Despite NCAA loss, Marquette's season was step forward

GREENVILLE, S.C. - As time ticked away on a game that already had been decided, the Marquette men's basketball team found itself in a place it didn't want to be.

Surrounded by roaring South Carolina fans, the Golden Eagles had been thoroughly defeated and were about to become a footnote in another team's magical moment. That became official when the final buzzer sounded, ending the game with a score of 93-73 while simultaneously marking the end of Marquette's season.

In the moments that preceded that buzzer, the pain of finality took on a human face as senior center Luke Fischer checked out for the last time. Visibly emotional and with his left arm extensively taped as a precaution against re-injuring his surgically repaired shoulder, he hugged coach Steve Wojciechowski in one of those special moments that comes with every game this time of year.

"I thought back to my very first game right away and just how many great memories I've had playing for this university and the love I have for it," Fischer said. "I'm really going to miss it. It's been a heck of a two and a half years playing here and I wouldn't want to play anywhere else."

However, as the anguish of the moment slowly began to subside, it became more clear that the Golden Eagles were exactly where they wanted to be — participating in March Madness.

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They were part of a program that made it back to the NCAA Tournament after three straight years of being on the outside. They had quieted the doubters, the naysayers and the critics by forging an unexpected path from being picked seventh in the preseason Big East coaches poll to finishing tied for third in the conference and earning a well-deserved NCAA Tournament berth.

For the players who had been around during the recent down years, this was the mountain they had been climbing. For the newcomers, this was the opportunity they had hoped to help create when they arrived on campus.

"We earned this; tonight just wasn't our night," redshirt junior Duane Wilson said. "It's something to learn (from). It's something not to keep your head down about. You keep your head up and the goal is to get back. ... It's been a great experience. It's something I can go home and tell my son about when he gets older and I'm just happy I got the chance to be here."

For Wojciechowski, the chance to play in the NCAA Tournament represents a successful season. It's also a concrete benchmark of progress in his third year.

"I'm sure when I'm able to take a step back, this has been a great year," Wojciechowski said. "When I took the job, we had to reboot the program. And in a few short years, we're back into the NCAA Tournament where we want to be consistently.

"And I give our guys a lot of credit. There are different times over the course of the year where, you know, if we didn't respond we wouldn't be in this position."

That need to respond hit hard late in January. Following a victory over top-ranked Villanova — the program's first regular-season win over a No. 1 team — the Golden Eagles lost four of their next five games, dropping from 5-3 in the Big East to 6-7.

At that point, Wojciechowski and his players figured they would need to reach 10 Big East wins in order to have a shot at the NCAA Tournament. That meant turning things around and winning at least four of their final five games.

Four wins are exactly what they got.

With some lineup adjustments and a new-found sense of urgency, the Golden Eagles measured up to the task. In a year when even making the NIT would have represented progress, Marquette (19-13) found a way to go beyond that and achieve its larger goal.

They had their flaws and inconsistencies, but the Golden Eagles came together to form something special. They finished the season as one of the best, most efficient offenses in the country and with the most three-pointers (336) in program history. That development came after a year in which Marquette's offense was turnover-prone and largely one-dimensional around star freshman Henry Ellenson, who left for the NBA draft after his one season.

"I never made a big deal about it," Wojciechowski said of the postseason. "We started two freshmen the whole year. ... We were integrating four new guys ... and those guys ended up being real key players for us. So there's a lot to be proud of. I'm sure as I step back and more things come to thought. But our group did a really good job this year."

Now the challenge — one that senior Jajuan Johnson issued to his younger teammates after the game — is to keep the progress going. It'll be without him, Fischer and graduate transfer Katin Reinhardt — three of Marquette's top five scorers this season — but at least this crop of younger players will have something those three never had. They'll be able to carry the experience of playing in the NCAA Tournament in a Marquette uniform from one season to the next.

"I think they laid the groundwork for getting us up and running again," freshman Markus Howard said. "I feel this program's going on the rise from past years and they had a big part in that and I feel we're only going to get better from here."

It's not going to be easy to turn the page right away. Howard mentioned he probably won't watch basketball for at least a couple days. The pain is still too raw. But after a little time off for mental and physical recuperation, everyone knows it will be time to get back to work.

Getting to the NCAA Tournament next year is no longer a goal that's difficult to visualize. It's no longer a mountain to climb. It's no longer even a sure sign of progress.

Rather, it's something every player coming back will have experienced and is hungry to participate in again. And they're not going to just be happy to get there. They want to win.

That's the next step.

"You've just got to remember we've got another chance; there's more life and another chance to play in the tournament," Wilson said. "I'm really ready to get to work. I've got a lot of stuff I feel I need to work on, the team needs to work on. ... Rest is key, then we'll really get back to these workouts and build this team."