A couple of thoughts

[MU Avenue]

   (1) We who are Marquette should be proud of our basketball team’s string of victories. At the same time, we must acknowledge that so many close wins or losses and overtime wins or losses hint at a team that swaps baskets with opponents and has trouble taking control of games.
   I think the world of this MU team but wish it were able to widen the scoring margin in even a few more games.

   (2) Notre Dame is one of the only schools that makes my jaw tighten.
   I know a number of people who went to Notre Dame, some of whom are great folks, some of whom are peculiar men who manage to bring “Notre Dame” into every discussion, no matter the topic or audience.
   I was at a cookout a few years ago that a Notre Dame alumnus also intended. Without asking for permission, this man went into the hosts’ house every few minutes to check how the Notre Dame football team was doing against Michigan State.
   He would then come outside and update everyone on the score. It was embarrassing.
   At one point, after this man had provided his sixth or seventh score update, one refreshingly confident woman said to this guy’s wife, “Is your husband always such a douche bag?”
   The guy’s wife just smiled and raised her eyebrows.
   When Notre Dame lost that afternoon to Michigan State, this guy came outside and announced that “this party is over” because Notre Dame had been beaten badly. I think he thought this would generate laughter and make him seem amusing or clever.
   Instead, those at the cookout looked oddly at him and then at one another. It was one of the most awkward moments I have witnessed socially.
   I think of that cookout and that man whenever I hear mention of Notre Dame, a school to which I hate losing.

[chapman]

#1 is just an interesting double-edged sword.  We played games against the 1, 2, 4, 4, 7, 8, 10, 11, 12, 13, 15, and 16 teams completely down to the wire.  Great because the first four or five or those listed are games that we were really more likely to lose by 20.  Bad because if you can play inspired ball and compete with the best you can't always drop excuses like playing on the road or a short bench or the overused "zero margin of error" line of BS for playing worse teams closely and failing to capitalize on dozens of opportunities to build leads over the first 38 minutes of games.  It's a mentality issue, some of it started at the end of last season, and hopefully Buzz can work on this next year in games where we are better than the other team and need to play like it instead of playing like we're always the underdog.  Nothing wrong with valuing every possession, but if we play like we have zero margin for error against teams that aren't that good we should bury them instead of playing overtimes and actually putting outselves in a situation where we actually o have zero margin for error.