[Cracked Sidewalks] DeCourcy slams Marquette; media updates

[CrackedSidewalksSays]

DeCourcy slams Marquette; media updates

Written by: noreply@blogger.com (Tim Blair)

The Sporting News' Mike DeCourcy is at it again.

In case you missed it yesterday DeCourcy called out Marquette as a burden on the Big East while the conference looks to re-invent itself as a stronger BCS member. In the article DeCourcy essentially argues that the Big East made a mistake by adding Marquette and DePaul in 2005 because their membership complicates the league's current expansion pursuits.  Further he presumes that the conference's legacy members "must be regretting" the 2005 expansion.

Really?  I disagree and wonder why Marquette is the Big East's burden rather than Providence, Seton Hall or DePaul (which he also calls out in the article to a lesser degree).  Marquette's unquestioned commitment to the hoops program and competitive athletics across the board is the standard by which these other universities are compared. DeCourcy is assigning a perverse value to conference longevity.  That should never be the a driver for evaluating a program's relative contribution and value to its league.  Further, it remains unclear whether basketball-only schools, legacy or not, negatively impact the conference's current effort to double-down on football.

The MUScoop community is all over this one.  What kind of backhanded snipes will DeCourcy make in two years when we win the Big East Championship?  Yeah, we went there!

And now for additional updates on Marquette hoops from around the Interwebs:

• Bob Wolfley churns out a memorable piece on Maurice Lucas in the Journal-Sentinel, detailing Luke's decision to forgo his senior season at Marquette for the ABA.
• Jeff Goodman previews the Big East and picks MU as the league's 5th best team.  Vander Blue is his rookie of the year.
• Kyle Franko from Pressbox previews MU's season including a best and worst-case scenario.
  
• The Marquette Tribune evaluates the 2010-2011 Warriors in their annual basketball preview.  The main landing page is here -- look for links to the various articles below.
• Marquette is recruiting a German big man who is prepping in Delafield, Wisconsin.  Milwaukee has excellent German cuisine, big fella.  Here's a bit more on Martin Breunig.
• MU graduate Dominic James was named the player of the week in the Bulgarian league.
• MU graduate David Cubillan led his team to the pro title in Venezuela, scoring 17 in the deciding game.
• Can you speak Italian?  If so, here's Travis Diener.

http://www.crackedsidewalks.com/2010/11/decourcy-slams-marquette.html

[NavinRJohnson]

I have to say, I fail to see how he 'slammed' Marquette. If anything, I would say he was extremely complimentary toward Marquette, and thus the reason the Big East finds themselves in a somewhat difficult position relative to improving football.

[CrackedSidewalksSays]

DeCourcy slams Marquette; media updates

Written by: noreply@blogger.com (Tim Blair)

The Sporting News' Mike DeCourcy is at it again.

In case you missed it yesterday DeCourcy called out Marquette as a burden on the Big East while the conference looks to re-invent itself as a stronger BCS member. In the article DeCourcy argues that the Big East made a mistake by adding Marquette and DePaul in 2005 because their membership complicates the league's current expansion pursuits.  Further he presumes that the conference's legacy members "must be regretting" the 2005 expansion.

Really?  I disagree and wonder why Marquette is the Big East's burden rather than Providence, Seton Hall or DePaul (which he also calls out in the article to a lesser degree).  Marquette's unquestioned commitment to the hoops program and competitive athletics across the board is the standard by which these other universities are compared. DeCourcy is assigning a perverse value to conference longevity.  That should never be the a driver for evaluating a program's relative contribution and value to its league.  Further, it remains unclear whether basketball-only schools, legacy or not, negatively impact the conference's current effort to double-down on football.

DeCourcy defended himself this morning on The Doug and Mike Show on 1250 WSSP-Milwaukee.  Check it out here.   Nice job by Doug Russell to land this interesting interview.

The MUScoop community is all over this one.  What kind of backhanded snipes will DeCourcy make in two years when we win the Big East Championship?  Yeah, we went there!

And now for additional updates on Marquette hoops from around the Interwebs:

• Bob Wolfley churns out a memorable piece on Maurice Lucas in the Journal-Sentinel, detailing Luke's decision to forgo his senior season at Marquette for the ABA.
• Jeff Goodman previews the Big East and picks MU as the league's 5th best team.  Vander Blue is his rookie of the year.
• Kyle Franko from Pressbox previews MU's season including a best and worst-case scenario.
  
• The Marquette Tribune evaluates the 2010-2011 Warriors in their annual basketball preview.  The main landing page is here -- look for links to the various articles below.
• Marquette is recruiting a German big man who is prepping in Delafield, Wisconsin.  Milwaukee has excellent German cuisine, big fella.  Here's a bit more on Martin Breunig.
• MU graduate Dominic James was named the player of the week in the Bulgarian league.
• MU graduate David Cubillan led his team to the pro title in Venezuela, scoring 17 in the deciding game.
• Can you speak Italian?  If so, here's Travis Diener.

http://www.crackedsidewalks.com/2010/11/decourcy-slams-marquette.html

[79Warrior]

I have to say, I fail to see how he 'slammed' Marquette. If anything, I would say he was extremely complimentary toward Marquette, and thus the reason the Big East finds themselves in a somewhat difficult position relative to improving football.

Agreed. It helps to understand when reading. He understands how successful MU has been. his point is the BE would have been better off inviting schools that play footbal land hoops when the admitted DePaul and MU. Now that MU is so successful,  it is that much harder to show them the door. it is hardly a slam, he just points out the obvious.

[Skatastrophy]

The Anonymous Eagle twitter link was broken for me.  This one works (just removed the #!/)

http://twitter.com/AnonymousEagle/status/29673199363

[NYWarrior]

Understood fellas and thanks for reading.  I disagree based on his drumbeat of references to MU as an 'outlier', as facing difficulties based on geography, heritage, etal while failing to acknowledge that legacy BE institutions have struggled despite what he sees as A+ advantages.  He marginalizes MU.  Also, I don't think we know that MU and DPU are problematic when it comes to football expansion -- he presumes that to be true.  He could have written an article about the BE football/basketball schism without a foil (a point he essentially made in early in his interview with Doug Russell today).

It is clear that the football/basketball divide exists, not that MU is the reason it exists.  After all the league made its choices in 2005 knowing it would do so without a 12 team football league and the lucrative payouts that would generate. It'll be an interesting couple of years.  And I hope (as u point out) that MU's success makes my Alma mater a keeper.

[thatman32]

DeCourcy slams Marquette; media updates

Written by: noreply@blogger.com (Tim Blair)

The Sporting News' Mike DeCourcy is at it again.

In case you missed it yesterday DeCourcy called out Marquette as a burden on the Big East while the conference looks to re-invent itself as a stronger BCS member. In the article DeCourcy essentially argues that the Big East made a mistake by adding Marquette and DePaul in 2005 because their membership complicates the league's current expansion pursuits.  

Whoever writes for crackedsidewalks should take a reading comprehension class!  He doesn't slam marquette at all.  In case you didn't read the article since your skills are lacking.  But since your 'all over it' here are some quotes from the actual article.

However, the expansion coincided with a competitive surge in basketball among conference members, and indeed Marquette's success added fuel to that. Since expanding, the Big East has put four teams into the Final Four, averaged just under eight NCAA Tournament bids per year and earned a half-dozen No. 1 seeds.

Marquette has added so much to the Big East in its short time as a member. In the end, though, that excellence might not have been worth the cost.

He states that expansion of the basketball conference was a bad idea and it will be hard to breakup given the success that the leaugue has had and MU has contributed.

[NYWarrior]

Whoever writes for crackedsidewalks should take a reading comprehension class!  He doesn't slam marquette at all.  In case you didn't read the article since your skills are lacking.  But since your 'all over it' here are some quotes from the actual article.

Glad 'your' all over this too.   

I stated my case just above your post, thanks for reading and for the feedback.

[GGGG]

NY Warrior...I am going to have to agree that I think "slams" is a bit harsh.  I would agree that the headline certainly is a little off-putting, but the point of the article is not to slam MU...but that if the BE knew what it does now about the college football landscape, they likely would not have invited MU and DePaul to join.  That's all.

[NYWarrior]

NY Warrior...I am going to have to agree that I think "slams" is a bit harsh.  I would agree that the headline certainly is a little off-putting, but the point of the article is not to slam MU...but that if the BE knew what it does now about the college football landscape, they likely would not have invited MU and DePaul to join.  That's all.

I always thought the best job in the country was that of the NY Post Headline Writer.

http://nymag.com/nymetro/news/anniversary/35th/n_8568/