Biggest home games in Marquette history

[MonsterWebWarrior]

I can't help but think this is one of the biggest home games in history.  Would love to hear everyone's top 5 or so.  I'm a somewhat recent alum so my list is of fairly recent games, and I'm sure I'm forgetting some.  I'm sure the older alums will be able to put a few more games from the 70's and 80's in here. 

1. U Conn '09 - major implications for winning the regular season championship of the best conference in the nation
2. Pitt '06? (the ESPN Gameday game) - The most-hyped and anticipated game for obvious reasons, senior day, will be tough to top that atmosphere.  Could easily persuade me to put it #1.  I'll never forget how loud the BC was when DJ had the break-away reverse dunk to go up like 50 midway through the first half.
3. Louisville '03 - this was supposed to be the "We've arrived" game, but Gaines kicked us in the nuts instead.
4. Cinci '03 - Clinched the C-USA championship
5. Cinci '94 - Battle of the 2 teams expected to contend for the championship.  They won on our home court, we won on theirs (if memory serves me right).

[MUfan12]

Hard to disagree at all with this list, at least in the Bradley Center era. I'd love to hear about some big games at the Arena from some of our more "seasoned" posters.

I'd add Cincy '02 somewhere in there... 20 game win streak, first sellout in years, and MU whoops em in the second half. UW game in '07 had big time juice as well, both teams ranked. Forgot the outcome though.

Wednesday is going to be crazy. I really think that the crowd will be as loud as any we've seen since the BC opened. Gotta try and sneak out of the office early so I can fully warm up

[SERocks]

I remember the January 19, 1986 game against North Carolina at the Arena.  NC came in ranked #1 in the country.  We were hugely pumped for the game.  I believe it was Nationally televised, if I recall.  I do recall wearing my blue and gold striped Marquette shirt (which still hangs in my closet and I wear to games from time to time) and my friend and I donned full face paint for the game.  We were hoping to get on TV.  Don't know if we ever did.  The game was great and we lost 64-66.  Phenomenal time.  If anyone has a tape of that game I would love to have a copy.

-SE

[MU_Warrior44]

I'd add '06 UConn to that list as well. First Big East game, UConn ranked #2. That was a big night for MU to prove they belong with the "big boys" aka the original big east members.

[Buzz Williams' Spillproof Chiclets Cup]

In what often gets forgotten between Steve Novak's buzzer-beater against ND and the Big East Opener against UConn in 06 were two games late in the season. MU was still unranked, had a tournament resume that was OK, but not great, and needed some statement wins. The schedule drew MU to play ranked Georgetown and ranked Pitt on a Thursday/Saturday double dip. The most optimistic of pundits predicted MU to maybe pull off one of them. The Warriors ended up taking both, giving the program two quality wins to post on a tournament resume that was very much in doubt at the beginning of the week.

[MUBBau]

I remember the January 19, 1986 game against North Carolina at the Arena.  NC came in ranked #1 in the country.  We were hugely pumped for the game.  I believe it was Nationally televised, if I recall.  I do recall wearing my blue and gold striped Marquette shirt (which still hangs in my closet and I wear to games from time to time) and my friend and I donned full face paint for the game.  We were hoping to get on TV.  Don't know if we ever did.  The game was great and we lost 64-66.  Phenomenal time.  If anyone has a tape of that game I would love to have a copy.

This was my very first Marquette game, and I was born September 19, 1985

[Badgerhater920]

Diener's 29 his senior year against Bucky. No one expected us to win that game. I swear he hit a 3 from 40 feet away.

[spartan3186]

Haha who can name all the rest of the people in that photo? Ousmane Barro, Mike Kinsella, Coach Rab, Tan Tommy, Ryan Amoroso and Walk-on Rob Hanley. The tan one doesn't look very happy...

[drewm88]

I don't know if this qualifies for "biggest game," but I swear that I have never heard the BC get louder than when John Wallace was shooting the 3 FT's last year. It was unbelievable.

Meanwhile, remembering that moment has once again left me depressed.

[Badgerhater920]

Haha who can name all the rest of the people in that photo? Ousmane Barro, Mike Kinsella, Coach Rab, Tan Tommy, Ryan Amoroso and Walk-on Rob Hanley. The tan one doesn't look very happy...

haha rob hanley, great spot. The tan one knows the cameras are watching...he's gotta  look cool, calm, and collected.

[TVDirector]

MU vs. Duke.
2/10/80.

Dane County Coliseum

national tv game played in Madison 'cause NBC wanted it, but arena was booked.
first time I ever rented a car...

MU wins over #10 Duke 80-77

still haven't got my voice back!

[QPSS70]

Notre Dame in Dec 70/Jan 71.  Austin Carr was among nation's leading scorers.  We lost down there the year before in a thrilling overtime game where we blew a last minute lead.  Implying they were hot dogs, Johnny Dee handed mustard packets to the MU players when they came over to shake his hand like they alwasys did with the opposing coach that year during their introductions.   Gary Brell says he is offended because of his German heritage.  And they were Notre Dame, after all. The place was rocking and we beat them on our way to an unbeaten regular season. 

Russian National Team Exhibition game in 75 or 76.  Tipoff at midnight due to NCAA rules for start of exhibition season.  This was still the Cold War and the foreign teams on these junkets were still really their best teams.  Foreign players weren't in the NBA yet.  There were some players and the coach from the controversial 72 Olympic Gold medal team.  Everyone in the house sang the National Anthem.  We had a great team that year and the atmosphere was intense.   The good guys won. 

[bilsu]

By biggest games, I think you mean the hype/importance before the game starts. Certainly the two games we lost against Louisville on last second shots were highly anticipated games.

[GGGG]

I remember the January 19, 1986 game against North Carolina at the Arena.  NC came in ranked #1 in the country.  We were hugely pumped for the game.  I believe it was Nationally televised, if I recall.  I do recall wearing my blue and gold striped Marquette shirt (which still hangs in my closet and I wear to games from time to time) and my friend and I donned full face paint for the game.  We were hoping to get on TV.  Don't know if we ever did.  The game was great and we lost 64-66.  Phenomenal time.  If anyone has a tape of that game I would love to have a copy.

That was the game that Dean Smith promised Joe Wolf he would schedule so he could play back near home.  That was a great game.

I remember when I was a student in about 1989 we *almost* beat Xavier in front of a crowd of about 12,000.  <sigh>  Warrior basketball really sucked when I was a student.

[Coleman]

Our big cross-town rival match-up on January 19, 1918 against the Milwaukee YMCA. Unfortunately ended in a 10-26 loss. The peach baskets were rockin'

[Ball2003]

You can't really compare this game to past games as far as "great games" go. What makes most great games stand out in our minds are the results: Novak's buzzer beater to beat ND, stomping #2 UConn, Gaines tearing our collective hearts out, etc.

Since there has never been a matchup between two top-ten teams in the BC (and with both teams pushing for a Big East title), it's hard to say this is not the most highly anticipated game, especially on a national level, to be played in the Bradley Center. As far as the pre-BC era goes, I'm much too young to comment on that.

[Phi Iota Gamma 84]

Doc Rivers 45 foot shot at the buzzer to beat ND in ~82

[Badgerhater920]

By biggest games, I think you mean the hype/importance before the game starts. Certainly the two games we lost against Louisville on last second shots were highly anticipated games.

That second one was devestating. We needed that W to have any chance at the tourney - up 61-50 on a Novak 3 with 5 minutes left. Diener going bonkers, pumping up the crowd. Then, we didn't score the rest of the game.  Amaroso shoved some dude and picked up a terrible foul during a free throw.  Francisco Garcia 

[Buzz Williams' Spillproof Chiclets Cup]

By biggest games, I think you mean the hype/importance before the game starts. Certainly the two games we lost against Louisville on last second shots were highly anticipated games.

I knew there was something wrong about this I couldn't put my finger on. Then I remembered

1.) Reece @#$%@#$@ Gaines
2.) Francisco #@#@!$%#@ Garcia
3.) Jerry #@$%@#$@#$ Smith

I am now depressed for having unrepressed the memory of all three of those. Thanks, jerk.

[MUfan12]

OK I'm gonna stop this right here. Between Jonathan Wallace and the UL Axis of Evil I've had enough.

There is a ton of juice for this game... even heard 1250 talking about it this morning. It's gonna be a fun one.

[Fullodds]

This game really was unbelieveable.  MU had just beaten Dayton the night before and NC just beat either Virginia or NC State to come into the MECCA ranked #1.  We chanted "We want...NC" at the end of the Dayton game.

NC came in absolutely loaded with Kenny Smith, Brad Daughtery, Joe Wolf, Jeff Lebo, Sam Perkins, Steve Hale, Steve Bucknall, Warren Martin, Dave Popson, etc.

Al McGuire called the game for NBC and was given a huge ovation by the students.

Michael "Pops" Sims went crazy and had 16 on long jumpers (no three point line) off the bench with 6 assists as well.  

Kerry Trotter played a great game getting 10 pts, 14 boards and 9 assists.

MU also outrebounded NC 43-35.

Lebo with a steal and Smith with a couple of clinching FT's to end the dream.  Really an unbelieveable game and the begining of the dark era of MU basketball with Rick Majerus soon leaving and the great Bob Dukiet driving the MU bus off the cliff.

Looking at the box score the game was lost at the FT line.  NC went 12-14 from the line while MU was only 2-6 (Walter Downing going 1-4).  Mu was called for 17 fouls while NC was called for 11.  Also of note, the officials for this game came from the ACC.

After this game for a long, long, long time....I always wanted MU to score more than 66 points in a game so I knew the score would not be 66-64 against us.  That 66-64 score was tough to forget.  

[Tulsa Warrior]

Lets go back to the late 1960s.  Spencer Hayward was the hero of the U.S. Olympic team and had Detroit University in the top ten.  Marquette beat them soundly.  It sent a national message on Marquette and Al McGuire -- perhaps the beginning of Al's run of national success.  I got a ticket for the game at the last minute and sat in nose bleed heaven.

[CTWarrior]

I remember the January 19, 1986 game against North Carolina at the Arena. 

In terms of importance, that game has to be near the top, if not at the very top of the list.  If Marquette won that game they would have made the NCAA tournament (I'll bet they were one of the first 5 teams out) and who knows what that would have meant to Majerus and the future of the program.  Probably no Dukiet and everything changes down the line.

It all depends on your definition of big.  To me, one of the biggest home games we ever played was the last one I attended as a student in Milwaukee.  Our last game of the 82-83 season.  We were playing Southwestern Louisiana, who was pretty good at the time.  We were both independents and both had very good but not great seasons and I remember  that the general consensus at the time was that it was basically an NCAA tournament play-in game.  It wasn't an exciting game (I just looked it up, we rolled 85-64), but it probably was the difference between making the tournament and not making the tournament, and everyone knew it going in.  To me, that's a huge game.

Dale Ellis and Tennessee ripped our hearts out by one point in the first round of the NCAAs, so I'm not sure what it meant in the long run.

[PE8983]

Sam Perkins was not a part of that North Carolina team.

[RaleighWarrior]

1/12/71 #2 marquette vs #9 Notre Dame. Marquette 71-66. We moved up to #1 a few weeks later and went undefeated into the NCAA. Maybe someone can refresh my memory, but I think we actually fell from #1 to #2 without losing a game. I seem to remember that UCLA, USC and Marquette, bounced around between #1 and #3 for a few weeks.