UL Trip Update

I just secured two more UK tickets. Section 212, Row M. This section is right next to Reid and I. Tickets are $35 a piece. I have my Southern connection working on the final ticket. Stay tuned.

Buzz Presser - Tough to Watch

He starts discussing James around the 4:30 mark. Beware, it's tough to watch.

QatB Field Trip

Another day is marching through the door and that means that the gents here at QatB are embarking on another field trip.  This trip will take QatB members D3S, Reid, Sheets, Money, frequent commenter Baffoon, and another friend of show to the northern reaches of the Dirty South.

We will be departing today and arriving in the Queen City of Ohio to throw a bunch of whiskey in our heads as we meet Money.  We will then eat Skyline and pass out for a couple of hours.  After waking up, we will eat Sonic and then drive to the Bluegrass State.  The plan for the state where people get lucky in is to take in a distillery tour and then watch the Tigers of Louisiana State University take on the Wildcats from the University of Kentucky at Rupp Arena.  We will then head to Louisville where we will watch our beloved Golden Eagles of Marquette University take on the Cardinals from the University of Louisville during a match-up that will be aired on Columbia Broadcasting System as used to be known as.

We plan on retelling our journey on this blog, so make sure to stay posted.  I'm sure debauchery will occur in at least one of the places we stop.

UW Continues to Eat 'Em Some Cupcakes

http://www.jsonline.com/blogs/sports/40378567.html?c=y&commentSubmitted=y

They just added South Dakota to the 2011 football schedule. What a bunch of pussies. They also play Oregon St (ok), UNLV and Northern Illinois in 2011. Second tier football school

The Show Must Go On!

Regardless of what happened last night, we need to remember that there is still basketball to be played. I realize that we have taken a major hit to our battleship, but we are not sunk yet, so I thought I would make an attempt to right our ship and figure out a solution to our problem.......afterall, we aren't the only team in the nation to have an injury issue. So what is my solution you ask? You guessed it.....Chris Otule! (J/K, that was for comedic affect) The first thing that a coach will usually say when posed with this quandry is, "we need other guys to step up". Absolutely! While Mo Acker isn't exactly capable of filling Dom's shoes, he does need to step in and distribute the ball while not turning it over, and hit the occassional jumper when it presents itself. Not a tall order by any stretch of the imagination (Afterall, he was the freshman of the year in his conference before he transferred).

In my opinion, the biggest jump is going to have to come from Lazar. Now Lazar isn't exactly underperforming this year, but considering he is going to be the go to guy next year, what better time to get a jump start on that by fine tuning his offensive game and stepping his overall game up a bit over these last 3-4 weeks.

Others might say that "Legs" is going to have to shoulder much of this, and I agree to an extent. I just don't believe that he has the confidence to really step up at this point. I will say that I was impressed with his fearlessness last night. He wasn't afraid to take it strong at Thabeet and I believe statistically it was his best game as a Golden Eagle. So I guess I shouldn't rule Legs out.

Anyhow, rather than sulking over our loss, I figured we need to look down the road and discuss any possibility of success that this team might still have. We've got a tough game on Sunday. I doubt that we will win that game, but as they always say....."That's why they play the game". Let's go MU! Let's go Otule!

FUCK.

To lose Dom James to a career-ending injury on Ash Wednesday during a home game against the No. 2 team in the country means only one thing:

God is clearly a Mormon.

Fuck. Fuck fuck fuck fuck fuck fuck fuck fuck fuck fuck fuck.

Also: I need the Big East Commissioner's email address. If those officials ever work another game at the BC, they will not leave alive.

(This is how I manifest my grief.)

Pre-Game Plans

I'm hoping to be at Turner's at 4:30 for some pre-game fish fry and MGD. Anyone else interested or able?

MU -1...

Enough with all this Sonic non-sense its game day and time to get our game face on. I'm so fired up right now and its only 9:45 am. Apparently the line opened this morning as a pick'em but has moved to MU by 1. Lots of $$ flowing to the Golden Eagles. Atleast gamblers don't ahve to worry about Cooby f-ing up the line again tonight.

I think we are going to win in typical MU fashion...close til about 10 minutes left and being at home carries us to a 5 point win. 78-73. Keys to the game for me are:

-Get big dudes in foul trouble...Thabeet and Adrien. they have a short bench as well and getting those two dues in foul trouble will help greatly (see what Providence did last night to DeJuan Blair).
-Burke needs to be able to catch and finish. Thabeet is going to try and block our guards everytime they get into the lane as their guards can't stop all of our guards. Burke or Jimmy need to be ready for the dribble pentration pass and dunk. I wouldn't be suprised if Burke has 10 tonight.
-Hold our own on the boards especially on the offensive boards. We can't afford to give them second chance points off of their misses
-Shoot the ball well from outside and the free throw line
-Play some small ball with Jimmy in for Burke to make Adrien and Thabeet guard Zar and Jimmy at the 3 point line. Yeah those big dudes are a mismatch for us but our small ball line-up causes mismatches for them.

Reporter1:"You make 1.6million dollars" , Calhoun: "No, I make more than that"

Is it just me, or does the game feel extra big when UConn comes to town? In this case, it actually is big considering MU can control their own destiny (as far as Big East regular season championship goes) by beating UConn, Louisville, Pitt, and Syracuse in succession. As unlikely as that scenario is, I think that we have a great shot at starting a run by first winning tonight. I can't really explain why I think that we will win considering how much of a nightmare matchup it is, but I feel like playing at the BC with a raucous crowd and Dicky V calling the nationally televised game gives MU a BIG home court advantage tonight. I think that there are 3 keys to the game: 1. Fast start - we need to hit some shots early and keep the crowd amped. If Thabeet blocks a number of shots early I fear that our guards will think twice about attacking and thus take us out of our game. 2. We need to attack their bigs! While we don't have a Dejuan Blair that can post up Thabeet, we need to follow Blair's blueprint and attack Thabeet and Adrien. If we can get a couple of fouls on them early and get them on the bench, we will have a great shot at winning the game. 3. Turnover margin - We have been protecting the ball well of late. We need to continue this trend, and at the same time force UConn into turning the ball over. Winning the turnover battle (like football) will also increase our likelihood of victory.

Prediction - Marquette 71 UConn, 67. Jerel again leads the way with 23, 7 boards, 5 assists, 4 steals, and 2 blocks.

This of course would lead to a HUGE game between conference leaders Marquette and Louisville.....and some of us will be there! I think it's safe to say that I'm jacked for the game tonight.

You make 1.6million dollars

A night at Sonic

So here we are.  The day has finally come and I have eaten Sonic in my home state.  This is kind of a lame intro, but I'm still on a sugar high from the Cherry Limeade.

Our adventure to Sonic started off quite normally.  Myself, Rubie Q, Mrs. Q, D3S, and Reid all met in the Target parking lot to get into Reid's car.  I pulled up next to them waiting for me and I'm sure they saw the ridiculous grin on my face.  The line to get into Sonic stretched out to the road where it was blocking traffic.  I heard on the radio on my drive to Target that it was about an hour and a half wait.  I knew I was ready to make the sacrifice and I was hoping that my car-mates were willing to do the same.

We finally got close enough to talk to someone.  He told us that it would be about 2 hours.  I was unfazed by this and the rest of the group in the car was going to stick it out for me.  This then lead to a conversation about wait times.  We said that wait times usually aren't as bad as they say and that once you get past 45 minutes, you are really only dealing with Monopoly money.  Rubie then went into a comparison to wait times at theme parks.  We then immediately found the fatal flaw in that argument and we moved on.  We then pulled up to this sign.

That's right.  They had a staging area.  This is where we met our second Sonic employee.  Another very nice gentlemen that showed us the path we would be taking for the next hour or so.  No, we weren't driving to Sheboygan, we were driving around an Office Max.  An Office Max that apparently closes at 8.  During this time there was some texting between myself and Zone.  He tried to "hop on" to our accomplishments and said he would show up in an hour and meet us and jump in.  We shot down this idea right away.  Also during this time we were trying to figure out what the car in front of us was watching on their flip-down DVD player.  After some discussion we figured it was some sort of Tyler Perry movie.  We thought we say that Madea character.  Who knows.

We then met our third Sonic employee.  This gentlemen asked us a very important question.  He asked if we were going to drive-thru or pull into a stall.  We picked the stall option and this proved to be a wise choice.  We eventually made it to our stall after only about an hour and a half wait or so.  We then saw this glorious sight.

There is the menu.  This is where the adventure really started.  We had all written down our orders so it would make it as easy as possible.  It's a really good thing we did.  As would be expected with any opening night, there was some confusion and the ordering process was a little slow.  It might have taken a while, but the nice woman taking our order eventually got it all correct.  If the ordering takes this long in a month or so, then I would worry.  Opening night... no worries at all.  During all the excitement I might have blurted some words out and Rubie might have been restrained by Mrs. Q, but it all went pretty well.

I had the #5 Combo which was a Bacon Cheeseburger Toaster (or something like that).  It was really good.  I love that Texas Toast that the toasters are on (I think it's texas toast).  The tots were phenomenal and I love that the menu says "Tots or Fries" and not "Fries or Tots".  They know what's up.  I also had an extra-large Cherry Limeade.  I didn't think it could get any better until I ate the cherry hanging in the cup on my way home.  Wow.  It was like they somehow put the most delicious thing ever inside that cherry.  I wouldn't be surprised if it was laced with crack or something.  It was probably the best tasting maraschino cherry I've ever tasted.  I also ordered a regular coney with my food.  I figured, as did D3S, that after waiting for over an hour, we were going to eat a crap-ton of food.  And that we did.  The coney was huge and delicious.

Our roller girl, or server as some would call her, was very good.  The people inside messed up our order a bit and forgot to send out 3 items, but she was very nice and brought it right out.  The food also came out very quickly.  We really couldn't believe how fast it came to us.

This post is really too long.  I can't help it that I really love this restaurant.  The food was good, the roller girl and other employees we met along the way were great.  I'm sure the ordering problem will be cleared up eventually.  I also need to thank the fine people at Sonic that sent me the gift card.  It helped to put a dent into our $42 food bill.  That's right.  We ordered over $42 of food at Sonic.  And that's just our first visit.  I'm sure I've left stuff out, and that is partly because it's late and also because this post is too long already.  Zone said the text message line of the night was, "We can see the place now".  That was after we had been stuck behind a strip mall in our journey and we finally made visual contact again.

Here is a great picture to leave you with.  Awesome.

A Little Something That Reminds Me of Reid!!!

The Sonic plan...

Our day has come gentlemen. Tomorrow (or today if you went to bed before 10:30 last night and didn't read the blog at midnight) the first Sonic will open up in our area. I know that I have been waiting for this date like I waited for Christmas when I was a young, small town kid growing up in Northeastern Wisconsin.

Pictured above is a mySonic card that the lovely people at Sonic were nice enough to grace us with. We are going to eat the crap out of some Sonic in less than 24 hours.

Here is the plan... We will meet in the Target parking lot at about 7:45 P.M. We will then all pile into one vehicle (probably Reid's since it is big) and head over for the glorious tastes of Cherry Limeade and whatever else you want. Just don't bring that weak tot action.

Let me know who is all in.

More Local Media Worthlessness

I was listening to WSSP on the way home today. Honestly, I was looking for Q@B fodder. Mission accomplished. At 5:15 - possibly their largest audience timeframe, they were not only discussing, but TAKING CALLS on if people drank tap water or bottled water. In case anyone was wondering, Sparky drinks tap water and Gary Swollen Tongue Ellerson only drinks bottled water. The reason Ellerson only drinks bottled water is because of the crypto scare a few years ago in Milwaukee. I thought that strange, the crazy thing is that the other two yahoos had never even heard of the crypto scare. Huh? I lived in Nebraska and I was 12 and I remember that shit. Fucking imbeciles.

My next beef is with sportsbubbler.com. I'm sorry Zone, but this website fucking sucks. They link to AP stories only, they have extremely infrequent blog posts and a regular feature by some chick in eye black called the Gridiron Girl (sigh). They had an MU article today, by some blunt scissors using schmuck named Todd Welter from 620. The basic premise is fine, but the execution made Dale Hoffman weep.

He was not Sean Miller. He was not Tony Bennett. He was not a name beyond the fact people called him Buzz. He had a legion of fans scratching their heads and wondering why a program deep in tradition would hire a guy that reinforced Texas stereotype. Yet, Brent “Buzz” Williams Texas charm has won over the doubters.

So you are saying the guy we hired has a name? Good start, good start. I agree, I was certainly scratching my head, hit that one. Doesn't Buzz Williams possess his charm? Wouldn't that require an apostrophe to indicate that and make the reader's job easier. Also, I don't think that Buzz has won over the doubters - how many times have we heard (or said), we'll see what he can do next year?

You do not hear too many people still stewing over his hiring. He has done it by being honest to a fault. What coach in their right mind would admit his power forward is even shorter than his already undersized listed height? He uses terms like paint touch, trend towards, and complexion more often that Tom Crean ever charted deflections. He can tell you how minutes he has worked since being hired. We love him for all his quirks because he could quite possibly have the best clap in the game along with being one sharp dressy. Winning is also a good way to get the masses behind you.

Buzz? Honest? That's going to get more tiring than the mentions of Crean's 4 gajillion set plays and karate in practice. Buzz was dumb to say Zar was short - may have lost the dude a few hundred grand. Good rip on Crean's love of the deflection. "along with being one sharp dressy" come again? What's a sharp dressy? I'll go out on a limb and assume he means sharp dresser. Apparently Helen Keller wrote this article. Scratch that, he said Buzz had a good clap, let's go with Stevie Wonder. Buzz is the 2nd worst dressed coach in the league (behind Old Gil). His shirt tie combos offend FPMKE and Charlie Weis' Gunt not to mention Mrs. D3Some. People like winning? Relevatory

He walked into a season full of doubt. Too small a lineup they said. A brutal five-game stretch to end the season. Come on, he lost in his first in coaching gig at New Orleans! So how can he win in the big beast that is the Big East. Yet, he has this program closer to reaching heights that Tom Crean could never reach without Dwyane Wade. He is doing it with a lineup that might not get allowed on most rides at Great America.

"He walked into a season full of doubt." Was that one of the bylines for the movie previews at the beginning of Tropic Thunder? No, I'm wrong, that was in the promos for "Season on the Brink." "Too small a lineup they said." Stop writing like you are chatting over a Pabst on the Southside. Ah, the retread "can't win without DWade" comment.

Where Tom Crean’s ego ran wild over this program, Buzz has tried to never make it about him. He has given all the praise to the players - put all the failures on him. That is why he has won over the gold alumni sweater vest.

This paragraph makes sense! Congrats, though I don't appreciate the rip on MU alumni.

It can not hurt to get off on the right foot with a veteran laced lineup filled with a couple special players. There might not be another coach on the old wish list the Marquette faithful had that could manage this lineup better. Tony Bennett would have an up-and-down lineup playing a Big 10 style in the Big East. Tony Miller would have had them jacking up a lot of threes. Williams has them scoring, and scoring, and scoring some more. By recognizing that this roster did not need to waste too much practice time on offense, the defense has probably played its best in the Jerel, Dominic, Wes era. Not to take away from what Crean did, but this team was not going to succeed like it has if Dominic James continued to be the main scoring option. Williams convincing James to be a true point guard has kicked this team into another gear. Notice how Wesley Matthews game has taken off now that he gets more shots?

No, it can't hurt to inherit a loaded team. Tony Miller was a candidate? Really? Perhaps you meant Sean Miller, let's go with that. Yep, we would have attempted a lot of 3's under SEAN Miller. How would that be different than today? The defense has played it's best? Have you seen the past month? Particularly the Villanova game? The defense is a joke and is way more of a concern than our lack of height. Good thing Williams told James to quit shooting? This was McNeal's team LAST year and everyone knew it. I have noticed Wes's production. What are you attributing that to exactly? Your clumsy prose leaves that up in the air. Tony fucking Miller...

Buzz still has a little bit of a ways to go before we can sit comfortably thinking that Marquette can survive Crean’s “it’s Indiana” move. Williams is going to have to win with his players. He is going to have to take the present team to the second week of the NCAA Tournament. He has at least accomplished one thing. He has won over the Marquette faithful and Big East games.

"A little bit of a ways to go" - again, get off the bar stool and put down the Pabst. So, in fantastic MikeHunt fashion, you have started out with a statement that Buzz has silenced the doubters and now you are retracting that? How can one "win over" Big East games.

My brain hurts, go away Todd Welter, just...go...away.

Steve Rushin

Some Steven Rushin love inspired by Cracked Sidewalks. The SI one is a must read, even if you've read it before.

Good article on Cracked Sidewalks:
http://www.crackedsidewalks.com/2009/02/untucked-guest-essay-from-steve-rushin.html

Great article from the Final Four run:
http://sportsillustrated.cnn.com/inside_game/steve_rushin/news/2003/04/08/rushin0407/index.html

Post Season Tickets...

What are everyone's plans for NCAA tourney tickets? the form needs to be completed by Friday I believe. I'm thinking about Dayton, Minny, Indy and Detroit.

A Conundrum.

This is the single instance when I will admit to feeling some sympathy for an official.

Say you have two teams -- for simplicity's sake, let's refer to them as "Michigan State" and "Wisconsin." And let's say that the coaches of these two teams both have a tendency to question every single call that an official makes; each man, apparently, is of the firmly-held opinion that his team has never committed a foul.

Now, add this to the mix: both of these teams are comprised, almost exclusively, of hacks. A basketball game involving either stands a good chance of devolving into a wrestling contest. (Apologists for the conference these two teams play in -- let's call it the "Big 11" -- will tell you both teams play good defense. Also: 94% of the apologists for this "Big 11" conference lived underneath power lines as children. The other 6% were dropped on their heads as infants.)

So, there's your situation: two teams that foul on damn-near every possession. Two coaches who go ape-shit any time there is a foul called against them, one of them making comical "I'm a mean badger!" faces and the other stomping on the floor like he's a "Riverdance" extra.

Good luck and God bless.

I love this team...

As much as some of the us like to nitpick this team to death, they sure are fun to watch. Yeah we might get out rebounded or give up to many wide open looks from 3, but when push comes to shove they show up win games. I'd be incredibly suprised if we aren't very competitive for the rest of the Big East games. We might not win them all, but I think we've got a chance to win each game. Let's enjoy the ride cuz we might not get another team that is this special.

Apparently on the post-game show they've changed the Cyganiak Planning 6th Man of the Game Award to the Jimmy Butler Cyganiak Planning 6th Man of the Game award. Dude continues to do what he needs to do when he's in the game. That catch and lay-in from Rel at the end of the game was huge.

On Winners And Those Who Did Not Win, But Will Not Be Called 'Losers.'

SI's Jon Heyman separates the wheat from the chaff in this column as he breaks down baseball's offseason. He puts the Cubs in the 'winners' column ... though it sure sounds like he's talking himself into that move:

11. Cubs: Milton Bradley and the lovable losers have the potential to be a dicey mix, and it doesn't help that they'll need the volatile slugger to remain healthy enough to play the outfield. Kevin Gregg doesn't make up for the loss of Kerry Wood, and Aaron Miles isn't as good as Mark DeRosa, who was a great find for them. But they did keep their fine rotation intact, Aaron Heilman may be a find and they're already the favorites to import Jake Peavy at midseason.

Let's go move by move here:

Milton Bradley: don't like it.
Kevin Gregg: ain't no Kerry Wood.
Aaron Miles: ain't no Mark DeRosa (and thank GOD that fucker is gone; was there ever a Brewers-Cubs game where that asshole didn't hit a home run?).

"But they did keep their fine rotation intact..."

Well, yeah, they did, but that only involved signing Ryan Dempster to an absurd 4-year, $52-million contract. (Call me in two years; lemme know if you'd like that to spend that $13 million per on somebody else.)

And are we really convinced about the soundness of the starting five? Dempster had one great year after four years in exile in the bullpen. Zambrano's stats have been in a consistent decline since 2003 (did you realize he only struck out 130 guys last year?), and he had to be shut down twice last year (albeit briefly) because of a balky shoulder. DickHard is a mortal lock for two trips to the DL. Ted Lilly ... will throw 82 mph and confound the Brewers every time he faces them. Fine, I concede that one. And who's the fifth starter? Sean Marshall? Samardasijzakjla? Aaron Freaking Heilman?

I'm not saying that it's not a good group, nor am I saying that it's not a better rotation than the Brewers starting five. Alls I'm sayin' is that there's a couple sticks of dynamite there that could blow a hole in that team.

Enough with the Cubs. Heyman tosses the Crew with the rest of the dregs of the league in his "losers" column (though he calls them "non-winners," apparently having been brainwashed by the political correctness police):

24. Brewers: They caught a tough break when the losses of both Sabathia and Ben Sheets netted them only one second-round pick (for Sabathia). Braden Looper should help, but it's hard to imagine what they see in Eric Gagne again. Their fine nucleus of everyday players is going to have to do a lot of meshing.

Can't much quibble with the first point, though it's hard to classify anything involving Ben Sheets and his ever-expanding claptrap as a "tough break." After living the Ben Sheets Experience for six years, I'd say Capt. Snatch going on the free agent market only to eventually reveal that he still has a shredded elbow tendon and never properly rehabbed it, thereby necessitating surgery that he wants the Brewers to foot the bill for, and ending the chances that any team will sign him before June and costing the Brewers a draft pick ... yeah, that'd fall under the heading of "business as usual."

Re: Mr. Looper. I remain firmly in the DID NOT WANT camp. And let me finish Mr. Heyman's sentence for him: "Braden Looper should help ... deflect some of the fans' hatred for Jeff Suppan, because he undoubtedly will be just as shitty." There. That's better.

I'm not ready to talk about Eric Gagne yet. Check back next week.

Finally: I don't know what this sentence -- "Their fine nucleus of everyday players is going to have to do a lot of meshing" -- means. I'm hoping that last word is a typo, because it doesn't make a whole hell of a lot of sense. They have to 'mesh'? You mean, like this (possibly NSFW)? Methinks you might've meant to say 'mashing.'

Piling On DePaul - Again

I know - it's kicking a program when it's down, scratch that, dead. But I get constant laughs out of Old Gil/Jerry. Good thing the economy's bad or Old Jerry would be coaching in the Chicago Public League next year. DePaul's commitment to a competitive athletic department is rivaled by my commitment to the WNBA.

Tan Tommy vs. Dwight Schrute: Tale of the Tape.

Much wideness of love goes to Mrs. Q for this brilliant idea, and for her co-authorship of the table below. Let's go to the Tale of the Tape -- Tan Tommy vs. Dwight Schrute (and, again, I'm sorry that you have to click the table to see it full size):

Inquiring Minds Want To Know.

Saw this on the JSOnline ticker:

On Oct. 1, Wisconsin law changes to apply the 5% sales tax to digital downloads of music, books, games, etc. Will you comply with this new law?

Please e-mail Steven Walters with any comments.

I'm sorry, I believe I misread that -- the question again, please?

Will you comply with this new law?

Ah. My mistake. At first, I thought you were soliciting comments from people regarding whether they planned to break the law in the near future. As it turns out: that's exactly what you're asking.

Wisconsin law prohibits people from taking dumps on other people's lawns. Are you planning to do so in the next week or so? Please email us if you are; we'll send a photographer out to get a shot.

Please, newspaper industry: stop prolonging this thing and die already.

Bears. Beets. Battlestar Gallactica.

As promised, via The Sports Hernia:

Bo vs. Tommy: Tale of the Tape.

I apologize in advance that you have to click on the image below to see the breakdown. The fucking Interwebs are fucking with my shit today.

We've Been Linked!!

Multiple linkages below:

http://www.thebuckychannel.com/2009/02/brewers-sign-former-cy-young-winner.html
Don't they know we HATE the Badgers?

http://www.rightfieldbleachers.com/?tag=trevor-hoffman
Some props to Rubes for the name

http://www.brewcrewball.com/2009/1/12/718206/monday-s-frosty-mug
Mentions the payroll discussion

More Big 10/11 Excitement...

Admittedly, I intend to watch the Wisconsin @ Indiana game tonight. I'm looking forward to the classic Bo Ryan vs. Tom Crean match-up. It will be nice to see Tan Tommy give Bo a cold post-game pat on the shoulder.

My only problem is I'm torn about who I should root for in this match-up. Part of me says I should remember the good times with Crean at Marquette and root for the underdog. But then again, I still have a sour taste in my mouth about how classless Tan Tommy's departure from Marquette was and it might be nice to see him get blown out by the Badgers.

Thoughts?

38-33

No, I'm not ranting about college football. That was tonight's score of the Illinois-Penn State BASKETBALL game. Yes, that was the final. No, they did not play 10 minute halves. No, it wasn't the women's game. No, they didn't play it outside. To my knowledge, peach baskets were not used, the three point line was in play, the 35 second shot clock was used and JoePa didn't start at power forward for the Nittany Lions.

How the hell are the Illini ranked??? They have scored less than 40 points twice this year! Charlie and I were horrified at the putridness during the Buffet field trip to commie territory. They were afraid to even attempt to finish against the Badgers' "legendary" front line of Jon Leuer, Tim Jarmusz (Beeker) and Marcus Landry (Little 'Bro). Instead, they settled for jumper after jumper, most of which hit the rim - unless Alex Legion was shooting, those were air balls. They even allowed J-Bo to attempt a dunk. Mind you, J-Bo is VERY white, VERY short and VERY unathletic, so he tricked it Dylan Page style.

The really sad fucking thing is that both of these teams could be in the tournament. Fucking Big 11. This shit is so exciting that they get their own craptastic network on which to air this face melting excitement. I can't wait for women's field hockey to start on the BTN - I hear that Northwestern's team is awesome - and in HD. I think I can see their hairy legs from here. Christ, get me a fucking drink.

Cooby must have had Seton Hall +13...

Why else would have thrown up that shot with the shot clock off at the end of the game which allowed Hazell to hit that last 3 and make it a 12 point game? Just another reason why I don't bet on lines.

Nice second half last night...glad to see it looked like the stepped up the intensity. Always helps to have a 5 point play. There were some pretty nice stat lines last night:

Wes-24 points, 4 boards, 4 assists, 1 steal and 1 turnover
DJ-13 pionts, 8 assists, 6 boards, 7 steals, 4 blocks, and 4-4 from the line
Jerel-13 points, 6 boards, 7 assists, 5 steals
Zar-14 points, 6 boards, 2 steals, 2 blocks

Too many turnovers as a whole, but I attribute that to a lazy first half and overall a poor shooting night, but things improved in the second half.

Jimmy Butler continues to impress and as long as we don't get into foul trouble there's no reason why our the big 4, burke and jimmy don't get 95% of the PT.

Overall, we are 11-2 and tied for first heading into murderer's row. Steal the G-town game (which is very doable) and we are in good shape.

Final Stretch!

Well here we go gentleman....the Marquette Golden Eagles officially have 13 Big East games under their belt, and enter their final 5 game stretch with an 11-2 record after waking up in the second half last night and securing a pretty solid beat down of the classless Seton Hall Pirates of lovely New Jearsay (I want to personally thank Hazell for canning that 3 with 9 seconds to play making it a 12 pt loss versus a 15 pt loss). They now enter a very important 2 week period that will prove whether or not this team is as good as their #10 ranking. So let me just say that up to this point this team has exceeded everyone's expectations and obviously I am very pleased with how this team has performed thus far (in spite of that hiccup at South Florida). With the way that the schedule was set up, we knew that in order to put ourselves in a position to have a successful season we needed to really take care of business leading up to our 5 game gauntlet by winning all of our games at home (check) and at least going 0.500 on the road (4-2, check). So here we are at 11-2 with Georgetown, UConn, Pitt, Louisville, and Syracuse remaining on the horizon. With those games in mind, how does everyone see this set playing out? Also, realistically what would MU need to do over this final stretch to maintain what has been a successful season? It's a tough call, but I predict them coming away with 2 wins, and probably a ceiling of 3 considering how tough it is. Anything more than that would be completely unexpected in my opinion. The game Saturday looms to be large! That's an obvious statement, as they all are important games at this point, but with the way Georgetown has been playing the last 3-4 weeks, we should have a very good chance of winning that game even though it is on the road. If they can manage to pull that off, 2-3 wins is very doable considering they have 4 to play and 2 of which are at home. 2 wins puts us at 13-5 in conference, and likely a top 4 finish in the Big East which would secure a 2 game bye in the Big East tournament. 3 wins puts us at 14-4 (My Lord that would be sick!), guarantees AT LEAST a 4th place finish/2 game bye, and in my opinion guarantees at least a 3 seed in the NCAA tournament. I predict that when all is said and done, we finish with a 13-5 conference record (likely beating G'town and taking 1 of the 2 at home). Can't complain about that, although if we want to see this team make a deep run in the tourney I hope they would win an extra game or two which would likely give us a #3 seed or better and give us a slightly easier road through the tourney. Regardless of what happens, we need to enjoy the last couple of weeks with the 3 amigos for they will be sorely missed next year.

Um...What?

For real?

He's still alive?

This killed my Spring Training boner just a little bit.

The fine people at Sonic...

and their Advertising/PR need to be recognized for being an outstanding unit.

A few weeks ago I sent someone at Sonic an email inquiring about the opening of Sonic resaurants here in our great city of Milwaukee. I had not heard back until this morning.

The person I emailed at Sonic had sent my email to the Advertising/PR firm after she discovered it in her spam (good to know that Sonic's email filter is up to par. I would spam me too). I then received a very nice email about my inquiry.

They are very excited (as am I) to be opening the new restaurant in West Milwaukee. She even checked out our blog and noticed that we have talked about this event and Sonic in the past. Not only did she thank us for doing that, but she also wants to send a MYSONIC card to me to have us head over there. How awesome is that?!

I know that I will be there on opening day and I plan to file a full report. The only question is... who's coming with me?

And seriously, the people at Sonic are fricken awesome. What other corporate giant (not sure if they are a giant, but they are in my book) would respond like this and offer to send free stuff.

Thank you people of Sonic.

Fielder Downgraded from "Blimp" to "Whale"

http://www.jsonline.com/blogs/sports/39666662.html

Also, let's debate Witrado's orientation in the comments section.

Stuff White People Like

One of my homework assignments for this week was to review the website: http://www.stuffwhitepeoplelike.com/ I would highly suggest spending a few minutes flipping through this blog. What is better than stereotyping white people?

Things that I enjoyed:
Ugly sweater parties
Black music that black people don't listen to anymore
Promising to learn a new language
Frisbee Sports
Appearing to enjoy classical music
Comparing things to Hitler
Menus with no decimal places
Grammar
Having Gay friends

But the best part was Wrigley Field...where I quote:
"Also many white people listen to Jim Croce (whom most think is black) and the perception of most non-Chicago people (the majority of Cubs fans) of the Windy city is through the song “Bad. bad, Leroy Brown”

Well the south side of chicago
Is the baddest part of town
And if you go down there
You better just beware
Of a man named leroy brown

This is one of the main reasons why people do not venture to watch the Chicago White Sox. They are located on the South Side which is viewed as the “baddest part of town” where of course black people named “Leroy” live."

A Tad Bit Nervous

I have to admit, I'm starting to get a bit nervous about this Marquette team. We don't have a road win against a Top 50 team and our defense continues to be a joke (SJU shot 50% from 3 on Saturday). Seton Hall will give us a good game tomorrow, especially since Hazell can light it up. Everything on Saturday night was blah, from the defense, to the crowd to the team's energy level. I hope it's just a lull and I'm being hyper-sensitive, but these last 6 games will be a bear. The G'town game is looming very large. We need to clamp down on Summers and get out of there with a win. Otherwise, we are looking at 12-6.
BTW - Lunardi has us as a #4 in Portland against UNI. UCLA looms in the second round. Ick!

How about that #17 Dewalt Ford Fusion...

It was a pretty good race and even though it was stopped early due to rain I really didn't care since Matt Kenseth won. He definitely didn't have the fastest car (Kyle Busch or Mark Martin did) but had himself in the right plane at the right time. Only led one lap, but he lead the most important one. Good ol' Dale Jr. caused a wreck that was entirely his fault but he "ah shucks, oh geez'd" his way out of the blame in his post-race interview.

Feb 24th!!

The date has been set! February 24th is the date that the new Sonic opens on Miller Park Way!

Congrats to Sheets - his day is soon arriving!

http://onmilwaukee.com/dining/articles/sonicmilwaukee09.html

VD Lessons from Sports Greats

First DWade is accused of passing around crazy STDs... then suddenly, it didn't quite happen that way... now Roberto Alomar is being accused of attempting to spread the super-AIDS he obtained after being raped by two men in New Mexico (cue "Everyone Has AIDS").

With Valentine's Day approaching, let this be a lesson to all Q@theB readers that "Hell hath no fury like a woman scorned". Please do something nice for your sweeties... or at least keep your STDs to yourselves. I'd hate to end up reading about any of you on some other blogspot.

Bye, Brett.

See you in, what ... May?

Well that Sucked...

and its made worse by Friday's loss (seeing that lazar put back from the shot beneath the bucket makes it even more unbelievable that he didn't make that). Take care of business at home against the Johnnies and Hall and get our mojo back for the stretch run. Defense was bad...shooting was better. I think we looked tired...3 straight road games. i agree with what D3some said "inexcuseable defense, with an assist to fatigue". oh well. still 20-5 and 9-2 in conference. congrats to jerel! nova fans bitch about more shit than i do.

Scrolling ESPN 2 messages.

Is anyone else distracted by the shit at the top of the screen? These fucking things are making me think I might have ADD. When did ESPN2 become Total Request Live? Is Carson Daly calling this game?

I'm waiting for the love messages between Zone and D3S to scroll by.

Nova Predictions

We match up well with these guys and won there last year. Unfortunately, they are much better than last year (so are we) and the game is at the Pavilion, not the Wachovia Center. My matchup to watch is Cunningham vs. Lazar. I think we'll see a reverse of the Jan 1 game, with Nova pulling away late and winning by 8, 83-75. Maybe James can get in Scotty Reynolds's head.

More on the '09 Milwaukee Brewers

While it is not official, it appears that the Crew is on the verge of signing FA starting pitcher Braden Looper. Not exactly a blockbuster signing, but considering the lack of depth and talent that we have in the starting rotation, adding a vet to the staff should be an overall benefit to the team. Looper earned 5.5mil on the '08 season, and it's unclear whether or not he will take a paycut so if it's in the range of 5 mil I don't see a problem with it. Hek, we're paying Supp 10+mil for a 0.500 win percentage and 4.5ish era so in comparison Looper is a bargain. Agreed?

Sheets' Huge Gaping Hole to cost the Brewers.

I figured we would take this time to step away from Marquette basketball to look at our second favorite team this time of year... The Milwaukee Brewers.

Pitchers and catchers report in less than a week! Very exciting times. This time is also very exciting if you are Ben Sheets. Sheets is in line to really stick it to his old team this year. Not only did he not accept a contract last year (thank you), but he is also without a job because he didn't have surgery over the off-season. I thought he was going to have it and just assumed he did. He didn't, and now he has been caught.

He was all ready to sign a two-year deal with Texas. Apparently he forgot that he had to go through a physical. During the physical, they found out that tendons were ruined and would need surgery in order to be fixed. Hooray!

Well, what does this mean for the Crew? It means that Sheets is really screwing us by costing us draft picks. If he doesn't sign, we get nothing. What are the chances he signs now that he needs surgery that will most likely knock him out for the entire season? (A normal "athlete" would be able to recover and come back for the final couple months or so of the season, but we know that Sheets is not what we like to call an "athlete" in top form.)

So where does this put us? Well, we are not getting the pics we thought for Sabathia because the Yankees put out a crap ton of money for Tiexera. We will get some kind of pick for Shouse. Now we get nothing for Sheets. We went from thinking we were going to have 4 picks in the first 40 or so, to maybe one or two now.

That blows. At least we don't have to worry about watching Sheets and his vagina fall apart on the mound this year.

I used to stick up for this guy. What was I thinking.

South Florida

I of course don't like to lose. Nobody does. But there are "acceptable" losses where I can step back and say, "we weren't the better team" or "wow, our opponent played really well". Last night's game against South Florida was not one of these however. We played a South Florida team that in one word is bad. Going in, the only way Marquette was going to lose that game was if they had an absolute stinker of a performance offensively because USF only avg's around 65pts/game while MU scores at a clip if 82ppg. I mean this seemed like a no brainer. This entire season, MU has only scored less than 68 points 1 time and that was a 61 point performance early in the year against a Wisconsin team that slows the game down. Well, on this frightful night, our beloved Marquette Golden Eagles decided to put on one of those memorable performances.......and not one of the good memorable performances. In fact, there were moments where it was sooo frightful that I had to hide under my blanket ie. when they stepped to the free throw line. So without further ado, here are some of the "memorable" statistics from last night:

1. Score - 56-57, our lowest point total of the year and 26 lower than our season average.
2. FG% - 38.9%, i've seen worse but this is skewed because of our 2pt vs 3pt %
3. 3 pt FG% - 16.7% (4-24)!!!!! Are you shittin' me? Just when you think these guys have turned the corner and cut down on their 3pt chucking, they do this. However, it's not the amount or the type of shot that they took.....it's the fact that when you obviously aren't shooting well, don't continue to shoot the long jumper and attempt to penetrate more which is your strength anyway. This is ALMOST the most frustrating part of the game.
4. FT % - 43.5% (10-23)!!!!!!!!!! Again......Are you shittin' me? This is ala Memphis of last year. There's really nothing to say here other than, it's fucking free throws! Anything less than 70% from a guard oriented team is just unacceptable and IS the main reason why we lost the game.
5. Dominic James - I love the guy! Have defended him for 3.5 years regardless of his shot selection. He knocks down is 1st 3 of the night.....and it was pure, nothin' but net (I proceeded to text Reid and say "uh oh, look out, James hit his first jumper" meaning it looked like James was going to have a big night. I couldn't have been more wrong. After his first make, he missed his final 8 3 point attempts going 1-9 on the night.
6.Other notable "performances" - Lazar 2 for 9 and 0 for 4 from 3; Acker 0 for 3 on wide open 3 pointers.

Negatives: MU proved all of the doubters to be correct last night. Our hopes of winning a Big East conference championship took a major hit last night, and in doing so, also lessened our chances of securing a high NCAA seed.

Positives: 1. One great thing about playing in this conference is the opportunity for redemption. The team turns around and plays a good Villanova team on the road. They can "right the ship" by going into Philadelphia and leaving with a victory. While losing to USF is disappointing, a win at Nova makes a 2-1 road trip. Still very successful in this league.
2. Wes Matthews appears to be ok. Our season was on the verge of taking a 180 when we were losing at South Florida and Wes layed on the floor clutching his knee after an incredible block on a fast break. Again, the loss blows but we walked out of their with a full roster. And with the incredible success that we've had as a team thus far, our health is more important at this point.

So to anyone standing on the top of a building ready to jump: Last night's game was the anomale of all anomale's. I'm just going to completely forget about it because that is the farthest from who we really are. We are 9-1 in the Big East and tied for first place! Not even I thought we would be 9-1 at this point in the season. We still control our own destiny! We are going to play a good Villanova team on Tuesday, a good Villanova team that we match up well with. Even if we lose that game, we follow that game with home games against StJohns and Seton Hall which should equate to victories and will put us at 11-2 going into our final 5. I'll take it.

Pin the Tail on the ND Grad

As you all know, I work on the Northwest side. It's what the politically correct like to call an "urban" environment. So, I was getting hungry today, so I swung over to Cousin's on 76th & Good Hope. I pulled into the parking lot to see, to my revulsion, a Toyota Camry hybrid with Indiana "Notre Dame" license plates. My angry face quickly turned to glee because I realized I would see an ND grad in his/her least likely environment: a busy as hell, racially diverse Cousin's Sub shop. I enter the establishment and immediately spot the douche. Exactly what you would expect: expensive haircut, fancy, yet conservative shoes, business casual clothing with his employer ID badge stuffed into his breast pocket. The best part was the bewildered look on his face. He was completely uncomfortable - his eyes were darting everywhere and he kept staring at the teenager with a 'fro. When they called his number, he approached the counter with a confidence and swagger similar to me in the presence of strippers. You all know me, that means absolutely zero confidence topped off with the fear of catching clymidia. Ah Notre Dame, educating rich assholes for 100+ years. Thanks for reinforcing the stereotype.

UL Trip Update

I have secured 2 tickets to the UK-LSU game on the 28th. My crazy co-worker used Facebook to hook me up with a high school friend of his who he hasn't seen in 20+ years to get the tickets. Apparently, we have to act like we are the kids of some mortgage brokers from Louisville because she was only supposed to sell the tickets for business purposes. Regardless, we have two tickets. Now, we need to search for two more.

MU-USF Predictions

I'm nervous about this game, very, very nervous. Nevertheless, I believe we'll win, but it will be close.

MU 73
USF 66

'Rel with 25

Anybody Want To Sign Him Now?

Let me paraphrase Ueck in Major League II:

Ben Sheets probably needs elbow surgery. I think I'll wet my pants.

Feels good to be right about one, since I'm wrong so often.

'10/'11 recruit

Apparently MU gained another committment for the class of 2010 from 6'10 JUCO transfer Monterale Clark. Clark, a Milwaukee native, is playing JUCO in Texas (shocking) and averaging 17pts, 11 boards, and 2 blocks per game. So what does everyone think about this? According to the numbers that he is putting up he sounds like a solid player, but I don't know if I'm necessarily a fan of constantly bringing in these JUCO transfers. I understand that bringing in Fulce and Butler was crucial due to our depleted roster after the Crean departure, but considering that we have already been gaining committments from multiple top100 players, and were on the final list of many others, I don't understand why we offer to a guy that won't play for us for another 2 years down the road and will only have 2 years of eligibility when he arrives. With the success that Buzz has had, I would prefer if he would spend the next 1.5yrs recruiting a top notch guy that could potentially be with the program for 4 years. Especially after seeing what our seniors are doing this year after a full four years with the program.

Furthermore, when he arrives we will already have 3 other guys that are 6'10" or taller in Mcmorrow, Otule, and Roseboro. So I guess I hope that Buzz sees this guy as a no doubt starter over the other 3 guys during his 2 years. Because if it turns out that he's not that much more talented than the other 3 bigs, we waste a scholarship on a 2 year role player when we still had a good 1.5yrs to spend that scholarship on something else ie. a guard considering we will have 8-9 guys that are 6'6" or taller that year. I hope that Buzz isn't pulling a Crean here ie. overstocking on a particular type of player due to experiencing a lack there of for a year or 2. I obviously know nothing about Clark, so who knows......maybe this Clark kid is going to step onto campus and be an absolute monster. Well, we have 1 scholarship remaining over the next 2 years so I hope Buzz spends it wisely.

Tan Tommy Wins! Still 11th in the Big 10.

And a special congrats to Tan Tommy this morning on his first Big 10 win against conference powerhouse Iowa.

Upon winning Coach Crean jumped up and down on the scorer's table screaming "It's Indiana bitches! It's Indiana! Booyah! In your face! I told you I was a legitimate coach and could make this shit happen!"

At the press conference following the game, Crean was animated downing multiple diet Pepsis and providing plenty of sound bites. "It only took 8 conference losses but I knew it would come eventually" said Crean when asked about his first Big 10 victory. Questioned about his plans for after the game, Crean stated "I'm going to go home and stick it in Joanie. She's a Harbaugh you know!".

Despite the loss, Iowa's Todd Lickliter remained relatively upbeat. "What can I say, we looked like a bunch of idiots out wandering about" said Lickliter "but that's what we are." Referencing his teams standing in the Big 10 Lickliter added "At the end of the day, I'm satisfied that we're still on top."

Indiana, riding the wave of a huge victory over Iowa, next faces Michigan State, coached by Crean's mentor Tom Izzo. Asked about prepping the team to face Michigan State Crean stated, "I'm going to take all of those guys to LA Tan for a little R & R. It was hard earned victory and they deserve it. As for Michigan State, we've dodged this bullet so long," Crean said "Well, here it is. So nine games in, we're going to do it."

Too funny...

Sorry. This is just too funny not to post.

http://www.funnyordie.com/videos/eab643de2f/ifh-mondays-from-nicholaus-goossen-nick-swardson-and-david-spade


I tried posting the video put it kept getting messed up, so just follow the link.

It kept coming up too big... that's what she said! Oh yeah!

MU-USF @ D3's Joint

The whole crew is invited over for the MU-USF game. Let me know if you and/or your loved one is in. I will supply the beer. I figure we can chip in for a pizza order once the game starts. Topper's anyone?

MikeHunt Is Still Working On This "Blogging" Thing.

Actually, I'm not sure if this is a blog post or an actual column. Regardless, MikeHunt continues to deliver the goods -- and by "goods," of course, I mean "dinosaur-sized crap."

I'm not going to break this baby down line by line. The blog/column is apparently about the fact that the Brewers have three fellas on their staff who have managerial experience -- Macha, Willie Randolph, and Sveumy. (Yosty!) As per usual, MikeHunt doesn't know if this is a good thing or a bad thing; on the one hand, he thinks it's probably beneficial for a team's staff to have a buttload of managerial experience, but on the other, he's concerned that a dynamic might emerge where the players are running to Sveum or Randolph if they don't like what the top dog is doing.

Anyway, for some reason, MikeHunt decided to toss in this nugget near the end of the piece:

Macha, Randolph and Sveum project success more than failure. They're smart baseball people who should make this work without resorting to the good cop/bad cop routine that define some coaching relationships.

It could have happened last season at Marquette, with Buzz Williams as the good cop when things got tense between Tom Crean and the star players. If that were the case, Williams deserves even more credit for how he has handled things this season. That's because sometimes the good cop gets walked on when he assumes a position of authority.

Couple things:

(1) Since when was this column about Marquette?

(2) Putting relevance aside ... what the fuck are you saying? Did this happen last year? Have you heard rumors that players were going to Buzz when they had problems with Crean? Hell -- did players have problems with Crean?

Or, as I strongly suspect, are you saying: "I have no fucking clue if this happened or not, and I don't have any evidence to back it up either way, but lemme toss some wild speculation out there to support an argument that I'm not even sure I'm making?"

What's that you say? There is some evidence?

The right people usually figure it out. Apparently, Williams has. "I've been incredibly hard on this group of guys," he said recently.

Oh. So, in fact, the only evidence you've got -- a quote from Buzz -- indicates that Buzz wasn't playing Jeff to TC's Mutt last year.

But, hey, you know what they say -- never let facts get in the way of a good argument. (Unless you're not making an argument, and you're just doing everything you can to get to 600 words so you can mail this puppy in and fire up Redtube.)

Survive and Advance...

I don't care how we got the W as long as we got it and same goes for Friday. It was a great start followed by some ugly basketball, followed by a great start in the second half, followed by some ugly basketball. And the end of the day its a 15 point win on the road. DePaul sucks!

Jerel is a beast. 28 (or 26 depending on site), 8-16 total shooting, 5-8 of 3s, 7-7 from the line, 6 assists, 4 boards, 4 steals, 4 blocks. I can't wait for the quituple double on Friday. I'll ignore the 5 TO's for now. Another nice quiet night for Wes and he really was huge during our bad parts of the game. 18 pts (or 20) 8-10 overall with 7 boards. I'm really starting to love Jimmy. he comes off the bench boards the ball, catches the guards passes (he's our new Ooze) and finishes 7 points and 6 boards. DJ had 2 huge shots towards the end that were the daggers. 15 points, 4 boards, 4 assists, 3 steals.

Absolutely love the 57% shooting and made 14 throws (both DJ and Butler missed 4) than they attempted. they actually were 5-12 from the line. That Walker guys is going to be a major pain in the ass, but he put up some horrible shots. i love this team and can't wait for Friday! half way home and we've got 20 wins all ready.

Updated Expectations for This Year

All right clowns - question of the night or tomorrow:

How would you define success for this team? What BE record would you like to see and how far would you like to see us go in the BE and NCAA tournaments for this season to be considered a "success" on your own personal agenda.

BE Regular Season: 14-4 or better. This should be doable with games against DePaul, USF, St. John's and Seton Hall forthcoming

BET: Semi-final appearance. Get the double bye and win one game. I don't want to expend too much energy here. I'm sure I'll be pissed off if we lose in the semis like when I lost it at Zim's last year, but this is how I feel now

NCAA: Sweet 16 or further. The tourney is so tough, two wins would be fantastic, hopefully they come in Minneapolis, KC or Dayton

These are heady times. It's been a fun year, so let's keep the streak going and enjoy the ride! Destination: Greektown!!

Beer update... Tailgate 2k9 Predictions

I was browsing jsonline trying to find some info about the 1 second High Life ad that I managed to miss yesterday and came across this tidbit. Apparently, in March, Leine's will be introducing a new beer called "Classic Amber".

I immediately began laughing out loud at the thought of Amber being hauled out of Tailgate 2k4 (?) via wheelchair. I'm afraid that after a week of vacation my co-workers may think I've lost it.

Anyway, if this beer is cold and delicious (and I expect it will be) we may need to pick up a keg for Tailgate 2k9 and go with the old school theme of "First one hauled out in a wheelchair wins". Since this will be D3S last tailgate as a free man, I put my money on him being over-served but the odds are tight given Kirby's 2k8 performance.

The Good & Bad - A Not Quite Mid-Season Retrospective

Ok, here's the negative post. I'm ecstatic about MU this year and am really enjoying the ride. Here are a couple of reasons why I'm tempering my optimism. These are certainly nitpicky, but teams that go deep in the tourney have these qualities:

• We aren't great defensively. Currently 56th in the Pomeroy defensive rankings. We have given up 50%+ shooting to Dayton (53%), NC State (51%), Providence (56%) and Georgetown (54%). A few other teams got close - Tennessee (49%), Rutgers (49%) and DePaul (45%)
• We don't have an inside presence. I know, it hasn't hurt us yet, but we have UL's front line, Blair and Thabeet to deal with coming up. Each of those teams have more weapons to hurt us than ND did
• We have no depth. We have avoided foul trouble well, but what happens if/when Jerel or Wes or Lazar exit with 2 fouls early?
• We have a negative rebound differential and we haven't played any of the bigger teams in the league yet
• Just a question - will Dom's FT shooting hurt us?

Things that are damn good:

• 4 guys who can score 20+ points in every game. That effing amazes me
• We dominate the second half. Look at Nova, WVU, ND, G'town, Providence - the seniors take over
• Only two more tricky road games - DePaul and USF. Any other road loss would be understandable
• Great 3 point shooting and overall FG % - our boys take good shots. Jerel leads the league in 3FG % at over 50%!
• Good free throw shooting. Zar leads the league at 90%! The key is to have Dom inbounds the ball in crunch time
• Maybe Jimmy has turned the corner
• A 3 (!) game lead in the race for the #4 BET seed. Holy crap! We've also beaten all three teams immediately below us in the race for the double bye
• An absolute snakepit atmosphere at the BC. Two toughest games remaining are UConn and Syracuse. We have a great chance to win both of those!

I know this was a rambling post, but I had to get some of these things off my chest.

2009 - It Has Been a Very Good Year

MU undefeated in 2009 and looking like a legit contender for the Big East title
UW currently on a 6 game skid, MikeHunt is even writing negative columns
Huskers picked up a New Year's Day bowl win
Good Super Bowl, though I only watched 1/2 of it
Scored tickets to the MU-UL game

Life is good right now, let's enjoy the ride!!

Note: negative post to follow around lunch time.

Kidney Transplant Party!

So, I was managing my Outlook calendar and noticed some time I had blocked off to revisit a mysterious email from April 17, 2008. Read on below. It looks like Rubie needs to buy a bathtub of ice. I recommend Kirby's knife skills to perform the operation. I could have Ms D3S hack into the transplant list to find a willing buyer.

From: Rubie
Sent: Thursday, April 17, 2008 9:16 AM
To: Zone Defense; D3S; E$; Reid, Sheets
Subject: RE: Section 8's Newest Sponsorship

If Dwight "Workout Warrior" Burke starts more games than Mbawke, I will give you my right kidney. I will personally carve it out with a butter knife and put it in a bag of ice so you can sell it on the black market. This is my pledge to you, Zone Defense

-----Original Message-----
From: Zone
Sent: Thursday, April 17, 2008 9:01 AM
To: Rubie; D3S; E$; Reid, Sheets
Subject: RE: Section 8's Newest Sponsorship

Sounds like a Joe Chapman wager is needed to settle this. I'll bet Burke starts more games than Mbawke.

________________________________________
From: Rubie
Sent: Thursday, April 17, 2008 8:57 AM
To: Zone Defense; D3S; E$; Reid, Sheets
Subject: RE: Section 8's Newest Sponsorship

I do not know many things. But I do know there is no chance in hell that Dwight Burke starts over Trevor Mbawke next year.

-----Original Message-----
From: Zone
Sent: Thursday, April 17, 2008 8:55 AM
To: Rubie; D3S; E$; Reid, Sheets
Subject: RE: Section 8's Newest Sponsorship

So the line-up is as follows:

Starters: PG-DJ, SG-Jerel, SF-Matthews, PF-Hayward, C-Burke
Bench: PG-Acker, SG-Cubillan, SF-Fulce and Butler, PF-Mbwake and Hazel, C-O'Toole

If my math is correct that's one extra scholly which IMO we bank for next year when we can sell this program again and say to top recruits, look 4 of 5 starters are gone and there's plenty of help needed in the back court. And it also appears that now instead of being guard oriented, we have a tone of 6-6 athletic guys, a problem we dealt with a lot last year. Buzz just needs to keep doing what he is doing, make that nice run next year and all will be fine.

The day after...

As I sit here on my bed, still a little groggy from the night before, I'm doing a lot of thinking about life and Marquette basketball. My main non-Marquette related thought is about food. Why don't we have Ci Ci pizza places here. There commercials make them look so great. They are like the Sonic of pizza places.

Everything else swirling around in my brain that is not clouded my malted hops has to do with what might be the best team I've ever had the privilege to cheer for and follow. This Marquette team is scary good. I just always feel like the Amigos will not let us lose. It's fricken awesome.

We have 4 players that are in the 1,000 point club. 4! The only other team with that is UNC. We have a team with heart. A team with swagger. A team with the biggest set of cojones ever. I don't want to put the cart before the horse here, but I would stack this current team up against any other in MU history. This is probably stupid, but let's compare them to the 2003 team...

PG - What a tough match up. Diener vs. James. I'm not even sure which is better. James plays defense that is light years ahead of Diener. Diener has a shot that if James had, he would already be the leading scorer in MU history. Both are unshakable though and lead their team with that thing that you can't coach. They just have it. This one is a push.

SG - Holy crap. Wade vs. McNeal. I remember that when McNeal was getting better over the course of his freshman and sophomore years people made comparisons to Wade. I thought it was just ridiculous. Maybe not so much. McNeal is a freak this year. He still hasn't perfected that Wade bank shot, but he's trying. He shoots more, No.... Yes shots than Wade did, but Wade was too special. I give the edge to Wade here, but not by a lot.

3G/SF - Matthews vs. Townsend. This is a pretty good match-up. I give the nod to Matthews though because he is having a ridiculous senior campaign. This is the type of player he could have been if Crean knew how to use him and not make him the 4th option. I love me some Steven Todd Townsend, but Wes has him here.

SF/PF - Hayward vs. Merritt. Junior year Merritt against junior year Hayward. When Merritt could actually play the position he was meant to play, like he did in 2003, he was one hell of a good player. With Jackson on the inside, Merritt could play his game. He was awesome this year, but he is no match Lazar. Lazar is just that good. It is starting to get to the point that whenever he shoots, I'm pretty sure it's going in. He also has a nose for the ball of the glass.

PF/C - Burke vs. Jackson. I have an undying love for all things Dwight Burke. But here, he has no shot. We don't get to New Orleans without Robert Jackson. 'Nough said.

Bench - The bench on the '03 team was pretty ridiculous. Novak, Chapman, Sanders, Bradley, and Grimm. Novak was obviously the main man off that bench, but we can't forget the big shots that Chapman and Bradley hit along the way. Sanders was doing his Terry Sanders best (another Va Jay Jay personal favorite role player) and Grimm saw the floor a couple times. This year our bench leaves something to be desired. But you can't count these guys out. Jimmy "Legs" Butler is looking better every game. He is a very good player at maintaining control on drives. Mo Acker is a pesky little guy that will infuriate a point guard while he is playing defense. Pat Hazel, well he is 5 fouls but he has shown some glimpses of a solid role player (do I see a new favorite for Va Jay Jay's favorite role player emerging?). Besides that, there is a drop off on the bench. Cooby is not the same Cooby of old. Surgery on both shoulders and a weak knee will do that. Fulce and Otule have been limited by injuries, so we have no idea what we've got there. Then there is Frozena... hey, we needed a white guy. The edge here would go to the '03 squad.

Overall, an interesting comparison that we think about for now. Did I need to do this? No. Am I even correct on my assessments? Probably not. Oh well. Pick it apart in the comments. I just love Marquette basketball. Enjoy the ride everyone.