My experience at the Kohl Center

[Goose]

We had a great time and bought tickets in Section 102 for a reasonable price. The UW band not being there definitely changed the atmosphere. Love or hate the Badgers fan the band knows how to amp the joint up.

Kudo's to State Street Brats for great time before the game. MU-UW game would not be the same without Brat's.

[TallTitan34]

No offense, but unless you are a MSU football fan, that is kind of a dickish thing to do.  You just basically said that people were nice to you most of the day, and then you openly root for their football team to lose?

So I can't cheer for who I want to win the game?  There are three Big Ten schools I actually like:  Michigan State, Purdue, and Northwestern.  So when one of those three is playing the Badgers I am going to cheer for them. 

It's not like we went over to the guy's table and told him to s*ck it whenever MSU scored.

[GGGG]

That is why I said "unless you are a MSU football fan."  If you are a fan, cheer for whom you want to cheer for. 

[Freeport Warrior]

No problems at The Echo before or after -- maybe it's the older crowd, certainly no love for us, but enough respect. Only one instance of douchery, but I blame it on age, drunkeness and sour grapes. I was at the urinal and the dude looks over to me and says "unnatural carnal knowledge Marquette, how's your football team?" I laughed, said nothing and walked out. Other than that, a good time at the bars with a great waitress.

At the game, a whole different story. Scalped good tickets -- on free throw line, 2nd row, right behind the people on the court. Had our basket for the second half. Grumpy ass old fans just complaining the whole time about our hand-check fouls. I was part of a six-man MU crew in a sea of red; it was me, my buddy, then a murderer's row of four big-time MU donors. I know this because these are the guys that sit on our home court.

I waited until the second half to cheer like I wanted to. Mostly because I didn't want an usher coming over and check my "Diet Coke" and giving me the boot. But with my drink now long gone, it was go time. Every time Vander got near our side of the court, I would blurt out, "You're my boy Blue!" Badger fans on the court would getted pissed, glaring back at me. Blue would look over every time and start laughing, shaking his head. One time after a time out, I did it again and Blue hit Crowder on the shoulder and they looked over and started laughing. I'm sure it was "that dude is f'n crazy over there." A great, great afternoon and well worth the investment.

[muwarrior69]

Hey guys, the next time a Badger asks how is your football team; tell them were undefeated.

[mu03eng]

Far be it from me to defend the Badger fans but it sounds like they were reasonable given the circumstances.

Hell last year I had one of our own fans be a dick to me at the game in the BC versus Wisconsin, so no one is immune

[Skatastrophy]

Far be it from me to defend the Badger fans but it sounds like they were reasonable given the circumstances.

Hell last year I had one of our own fans be a dick to me at the game in the BC versus Wisconsin, so no one is immune

Agreed.

You never remember the nice, polite fans that leave you alone.  You always remember the guy that was a jackass that was probably embarrassing his friends.

I am usually that jackass.

[ringout]

I was shocked at how silent a sellout crowd could actually be.  Badger fans stood and cheered for a grand total of about 10 seconds in the second half.  Then a timeout was called, and you would've thought there was a huge game of musical chairs going on as everyone in red scrambled for their seats.  I was in the 5th row of sect 108, and myself and a few MU fans were literally the only ones cheering in our section.  

Gasser and not Blue.  Prior to Saturday, I couldn't even go to a neighborhood party without hearing that nonsense.

I can still hear "We Are Marquette" ringing in my ears.  Great effort by the MU-partisan crowd.  Good times.  

Did you notice the loud the arena music got when the Badger fans could no longer drown out "We Are Marquette".  Because they all took their balls and went home with about 3 minutes left. 

[Mr. Nielsen]

As a person who has been to many Badgers games and MU at UW games. It hurt the Wisconsin fan base not having the band. The UW fans really feed off the band. The 11-0 run by Bucky in the second half, they played a club song and everyone was sitting down. If the band was there "On Wisconsin or the "Bud Song" would've been playing with 17.000 plus on their feet and clapping.

[Canadian Dimes]

Says the ref (and rightly their defender)...wow though.  Can we now agree that Hightower anticipates calls and is way past his prime?  Some fun facts:  Hightower has officiated three of the last four MU vs. UW games at the Kohl, and Driscoll has done the last three there. So much for the "random" assignment of refs. I assume the two schools stipulate one B1G, one BE and one from elsewhere in their contract.

incorrect ..in home and home series the home team gets refs from their conference/official coordiantor.  hence...mu games at the KC will have BIG 10 refs.  The coordinator sets up the refs...typically the biggest games get the top officials...for some starnge reason the Big 10 thinks Driscoll and Hightower are their best refs.

[Dr. Blackheart]

incorrect ..in home and home series the home team gets refs from their conference/official coordiantor.  hence...mu games at the KC will have BIG 10 refs.  The coordinator sets up the refs...typically the biggest games get the top officials...for some starnge reason the Big 10 thinks Driscoll and Hightower are their best refs.

Thanks...I thought Driscoll was only BE. 

[mu03eng]

incorrect ..in home and home series the home team gets refs from their conference/official coordiantor.  hence...mu games at the KC will have BIG 10 refs.  The coordinator sets up the refs...typically the biggest games get the top officials...for some starnge reason the Big 10 thinks Driscoll and Hightower are their best refs.

I'm completely at a loss how Hightower, Driscoll, Burr, and Higgins have not been "retired".  They are the only officials I know by sight and name and there is a reason for that.  I shouldn't be able to predict with a 90% reliability what is going to happen in the game just by knowing who the officials are.  My wife thought I was freaking Nostradamus when I told her before the game there were going to be a lot of screwed up charge/blocked calls and that the guy in the flat top is going to make controversial and random calls if he hasn't had enough camera time.

[MU_Freak]

The proverbial icing on the cake...a picture with Wes Matthews outside the Kohl Center as he was getting picked up at the curb 

[MerrittsMustache]

- Awful officiating on both sides. Tim Hightower is very aware that he is on television. That charge on Blue was BS, but you could see it coming a mile away. My friend said it best, "the ref was just dying to make that call".

Consider he's an NFL runningback recovering from a torn ACL, I'd expect Tim Hightower to make some questionable calls reffing a college bball game

Ed Hightower is the official.

[MUBurrow]

Far be it from me to defend the Badger fans but it sounds like they were reasonable given the circumstances.

Hell last year I had one of our own fans be a dick to me at the game in the BC versus Wisconsin, so no one is immune

Did you bring a Wisco fan into the student section? If so, I'm historically that dick. For me, people who bring opposing fans to the student section deserve way more crap than the opposing fans themselves.

On another note, keep it coming fellas. This is one of the better threads in a long time.

[MUDPT]

Sat in 313? I think, next to two Badger season ticket holders who said we would probably be the only people sitting in our seats all season.  People were generally nice.  I will say this, living in Madison, most (not all) fans are basketball neanderthals, especially compared to Marquette.  I'm not trying to offend any one, they just care way more about football.  Before the game on Saturday, these are the only MU basketball players known in Madison.
1. Vander Blue
2. Maymon
3. Wes Matthews
4. Dwyane Wade

That's it.  Couldn't tell you who Novak, Diener, Lazar, Jimmy Butler, or Jerel is or was.  Went to Cooper's Tavern after the game, just got some shaking heads from bartenders and fans.

[Warriors 79]

Here's my response to the "How's your football team" tired old cliche:

" Marquette has not had a football team since 1962 but when they did my father played Division 1 football for them back in the 50s.  When did YOUR father play football for Wisconsin?  Oh, he didn't? Then shut the F**K up.  BTW, we are at a BASKETBALL game so why are we talking about football anyways?"

Tools

[Silkk the Shaka]

Here's my response to the "How's your football team" tired old cliche:

" Marquette has not had a football team since 1962 but when they did my father played Division 1 football for them back in the 50s.  When did YOUR father play football for Wisconsin?  Oh, he didn't? Then shut the F**K up.  BTW, we are at a BASKETBALL game so why are we talking about football anyways?"

Tools

The old "my dad can beat up your dad" retort!  Works every time.

[copious1218]

My reply for the football comment is as follows:

Undefeated.  Just like our basketball team.

[Warriors 79]

Except this one is actually true!  I mean, if your old man can actually beat the other guy's old man....go for it!

The rational and boring response of "resources of a small private Jesuit school blah blah blah" are ineffective in countering the blustery Bucky football put down.  Using the fact that my father actually PLAYED D1 football for Marquette is a foolproof retort.  In the unlikely event that Bucky Blowhard's dad also played football for Madison then you can steer the conversation down that road but most of the time Bucky Boy is gasping for air with a stupid look on his face as you tell him to shut the hell up.

Thanks, Dad!!

[mu03eng]

Did you bring a Wisco fan into the student section? If so, I'm historically that dick. For me, people who bring opposing fans to the student section deserve way more crap than the opposing fans themselves.

On another note, keep it coming fellas. This is one of the better threads in a long time.

Brought my wife, a wiscy grad, to our usual season ticket seats.  The one game of the year she isn't cheering for MU.  I was getting crap from some random douche burger near the end of the game on top of us losing the game.....really not a good time to say something and not have me go off on you.

And wow, how insecure are you that you can't stand people bringing opposing fans in.  I figure its a good thing, gives everyone a target to heckle.

[monkeyman34]

section 111 with 2 MU fans and 1 UW fan. Guy behind us was an obnoxious 60+ year old who kept screaming "get him off of him" when DWilson was guarding taylor. not very intelligent fans around us in any direction, just stupid ignorant comments all during and after the game.

was at the echo before the game and no problems at all, very good crowd - one of my favorite bars in Madison.

Buckinghams after the game - was good, bartenders were great (probably helps that my friends from Madison frequent the place on a regular basis and know the bartenders well) but everyone was more interested in the football game than giving us crap for our MU gear.

Wando's afterwards, by this time, had a little too much to drink. Got attacked leaving the bar alone trying to find my buddy, would really like to know what happened as I don't have much recollection of this happening.

[MUBurrow]

Brought my wife, a wiscy grad, to our usual season ticket seats.  The one game of the year she isn't cheering for MU.  I was getting crap from some random douche burger near the end of the game on top of us losing the game.....really not a good time to say something and not have me go off on you.

And wow, how insecure are you that you can't stand people bringing opposing fans in.  I figure its a good thing, gives everyone a target to heckle.

Haha, I wouldn't have given you crap for just bringing in one girl with wisco stuff, but you really think hating when dbags bring their UW friends into the student section is a matter of insecurity? Maybe I'm misreading myself, but when people heckle a wisco fan in the student section, then his dbag buddy sits there with an MU shirt on and a sh!t eating grin on his face and starts the "Yeah! @$$hole! @$$hole!" at his friend, i think its pathetic. A student section is supposed to be a student section, with tickets for the students of that school. When an MU student uses one of the two wisco games he ever gets to work to bring red into the student section, then grins at the attention of the heckling or pretending he isn't worse than the wisco fan, i hate that crap.

[mu03eng]

Haha, I wouldn't have given you crap for just bringing in one girl with wisco stuff, but you really think hating when dbags bring their UW friends into the student section is a matter of insecurity? Maybe I'm misreading myself, but when people heckle a wisco fan in the student section, then his dbag buddy sits there with an MU shirt on and a sh!t eating grin on his face and starts the "Yeah! @$$hole! @$$hole!" at his friend, i think its pathetic. A student section is supposed to be a student section, with tickets for the students of that school. When an MU student uses one of the two wisco games he ever gets to work to bring red into the student section, then grins at the attention of the heckling or pretending he isn't worse than the wisco fan, i hate that crap.

I love debating, so I hate uniformity of thought, bring on different folks.  Having said that, I would totally treat the student section different than everything else.  I think the student is an idiot for trying to bring the UW fan in, but I don't know that I'd give the MU person any crap, they already know how stupid they are 

[ATL MU Warrior]

I love debating, so I hate uniformity of thought, bring on different folks.  Having said that, I would totally treat the student section different than everything else.  I think the student is an idiot for trying to bring the UW fan in, but I don't know that I'd give the MU person any crap, they already know how stupid they are 

I think most people are completely ignorant of how stupid they are