It wasn't my intention to run Tom Crean out of town. I was just pointing out what I thought were "coaching deficiencies" in the MU Basketball program. Honestly, I didn't think the guy would take it so hard. As you may have guessed, I am not all that torn up about Crean leaving. The local sports media really gave this guy a pass over the last 5 years because he once recruited a guy by the name of Wade who led the team to a Final Four. Since then, he's put up exactly one NCAA tournament win, and that was this season. He's a good recruiter, a great motivator, and a mediocre coach. I don't know about you, but ...
I don't typically post YouTube videos here at The World According To Buchs. In fact, I've never posted a YouTube video here at tWAtB. So for that reason alone, it's likely worth your time to click through.
First of all, I'm not a Marquette basher. Milwaukee born and raised, MU has been my home team ever since I started paying attention to NCAA basketball. Now that I've got that out of the way... I present empirical evidence that Tom Crean is a mediocre coach! Over the last 5 seasons (post D. Wade), Crean's Golden eagles are a combined 14-26 against these "marquee" coaches: 1-1 vs Mike Krzyzewski (Duke) 3-6 vs Rick Pitino (Louisville) 0-2 vs Jim Boeheim (Syracuse) 0-2 vs Lute Olsen (Arizona) 2-3 vs Bo Ryan (Wisconsin) 1-3 vs John Thompson III (Georgetown) 0-2 vs Bob Huggins (West Virginia/Cincinnati) 2-1 vs Jim Calhoun (Connecticut) 0-1 vs Tom Izzo (Michigan State) 5-3 vs Jamie Dixon (Pittsburgh) 0-2 vs John Calipari (Memphis) I left out a win against Bob Knight's Texas Tech ...
Marquette (#6 seed) and Stanford (#3) played late Saturday afternoon in, if nothing else, a very exciting game. Stanford won 82-81 in overtime on a basket by Brook Lopez with 1.3 seconds left. A random collection of my thoughts on the game: Tom Crean got out-coached by the assistant who had to take over for Stanford. Where was the Mbakwe!? We needed more Mbakwe! He got 1 minute in the game, and that stiff Blackledge got four. I may be mistaken, but we were getting killed inside by 2x Lopez. Some additional bulk inside wouldn't have hurt. Jerel McNeal went on a tear late in the game, but I think he forgot that there were 4 other guys on the court. Granted, ...
If anyone is interested, I created a "World According To Buchs" group in the ESPN Tournament Challenge. If you'd like to play along, sign in and hit the "join This Group" button. You know, just for fun. I'll reveal my Final Four picks on Thursday, because I don't want anyone piggybacking on my brilliant analysis of the brackets. Marquette got the seed I think it deserved. (Playing Kentucky will make for an interesting day at one household in particular.) I think MU pulls that one off, but then runs into a team that they have zero percent chance of beating in the second round - Stanford. Wisconsin got hosed with their draw, though. Duke loses their conference tournament semifinal game, Wisconsin ...
In my book, the first four days of the NCAA Men's Basketball tournament are second only to the NFL's opening weekend - and it's a very close second. And if you're like me, you'd like to play along and have someone to root for. Back in the day, someone at your office handed out printed copies of a page from the newspaper and asked you to return it with your picks and $5. That's still fun, but now there's this crazy thing called "the internets", and there are many, many more options available. And many, many more prizes. And a lot more competition. Here's a short list of free bracket games online - prizes vary. The ESPN Men's Tournament ...
Great news - the Milwaukee Bucks decided to put Andrew Bogut AND Charlie Villanueva on the shelf for the rest of the season. It's semi-legitimate - both have been playing hurt this year. Granted, it's only 15 more games, but now we're pretty much assured of losing at least 12 of those. You don't fire your coach with 20 games left and then bench your starting front line unless you're tanking. The only question is who the Bucks end up with in the draft? An Oden-Bogut-Villanueva front line would be ridiculous, in a good way. Durant-Bogut-Villanueva would be awesome.
I think this might be of interest to you. You're welcome. ESPN posted the NBA TradeMachine this morning. It's way cool.
Every now and then, I like to check in on the Mark Cuban weblog to see what he's up to. Whatever your opinion about the guy, he is an interesting character -- and he is worth about a gazillion dollars. Anyways, his latest post is titled "I Own Phil Jackson". Here's a clip: Not literally of course. That thrill belongs to the smartest businesswoman in professional sports, Jeannie Buss. Figuratively however, the coach formerly known as the Zen Master must now be considered my bucket boy.
In an article for ESPN "Insider" today, John Hollinger writes about how the "Bucks aren't as good as standings indicate", and that they're more lucky than good (13-1 in games decided by 5 or less). Since the full article is only available to subscribers ($$), I won't get to read his full rationale for that argument. From what I can tell, he's basing it on a recent game between the Pacers and Bucks (the Good Guys lost 112-88). Now, if somebody wants to argue that the Pacers are better than the Bucks, that's fine (although: IND -J.O. ). But statements like this are just plain stupid: «And Milwaukee, despite seemingly heading toward a playoff season, is actually no better ...
I'm a little more than halfway through Simmons' latest article, and had to stop and post this. To put this in context, he's talking about possible Ron Artest trade destinations... Anyway, here's the team that makes sense: Milwaukee. They have Bobby Simmons, who could be best described as Ron Artest Lite -- good teammate, good defender, reliable shooter, plays 3 positions, and he's decidedly un-crazy. They also have two big men (Dan Gadzuric and Jamaal Magliore) who could be intriguing for the Pacers -- possible upgrades over Scot Pollard and Jeff Foster. Just feels like something could work here. Plus, the city of Milwaukee has already survived Jeffrey Dahmer -- Artest ...
From Bill Simmons' NBA Preview, Part I today: (That's right, from the man who gave you the 2005 Chicago Bears Playoff Bandwagon, I give you ... the 2006 Milwaukee Bucks Playoff Bandwagon! And I'll go this far: They could possibly climb to as high as No. 5. You're looking at this year's Chicago. Just wait.) So, I'm watching the game last night, and it's time for dinner. Thanks to the magic of DVR, I'm able to pause the game with just over 1 minute to play, and the Bucks down by 5 or 7. I enjoy a nicely medium-rare NY Strip steak with a glass of Shiraz, then return to the couch to ...
I just saw that the Bucks traded Desmond Mason to Hornets for Jamaal Magloire. I hate this move. Mason has been my Favourite Buck since they shipped Ray-Ray out of town a few years ago. Aside from being a pretty damn good player, he was also a great guy. Last year, he had a gallery showing of his artwork. He also warmed up to the city quickly after being traded here. I know Magloire is a big body, and we had a few too many small fowrards on the team, but I really thought this was going to be Desmond's breakout year. Word on the street ...
* Cincinnati * DePaul * Louisville * South Florida * Connecticut * Georgetown * Notre Dame * Pittsburgh * Providence * Rutgers * St. John's * Seton Hall * Syracuse * Villanova * West Virginia * Marquette Best case, we're looking at a 5th place finish. More realisticaly, 7th or 8th.
The Field Of Sixty-Four was announced yesterday, and office pools are off and running today. If you're going to be e-mailing your picks to someone, check this out. KUSports.com has an online form you fill out, then generate a nice, clean printable version of your picks in standard bracket format. Just for the record, I like: # Illinois # Wake Forest # UConn # Syracuse National champ? I'm not telling yet - check back on Thursday.
Milwaukee made 2 trades just before the deadline today. Gone are K.V.H. and Mike James (along with some cash money, american); in are Reece Gaines, Calvin Booth, and Alan Henderson - and 2 second round draft picks. Booth and Henderson are both as good as gone next year. I think Gaines will hang around for a while, and might turn out to be a good player. But the real reason for these trades was to clear up some cash money for Michael Redd this summer. Discuss amongst yourselves.
Once upon a time, back in the fall of 1985, I started the first semester of my freshman year of high school at Bay View. On the whole, our sports program wasn't anything to get too excited about. We had an exceptional track & field program while I was there (I used to share a seat on the bus with a future Olympian), and we had some great individual wrestlers. I also like to think we had a pretty good swim team. Football - we positively stunk. But Basketball... we had some great teams. Although we never quite made the Leap to "State" while I was ...
Judy & I went to the Marquette Warriors Golden Eagles game last night. Her nephew Matt got a stack of free tickets from his basketball team, so we went with him, his dad, and one of Matt's friends. I spent most of the night commenting to Judy on how shitty of a player Todd Townsend is. Cracks like "Townsend is playing the game of his life - a career high 6 points!". Also, for most of the game, MU was getting blown out of Southern Florida. Well, Marquette stormed back at the end of the game, and Townsend hit the game-winning shot with about 6 seconds left on the clock. A good time was had by all. As a bonus, ...
Well, I guess I was a little off on that Stanford thing. Not a great basketball weekend around here. UW-Milwaukee blew their NIT game on Saturday night, the Badgers blew their NCAA game on Sunday afternoon, and the Bucks are on a 5 game skid after getting beat by the Lakers last night. My tournament bracket -- just like everyone else's, I suspect -- was pretty much wiped out over with the losses by Stanford and Kentucky. I'm down to 8 of the sweet 16 teams, and 2 of the final four. Anyone who took Duke is sitting pretty right now. Oh well. There's always Milwaukee Brewers Baseball to look forward to...
Today is my second-favorite day in all of sports[1] -- opening day of the NCAA Men's Basketball Tournament. I just finalized my brackets, and faxed it off to the proper authorities. Last year, the pool that I'm in had 225 entries. I'd guess that number will increase a little bit this year. So, the odds aren't good -- you need to pick a near-perfect bracket to win -- but the payout is. This marks the first time in the last 8 years that I did NOT pick Kentucky to at least make it to the Championship game - I think that Oklahoma State will come out of the East and knock them off in the national semi-final. On ...