My wife and I got a small season ticket package for Marquette basketball this year. She is a Marquette alum and her friends are in the same section as us. Younger me would have been thrilled with Marquette season tickets. This version of me was happy about it but not the same emotion I had years ago. The Wojo era left me cold and left me as less of a college basketball fan than I was seven years ago. Maybe it’s more I don’t have the time I used but when apathy sets in, it can be easily replaced. I told her heading into the Fiserv Forum that it might be a blowout and maybe we’ll head out early. How wrong I was. This is not the Wojo team we watched for years. This is a brand new team.

Marquette stunned Illinois with a 67-66 victory. It’s one of the best wins in recent memory for Marquette. They had some big wins in the Wojo era, but this one felt different. Marquette had little to no mental toughness under Wojo. They just didn’t. If they got down nine or ten points with ten minutes left, the game might as well have been over. Partly, it was due to the coach but the players he brought in had that attitude too. That didn’t happen to Marquette on Monday night. They pulled off the stunner coming back from the dead with great defense and passion.

MARQUETTE IS BACK! THE HATERS ARE SICK! #mubb pic.twitter.com/g4zwp3qqRA

— Tapping The Keg Sports (@TappingTheKeg) November 16, 2021

Is Marquette a tournament team? Likely not. But who knows at this point. If you force 26 turnovers, you will beat a lot of teams. I don’t care if it’s Gonzaga. Now, 26 turnovers is not sustainable. But it’s something they can continually shoot for. If anything, this keeps people coming back especially the student section. Maybe it’s due to the year off because of COVID, but that was the most active Marquette student section in years. They actually gave a shit. So did the people in the lower bowl and the upper. People will keep coming to see Marquette basketball with games like this.

Welcome back Marquette, I missed you.

Charlie.