[Rosiak's Blog] MU, UW-Green Bay agree to three-year deal

[JWags85]

The great news is that the UWM fans, Fran included, are ecstatic about the new deal (also some MU fan that is clueless as the day is long).

So hey, it's great that UWM fans are excited about this....because that's who we are doing this for...UWM fans.  Certainly not for Marquette.

http://uwmfreak.proboards.com/index.cgi?board=Blow&action=display&thread=4996

Its also funny to see them praising MU and talking about how its so much easier to like Buzz and Marquette the last few years.  I thought Buzz was the anti-christ?

[Golden Avalanche]

Its also funny to see them praising MU and talking about how its so much easier to like Buzz and Marquette the last few years.  I thought Buzz was the anti-christ?

Which is the opposite of Madison fans who started out saying Buzz could be likeable and have now aired allegations of dirty recruiting, racist team building, academic impropriety, etc.

MU will never win with all sides in the state which is why so many of us out-of-staters say 'unnatural carnal knowledge you' to all the bullshit spewed.

[Chicago_inferiority_complexes]

It's similar to their arguments about the RPI last year.  Constantly ripping the RPI because it had the Big East rated higher than the Big Ten so they would say KenPom.com is a better indicator.  Of course this year, KenPom has the Big East rated higher than the Big Ten so no mention whatsoever.  Classic  (by the way, RPI has Big East number 1 this year also)

Another down year for the Big East.

(It's become my favorite cliche. You could make a t-shirt out of it for the BET.)

[Jam Chowder]

It was nice of the rodents to provide some great empirical evidence as to why this series is a lose, lose scenario. If we win, no big deal. If we lose, then... we look every bit as silly as UW did tonight.

[MUMountin]

Not sure if this has been mentioned, but I wonder if part of the idea here is to provide MU with one "cheap" road game each year.  With two 2-1s and the Badgers every other year, this gives our players an opportunity to play in a hostile environment every year without having to devote the time or resources to travel out of state. 

It seems that in most recent years, we've tried to do at least one close road game in the upper midwest (Valpo, Oakland, the tourney in Chicago last year, etc).   

This does make some sense:

Good for the team: helps them to learn to play in a hostile environment.  Give frosh and sophs a chance to experience going through the road game procedure early in the season.
Good for tourney: One thing the committee looks at is your road/neutral record.  This gives us a good shot at adding a W in that column before the brutal road stretch in the BEast.

Two things about these games.  One, most years they have fallen opposite of the UW series.  When we play UW on the road, we played Valpo and Oakland at home.  When we played UW at home, we travelled to both schools.  Second, obviously, those teams are not top caliber schools.  In both cases, you have a chance at a W in a road game.  I'm not entirely sure if this is the best set-up, but it seems like something that the school has been trying to do over the last 5 years or so.

If that is the case (that these motivations are important to the school), then I think the two in-state series might make some sense.

First, as I see it, it guarantees us with one in-state road game each year for the next 4 years (please correct me if I am wrong, but this how I see it playing out):

09-10: @UW, UWM (year 2 of 4-1 UWM contract)
10-11: UW, @UWM, UWGB (year 3 of 4-1 UWM contract, year 1 of 2-1 UWGB)
11-12: @UW, UWM, UWGB (year 4 of 4-1 UWM contract, year 2 of 2-1 UWGB)
12-13: UW, UWM, @UWGB (year 5 of 4-1 UWM contract, year 3 of 2-1 UWGB)
13-14: @UW, UWM (year 1 of 2-1 UWM contract)
14-15: UW, @UWM (year 2 of 2-1 UWM contract)
15-16: @UW, UWM (year 3 of 2-1 UWM contract)

Second, we are guaranteed extra home games in all of these years that we don't have to go out and "buy".  I'd rather play a UWM or UWGB than a Grambling or Savannah State.

Third, assuming that the UWM/UWGB games will likely be Ws, so a good chance at a road win early in the season in both years (although UW just proved that UWGB is no easy get).

Would I prefer to have road games against high major competition?  Sure (in most seasons--in a rebuilding season, maybe not necessarily).  But, there are obviously other factors at play here, and I'd be pretty surprised if these series are taking the place of a NC State series or Arizona from a few years back.  Rather, I think you look at them as taking the place of a "buy-game" in the years that they are home games for us, and taking the place of the UW road game in the off years to provide good experience and a chance for a road W without a huge expense (or travel time during the end of the semester).  In that case, I'd much rather that we play an in-state team than going to a Valpo/Oakland.

Altogether, I think that this is actually a fairly pragmatic solution--perhaps far from the "ideal" that we'd all like to see, but balances many competing interests well.

[ChicosBailBonds]

Mountin, the problem is that these little schools in Wisconsin make this their Super Bowl.  They want nothing better than to knock off big brother.  MU isn't going to run into that playing at Valpo, etc.  I worry about our guys getting hurt in one of these games because the other side is so jacked up to put a notch in their bed post that they take someone out.

Plus, all it does is reward these other programs.  The last thing I want is 4 strong programs in the state.  It's bad enough with two.

[MUMountin]

Your point about injury may have some validity--certainly these games bring a higher level of emotion than some generic Directional Southern school. 

But, even then, I wonder if that is a positive--we are going to play in a lot of gutsy, emotional games late in the BEast schedule: Notre Dame, Louisville, Pitt, UConn, DePaul all have good reasons for grudge matches with Marquette.  I think it is good for us to play some good "pressure" games early on to get used to that.  These games give us some of the pressure, albeit against teams that, at the end of the day, have less talent than we do or that we will face in the BEast.

I don't think that we should be afraid of these games, just because they are going to get jacked up about them.  If we believe we are the best program in the state, then we should feel confident that we will continue to dominate these series.  Sure, either team may surprise us from time to time...but, so did North Dakota State, and Valpo almost did on the road.  I don't think that UWM or UWGB will be any more successful than that, and I don't think we should be afraid that they will.

[mu_hilltopper]

Chicos .. if you want easy games, let's just go whole hog and move to an easier conference.

I'm not afraid of UWGB/UWM playing us like it's their Superbowl.  I want that.  Nearly every BE road game is Superbowl quality.

If MU is a real program, they shouldn't care a lick about playing a jacked-up team, regardless of the month.  If these RPI 100+ teams play us tough in December, well, hallelujah, it's a hell of a lot better than playing a team better suited to be competing on High School courts where the only point is some revenue and a freaking show.

[ChicosBailBonds]

Chicos .. if you want easy games, let's just go whole hog and move to an easier conference.

I'm not afraid of UWGB/UWM playing us like it's their Superbowl.  I want that.  Nearly every BE road game is Superbowl quality.

If MU is a real program, they shouldn't care a lick about playing a jacked-up team, regardless of the month.  If these RPI 100+ teams play us tough in December, well, hallelujah, it's a hell of a lot better than playing a team better suited to be competing on High School courts where the only point is some revenue and a freaking show.

I don't want "easier" games, I want games that don't benefit teams in our own state that at the same time do nothing for us.  There is a significant difference.  I also don't want games against teams that have a huge chip on their shoulder and will do ANYTHING to win, and I mean anything.  

The MU administration should be looking out for #1 and they aren't in this situation, that is why so many major programs NEVER travel to their cross town little brother opponent.  Instead, we act like DePaul and St. John's and not programs we aspire to be that do it right.

[Avenue Commons]

Disagree on many levels.  This just makes the overall non-conference schedule less attractive.  You'll see less and less of NC State, Arizona, etc coming to town so we can play UWM, UWGB.  I wouldn't be happy if I was a season ticket holder IF it means less games of bigger teams coming in.  Unless I'm reading it wrong, I don't know how it can't have this effect.  Or, MU might be saying they don't need as many home games as in the past, but that would shock me from a revenue perspective.

Agreed. Only people in Wisconsin care about these games against the University of Wisconsin system. Even the Madison game means a whole lot more to those MU fans who live in Wisconsin or grew up there. The rest of us would rather see MU play NC State, Arizona, etc.

I've argued for years that if we are going to "help our friends" our friends are the other Jesuit schools. Who would you rather play: UWM and UW-Green Bay or two games out of Gonzaga, Xavier, Fordham, BC, Holy Cross, a rising Portland team, Santa Clara, etc. MU would play high-quality competition and get some nationally exposure. MU is already a big deal in Wisconsin.