[Rosiak's Blog] MU, UWM open to continuing series

[ToddRosiakSays]

MU, UWM open to continuing series
               




               

http://www.jsonline.com/blogs/sports/110898049.html
               

[ChicosBailBonds]

[MUfan12]

My thoughts exactly.

This series is a joke. Nothing to gain.

We're a basketball program, not a charity for state schools. Let it die.

[Tom Crean's Tanning Bed]

My thoughts exactly.

This series is a joke. Nothing to gain.

We're a basketball program, not a charity for state schools. Let it die.

+1.

It's a waste of a series. I'd rather be playing more meaningful road games in our key recruiting/alumni areas.  I'm not sure if the series with Green Bay is gonna be on similar terms, but at least that makes sense in so far as 1) one of our former all-time greats coaches at Green Bay, so it's a homecoming series for him, and 2) the occasional games at the Resch Center are good for alumni in Northern Wisconsin.

[ChicosBailBonds]

My thoughts exactly.

This series is a joke. Nothing to gain.

We're a basketball program, not a charity for state schools. Let it die.

Which is exactly why we will do it and continue to act in a manner that defies logic.  I'd expect nothing less of Marquette then to extend this series.  Hell, why not make it a home and home, 1 for 1 swap.

Good Lord are we stupid.   Crean was an idiot for agreeing to this thing in the first place.  Get through these 5 games and act like a big boy program.  Next time you see UCLA go to Cal State Northridge, Loyola Marymount, UC Irvine..EVER...let me know, let alone once every 2 or 3 years.  Next time we see Duke go to UNC Asheville, or UNC Wilmington, or High Point...once every 2 or 3 years...let me know.  The examples are endless.

And please, Lord, no one bring up UC and Xavier.  It's such an apples to clouds comparison it's not worth a breath of air to comment on that series.

[Brewtown Andy]

2 for 1 or 3 for 1? Whaaaaa?

[mu_hilltopper]

In comparison to the Northeast Iowa Sewing Repair Tech College games, I love the UWM series. 

Even love going to the Cell tonight.  RENEW!

[4everwarriors]

The Arena should have been demolished years ago.

[ChicosBailBonds]

In comparison to the Northeast Iowa Sewing Repair Tech College games, I love the UWM series. 

Even love going to the Cell tonight.  RENEW!

Fine...they can come to our place EVERY TIME

[denverMU]

Just FYI Chicos, Duke plays at UNC Greensboro this year.  I don't see why we can't play this series.  Everyone needs some cupcakes to warm up with.

[ChicosBailBonds]

Just FYI Chicos, Duke plays at UNC Greensboro this year.  I don't see why we can't play this series.  Everyone needs some cupcakes to warm up with.

Of course everyone needs cupcakes to warm with, we are the king of cupcakes.  The idea is to do that without helping build another program across town. 

I'm actually MUCH more supportive of playing at Green Bay then at Milwaukee.  At least playing at Green Bay gives MU some exposure to the northern part of the state where everyone bleeds red and white.  Playing in Milwaukee benefits only one entity...UW hyphen Milwaukee.  I have zero interest in helping that school out, and I love Rob Jeter.  Great guy, runs a clean program unlike his predecessor.  I'm thrilled that Bud is gone, not a great guy.  Doesn't matter, let them build their program on their own and get it to where it needs to be.  If over the next 10 years they can get it to a Butler level, then fine, schedule it appropriately.  Otherwise, this game (if it's played at all) should be at MU only.

[MarquetteDano]

I don't have a problem with the series as long as the terms are decent (5 for 1 seems okay to me).  What irks me is all of the predictors who said the Bradley Center would be sold out and Marquette will earn millions and the TV ratings would be sky high for series.

Aaahhh... No.  The first game drew a large crowd (I don't recall a sellout however).  After that the crowds have quite frankly been disappointing.

And now revisionists are saying that the series draws more than most buy games.  That's great but that is not what they said five years ago.  Where are the huge crowds and TV ratings?

Sooner or later Marquette will lose a game to UWM and then that will be it.  If we ever don't renew the series we are ducking UWM.  Whatever.

The game is more enjoyable than most buy games so let's ensure the terms of the deal are good and move on.

[MisterJaylenBrownMU]

I'm actually MUCH more supportive of playing at Green Bay then at Milwaukee.  At least playing at Green Bay gives MU some exposure to the northern part of the state where everyone bleeds red and white.  Playing in Milwaukee benefits only one entity...UW hyphen Milwaukee.  I have zero interest in helping that school out, and I love Rob Jeter.  Great guy, runs a clean program unlike his predecessor.  I'm thrilled that Bud is gone, not a great guy.  Doesn't matter, let them build their program on their own and get it to where it needs to be.  If over the next 10 years they can get it to a Butler level, then fine, schedule it appropriately.  Otherwise, this game (if it's played at all) should be at MU only.

So we'll only play UW-M when they're in a national championship?  Doesn't that defeat the purpose of a cupcake?  And I can't imagine that we're helping UW-M build their program much by hammering them every season.  Wouldn't think there are too many top-500 recruits sitting around, watching that game, and thinking "I could really put that UW-M team over the top."  Maybe I'm wrong, though.

I just see it as a really cheap cupcake (no travel expenses) that draws a large crowd.  Until they actually win a game, I don't see it as much riskier than scheduling Prairie View A&M.

[brewcity77]

Living in Milwaukee and frequently interacting with UW-M students and alumni, I say keep it going. 3-1 or 4-1 sounds about right. Back when Pearl was there, I got sick of hearing them say we were ducking them...and in all honesty, I believe we were ducking them. They had a better team than us for a few of the lean years after our Final Four, and we never even went to the table to negotiate. When their downfall was imminent, we finally made a deal and have been in control of the series. But if by some miracle Jeter revives the program, I want us to be ready and willing to lay the smack down again if they do get good. Maybe when you live across the country it doesn't matter, but I heard it from people at work, at the bar, at parties...I got sick of it. So let's keep playing them and keep beating them. If nothing else, the Horizon is a higher level of basketball than a lot of the other cupcakes out there. We could do worse than this series, and if we keep it going maybe we can overtake Syracuse for the most consecutive wins against one opponent (currently 44-0 over Colgate).

[SaintPaulWarrior]

we can overtake Syracuse for the most consecutive wins against one opponent (currently 44-0 over Colgate).

Go Red Raiders.......oh wait.....go Raiders.

[Avenue Commons]

Just FYI Chicos, Duke plays at UNC Greensboro this year.  I don't see why we can't play this series.  Everyone needs some cupcakes to warm up with.

I think playing UWM makes a lot more sense and has a lot more interest (in Milwaukee anyways) than these other cupcakes that we play.

I've argued for years that we should play Loyola-Chicago, St. Louis, U of Detroit and/or other smaller Jesuit schools instead of some of these cupcakes. At least those schools have a similar mission and if we're going to "help" a program by playing them we should play other Jesuit schools.

[reinko]

Fact: SLU, University of Detroit, and Loyoloa-Chicago won't accept 4-1 or 5-1.  Anything, we should pass.

[HoopsMalone]

Does anyone remember what the deal was with Valpo?  Was it 1 for 1?  We went there and had to be saved by a late DJ three.

[GGGG]

UWM is never going to rival MU and beating their butts every year, with an occasional close game or loss every so often, isn't going to change that.  In fact, it could be argued that the gulf between UWM and MU has never been greater over the past 15 years than it is now.

It is a cheap cupcake because we don't have to pay travel costs.  It generates some local interest.  I don't see much problem with continuing it.

[ChicosBailBonds]

So we'll only play UW-M when they're in a national championship?  Doesn't that defeat the purpose of a cupcake?  And I can't imagine that we're helping UW-M build their program much by hammering them every season.  Wouldn't think there are too many top-500 recruits sitting around, watching that game, and thinking "I could really put that UW-M team over the top."  Maybe I'm wrong, though.

I just see it as a really cheap cupcake (no travel expenses) that draws a large crowd.  Until they actually win a game, I don't see it as much riskier than scheduling Prairie View A&M.

Not what I said.  If we insist on continuing to play this series, then they should ALL BE AT HOME.  We should play them at their place when they get good enough to warrant it.

It's not a matter of recruiting, it's a matter that ONLY bad things can happen from this series.  There is no upside at all, but plenty of downside.

[ChicosBailBonds]

Living in Milwaukee and frequently interacting with UW-M students and alumni, I say keep it going. 3-1 or 4-1 sounds about right. Back when Pearl was there, I got sick of hearing them say we were ducking them...and in all honesty, I believe we were ducking them. They had a better team than us for a few of the lean years after our Final Four, and we never even went to the table to negotiate. When their downfall was imminent, we finally made a deal and have been in control of the series. But if by some miracle Jeter revives the program, I want us to be ready and willing to lay the smack down again if they do get good. Maybe when you live across the country it doesn't matter, but I heard it from people at work, at the bar, at parties...I got sick of it. So let's keep playing them and keep beating them. If nothing else, the Horizon is a higher level of basketball than a lot of the other cupcakes out there. We could do worse than this series, and if we keep it going maybe we can overtake Syracuse for the most consecutive wins against one opponent (currently 44-0 over Colgate).

We weren't ducking them.  I was there when we made the decision to stop playing them.  Bruce was cheating his ass off and we knew it.  Bud was playing his crap nonsense in the papers and on the radio and we were not going to get caught up in that nonsense. 

Here's the problem with this series, some day UW hyphen Milwaukee will win one of these games, and when they do it makes it nearly impossible to stop playing them because then truly people will claim we are ducking them.  There is no upside to this game.  You win, you're supposed to.   You lose, you take it on the chin all year long, the already anti-MU media piles on more and more, you give life to little brother, etc, etc.  Absolutely zero upside.

There is a reason why most programs that are in our position do not play little brother on their home court, let alone once every 3 games like they're talking about.  There will always be exceptions, but most are wise enough not to do it.  Apparently we aren't wise enough.

[Tom Crean's Tanning Bed]

Does anyone remember what the deal was with Valpo?  Was it 1 for 1?  We went there and had to be saved by a late DJ three

I think that was a 2 for 1 deal; they played here in 2003 and 2005, we went there in 2006.

[GOMU1104]

We weren't ducking them.  I was there when we made the decision to stop playing them. 

Wasnt it Bo Ryan that decided to end the series when he was at UWM?  This is what I was told by people close to UWM/Bo that would take every opportunity to sh*t on MU, and they even admitted it was Ryan that ended the series in 99.

[ChicosBailBonds]

Wasnt it Bo Ryan that decided to end the series when he was at UWM?  This is what I was told by people close to UWM/Bo that would take every opportunity to sh*t on MU, and they even admitted it was Ryan that ended the series in 99.

In early 1999 we were all in a room at the Milwaukee Hilton with the AD, coach, several Asst AD's and it was clearly stated we weren't going to play them the next few years.  There were some bitterness starting to creep in from both sides already at that point.  Bo was the coach and Mike Deane was still at MU.  It wasn't until April that Crean was hired, but that decision was already made about UWM scheduling for the 99-00 and 00-01 season before he even got there.

When Bruce got there a few years later, it really escalated because of his willful disdain for something called the NCAA Rule Book.  Bud was out there politicking and feeling high and mighty because he either didn't care or was too stupid to know what his own basketball coach was doing under his nose. 

[Coleman]

I think playing UWM makes a lot more sense and has a lot more interest (in Milwaukee anyways) than these other cupcakes that we play.

I've argued for years that we should play Loyola-Chicago, St. Louis, U of Detroit and/or other smaller Jesuit schools instead of some of these cupcakes. At least those schools have a similar mission and if we're going to "help" a program by playing them we should play other Jesuit schools.

I'd love to play SLU, Loyola, or Detroit, but I don't think we'd get the same terms as most cupcakes. 2 for 1 if we were lucky.

I actually don't mind a 2 for 1 with UWM. Its a "road" game in Milwaukee against an average program, which really helps our RPI.