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The New Marquette Men’s Basketball Uniforms Are Totally Badass

They’re a perfect combination of all eras of Golden Eagle history for the 100th season of hoops.

By Brewtown Andy

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Marquette men's basketball
MU grad student Katin Reinhardt in the new uniform.
Facebook.com/MarquetteMensBB

After a week of teasing, Marquette men’s basketball finally debuted the brand new Jordan Brand uniforms for the 2016-17 season at Marquette Madness on Friday night.

And they are SO AWESOME.

marquette men's basketball Facebook.com/MarquetteMensBB

It’s a super retro look to go with the idea of the 100th anniversary of the start of the program, and there’s tiny touches all over the kit that are callbacks and nods to various eras of the program.

marquette men's basketball Facebook.com/MarquetteMensBB

In case you can’t make out the explanations at the bottom of the picture:

  1. “AL” at the yoke of the jersey, just like every jersey since 2001-02, in honor of Al McGuire.
  2. Very faint horizontal stripes that aren’t visible at a distance, as a callback to the 1971 bumblebee uniforms that were banned by the NCAA for their “psychedelic effect.” Yes, that’s right, the new jerseys are street legal bumblebee uniforms that the NCAA can’t do anything about. HA HA HA EAT IT, JERKS.
  3. The “Marquette” name below each player’s number, reminiscent of the 1977 untucked jerseys that were designed by MU legend Bo Ellis. An untucked jersey is still banned by the NCAA, and there’s no way to get around that like there is with the bumblebee lines.
  4. The United States flag, which was added to the jersey after September 11, 2001.
  5. A gold, championship blue, and navy blue tricolor block on the belt area, as a nod to the colors Marquette has worn in various formats dating back to 1974, including the most recent set of uniforms. (More on this in a moment.)
  6. Striped side panels, which have been used in various ways on Marquette uniforms dating as far back as the 1940s
  7. The modern day MU monogram, which has appeared on the uniforms since the move to the Big East in 2005-06.
  8. That tricolor block on the waistband is in fact designed to look like a belt buckle, which was common on uniforms in the 1930s.

None of it feels weirdly thrown together, and it all works in harmony to create a perfect tribute to the program’s history. On top of it all, the whole package looks like a uniform from 100 years ago, allowing the entire look to zig while everyone else is zagging with their looks. It gives Marquette a brand new fresh feel after using essentially the exact same uniform style since 2007-08.

A couple of notes as passed along from Matt Velazquez of the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel:

  • Each player’s uniform is custom tailored for his exact dimensions. Duane Wilson isn’t wearing a medium, he’s wearing a bespoke Marquette uniform designed specifically for him.
  • The uniforms do come in white, gold, and championship blue as well. Those kits have not arrived from the Nike/Jordan Brand main office, but if they had, they would have been on display on Friday night.
  • While the other three colors will match the navy uniform in design, Marquette will be wearing a unique uniform set on November 30th when they host Western Carolina. That kit will be a part of Nike’s N7 collection, which is their Native American outreach program. In the past, the N7 uniforms have been turquoise versions of the school’s usual uniform, but with Marquette having a championship blue version, I don’t know if that will be the case here.

What do you think about the uniforms?