Sean O'Mara and Marquette

[LAZER]

On a related note; Marquette offered 2014 6'10 C Jonathon Wilkins of La Lumiere (IN)

[keefe]

Keefe

How many degree's do you have? So you are saying there are more Harvard Business School alums than ND alums? No doubt that HBS has more Fortune 100 CEO's and folks on Wall Street than ND. I guess my point was the 99.9% of those who are not in the who's who of business.

I spend a fair amount of time in China and every major university has gatherings in Shanghai or Hong Kong. In 2012 I spent a fair amount of time with a Babson alum affair in Hong Kong. All good stuff but I'll stick with my point ND over MU in heart beat in national job market eyes. Now if my kid could to HBS...no frickin brainer, but that was not my original point.

Undergrad at Marquette. Grad school at Michigan and HBS.

Your point is that UND has more grads than any Ivy and that they have a broader geographic distribution. I answered that I believe Harvard has more total grads each year than UND, illustrated anecdotally with the fact that HBS alone graduates 800 every year. I think that UND has an undergrad population of 6,000 so it graduates less than 1,500 seniors each year (more frosh than seniors given attrition.) I also think that UND is a great national university but it is in no way the international alma mater that is Harvard.

I lived in Hong Kong twice and we thought we were the only MU grads there until one morning we finished a run on Bowen Road and were walking back to our flat at Queen's Garden on Old Peak Road when a local dude yelled out, "Hey Marquette!" My wife was wearing a Warriors t-shirt. Turns out he was an engineering grad from the '60's.

Most schools had alumni groups in HK but MU was not one of them. Both Michigan and Harvard had large groups and my wife did her grad work at Columbia and they were even more active. HK was a great place to be up through '97 but Beijing by design has subordinated HK to Shanghai as a banking and commercial center. I remember going up to Shanghai before the hand over and it was nothing like HK. Today it is very different.

If you are still going to HK I would recommend Va Bene in Lan Kwai Fong. We had a standing res there every Friday evening at 9 pm. The maître d is Pino Piano, one of HK's leading gastronomes and a world class raconteur. He would always entreat my wife to leave me for him where he would take her back to Siena and lavish her with food and wine...he was flamboyantly gay so I think that would be the extent of lavishing. Va Bene is a world class restaurant, beyond the Italian category.

We last lived in HK in '96 so I am certain much has changed but it was a great place to live in the '90's. Since we lived in mid-levels we put our kids in the ESF Peak School on Plunketts Road rather than at HKIS which was on the other side of the island. Turned out to be a great decision for them and, because of social media, they have maintained friendships with classmates. Rather than spend hours on the bus each day they took the peak tram.

My wife spoke Japanese and I know she loved Japan but looking back on it I think she enjoyed living in HK more. Her stories were most often about HK and China. One of her favorite places in this world was the limestone peaks in Yang Shao. She loved how in the morning the mist wrapped its dewy fingers around the formations like spun silk curtains. She would force us up at 4 am in order to catch the formations at dawn.

Do you live in HK or are you a frequent visitor?    

[keefe]

The same reason I steered my oldest to I4-Kelley School of Business.  If the field of study at another University is better than MU and your kid gets into that place, you steer them away from MU.  If one of my kids wants to go into engineering, nursing or dental, I'd steer them to MU. 

My opinion of that school in Bloomington was altered irrevocably in 2008. So long as the stench of tanning butter permeates the air of Indiana that opinion shall remain in effect.

[Goose]

Keefe

Agreed on Va Bene. Have dined there often. I had office in Kowloon Bay for roughly a decade and moved into China in 2001 completely. Spend roughly a third of my time in China currently. Also agree on the MU alum part of it. One of my highlights was seeing a factory worker wearing the 1977 championship drawing short that had the team holding up the banner. Great t shirt and even better seeing on someone that had no idea what it meant a decade and a half after the fact.

[Silkk the Shaka]

I attended a Redwing's game recently.  They did the "I Believe that We Will Win" thing at tipoff.  Sean should feel right at home tomorrow.

That's where that chant belongs - high school.  That's where I first heard it, my high school did it in the early aughts.  Oh, and also Mormon colleges.

[keefe]

Keefe

Agreed on Va Bene. Have dined there often. I had office in Kowloon Bay for roughly a decade and moved into China in 2001 completely. Spend roughly a third of my time in China currently. Also agree on the MU alum part of it. One of my highlights was seeing a factory worker wearing the 1977 championship drawing short that had the team holding up the banner. Great t shirt and even better seeing on someone that had no idea what it meant a decade and a half after the fact.

We had offices at Stock Exchange Square but as you know HK was a China play so you flew out on Monday and came back Friday. After a week in China it was a relief to be back in HK. We were very big into the Red Chip privatization stuff so we were crawling around factories outside of the SARs, places like Xian, Wuhan, and Szechuan. My stomach is cast iron after all the bugs I ingested in some of those hell holes.

I was always amazed at the t-shirts worn by the workers in Chinese factories. I especially loved the ones made for the Japanese market which tried to use clever Ingrish.

Next time you hit Lan Kwai Fong try Nanbantei. Best Japanese in HK. Also, please give my regards to Pino at Va Bene. He will remember my wife as the blond haired American German girl who spoke Japanese. Tell him she is waiting for him in a better place where they only serve Grappas made by his family!

[Strokin 3s]

So Sean O'Mara huh?

[ChicosBailBonds]

My opinion of that school in Bloomington was altered irrevocably in 2008. So long as the stench of tanning butter permeates the air of Indiana that opinion shall remain in effect.

You need to get over it...very good school.  Excellent Business School.  He's built it up right, kids graduating, did MU right for 9 years.  If my kids wanted to go to Notre Dame, I would happily send them.  Great networking, awesome school.  It would hurt, but I'm not going to deny them that opportunity.  UW-madison would hurt more, only because it's a public school and there are better public schools in state that I can pay in-state tuition for.

[swoopem]

My opinion of that school in Bloomington was altered irrevocably in 2008. So long as the stench of tanning butter permeates the air of Indiana that opinion shall remain in effect.

Agreed, my brother got into IU and seriously considered it but I convinced him to go to MU instead. He is more than happy with his decision

[We R Final Four]

So Sean O'Mara huh?

Why are you bringing this guy up???

People are debating whose is bigger--for four pages.

[nyg]

Why are you bringing this guy up???

People are debating whose is bigger--for four pages.

Gone from O'Mara to News and World Report on college rankings to Travel Channel to Food Network. But, interesting read.

[Avenue Commons]

I love Marquette. But I love my kids more than anything in the world. I would always do what was best for them, including sending them to another (better) school.

[Goose]

Nyg

Well played.

[keefe]

You need to get over it...very good school.  Excellent Business School.  He's built it up right, kids graduating, did MU right for 9 years.  If my kids wanted to go to Notre Dame, I would happily send them.  Great networking, awesome school.  It would hurt, but I'm not going to deny them that opportunity.  UW-madison would hurt more, only because it's a public school and there are better public schools in state that I can pay in-state tuition for.

In fact I agree with you on IU's biz school. Always in the top 20. The kids I have known from there worked hard and were devoid of the BS one had to listen to from most snot nosed MBA's.

We went to MU but ours went to Middlebury, Wazoo, and Columbia. Each asked for advice but made their own choice. We were there to answer questions and were very pleased with their decision-making process, though one was really all about football. The one thing we told each of them was that there were no financial or geographic constraints and that this was entirely their decision to make since they would live with it for the next 60 years.

Since our first chose Middlebury I took a deep breath as I wrote out that first check but I understood Middlebury my first visit there. There is no more beautiful place on God's earth than Middlebury, Vermont in early October and the college made Parent's Weekend meaningful. After 4 years of Middlebury we saw our son grow in ways I never would have imagined. He had also been accepted to Berklee in Boston and I talked to him at length about what I knew of the music industry. My second cousin is with Sony Music in NY and his insights were compelling to sway the choice in favor of Middlebury. 

Columbia was a white knuckler since it involved an only daughter and I had concerns about her living in NYC. Her mother gently reminded me that she had lived there at 21 and everything would be fine and if I dared mention the safety issue I was dead. Somehow I would have preferred she had gone to Wazoo as there is no safer place than the Palouse but her football skills were significantly below her brother's. She is still in NY, living in Brooklyn and thriving in so many ways. Frankly, Columbia was the only place she should have ever attended.

One of the most exciting times is watching your children go through the process of identifying then applying to colleges. As the acceptance letters (and rejections) start arriving is when the real thinking takes place. It is remarkable just how insightful 18 year olds can be.

[wojosdojo]

Gone from O'Mara to News and World Report on college rankings to Travel Channel to Food Network. But, interesting read.

Good. Seen this kid play several times and even played against him. He is big, but WAY too slow. I have a hard time picturing him seeing the floor.

[keefe]

Good. Seen this kid play several times and even played against him. He is big, but WAY too slow. I have a hard time picturing him seeing the floor.

Sounds tailor made for Mr Ryan

[mujivitz06]

Here I thought I would get some info on O'Mara and it's a 4 page preenfest between some Chicago Catholics comparing d*** sizes.  Please tell me did you have steak or lobster the other day at Harvard?  UGh

[real chili 83]

Why is this 4 pages?

Why

Why

Why

[keefe]

Here I thought I would get some info on O'Mara and it's a 4 page preenfest between some Chicago Catholics comparing d*** sizes.  Please tell me did you have steak or lobster the other day at Harvard?  UGh

Aren't you the guy whose first post called this site a "cess pool?"

Tell you what - In a few months I'm heading back to Nepal where I now live. Why not join me? Twice a day, 7 days a week we eat daal baht - steamed rice and lentil curry. Same thing the orphans we have rescued from sexual slavery eat. No steak (the kids are Buddhist or Hindu for Crissakes!) No lobster...shell fish doesn't keep real well in Mustang since we don't have a fridge because there isn't steady electricity. Anyhow, I tend to eat simple these days for philosophical reasons plus the fact that my sense of taste comes and goes due to brain trauma from an IED event in Iraq.

Send me a PM and I'll get you hooked up so you can spend some quality time helping kids who have nothing and I do mean nothing. Not much penis measuring going on there in Mustang Nepal. Here's what you get: The pay is zero, the living conditions below Spartan, creature comforts non-existent. The medical plan is asking one of the passing Medecins Sans Frontières docs, "hey, could you take a look at this?" You better like reading books because there isn't internet, radio, or TV. Your night light is a little candle. When it begins to sputter it is time to try and sleep (which PTSD makes difficult sometimes what with the nightmares.) You wake and sleep with the sun and always remember to keep your torchlight handy in case you need to go at night. (There is no indoor plumbing) Your oven is made of clay and wood fueled, drink is yak butter tea, lemon tea, or iodine tinged water. Central heat is what your own body generates inside a sleeping bag. Need a bath? You can sponge it or hike down to the river where there are natural hot springs. It's 30 minutes down, 50 minutes up. And by hike I mean just that - there are no cars, roads, mopeds, buses, bikes, trolleys, trains, light rail...

What do you say MUjivitz? Your disgust with dick measuring Chicago Catholics suggests you would like to give something back in an environment where materialism is not only alien but discouraged. If you are looking for meaning I think I know some people who can help give you the experience of a life time where there are no fancy meals or designer labels. But you get to help some of the poorest people on earth whose only sin was to be born into that poverty and illiteracy. You also get to look up at night and see God's own canvas being painted. Sunrises and sunsets in the Himalaya are spectacular, too. As is the quiet. And the solitude.

By the way I am neither from Chicago nor a Catholic. I was brought up high church Anglican which has an almost identical liturgy with the Roman Church.  But I do get what you say about Chicagoans in general.

[moomoo]

Seems like we got a good chance, especially considering his engineering comments, which I think is authentic:

"As one of the better post prospects in the Midwest in the class of 2014, center Sean O'Mara has received quite a bit of recruiting attention. The 6-9, 240-pound center from Benet Academy has had a solid spring with IBA Select and continues to hear from a number of programs.

O'Mara previously listed offers from UIC, SIU-Edwardsville, Iowa State, Xavier, Loyola, LaSalle, Saint Louis, Boston College, Virginia, Illinois, DePaul, Ball State, Eastern Michigan, Georgia Tech, Lehigh and Oakland but has recently added some new offers.

"I've picked up recent offers from Seton Hall and Columbia," O'Mara said.

Two other high-major programs have yet to offer scholarships but have also been coming on strong in O'Mara's recruitment of late.

"Wake Forest has been talking to me a lot and Marquette has talked to me a lot recently as well," O'Mara said.

A few programs have also stood out to Sean as programs that have been on him the hardest in his recent recruitment.

"There are about six or seven schools coming hard," O'Mara said.  "Xavier, Loyola, Virginia, Georgia Tech, Marquette and Saint Louis (are on me the hardest.)"

While it was looking like O'Mara would take some early official visits in the recruiting process -- with previous talk of some official visits in June to Georgia Tech and Virginia-- O'Mara has extended the recruiting process a bit and opted for some later visits.

"I've decided to change the dates for the official visits to later in the recruiting process so I have more of an idea for things," O'Mara said.  "I talked to Georgia Tech and Virginia and they'd rather have me visit at a later date because they don't like the feel of the visits as much in June without people on campus."

O'Mara still plans on using his official visits, but has a distinct purpose for them in mind.

"I plan on using my official visits for places that I can't drive to," O'Mara said. "If I have some (official visits) left over then I'll use them for places I'm interested in."

O'Mara is interested in pursuing an engineering program in college and mentioned some other factors in his future collegiate decision.

"Academics is the first thing and then the style of play is also important to me," O'Mara said. "It's more run-and-gun in AAU and in the high school season we play more halfcourt and I'm also used to playing with two posts, so any of those styles of play will work for me.

It's also important seeing how programs use their big guys and also the relationship I'll have with the coaches and the players so that the transition from high school to college is as smooth as possible."l

[Fullodds]

I've seen him outplay must faster teams and bigs including Alexander from Curie and Proviso East back when he was a soph.   I don't agree he is too slow for a big.  He is faster than Gardner with a ton of post skills.  Well coached.  I like the idea of having legitimate size and scoring options in the post.

Good. Seen this kid play several times and even played against him. He is big, but WAY too slow. I have a hard time picturing him seeing the floor.

[Fullodds]

http://napervillesun.suntimes.com/sports/16774055-419/boys-basketball-sean-omara-leads-benet-past-curie.html

[BCHoopster]

Looks like a Notre Dame type of recruit.

[Jay Bee]

Really like his passing. Good size, would be a nice component.

[4everwarriors]

I heard Georgia Tech has an engineering program, hey?