Marquette 'M Club' Hall of Fame
- Induction:
- 2009
- Class:
- 2003
The 2002-03 Men's Basketball squad earned the 2003 Conference USA regular season championship before making the program's third NCAA Final Four. In the Midwest Regional, MU defeated No. 2-seeded Pittsburgh before knocking off No. 1-overall seed Kentucky in the regional final. Head coach Tom Crean was named the Ray Meyer Conference USA Coach of the Year and the Coach Clair Bee Award Recipient as well as the USBWA District V and NABC District XI Coach of the Year.
In addition to Consensus First Team All-America Wade, the squad featured All-Conference USA Second Team selections Travis Diener and Robert Jackson, along with C-USA Sixth Man of the Year Steve Novak. Three of the student-athletes -- Wade, Diener and Novak -- were each picked in the NBA Draft following their respective tenures at Marquette.
The 2002-03 squad finished the season 27-6 overall and 14-2 in Conference USA, earning them a No. 9 ranking in the final Associated Press Top 25 Poll and a No. 6 ranking in the final ESPN/USA Today Coaches Poll. During that season, the team defeated the conference champions of the Big Ten (Wisconsin), ACC (Wake Forest), BIG EAST (Pittsburgh) and SEC (Kentucky).
Sponsor: Friends of Marquette Basketball
