Haunted Hoops 2008
Written by: hilltopper91@gmail.com (Kevin Buckley (aka Hilltopper))
I took the family to Haunted Hoops again this year. While the Fish Fry was sold out, the attendance at the scrimmage was way down, perhaps half of what it was in years' past. Either October 31st (Trick-or-Treat for non-cry-baby communities) gave reason for people to skip the scrimmage, or .. there's a lack of enthusiasm for this Top 20 team. -- It was a rough off-season.
Took a few pictures, shot some video for your viewing.
The best picture of the night is this, entitled "Mr. Incredible: Man of Steel"
(http://lh3.ggpht.com/_mqySmjUzuJw/SQ22hBWlsoI/AAAAAAAABB0/CK0Zxzm0bYI/s400/IMG_2425.JPG)
Here's the slide show:
http://picasaweb.google.com/s/c/bin/slideshow.swf?host=picasaweb.google.com&RGB=0x000000&feed=http%3A%2F%2Fpicasaweb.google.com%2Fdata%2Ffeed%2Fapi%2Fuser%2Fhilltopper91%2Falbumid%2F5264063960992892193%3Fkind%3Dphoto%26alt%3Drss
And the video:
http://www.viddler.com/player/5259badd/
Also, there was plenty of MU action and reporting as well. Here's the official GoMarquette.com (http://gomarquette.cstv.com/sports/m-baskbl/spec-rel/103108aaa.html) release, which includes a nice photo gallery of the event (http://www.marquetteimages.com/viewphoto.php?&albumId=68345&imageId=2603168&). A poster on MUScoop also has several nice pictures as well (http://www.muscoop.com/index.php?topic=10218.0). Eric Silver has a nice story at MarquetteHoops.com, where he is impressed by the newcomers (http://marquette.scout.com/2/807504.html). Finally, in one of his three entries over the weekend, Rosiak had his own recap of Haunted Hoops (http://www.jsonline.com/blogs/sports/33678969.html).
In case you weren't aware, Marquette also scrimmaged Nebraska today (http://www.jsonline.com/blogs/sports/33692569.html). Rosiak's article has some nice comments from Tony Benford (http://wiki.muscoop.com/doku.php/men_s_basketball/tony_benford), who obviously was on the Nebraska staff last year. No word yet on how the scrimmage went (because it was closed to press and fans), although that didn't stop reports of Beasley from getting out last year.
One player who wasn't going to scrimmage Nebraska today was Joe Fulce (http://wiki.muscoop.com/doku.php/men_s_basketball/joseph_fulce). Unfortunately, Rosiak is the bearer of bad news as Fulce will be out 2-4 weeks with a knee injury (http://www.jsonline.com/blogs/sports/33702354.html). This means that he could miss anywhere from 1-7 games. Get well soon, Joe.
In some positive news, Roy and Harv Schmidt (Bullseye) have a piece on their Sun-Times blog about Marquette recruiting the Chicago-land area (http://blogs.suntimes.com/illinois/2008/10/marquette_continues_to_make_ch.html). I really didn't follow their statement that "all the pieces are in place", but their information on Chris Colvin (http://wiki.muscoop.com/doku.php/men_s_basketball_recruits/chris_colvin) and Darius Smith (http://wiki.muscoop.com/doku.php/men_s_basketball_recruits/darius_smith) was fantastic. Bullseye also provides some great information on players in the 2010, 2011, and (are you kidding me), the class of 2012.
Rob Lowe contributed to this post.
http://www.crackedsidewalks.com/2008/11/haunted-hoops-2008.html
Quote from: CrackedSidewalksSays on November 02, 2008, 09:15:42 PM
I took the family to Haunted Hoops again this year. While the Fish Fry was sold out, the attendance at the scrimmage was way down, perhaps half of what it was in years' past. Either October 31st (Trick-or-Treat for non-cry-baby communities) gave reason for people to skip the scrimmage, or .. there's a lack of enthusiasm for this Top 20 team. -- It was a rough off-season.
I'm not sure I agree with that. Granted, the attendance wasn't that great for the scrimmage, but I didn't think it was different than years past.
Enjoyed the slideshow and the video, Hilltop! Thanks!
Wow .. I thought it was striking how attendance was so far down.
I'd say the 2008 attendance was somewhere between 50-60% of what it was in 2007, 2006 .. I spoke to a few other guys, all who said how dead it was in that night, compared to the other years they've attended.
what do you expect from the scrimmage? you go there, and watch your team play. you can't expect that much. i was there and i enjoyed it. i loved seeing the team play and being competitive with refs and all that. nice to see buzz get on them and start to coach in a game like situation. very nice night and a great second scrimmage: 15 minutes and the score was 28-27. fun night all around and the team is looking good. new offense and you can tell they are still adjusting to it, but they are looking good. we are marquette!!!