Marquette Basketball: 5 reasons to be excited for an NIT run
By Brian Foley
The Al McGuire Center effect
As the higher seed, Marquette will host Harvard on Wednesday night at the on-campus Al McGuire Center. Typically reserved for women’s basketball, volleyball, Marquette Madness, and practices, the Al has only hosted the Marquette men once in its history, an 83-49 win over Alabama A&M in 2014 (MU did play an exhibition for hurricane relief against UW-Milwaukee at the Al before the season).
If the Golden Eagles can defeat the Crimson, they will move on to face the winner of No. 3 Oregon and No. 6 Rider, which will also take place at the Al. The only way MU will have to play a road game before the semifinals at MSG would be if both Marquette and No. 1 Notre Dame advanced to the quarterfinals. In that instance, the Irish would host the game in South Bend on March 20 or 21.
The Al only opened in 2003, so it does not have quite as much history as other Big East campus gyms. McGuire himself was not stalking those sidelines. Still, it will be cool to see a game in a different environment, and the compact arena has a chance to get quite loud if the blue and gold faithful turns out.
It’s fitting that Marquette’s first NIT game in over a decade is played in the very building named after a man with such a unique relationship with the tournament.