Bilas' Top 68

[4everwarriors]

Welcome, my Warrior brother. Seeing your post made my day.

[Hoopaloop]

Ringout, this all needs to stop.  You are incorrect. 

•   First, Happy New Year to all of you.  Let’s hope the Mayans are wrong about 2012

•   On a personal note, I wanted to thank many of you for all the prayers and warm wishes for my daughter.  Some really great folks on MU Scoop that reached out (4everwarriors, Dr. Blackheart, Ecompt, StillAWarrior, etc) and others in the MU community.  Unfortunately she is on insulin the rest of her life, but she is doing great.  What a trooper. She turns 10 next month. There are a lot of worthy charities out there but if you ever feel the need to donate and aren’t sure what cause to donate to, about 2 million Americans (mostly kids when they get it) have the rarer Type I Diabetes (formerly known as Juvenile Diabetes) that could use your help.  https://donations.diabetes.org

•   Rocky, I apologize for coming here, but felt the need to jump in here because of some of the harassment going on against other posters using me as validation vehicle…it’s not right and I keep getting invoked in the process which isn’t fair to the other posters (see below).  I will not post again unless you ask, but several guys have reached out to me via email and Facebook and I felt the need to set the record straight and stop this nonsense.  Despite Ringout's and a few other folks claims, I'm not here posting as anyone else.

•   Rocky, I was in Colorado for much of the last two weeks.  I should have looked you up.  I should be back in late January or February in the Denver area…we should watch a game at a bar…I took some swipes at you in the last year that I shouldn’t have.  The least I can do is buy you a beer or three.  The banning from Scoop was a blessing.  Spent way too much time here and it was good to get away.  Until a few weeks ago, I couldn’t even read anything here until Hilltopper showed me how illiterate I was with browser cookies (still can’t clear them properly on IE, but I can read Scoop on Firefox now).   

•   Rob (Hoopaloop) and others being accused as me posting as you...you are in a pinch…this is how it works.  It’s part of the marginalization process against you and why some posters have left in the past.  They got tired of being labeled as Buzz haters, Marquette haters, or just haters for having legitimate concerns about the program, the school, etc. Tired of being labeled as someone they are not. None of us hate Buzz or Marquette, no more than we hate our kids, our country, our spouse but sometimes we are critical of them as well (and they of us). 

Rob and everyone else being accused of someone you aren't,  I see three options for you:

1.   Ignore these people and keep posting about your passion of Marquette hoops.  Let them call you what they want; it’s a game they play.  Don’t acknowledge their games.

2.   Leave Scoop and stop posting…you certainly wouldn’t be the first or the last. The downside here is that as more folks leave, the more it becomes like Scout and the inertia creates one point of view.  Irving Janis coined the term Groupthink.  It’s worth a few minutes of study.

3.   Prove them all wrong. This is my favorite option.   You live in Chicago, right?  Get together with Lenny or Ringout or any number of other guys that question you that live in Chitown.  Of get together with then at a MU game...even better as they should have to buy you beers all day long for being chumps on this.  Bring your laptop, login to Scoop right in front of them; show them your driver’s license, call me on the cell while you do it.  If you do this, please bring a camera and document the entire jaw dropping exercise because it should be posted for all to see…including the ensuing apology from them.  That way whenever someone calls you out in the future, you can just queue up the YouTube video. 


I wish you all the best in 2012.  My convictions haven’t changed

o   College hoops is a guard’s game (love you 4ever).  We have an inconsistent point guard but he has shown signs of solid play late last year and sometimes this year.  Need to get stronger here to succeed
o   Recruiting quality big men to Marquette is difficult regardless of the coach.  It’s Marquette, It’s Marquette and that has meant no high quality big men for decades.  Wish that wasn’t the case, but it is.  Maybe someday Buzz or someone else can change that, but the notion it would happen overnight with the new staff was optimistic.
o   I still do not believe we play intelligent basketball
o   Need a few more traditional players – shooters and guys that understand basketball and don’t just out athlete their opponents (that works in High School and against lower competition in college)
o   Judge a coach after five years
o   Rocky, I still expect you to pay up on that bet…Crean isn’t going anywhere any time soon.  
o   Ners, I still expect you to pay up on our bet …IU goes to a Final Four with Crean before MU does with Buzz.  One team seems a lot closer to it than that other in my opinion, especially with the recruiting classes coming in
o   Offense is sexy; Defense and rebounding equals long term success
o   Vander + JC on the court at same time = tough to get scoring there.  Sometimes looks like 3 vs 5 on offense
o   2011 was not the university or the athletic department’s finest hour.  Let’s hope 2012 shows some marked improvements and committed changes (actions, not words) that are necessary moving forward to be a strong, Catholic university that treats all students equally.  Demonizing females that make a charge and determining they are at fault because she doesn’t have a killer cross over or a smooth J from beyond the arc is just wrong.  They might be wrong, but let’s not demonize these students.
o   Beating UW-madison is a wonderful thing.  Women’s hoops, women’s soccer, men’s hoops all posting victories.  Never gets old.  We are the best team in the state and that feels great
o   The Big East is still a Beast, but not quite as good as the last few years.  Hard to say who is the best.  All of college basketball continues to dilute.  ACC sucks outside of 2 1/2 teams.  Big Ten probably best top to bottom, but no stellar teams. Big East good, but outside of Syracuse no one scares anyone.  Big 12 not what it used to be.  Pac 12 is horrific.  SEC has done pretty well against the Big East but not as good top to bottom. 

Go Marquette.  Go Indiana.  Go Kansas!  Peace to all.  Sorry to insert myself, but this was getting ridiculous.

Welcome back.  So happy to hear your little one is doing better. 

Love your suggestion for number 3.  Will add Hards Alumni to the get together based on the PM he just sent me.   


You were right about JC, but I couldn't bring myself to admit it.  Too inconsistent to be a Big East starting PG.  He will shine some days and other days look totally over matched. Vander should be the PG

Judge a coach after five years should be a sticky here.  Anyone find it somewhat funny that some of the same posters who loathed the idea of evaluating Buzz after five full years were some of the same that evaluated Crean at IU after just 1  or 2 years? 

College hoops is both a guards and big man game, but I agree there are more good guards then good big men. Why we can't land a quality big man at Marquette is depressing.

Big East is down.  Not hard to see if we open up our eyes.  MU needs to get things going before teams start to improve in the coming years.

[wojosdojo]

Can some insider open this up. Thanks

http://insider.espn.go.com/ncb/story?id=7516582&_slug_=college-hoops-top-68-rankings-kentucky-wildcats-retain-no-1-spot&action=upsell&appRedirect=http%3a%2f%2finsider.espn.go.com%2fncb%2fstory%3fid%3d7516582%26_slug_%3dcollege-hoops-top-68-rankings-kentucky-wildcats-retain-no-1-spot

[strotty]

15. Marquette Golden Eagles

Marquette fought off Villanova on Saturday for its sixth win in a row. Marquette gets into the lane, but can be vulnerable to getting overwhelmed on the glass.