s nest.
If you didn’t hear Gus Johnson screaming from Cleveland, junior guard Darius Johnson-Odom drilled a crunch-time 3-pointer against Syracuse, clinching a “Sweet” spot for the Golden Eagles for the first time since some guy named Dwyane Wade strolled this campus.
Finally, the rest of the class of 2011 and I get to experience a real tournament run.
As long as we’ve been here, it’s always seemed like the Golden Eagles were packing their bags for the trip back to Milwaukee before they even arrived at their opening weekend location.
Three years ending in three disheartening losses. Needless to say, that’s not what I signed up for.
Guys who departed as four of the best players in program history — Lazar Hayward, Dominic James, Wesley Matthews and Jerel McNeal — seemingly had Marquette on the precipice of greatness when my classmates and I were jamming our things into our tiny McCormick closets freshman year. The college basketball world was ours for the taking that 2007-’08 season.
That year in the tournament, though, Stanford center Brook Lopez sent Marquette home in the round of 32, scoring the go-ahead basket in overtime with 1.3 seconds remaining for the 82-81 Cardinal victory.
Despite the loss, it still felt like a big run awaited this group in 2008-’09.
But it never came. James, the team’s point guard, broke his foot against Connecticut on Feb. 25, 2009. He tried to return in the round of 32 game against Missouri, but could only give 17 scoreless minutes.
Still, Marquette had a chance to advance, down two points with five seconds remaining, but it went up in smoke when Hayward stepped on the baseline trying to inbound the ball.
Last season, after Marquette’s fifth straight 20-win campaign during what was supposed to be a rebuilding year, Washington guard Quincy Pondexter left then-junior forward Jimmy Butler in the dust on a last-second layup to give the Huskies a first-round 80-78 win.
Serious doubts swirled around this year’s squad as to whether it would make the expanded field of 68. With more scrap than a destruction derby, it got in. But just barely.
Had it not taken down West Virginia in the Big East Championship tournament, it might have been playing another game at the Bradley Center in the National Invitational Tournament.
But the way it stands now, this rag-tag group of three-goggle wearers that includes a handful of junior college players, a Canadian, a man with one eye and the only four-year walk-on in school history, have gone where three former-Marquette players who have played in the NBA haven’t. The Sweet 16. Delicious.
Beating the second-seeded North Carolina Tar Heels won’t be easy, but this group of players and its coach are accustomed to difficulty. They’re the gritty, battle-tested players needed to pull off the upset. And I think they’ll do it.
Go ahead. Call me crazy.
