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 ...
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, ...
* 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.
From an ESPN interview with Dwyane Wade of the Miami Heat: ESPN: Your alma mater, Marquette, changed their nickname to the Gold. . . . What do you think of that? Wade: To the what? ESPN: To the Gold. The Marquette Gold. That's what they're going with now. Wade: Awh . . . I got to call. I got to call in on that one. ESPN: We are breaking some news. Wade: I heard they were trying to change it back to Warriors. ESPN: No, I guess they are going with Gold. I'm surprised they didn't call you to check to see if it was OK with you. Wade: The Gold? ESPN: Yeah. Wade: No, I got to make a phone call to Marquette ...
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, ...