Marquette savors the sweet taste of road victories with milkshakes
The Marquette men's basketball team had one thing on its mind after beating Butler on Tuesday in Indianapolis.
The Golden Eagles celebrate every victory on the road under head coach Shaka Smart with milkshakes at the arena. But with their first outright Big East trophy in tow, there needed to be something extra. The MU team headed to Gordon's Milkshake Bar, which had already been decked out with MU gear.
Yes, as anyone who has ever played Little League can attest, victories just taste better when paired with ice cream-based treats.
"Obviously with the opportunity to clinch the outright championship, we said, hey, we've got to make this an extra special milkshake if we are able to win," Smart said. "So our (support staff) folks - Maddie (Adams) and Ben (Retzlaff) and Noreen (Walsh) and Barb (Kellaher) - did an awesome job planning out heading over to that spot."
The Golden Eagles usually opt for options like Shake Shack, Baskin-Robbins or Chick-fil-A milkshakes to go with the postgame food spread. There's occasional local shops that are blended into the mix. MU's support staff tries to get them delivered via DoorDash to the arena around 1 hour and 15 minutes after the tip time.
So far, there have been 15 road or neutral court victories in the two seasons under Smart and there have been milkshakes at all of them, though at Seton Hall this season there was a late delivery while the team was on the bus waiting to head to the airport. If the team loses, the Styrofoam cups are discreetly distributed to arena workers.
There's always a wide variety of flavors, though Oreo is an overwhelming favorite. Big man Oso Ighodaro always opts for vanilla and sharpshooting guard Kam Jones has recently ventured into strawberry. At the championship celebration, birthday cake was added to the selections.
The MU support staff contacted Gordon's Milkshake Bar early on Tuesday, and after the store agreed to stay open late, a MU flag and other decorations were dropped off just in case the Golden Eagles locked up the title by beating Butler.
The tradition has evolved during Smart's time as a head coach.
"Actually we always going back to VCU would get milkshakes in our war room for the coaches the night before the game," Smart said. "It would be 'Who wants a shake?' and then somebody would make a run.
"Because we would be in there late. I mean, back in the day - it's different now, I think remote working has changed everything - but back in the day we would be in the war room in the hotel for road games until 2 or 3 in the morning watching tape. And it was probably counterproductive. It was probably a bit much.
"But it was unbelievable for staff bonding. So we would get these milkshakes. Fast forward to some point when I was at Texas, at some point along the way we got the idea that, hey, if we win, we're going to get milkshakes. Winning on the road in the Big 12 is hard. Winning on the road in the Big East is hard."
But nothing tastes sweeter than those championship shakes.
"The milkshake tasted extra well," Smart confirmed.
Our subscribers make this reporting possible. Please consider supporting local journalism by subscribing to the Journal Sentinel at jsonline.com/deal.
DOWNLOAD THE APP: Get the latest news, sports and more
This article originally appeared on Milwaukee Journal Sentinel: Marquette and Shaka Smart celebrate road victories with milkshakes
