March 15, 2010

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The Marquette University men’s basketball team returns to the NCAA Division I Men’s Basketball Championship for the fifth-straight year when the No. 6 seeded Golden Eagles face No. 11 seed Washington at 6:20 p.m. CT on Thursday, March 18 at the HP Pavilion of San Jose. CBS will feature Marquette’s 14th national broadcast of the campaign, with Spero Dedes (play-by-play) and Bob Wenzel (analyst) calling the action. Thursday’s winner will advance to face the victor of the No. 3 New Mexico/No. 14 Montana matchup on Saturday, March 20.

Marquette Makes Fifth-Straight NCAA Trip
Marquette is making its fifth-straight appearance in the NCAA Championship and 28th overall, marking the first time since 1980 the program has advanced to the postseason five consecutive years.

The 1980 appearance actually capped a 10-year run in the NCAA’s, which included the 1977 National Championship squad. Legendary coach Al McGuire led MU to a 67-59 win over North Carolina in the title matchup that season, one of nine NCAA appearances during his tenure.

MU is 34-28 all-time in the NCAA’s, which includes six appearances in the regional championship game and three in the Final Four. Marquette owns 43 all-time postseason berths (NCAA, NIT and National Catholic Tournament).

First Round Matchup Provides Rare Opponent
Marquette will be making its second NCAA trip in the past three seasons to the state of California when the team faces Washington on Thursday afternoon in San Jose.

The Golden Eagles have faced the Huskies on just two occasions, with the most recent encounter coming in 1978. MU posted a 75-74 win in 1965-66 as part of the Milwaukee Classic and also downed UW at home in 1977-78, 71-63.

Marquette has faced a current squad from the Pac-10 Conference on just 19 occasions all-time and owns an overall record of 13-6. The most recent matchup came in 2007-08 when Stanford claimed a heartbreaking, last-second 82-81 decision in the second round of the NCAA’s at the Honda Center in Anaheim, Calif.

Hayward To Face Former Teammate In NCAA’s
While Marquette fans may not be familiar with the Washington squad, senior forward Lazar Hayward should be able to provide a detailed scouting report on the Huskies’ leading scorer Quincy Pondexter.

Hayward and Pondexter were both members of the 2009 USA World University Games Team, which earned the bronze medal last summer in Belgrade, Serbia. The squad posted an overall record of 6-1 under the direction of Wisconsin head coach Bo Ryan.

Hayward chipped in 9.3 points and 5.6 rebounds per game, while Pondexter contributed 7.9 points and 3.0 boards per contest.