Big East Basketball: Ranking best homecourt advantages for 2020-21 season
By Max Marmitt
5. Marquette Golden Eagles Home Court: Fiserv Forum
Undoubtedly one of the best home crowds in the nation, basketball is a religion for the amazing Marquette fanbase. Sharing a stadium with the Milwaukee Bucks, Marquette still fills the stadium and frequently sells out. For the past 19 years, Marquette has been in the nation’s top 25 in attendance, most recently ranking 9th in the nation in 2019 at 15,611 fans per game (as I’ve mentioned no NCAA attendance data for 2020 yet).
Marquette ended their last two seasons in the old Big East with an incredible 31-1 record, extending into the new Big East with 27 straight home wins. For what it’s worth, Marquette also has the 5th longest all-time home winning streak with 81 straight wins, all the way back from 1967-1973. On the 2017 AP all-time college basketball poll, Marquette is ranked 21st. After transitioning from the BMO Harris Bradley Center in 2018, Marquette has gone 29-6 in the Fiserv Forum.
The Golden Eagles have not had the success most Big East fans expected in the New Big East, however. After Buzz Williams took Marquette to three straight Sweet 16’s and an Elite 8 in the old Big East, Buzz Williams underachieved in his first year in the new Big East with Marquette not even qualifying for the NCAA tournament. He left the program out of nowhere that same year, making the circumstances a very tough recovery for Steve Wojciechowski.
Wojciechowski has been able to recruit at a very high level and since 2017 has consistently constructed NCAA tournament-caliber teams. The last two Marquette teams have been nationally ranked (top ten in 2019) but many Marquette fans have lost their patience and grown frustrated with Coach Wojciechowski due to not having the same NCAA Tournament success as Coach Williams (and 4 of the 6 Fiserv Forum losses have been during back to back end of year collapses). Despite that, the unwavering Marquette fanbase has still gone 90-35 at home in the new Big East with a couple of very rough years not even making the NIT.
The basketball culture at Marquette is incomparable. In 2017, Business Insider ranked Marquette as the 6th best college for school spirit at sports games. Marquette has also made their presence known loudly at closeby road games, non-conference tournaments, and of course the NCAA Tournament like most fanbases. The absolute last time you want to play at Marquette is their own “national holiday” known as National Marquette Day, where they always sell out the stadium, beating nationally ranked Butler and Villanova the past two years in a sell-out crowd.
The atmosphere at Marquette games almost seems palpable. The student section certainly knows how to get into the head of opposing stars/teams as well. With an all-time Big East great and program leading scorer Markus Howard on the roster the past four years, the Wooden Award candidate has certainly amplified the atmosphere to another level.
With a high ceiling but a low floor (no pun intended) these next couple years, Marquette should continue to be a very tough game on the road. Marquette fans will always have the team’s back and there are still so many fans behind Coach Wojciechowski, but the Duke legend will need to earn his trust back from a large amount of Marquette fans to make sure the atmosphere becomes an almost unbeatable home court advantage again.