Ode to the Bradley Center

[We R Final Four]

Repressed in memory but let's not forget Western Michigan in the NIT for the Stinker Hall of Fame list.  Agree on Butler this year too.

oh sheet--i had forgotten about the WMU game.  The BC was in awe that night.

[4everwarriors]

I blame Crean, aina?

[4everwarriors]

Was there.  Brutal

Brutal wuz bee in Athens watchin' Dream fowl out vs tOSU. Felt like sumone shoved a glass rod up your johnson and den smashed it wit a hammer, hey?

[GooooMarquette]

Brutal wuz bee in Athens watchin' Dream fowl out vs tOSU. Felt like sumone shoved a glass rod up your johnson and den smashed it wit a hammer, hey?

I wasn't there, but I was in Indianapolis in '78 when Whitehead got called for an elbow when half of the Miami team was slapping him.  One of my most painful in-person losses because that team (just like the team that lost to tOSU in Athens) had a legit shot at a National Championship.

[Dr. Blackheart]

Brutal wuz bee in Athens watchin' Dream fowl out vs tOSU. Felt like sumone shoved a glass rod up your johnson and den smashed it wit a hammer, hey?

Stay on the topic, Doc.  Tough in yer olde age, ai-na?

[real chili 83]

There was something special about your first game as a student as well. Still remember it well, a 50 point beatdown against Mount St. Mary's. The best times I had at Marquette were at basketball games my Freshman and Sophomore year.

You kinda knew that year was going to be really special when they went into the Kohl Hole without Junior and pretty much dominated Wisconsin start to finish.

The Derrick Wilson game

[WarriorDad]

Fondest non MU memories

1992 NCAA Tournament game, surprised no one said this.  Snowy day, great game.  Holy mackeral, Holy Mackeral.

https://www.youtube.com/v/N9coEYtnDeA


1996 NCAA Tournament Louisville over Nova and Wake vs Texas were fantastic.

1999 NCAA Tournament, Oklahoma upsetting Arizona in the first round.

2004 NCAA Tournament  Pittsburgh knocking off Wisconsin in front of a home Badger crowd

[GooooMarquette]

The Derrick Wilson game

Pretty sure some here will curse you just for using the name.

[real chili 83]

Pretty sure some here will curse you just for using the name.

Ha

[MU82]

I'm old and watched the Warriors at The Arena, so I don't have as many Bradley Center memories as all youse young'uns. But a few ...

I knew the then-MU SID, Mark Johnson, from when he had been an assistant in Gopherland, and he set me and my little brother up for a coupla sweet tickets for the game McIlvaine blocked 13 shots. (BTW, my little brother was a kid in the Big Brothers program ... and we are still very close to this day.)

I covered the Georgia Tech-USC NCAA tourney game when Forrest, the player from Ga Tech, heaved in a miracle 3 for the win.

Several of my college buds and I got together to watch the MU-LSU game in 2012. Three days earlier, we had lost to UWGB, and we also had gotten killed by Florida and lost to Butler, so many were calling this already an important game for us. Davante, Vander and Cadougan had big games and it started us on a 6-game winning streak. And then my buds and I got hammered and ended up at Real Chili - first time I had been back there since I was a student. Yum.

Finally, there was a game in 2005 I didn't go to. My wife and I were driving back to Chicago after visiting our daughter at college (Lawrence U). The Warriors were playing Winthrop that night and we actually got off the exit ramp and started going to the BC to watch the game. But my wife was really tired and we still had to get back to Chicago, and I said, "All right, let's skip it. We don't need to spend this time watching us beat Winthrop by 30." Oops.

I know ... lame memories there compared to many of y'all. I've got plenty from The Arena, though!

[🏀]

But my wife was really tired and we still had to get back to Chicago, and I said, "All right, let's skip it. We don't need to spend this time watching us beat Winthrop by 30." Oops.

Gregg fucking Marshall

[Dr. Blackheart]

Section 106 remeberence from 2008.  Many posters in this thread are now sweater vesters.  The circle of life...

https://www.muscoop.com/index.php?topic=5488.0

[Dr. Blackheart]

GO Marquette with a nice article with photos. Never a losing home season. Won 75% of the games.  6.5 million have attended. I was at 10-10 of the largest games.

http://www.gomarquette.com/sports/m-baskbl/spec-rel/022718aaa.html

[Warriors4ever]

Some that stand out for me - the first BE game against UConn, Novak was hitting 3's from the first row of seats - the Nova game last year - and of course, the bat game.  Funniest thing I have ever seen, the darkened arena, players diving to the floor, then putting towels on their heads, and playing the theme from Batman. 

[dgies9156]

That's another interesting topic. The Vandy game was just an absolute life-sucker.

That Vandy game really sucked. We were supposed to be pretty good that year and had lost a heart breaker at Memorial Gym in Nashville the year before.

Having grown up in Nashville and been regular at Memorial Gym before coming to MU, I kinda figured this was going to be our moment. Some of my Vanderbilt friends from Nashville had come to Milwaukee for the game and I had expected it to be a blow-out. Just not the way it shook out.

The Iowa game was pretty bad as well and this year's Purdue game was nothing to write home to mother about either.

[pbiflyer]

Tell him the story next time you see him SaveOD.  Steve is the most regular guy you could ever meet.  But now you have to do it in your best Chris Farley interviewing Paul McCartney voice.

This. We got a tour of the Al. Novak was practicing there when he was a pro but in between gigs. Saw my son who at the time was about 3. Stopped shooting, came over and introduced himself. He had no idea who we were, it wasn't like we were with Buzz or anything. Just saw a kid and took time to do the nice thing.

[Dr. Blackheart]

From the article. We have covered most of these but there was a lot of lean years in there. Any one remember the 1994 conference title that we won?  Man, the Great Midwest seems like a million miles away...KO and Cords really saved the program.

Marquette's Top Bradley Center Moments


Dec. 2, 1988 – First game in Bradley Center (First Bank Classic game)
March 3, 1990 - Tony Smith caps his career by scoring 43 pts on Senior Day vs. Butler in a 90-70 win.
Dec. 9, 1992- Jim McIlvaine sets school record with 13 blocked shots vs Northeastern Illinois
March 1, 1992 - MU celebrates the 15th anniversary of the '77 title team and Al McGuire and the '77 team returns to Milwaukee during the 82-67 win over Penny Hardaway's Memphis State team.
Dec 31, 1994 - MU beats #19 Wisconsin 80-65 as Tony Miller records the program's first triple double [recorded]
Feb. 27, 1994- MU beats DePaul to win the first conference championship in school history
March 4, 1995- Tony Miller sets a school record with 17 assists vs Memphis
March 2, 1996- Marquette beats #7 Cincinnati to cap off the first undefeated season at the Bradley Center
March 8, 2003 – Senior Day against Cincinnati as MU clinched the C-USA regular season title
Jan. 3, 2006 – First BIG EAST game and win over No. 2 UConn (Novak's 41 & 16)
Jan. 20, 2006 – Novak's buzzer beater against Notre Dame
March 3, 2007 – College Game Day on March 3 against No. 12 Pittsburgh
2008-09: Started BIG EAST play 9-0, including five home wins (three over ranked teams).
2012-13: Golden Eagles went 16-0 at home and 9-0 in conference action on their way to their first BIG EAST regular season championship. This included three wins over ranked teams, including No. 22 Syracuse and No. 21 Notre Dame in the final two regular season home games.
Jan. 24, 2017 – Win over No. 1 Villanova

[wadesworld]

From the article. We have covered most of these but there was a lot of lean years in there. Any one remember the 1994 conference title that we won?  Man, the Great Midwest seems like a million miles away...KO and Cords really saved the program.

Jeez.  Marquette's life in the BC is 11 days older than my life.

[SaveOD238]

Jeez.  Marquette's life in the BC is 11 days older than my life.

Ditto.  MU moved into the BC about two months before I was born.

[MU82]

Brutal wuz bee in Athens watchin' Dream fowl out vs tOSU. Felt like sumone shoved a glass rod up your johnson and den smashed it wit a hammer, hey?

Huh?

[Spaniel with a Short Tail]

Huh?

[WayOfTheWarrior]

Davante Gardner automatic chant was a personal favorite, followed closely behind by the variety of sounds he would make when he flailed to try and get a foul call near the basket.

[Spotcheck Billy]

10 memorable MU moments at the BC from jsonline:

Dec. 2, 1988: In its first regular-season game at the Bradley Center, MU beat Rice, 76-60, behind 19 points from Trevor Powell

March 3, 1990: Tony Smith poured in 43 points on his "Senior Night," including 13 unanswered in the second half as the then-Warriors stormed back from a 12-point, first-half deficit to beat Butler, 90-70.

Dec. 31, 1994: Tony Miller compiled MU's first recorded triple-double with 18 points, 10 rebounds and 10 assists in an 80-65 victory over No. 19 Wisconsin.

March 2, 1996: The Golden Eagles finished off a 16-0 record at home – the first undefeated season at the Bradley Center – with a 72-70 victory over Cincinnati.

March 8, 2003: MU became the first team other than Cincinnati to win the regular-season title in Conference USA (which formed in the 1995-'96 season) by virtue of a 70-61 victory over the Bearcats.

Jan. 3, 2006: MU's first game as part of the Big East was one for the ages. Senior forward Steve Novak scored 41 points and pulled down 16 rebounds as the Golden Eagles dominated No. 2 Connecticut, 94-79.

Jan. 20, 2006: Novak buried a two-pointer deep in the right corner with 1.1 seconds remaining to lift MU to a 67-65 victory over Notre Dame in the schools' first meeting as members of the Big East. According to a Bradley Center employee at the time, the crowd's volume reached 114.7 decibels after Novak's shot. 

March 7, 2009: The largest MU crowd in Bradley Center history (19,144 fans) witnessed an emotional game that ended with the Golden Eagles falling to Syracuse in overtime, 86-79. It was the final home contest for seniors Wesley Matthews, Jerel McNeal, Dwight Burke and an injured Dominic James.

Jan. 26, 2013: If a team plays in a building long enough, some wacky stuff is bound to happen. While MU was trying to secure a victory over Providence, a bat kept dive-bombing the court and causing delays in the second half.

Jan. 24, 2017: MU had never beaten the No. 1 team in the Associated Press top 25 until coming back from a 17-point deficit to earn a 74-72 victory against Villanova.

https://www.jsonline.com/story/sports/college/marquette/2018/02/28/10-memorable-marquette-moments-bmo-harris-bradley-center/379917002/

[HammerScreen]

Best: Bat game, Syracuse game with Jake's 4pt play, beating Creighton last year knowing we were back in the tourney

Worst: Jerry Smith 3 in 2007, Vanderbilt 2011, Iowa 2016

[Buzz Williams' Spillproof Chiclets Cup]

In no particular order.

Best MUBB Bradley Center Moments (In Person)
1.) Waiting in line before the Wake Forest game in 2003. It was lawless. People were straight up hammered and were throwing whiskey bottles into the air. Despite the terror and obnoxiousness, it was also the first realization that the team was big time.
2.) Rushing the floor after beating Cincinnati on Senior Day 2003 to win C-USA title outright and postgame banner-drop.
3.) Dameon Mason's buzzer-beater against Louisville in 2004.
4.) Waiting in Line starting at 9:30 AM for MU's first Big East game, being awestruck that #2 UConn was even on the Bradley Center floor instead of Tulane or East Carolina, then going crazy when Novak hit a shot from basically half-court and MU took them to the shed.
5.) Steve Novak's game-winner against Notre Dame in 2006. Still the loudest I've ever heard that gym.
6.) Coach Crean inviting the die-hards in to watch shootaround before the Georgetown game in 2006. Had us line up on the baseline to "practice rushing the floor for when we win." Ousmane Barro ended up jumping over me.
7.) Beating Pitt on College Gameday.
8.) Walloping ND by about 30 in 2008.
9.) Stumbling into Marquette-Seton Hall in 2011 (a rare Saturday night game) after spending the day going on the 11AM Miller Tour, the 2:30 Lakefront Tour, and the 5:00 Milwaukee Brewing Company Tour. That was a happy game.
10.) Jae Crowder's Throat Slash Game

Worst MUBB Bradley Center Moments (In Person)
1.) Losing to Louisville on National Marquette Day in 2003. Reece F***ing Gaines.
2.) The Saint Valentines Day Massacre in 2004, when MU lost to Memphis by 18. Memphis set their program record by making 16 three-pointers.
3.) While on the subject of 2004, losing at home to TCU was also pretty awful.
4.) Somehow losing to North Dakota State in 2006.
5.) Jerry F***ing Smith in 2007.
6.) Arriving at the 2010 Wisconsin game in the trunk of a car (we had 10 people to move and only one sober driver after a kegs and eggs morning). Shared the trunk with one other person and a bag of golf clubs. MU promptly turned in a listless performance against the Badgers.