The Associated Press

MILWAUKEE - Trey Schwab sits on the Marquette bench, breathing oxygen from a tube connected to a portable tank. He wears a cell phone on his hip, and he checks it every so often to see if he's missed the call that could save his life.

Marquette assistant Trey Schwab sits on the bench with team star Dwyane Wade. (AP photo) | ZOOM |

The 38-year-old assistant coach has a disease that is deteriorating his lungs, and a transplant is his only hope for survival.

Schwab is at the top of a waiting list for a donor lung, and if a match is found, word will reach him through a vibration on his cell phone. He then would have just two hours to get to the University of Wisconsin Medical Center in Madison for the operation.

This waiting game is not only tense for Schwab, it's an inconvenience because his team is playing in the Final Four in New Orleans. The Golden Eagles play Kansas in Saturday's first national semifinal game, and Schwab left for the Big Easy on Tuesday to help with logistics for the team's trip.

"The coach in me would like to put all this on a back burner for another week and not worry about it," Schwab said. "But this is life and death, and it'll happen when it's supposed to happen, and there's not anything any of us can do about that."

A private jet will be waiting to whisk Schwab away from New Orleans should the call come while he's there.

"We're actually pushing the two-hour window a little bit," Schwab said. "But hopefully we'll have a little bit of leeway if they find a lung for me."

There was no way he was going to stay in Milwaukee after Marquette reached its first Final Four since Al McGuire led the school to its only title in 1977.

"It's stressful on the bench and being so far away. But I'd probably be in more stress if I had to sit at home and watch it on TV," Schwab said.

Said coach Tom Crean: "I hope he's there for the game, unless he can get (the surgery) ahead of time. It's a no-lose situation for him."

The operation could last up to 24 hours.

"We're going to just have to drop everything and get to the airport as fast as we can when the phone rings," Schwab said.

Shortly after Schwab arrived at Marquette last season, he and Crean each developed a nasty coughs they couldn't shake, and both men were diagnosed with walking pneumonia. But as Crean got better, Schwab only got worse.

After numerous tests, doctors told Schwab that he had a rare, incurable disease called idiopathic pulmonary fibrosis that attacks the air sacs in the lungs, hindering the body's ability to process oxygen.

After six operations and 15 months of using a portable oxygen tank, Schwab moved near the top of the organ transplant list in February and doctors began cutting back on some of his medications in preparation for the operation, sapping his strength and stamina. He feels guilty because other members of the staff have picked up the slack, but nobody has complained, Crean said.

Indeed, Schwab has become a source of inspiration to Marquette's players and coaches in this special season.

"Every time we think things are tough, you look at him and see a man who isn't breathing on his own," Crean said. "You can't help but draw inner strength."

Guard Dwyane Wade said: "When I first got here, Coach said you have to lay it on the line every day, and I said, `How can you do that every day?' " Wade said. "Well, I see how you can do that every day because what he's going through, he has to be strong every day."

The Golden Eagles are two wins away from living out their dream.

"But if Trey can get new lungs and a new lease on life," guard Travis Diener said, "that would really be something to celebrate."