It had become almost a given, something pretty close to a sure thing.

	Things are looking up at Marquette after a magical NCAA Tournament run.

As March progressed -- and the signs were becoming clearer that Matt Doherty would not survive at North Carolina -- there was little question what was going to happen in April.

Roy Williams was going to leave Kansas for the North Carolina job he had declined previously. Bill Self was going to leave Illinois and replace Williams at KU. And Tom Crean, the coaching darling of the 2003 NCAA Tournament, was going to become the next coach of the Illini after leading Marquette to the Final Four.

It all fit so perfectly, didn't it?

It just had to happen, right?

As the speculation about Crean increased as March went along -- there was talk he was going to be in the mix at UCLA and could have been a candidate if Kentucky's Tubby Smith had bolted to the NBA -- reporters scoffed at the words of Marquette athletic director Bill Cords.

Cords repeatedly told reporters during March that Crean was more concerned about commitment and relationships than he was about money. He said he wasn't worrying about searching for Crean's replacement.

It's unknown whether any writers actually laughed out loud when Cords made those statements, but there was certainly some after-the-fact chuckles.

Turns out Cords knew exactly what he was talking about.

As students begin returning to campuses across the country this month, there may not be a bigger winner in this college basketball offseason than Marquette. Why? By keeping Crean -- and signing him to a contract extension reportedly worth about $1.1 million per season -- Marquette won one for all the non-BCS schools out there.

Marquette, a Jesuit school of just more than 10,000 students, doesn't have a 80,000-seat football stadium where gobs of money are printed each autumn Saturday. It isn't a direct player in the money grubbing game of conference expansion and realignment. Instead, the Golden Eagles program, while tradition-filled, is in the Division I middle class.

The fact that Marquette became the first school from a non-BCS conference to reach the Final Four since Utah in '98 and the first school with out a football program to do the same since Seton Hall in '89 is impressive. The fact that the Golden Eagles were able to hold onto their coach afterwards is virtually amazing.

But that's exactly what happened. When the July observation period opened, Crean was in Kansas City watching forward prospect Ryan Amoroso play. On the final night, Crean -- wearing a Marquette basketball golf shirt -- was in a high school gym in Minneapolis watching a bunch of rising juniors play pickup.

And for the first time in at least the past couple of years, Crean is able to recruit without opposing coaches wondering out loud how long he will stay in Milwaukee.

"If it's not that, people are going to ask what conference we're going to be in," Crean said. "I've gotten so used to (the negative recruiting).

"It beats the alternative. It beats people saying that you're on the hot seat."

With only two scholarships to give for the 2004 recruiting class, it's difficult to tell exactly what kind of impact Marquette's Final Four run has made in recruiting. In addition to the postseason success, Crean can also sell a new, state-of-the-art practice facility to recruits.

The McGuire Center is scheduled to be completed by the time practice begins in October. The building will be the homecourt for the Golden Eagles volleyball and women's basketball teams and will be where the men's basketball team practices (the team plays at 19,000-seat Bradley Center). It will also allow Crean and his staff to have their offices in the same building as their practice courts.

Crean is optimistic that the building can play a part in player development. There will be no more court juggling for the Golden Eagles; they'll be able to practice at the same time as the women or the volleyball team. They won't have to worry about an indoor track athlete throwing a field implement through a backboard, as happened a few years ago.

"It's as good a facility as there is on the market," Crean said.

	“	It's been enjoyable. There's a definite sense that we did something nice. But I get the sense from our players that we're not done. I think our team is really hungry to see where it stands up. ”
		— Tom Crean

But even though any questions about Marquette's commitment to basketball have been answered with Crean's contract and the new facility, there are still items that need to be addressed.

First, Marquette has to prove that it can be a player on the national level without talented guard Dwyane Wade. Second, the Golden Eagles want to prove that the school's first trip to the Final Four since winning the 1977 national title wasn't a fluke.

"It's been enjoyable," Crean said of the months since the Final Four. "There's a definite sense that we did something nice. But I get the sense from our players that we're not done.

"I think our team is really hungry to see where it stands up."

And while the Golden Eagles will miss Wade's play and his leadership, Crean has been encouraged with some of what he's seen this summer. He likes that guard Travis Diener and forward Scott Merritt have begun to claim this team as their own. He likes that Marquette's returning players have remained humble. He likes the flashes of Spartan green he's begun to see.

When Michigan State was running to three consecutive Final Four appearances, there was a clear Spartan way of doing things and it was passed along from class to class. Izzo didn't have to get in a guy's face because he wasn't practicing hard, Mateen Cleaves would do it for him. When Cleaves and Morris Peterson graduated, it was Charlie Bell's turn to be in charge.

"Hopefully we're on that path," Crean said.

The upcoming season will be an interesting for Marquette. Instead of playing in a league where every team targeted Cincinnati, the Golden Eagles will be the team to beat. Marquette will play in front of larger and louder crowds on the road this season. They will have a reputation.

And Marquette will do it with a relatively young team and a new coaching staff. The Golden Eagles have just two seniors on their roster to go along with five incoming recruits and they will have to get quality minutes out of guys who were bit players or spectators during the Final Four run.

In addition, Crean had to replace a pair of assistant coaches when Darrin Horn was hired as the head coach at Western Kentucky and Dwayne Stephens left to be an assistant at Michigan State.

Former Marquette great Bo Ellis, who had previously been a Golden Eagles assistant under Kevin O'Neill and Mike Deane, has returned to Milwaukee. In addition, Crean hired Northern Iowa assistant Kyle Green, a Minneapolis native who has solid recruiting contacts in the Midwest.

Because of all the new faces, Crean said Marquette is considering taking a four-day foreign trip to Mexico during the school's October fall break. The trip would allow Marquette to begin practice 10 days earlier and get a jump on a season that includes non-conference games with Wisconsin, Arizona and Dayton.

And it's a schedule that, surprisingly, Marquette will tackle with Crean on the sidelines.

Jeff Shelman of the Minneapolis Star Tribune (www.startribune.com) is a regular contributor to ESPN.com.