Rich Ledy Transforming Marquette Basketball: Will now face #1 team in Michigan.

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Marquette Sentinels varsity basketball coach Rich Ledy deserves his flowers.

Being a Division 1 program in the Upper Peninsula has never been easy. For decades, the conversation around Marquette basketball always sounded the same:

"If only Marquette wasn’t Division 1."

They had some success sprinkled in over the years. Most notably a 2-point loss in the 2003 Class A State Quarterfinals to eventual state runner-up Flint Carman-Ainsworth. But more often than not, the tournament ended early as the downstate competition proved to be too much.

Then in June of 2022, Rich Ledy took over.

And the results have been outstanding.
From 1982–2022, Marquette won three playoff games in a season just four times.

Ledy has now done it twice in four seasons.
His record: 73–25.

And this year the Sentinels accomplished something the program hadn’t done since 1978 and 1979 — win back-to-back district titles.

The success hasn’t come from ducking competition either. Marquette has challenged itself all year.

Trips to Detroit to play Cass Tech, along with games against Muskegon and Harbor Beach. Those three trips alone add up to over 2,400 miles round trip.

And that’s by design.

Ledy told me their Athletic Director Jackson Ingalls is constantly working the phones to make those games happen.

"He's always calling bigger schools trying to make deals," Ledy said. "We'll offer to play there if they'll come up to Marquette once every 12 years."

The Sentinels know what comes with being Division 1 in the UP.

"We have to," Ledy said about the travel. "We know we'll be on the road a lot in the tournament."

And it hasn’t just been Division 1 schools either.

Marquette has tested itself against elite teams across all classes.

Harbor Beach? Still playing.
Menominee? Still playing.
Dollar Bay? Still playing.
Kingsford? Still playing.

Westwood, while not playing, was another signature W- a team who spent most of the season as a top-3 team in Division 3.

In the UP, when teams travel that far it usually means one thing — Ford Field or the Breslin Center.

For Marquette?Sometimes, it’s just a regular season game.

Now the Sentinels face their biggest challenge yet.
They’ll take on Rockford, the #1 team in the state of Michigan, for the regional title.

MaxPreps has Rockford ranked inside the Top 100 teams in the country and #1 in Michigan.

Make no mistake — Marquette will have to play a near perfect game.
But Ledy believes his team has a shot.

"If we play like we did against Traverse City West, we have a chance."

The Sentinels didn’t start the season playing their best basketball either.

"We weren't very good at the beginning of the year," Ledy said. "I just told them to relax. We'll be fine."

And right now?

They are.

Marquette is playing its best basketball of the season, battle-tested by a schedule designed for moments exactly like this.

Opportunities like this don’t come around often for Upper Peninsula teams to face a top overall team in the state of Michigan.

And Rich Ledy has spent the last four years proving something:

Marquette isn’t just “good for the UP.”
They belong here