Kansas-Marquette history includes pair of Final Four semifinal battles
Kansas and Marquette, basketball-crazed schools that have met seven times throughout history, will be playing for the first time in the 16-year Bill Self era in a NIT Season Tip-Off semifinal on Wednesday night at Barclays Center in Brooklyn, N.Y.
Two of the seven meetings between the Jayhawks (who lead the all-time series 6-1) and Golden Eagles (known as the Warriors until 1994) have been contested on the biggest stage possible — at the Final Four.
Here’s a close look at those two Final Four semifinal games — one won by the Golden Eagles and one by the Jayhawks.
Kansas 94, Marquette 61, Final Four semifinal, April 5, 2003 in New Orleans
The Nick Collison/Kirk Hinrich-led Jayhawks rolled in the next to last game of the 15-year Roy Williams era at KU.
Hinrich scored 18 points, while Collison netted 12 as KU routed a Tom Crean-coached Marquette team that was led by the 19-point performance of Dwyane Wade.
Collison — he retired last summer after a 15-year NBA career (Wade is still playing in the league at age 36) — grabbed 15 rebounds before 54,432 fans at the Louisiana Superdome.
Collison hit 6 of 7 shots to Wade’s 7 of 15 on a night Collison accidentally slapped the 6-4, 220-pound Wade in the face while twisting his 6-foot-10, 255-pound body for an inside bucket.
KU’s Keith Langford scored a game-high 23 points on 11-of-14 shooting with four assists. Aaron Miles matched Hinrich’s 18 points while Michael Lee added 13 points for the Jayhawks.
“Some people could say we reached the pinnacle of our game today,” former KU coach Williams said at the time. “I hope there’s still something left in us.”
Syracuse defeated KU (30-8) two nights later in the NCAA title game, 81-78.
“We’ve played a lot of good teams, some conference champions, and I would put them as good as anyone we’ve faced,” Marquette coach Crean said after his squad was out-shot 53 percent to 31.1 percent.
“We were paralyzed a few times — standing around, not getting back,” added Crean, whose Golden Eagles allowed 15 dunks and eight three-pointers.
Marquette (27-6) had defeated top-ranked Kentucky in the Midwest Regional final to reach the Final Four for the first time since 1977 when the Golden Eagles won the NCAA title.
“We were probably a step quicker than they were,” said KU’s Langford, a sophomore guard who played four years at KU then embarked on a pro career that has made him many millions of dollars, mostly overseas. “Attacking early got them back on their heels,” added Langford, who scored 17 points the first half to Hinrich’s 15.
Marquette freshman forward Steve Novak, who had made 14 of his previous 20 threes in the postseason, went 0-for-5 from three and 1 of 7 overall. Marquette point guard Travis Diener missed 10 of 11 shots.
“It’s all about who’s playing well on that night,” Langford said at the time. “I just felt there was a certain determination from everybody on the team.”
Of course that Final Four was somewhat overshadowed by a cloud hanging over KU’s program. North Carolina had fired coach Matt Doherty and was ready to make a run at Carolina grad Williams the moment the Jayhawks’ season ended.
“It’s never really been a problem,” Collison said after the semifinal, referring to rumors of Williams leaving. ”We’re in the Final Four. We’ve been playing all season. So, I think when you get to this point, you just focus on the game.”
Williams did indeed accept the UNC job shortly after the season ended.
Marquette 64, Kansas 51, Final Four semifinal, March 23, 1974 in Greensboro, N.C.
Coach Al McGuire, who directed Marquette to the school’s only national title in 1977, reached the championship game in 1974. The Warriors fell to North Carolina State, 76-64.
Ted Owens’ Jayhawks (23-7), who enjoyed the greatest single-season turnaround in school history (8-18 in 1972-73), led, 24-23, at halftime. At that point, McGuire scolded his players behind closed doors following KU’s 10-2 half-ending run.
According to the “Al McGuire Wit, Wisdom and Warriors Facebook page,” the late coach told his squad that, “anyone who didn’t want to play in the second half could get dressed and go home.”
Sophomore Lloyd Walton started to get dressed, reportedly saying, “We didn’t get here because of you, we got here on heart.”
Walton changed his mind and agreed to play the second half, which was a good thing for the Warriors. He hit a pair of layups in a 9-0 run that turned a 29-26 Marquette deficit into a 35-29 lead. The Warriors upped the lead to 10 points (45-35) with 8:40 to play and 14 points (53-39) at 4:25.
Maurice Lucas scored 18 points and grabbed 14 rebounds, while Marcus Washington contributed 16 points and Earl Tatum 14 for the Warriors. Bo Ellis grabbed 10 boards.
Rick Suttle scored 19 points and Roger Morningstar 10 for KU. Tom Kivisto, Dale Greenlee and Tommie Smith had six points apiece and Norm Cook four. Reuben Shelton, Danny Knight, Bob Emery and Donnie Von Moore also played for the squad that surprised many after adding Morningstar and Cook to a 1972-73 unit that finished 10 games under .500.
“That was a remarkable team,” coach Owens reflected in an interview a few years ago. “To go from 8-18 to the Final Four was quite an accomplishment. The year before, we lost virtually every close game. A year later, we added a couple guys, had a lot of key players who were a year older, more mature, and we went 13-1 in the conference. It really was a fun year. All those guys have a great love for this university.”
The Jayhawks ultimately fell to UCLA in the consolation game of the Final Four, to close the season with two straight losses.
“What we had was balance. We started Tom Kivisto, Dale Greenlee, Roger (Morningstar), Norm (Cook) and Danny Knight. Tommie Smith and Rick Suttle were called ‘super subs’ and played as much as those guys did,” Owens said.
“We lost at Kansas State (during 13-1 conference season) then beat them here to clinch the championship. There was a great celebration on Jayhawk Boulevard,” Owens recalled “It was a special time on campus.”
As far as the NCAAs ... “we had a very tough game with Creighton in Tulsa (55-54 victory in Midwest Regional semifinal). Oral Roberts beat Louisville. We played Oral Roberts and they still call that ‘The game’ in Tulsa. Most people regard that as the greatest athletic event in Tulsa history. We were down nine with three minutes to go,” Owens added of KU’s 93-90 overtime win over ORU, which propelled KU to the Final Four.
“It’s one of those things ... the year before we found a way to lose close games. The following year we believed we somehow were going to win every night,” Owens said.
“Marquette that Final Four was extraordinary. UCLA had a great team but lost to North Carolina State in a couple overtimes in one semifinal.” UCLA beat KU in the consolation game, 78-61.
The 2018-19 Jayhawks, coached by Bill Self, will tangle with Marquette, coached by Steve Wojciechowski, about 6:30 p.m., Central time, Wednesday at Barclays Center.
Tennessee and Louisville will meet in the other game (4 p.m.). The semifinal winners will meet in Friday’s 8:30 p.m. title game which will follow a 6 p.m. consolation contest.
Three teams at the NIT Season Tip-Off have won NCAA Tourney titles. KU won in 1952, 1988 and 2008; Louisville in 1980, 1986 and 2013 (vacated). And Marquette won it all in ’77, beating North Carolina in the championship game.
KU has a 6-1 all-time record versus Marquette (also winning in 1956 and 1990 in Lawrence, 1957 and ‘92 in Milwaukee and 1961 in Manhattan, Kan.). KU is 6-5 all-time against Louisville and 2-1 against Tennessee.
Self on Al McGuire
Current KU coach Bill Self related a story about former Marquette coach Al McGuire, who retired from coaching after his squad defeated North Carolina in the 1977 NCAA title game. McGuire went on to become a popular TV analyst. He died in 2001 at the age of 72.
“I have met Al McGuire. He did our game (for TV) when I was at Oklahoma State and I was an assistant,” Self said. “We had ‘Big Country (Bryant Reeves).’ We were in the media room and he (McGuire) is staring at me and I was wondering why he was. He walked up to me and looked me dead square in the eye and he just put his hands on my shoulders, and I was thinking, ‘This is Al McGuire, wow,’ and just stared at me for 10 seconds. And the camera man behind me that I couldn’t see said, ‘Got it!’ and he just turned around and walked off. So he didn’t speak to me, but he was a legend obviously and quite a character.”
Gary Bedore
Gary Bedore covers University of Kansas athletics for The Star.
