When Dwyane Wade made his Marquette University debut during the 2001-02 season, it was no coincidence the Golden Eagles won 26 games for the first time in 26 years.
Marquette went to the Final Four the following season. Wade, now a megastar on an NBA team loaded with megastars, still gets a thrill every time he returns to Milwaukee's Bradley Center and sees the 2003 Marquette banner hanging from the rafters.
Wade's Miami Heat are 0-2 against the Milwaukee Bucks this season and return to Milwaukee on Monday night, 12 days after he talked with FOX Sports Wisconsin about his Final Four memories during his last visit. For all of teammate LeBron James' accomplishments, Wade joked to his nearby teammate, "It was a thrill, something you'd know nothing about if you never went to college."
FSW: Before that season, did you think you had a chance to make it to the Final Four?
WADE: I don't know if we said we're a Final Four team, but we knew that we could be a pretty good team, coming off of the year before. We lost some seniors. We had some transfers, but we had some talented guys back, so we knew we could be pretty good.
FSW: Your team that year had plenty of good players (Travis Diener, Steve Novak, Robert Jackson and Scott Merritt), but a lot of teams have good players and never make a tournament run. Why did that Marquette team have such success?
WADE: Continuity. We wound up peaking at the right time. Our continuity was there. We found our game. We knew what worked for us, and we played it to the best of our ability. But that team, man, we worked hard. We weren't a team you could easily beat at all. We would make it hard on you because of our coach Tom Crean's DNA. We were very hard-working and tough-minded.
FSW: You won 15 of your last 16 regular-season games but then lost to Alabama-Birmingham in the first round of the Conference USA tournament. Did that shake the team's confidence?
WADE: That was my fault. That was my fault. I played bad. I let my team down. I wasn't a leader in that game. Focus was off. I think I had like 10 turnovers (of Marquette's 30). I took it on the chin and said I'd be better next time. That shook us a little bit, but we were fine. Our confidence was there. We had to go back, and we had to do a lot of practicing to get us back.
FSW: In the NCAA tournament, you had close wins over Holy Cross, Missouri and Pittsburgh. Then you took on top seed and heavily favored Kentucky in the regional final. You scored 29 points, had 11 rebounds, 11 assists and four blocks in beating Kentucky by 14. How does that game rank in your basketball history as far as a team win and an individual performance?
WADE: It was one of the best individual performing games I had, but I didn't know. I was just playing. I was just trying to do whatever I could to help my team win. Because I knew what was on the cusp for us. I knew that we were close and we could win. And as a team, we were amazing. We had a great team win. I didn't find out until after the game that I had a triple-double. I was like, 'What?' Because I was just in that mode of doing whatever it takes to win the game.
FSW: Looking back on the Final Four team, what are your thoughts and how does it feel now coming back to the Bradley Center and seeing the special banner hanging from the rafters?
WADE: It was amazing. For coming into Marquette two years before that and basketball not being on the tip of everybody's tongue. And two years later, to have the whole city behind us . . . it was special. You felt really accomplished, that we had done something really special. I feel great. I look up there and I see two years a body of work and got something to remember us by. But we worked hard for that. It was a very good team, a special team. I'll never forget it.
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