Marquette just missing 1 piece...

The BC had a great atmosphere last night. The student section was rowdy the entire game. EVERYBODY was in their seats when basketball was being played...nobody was wondering the halls. I was in row W of section 4-something (ie...2nd last row in the place) and looking around the entire game I didn't see a single seat empty even at those top rows. Good times. Pretty much the complete opposite of any Bucks game.

Couple of points regarding the game:
UCONN doesn't have an identifiable weakness besides MAYBE not being deep enough for the tournament. However, the play makers on that team is just sick. Calm. Collected. You want to run plays for the beast down low? Check. Two man game at the top of the key with a big guy setting screens for a senior guard who can jack a 3 from anywhere? Check. Athletic forwards there for offensive rebounds and put backs? Check.

Marquette IS a much different team without Dominic James. Whomever commented earlier that the team will not miss a beat or even be better without James at the point (or whatever) is highly mistaken. Mo Acker is a suitable college backup. But James is a class above him...regardless of how he was overrated the last two years. It's clear he redefined himself and worked hard to become a legitimate point guard. There were countless times last night on fast breaks where Acker (who's very quick) would shoot up the floor and maybe have a 3 on 2 or even a 3 on 3 with a size mismatch. But he got tentative as soon as he reached the perimeter. That's the difference between him and James. James would break away, pass half court and then find another level of speed and burst past the defender right for a layup...or put a little juke on him and get into the lane for a floater or a dish. James' injury is severe for Marquette.

I believe (don't quote me) this past Saturday that Doug Gottlieb (who is turning into one of the most arrogant men on television) called Marquette the most "overrated" team in the country. Hmmm...ok. Maybe a little too much Doug. I would venture to say that last night proved Marquette could run with the top teams in the country. They were in the game until the very end...when that freaking dagger of a 3 point shot basically ended the game. I couldn't believe they let Price get a shot off like that when it's pretty obvious the ball was staying in his hands when he held it at the top of the key and wound the whole shot clock down.

That being said...Marquette can beat any team on any night...but their lack on size is what is going to kill them in the tournament. People have been saying that all year. Unless they get some ridiculous draw where they don't bump into any big teams, they're going to have to shoot lights out to go deep. The box score says it all. 2nd chance points will kill Marquette (as they did last night). UCONN had 14 offensive rebounds vs. Marquette's 6...and overall UCONN took them on the glass 44-25.

Sweet 16 team? Sure...I'll buy that. Beyond that...doesn't look good.

Let's just say I would have liked to see that game last night with Trevor Mbakwe playing significant minutes instead of Dwight Burke.

"Tweeeet!"

So I was thinking of getting into the officiating business - hoops. You know, run up and down a little and make a couple measly bucks. Checked out some info on the WIAA website and came across this on the Officials Guide:

Complaints have been filed with the WIAA on officials who have used terms such as: "sweetie," "honey," "babe," "big boy," "stud," "bubba," "chief,"etc. Use of terms such as these are never appropriate.

Bwwwhahahaha! It's on the third line, so it must be a pretty big issue. Can't you just hear some ref at the free throw line saying "Alright, line 'em up. We've got two shots for the Big Boy. Stud gets two shots!" Or, "Sorry, babe, that's traveling...I'll call that every time, Sweetie."

If I encounter any drunken "Shooter's" from Hoosiers, you'll be the first to know.

Huge Loss for Marquette

Well, I definitely didn't see this coming...

Trevor Mbakwe, an absolute beast of a forward who was expected to be the first big guy off the bench, decided to just quit the Marquette basketball team and not show up for classes this week. Now, Marquette is severely weak at that position, and is not going to be able to sign another scholarship player in time for the season.

I...for one...was pretty excited to watch a Marquette lineup at times that would trot out James, McNeil, Matthews, Lazar Hayward, & Mbakwe. That would be a fun team to watch.

In the JSOLINE Marquette blog, they did a follow up this morning. There is no reason given as to why Mbakwe quit, but it looks like he is going to attend a juco this year. You can also read between the lines and see that Buzz isn't particularly happy...probably because he can't fathom why the F Mbakwe would leave a Big East school.

"He had a great summer," said Williams. "Did a very good job academically, progressed toward a degree, had a great summer with our guys in the weight room. So I was completely caught off-guard."

"For all that you have to go through -- through an academic year, through a basketball season, through all the practices, individual workouts, weight sessions, you want guys that are committed to being one of us," he said. "And if you're not committed, then good luck wherever it is that you go."

And just like Keyser Soze...poof...he's gone.

Former Badger sighting!

When was the last time you heard Kirk Penny's name? Well apparently he's still a dominant force on the ol' New Zealand National Team!

Forward Kirk Penney poured in 29 points against Germany, to follow his 25 against Cape Verde on Tuesday.

They've still got a ways to go apparently in order to qualify for the Olympics...but I don't care...I'm just happy Kirk is getting some press down in the NZ.

No word yet on where Rashard Griffith is. He hasn't been heard of in 3 years since he apparently retired from his 8 year Euro Career of averaging 12 and 7 during the day, and 1.5 hookers at night.

Billups of the Week - The man who can't feed his family

Our old buddy Latrell Sprewell is back in the news again.

Czaban was talking about him on air today. What a loser. File him in the same category as Jason Caffey. He has now lost his Yacht (named "Milwaukee's Best"...awesome) and his house in River Hills.

On the air they were trying to estimate how much money Spree has made in his pro career. Not sure of the figure, they settled on a rough estimate of $50 Million. Not bad huh?

Well guess what...how about double that? Here are his career basketball earnings:

Season	Team	Lg	Salary
1992-93	Golden State Warriors	NBA	$550,000
1993-94	Golden State Warriors	NBA	$700,000
1994-95	Golden State Warriors	NBA	$890,000
1995-96	Golden State Warriors	NBA	$975,000
1996-97	Golden State Warriors	NBA	$7,000,000
1997-98	Golden State Warriors	NBA	$7,770,000
1998-99	New York Knickerbockers	NBA	$8,300,000
1999-00	New York Knickerbockers	NBA	$9,000,000
2000-01	New York Knickerbockers	NBA	$10,125,000
2001-02	New York Knickerbockers	NBA	$11,250,000
2002-03	New York Knickerbockers	NBA	$11,937,500
2003-04	Minnesota Timberwolves	NBA	$13,500,000
2004-05	Minnesota Timberwolves	NBA	$14,625,000
Career	(may be incomplete)		96,622,500

HOLY WTF!!!! $96 effing Million dollars!!! This BILLUPS can't even pay for a yacht and a house that were a combined $2 Million.

I'm an accountant by trade. I want to see his bank statements. I want to see his personal balance sheet. I want to see how this CHUMP AMONGST CHUMPS blew an approximate $50 million in after-tax straight CASH in a matter of several years. How does he have no assets to show for it?

Give me $1.5 million in cash. I will buy a few rental properties, live in a modest house, quit my job, and write this blog full time. You won't see me default on anything.

F you Sprewell.

Hey, the Badgers are not that bad this year.

In what many thought would be a down year for the Wisconsin Badgers' hoops team, the Badgers are sitting at 19-4 and ranked 14/15th with eight regular season games remaining. Coming in to this year, many thought this would be the year that the Badgers didn't make the NCAA's for the first time since 1997-98 season. After the Duke game, many were jumping ship, but anyone who has followed the Badgers over the past several years knows this team gets better as the season goes on.

Will that be the case this year? Obviously, this is a much better team than the one that lost to Duke and Marquette in November and December. They are playing much better as a team and everyone knows their roll at this point in the season. Hughes is coming around at point, Krabby plays tough, just needs to hit some J's, Landry can be a force at times. Flowers has developed a nice outside shot and Bohannon has learned to shoot a nice floater as his 3's are not dropping this year. The team has looked solid in Big Ten play up until Saturday night. I was getting sick of people saying they were not the 8th beast team in the country. Thats fine, but the teams below them are not any better. Once you get outside the top 4 (Duke, Memphis, NC, Kansas) and then the next tier (Tenn, UCLA) the rest is pretty much a jumble. I have no problem with the Badgers ranked 8th and I have no problem with 15th.

However, they are still not a complete team at this time. Pressure D and a driving guards (also offenses that shoot 43% from 3 point land) still seem to bother the Badgers. Butch has looked awful over the past couple of games, Hughes still sometimes shows this is his first year running the show (still like him better than Kam as a PG), and the bench is getting pretty thin. I also have been critical of Bo's post-season record. Making the NCAAs every year is great considering where we came from (Iwas juiced to go to an NIT game in '89), but I would like to see more than 2 second weekend appearances. Spoiled? Probably, but at this point, I think the program is at a level that it should make the Sweet 16 75% of the time. (For my take on Marquette's post season record under Crean, see my post later this week.)

Anyway, enough rambling. As I asked before, will the Badgers finish strong this year? The schedule gets a little tougher as we enter the last quarter of the season (Insert Big Ten haters talking about how bad the conference is this year here):

• 2/13 @ Indiana - If Indiana does not pass the ball to D.J. White in the post every time Butch is guarding him they obviously did not watch the game film from the previous meeting. Steimsma will have to play tough D and do his best not to foul out in the 7 minutes he will play in this game against White. In regards to Indiana, I don't think they are very good. However, Assembly Hall is about the same as Mackey Arena to the Badgers. I am seeig a loss here. I think the Badgers basketball team has won a grand total of 3 games in the state of Indiana during my lifetime. Indiana wins 68-60


• 2/16 vs. Minnesota - The Badgers are pissed about their two game losing streak and come out trying too hard against the Gophers. After a back and forth first half, the Badgers will pull away in the second half. Minnesota is improving but the little I have seen of them, they just don't have the intensity or structure on offense at this point to win in Madison. Badgers 64-52.


• 2/20 @ Illinois - Lets hope this goes better than the football game. I think Illinois might have made their last stand in the Eric Gordon Game. However, they are laying an impressive whooping on Minnesota at Williams right now. McCamey looked great against Indiana, but he is a Freshman so he will have his ups and downs. Just have to make sure Meacham doesn't go crazy from 3. At least Lucas Johnson won't be playing in this game and lets hope Illinois doesn't wear orange. Badgers win 58-54.


• 2/23 @ OSU - Going to be honest here. I know squat about OSU this year. This is a toss up in my book. I am leaning towards OSU, but I think Butch will have a great game against Kostas Grastoppi (Koufus). I flipped a quarter and it came up OSU, So I'll go with them.


• 2/28 vs. MSU - Hey, that's Drew Nietzel's mom. Thankfully this game isn't at the Breslin or we would see her 27 times. Instead we will get the Andy North shot after the under 8 time out in the first half. I still cant get the Spartans' 36 point performance at Carver-Hawkeye out of my head. Bo continues his winning ways against Izzo. Badgers 68-66.


• 3/5 vs PSU - Well, Claxton went down in the last game, maybe Cornley will go down in this one. As the Badgers honnor Tanner Bronson's career total of 21 points during a stirring senior day celebration, they win this one going away and Tanner finally hits a FT this season. Badgers 78-62


• 3/8 @ Northwestern - Ugh, every game we play at that high school gym is brutal. The Case High Fieldhouse gives that thing a run for its money, except Welsh-Ryan probably doesn't need metal detectors. The one think I can say for sure, this game will be terrible to watch. Wisconsin wins as the Cats don't have Tim Doyle to hit a barrage of bank shots for them this season. Badgers 52-42.

That gives the Badgers a 14-4 Big Ten record and 24-6 overall record. As a life long Badger fan, I'm good with that. Now that I have rambled incohearently for several paragraphs, what do others think?