'This is a great team': Fans send off Marquette team with cheers, smiles

MILWAUKEE (CBS 58) – Marquette fans gave the team a fun-filled send-off.

"This is a great team, and we can go a long way. Why shouldn't we be just thrilled, right?" Father Eddie Mathie said.

Mathie was one of the dozens of people at the Al McGuire Center on Wednesday who gathered to say goodbye and good luck to the Golden Eagles as they headed off to Texas for the next NCAA Tournament game on Friday.

"I like going to this place to watch Marquette basketball," 7-year-old fan Grace told CBS 58. "I like when they dunk."

The last time the team made the Sweet Sixteen was in 2013, the same year they made it to the Elite Eight. Before that, in 2003, Dwayne Wade took the team to the final four. While it has been decades since Marquette's championship title in 1977, this could be the team people are talking about decades from now.

"It's wonderful. It's so exciting. You can feel the energy on campus. Even in town people are excited, and all of the Marquette family is excited as well, and it is history in the making. We're doing this," Marquette University Digital Archivist Katie Blank said. "Forty-seven years ago, we won. So maybe in 50 years, the players will be looking back at how well we did this year."

Marquette was also the runner-up in the tournament in 1974, in a game against North Carolina State, the team Marquette will face this Friday.