Marquette is going to the NCAA Tournament for the 35th time. There wasn’t much mystery. They earned an automatic bid by winning the Big East conference tournament. They also won the Big East regular season title.

What they did find out Sunday is that they are the second seed in the East Region. They’ll face Vermont Friday in Columbus, Ohio. They were the very last matchup announced on the CBS telecast. Good thing they knew they were in. Otherwise, the long wait would have been brutal.

Marquette has a terrific basketball past. But this is about the present. The now.

Shaka Smart has done a magnificent job. In just his second season, Marquette won their first Big East Tournament title. He’s the conference’s Coach of the Year and a finalist for national honors. In my opinion, he should win it for guiding a team picked for 9th in the Big East this far.

Of course, there’s still work to do. Marquette hasn’t won an NCAA tournament game in 10 years. I’ve been following Marquette basketball for 50 years. I can’t remember a squad playing harder. Yet, as sweet as it was to win the conference tournament in New York, this is where legacies are made.

I don’t know how far Marquette will go. That’s up to them. They’ve proven people wrong before.