Travon Bunch

[Thomas' Danish Delight]

Hopefully there is a vaccine for that...


Overhead view of NAS Cubi Point, Republic of the Philippines





The Ramp at Clark Air Base, Angeles City








Testament to Survival Training





Clark Air Base, Pampanga Province




"Can I offer you anything else?"

The one on the left looks like my cousin...my male cousin.

I really wish we were still in the Philippines.  I mean shiet, half the Navy is Filipino.  keefe, are there a lot of Filipinos in the Air Force?

Anyways, yes, to get back on track, we need more aircraft carriers.

[Sunbelt15]

Of course MU needs quality bigs.   What it doesn't need is the modern day equivalent of Rod Grosse and Roman Mueller, just to say it has some height on the roster.   If MU fails to land quality bigs, however, I have complete confidence in Buzz's ability to take all of the talent he WILL have on hand and make a very good team.    National Championship?   Perhaps not.    Sweet 16/Elite 8, AKA the current level?    Absolutely. 

I don't know Grosse or Mueller, but you're telling me those guys would be worst, with two good eyes, than Otule and Buzz coaching them? They must really suck!

[GGGG]

I don't know Grosse or Mueller, but you're telling me those guys would be worst, with two good eyes, than Otule and Buzz coaching them? They must really suck!

Why the hate on Otule?  I don't think you fully appreciate what he brings to this team.

[Dawson Rental]

Why the hate on Otule?  I don't think you fully appreciate what he brings to this team.

+987.345

[tower912]

I don't know Grosse or Mueller, but you're telling me those guys would be worst, with two good eyes, than Otule and Buzz coaching them? They must really suck!

They could not have guarded CO when he was a freshman wearing a cast.     Part of the Majerus-Dukiet transitional era.     (shudder)
And don't dis Chris.    Second best MU big of the last decade, and the best defensive big. 

[bilsu]

Mueller I believe went on to play for Majerus at Ball St. I believe Majerus won 29 games (?) at Ball St, which got him the job at Utah. I do not know if Mueller was much of a factor at Ball St., but he may of been. Freshmen centers often need to get stronger and both Grosse and Mueller needed to add strength. I do not think Grosse ever got much stronger. Teams do much more with weights today than they did back then.

[GGGG]

Mueller I believe went on to play for Majerus at Ball St. I believe Majerus won 29 games (?) at Ball St, which got him the job at Utah. I do not know if Mueller was much of a factor at Ball St., but he may of been. Freshmen centers often need to get stronger and both Grosse and Mueller needed to add strength. I do not think Grosse ever got much stronger. Teams do much more with weights today than they did back then.

Mueller didn't do that poorly that year.

http://www.ballstatesports.com/fls/14200/MBB/PDFs/1988-89-Stats.pdf?DB_OEM_ID=14200

[tower912]

5pts, 2.8 rebounds in 12 mpg at a good MAC school.     Watching Roman and Rod walk into the cafeteria at McCormick was always surreal.   

[willie warrior]

They could not have guarded CO when he was a freshman wearing a cast.     Part of the Majerus-Dukiet transitional era.     (shudder)
And don't dis Chris.    Second best MU big of the last decade, and the best defensive big. 

Not sure what you consider a big, and if you define "last decade" as 2003 to present, here are some of the MU "bigs":
Gardner
McMorrow
Burke
Barro
Kinsella
Jackson Robert and Marcus?
Novak-admitted he did not play the 5
Merritt
E. Williams
I would rank Gardner, R. Jackson, Novak and Merritt higher than Otule, and Burke, Barro as arguably equivalent to Otule. And none of those guys have had 6 years in the system. But hey, its all subjective, isn't it? So Ok, he is the second biggest big in Kool Aid Land--and he is the next Roy Hibbert.

[tower912]

Novak wasn't what I would consider a traditional big.  R. Jackson is outside of the last decade.   Burke and Barro?   Please.   Burke was 6'6 with bad hands.   Ooze was 6'10 with bad hands.   You left out Lott.   CO has better hands and better post moves than either, and due to his sheer size is a better post defender.  Merritt.....probably.   Personal bias.  Scott always frustrated me, so I don't always give him a fair shake among MU bigs.    Perhaps I should have said 3rd best.     The secret with CO is, give him the ball when he posts.   Do not try to dish off to him with a fastball from 4 feet in traffic.    When he posts strong and gets the pass on time, he has great hands.   

[GGGG]

Classifying Steve Novak as a "big" tells you all you need to know about willie's abilities to analyze basketball players.  Seriously, the guy is a very tall wing player.  A switchable as it were.

That's enough of my end of this debate with him.  This team was an E8 team last year with GD and CO...yet those players aren't good enough to get us to a FF?  Puh-leeze...

[wadesworld]

Classifying Steve Novak as a "big" tells you all you need to know about willie's abilities to analyze basketball players.  Seriously, the guy is a very tall wing player.  A switchable as it were.

That's enough of my end of this debate with him.  This team was an E8 team last year with GD and CO...yet those players aren't good enough to get us to a FF?  Puh-leeze...

You didn't hear that Kevin Durant is the best big in the NBA today?

[bilsu]

Not sure what you consider a big, and if you define "last decade" as 2003 to present, here are some of the MU "bigs":
Gardner
McMorrow
Burke
Barro
Kinsella
Jackson Robert and Marcus?
Novak-admitted he did not play the 5
Merritt
E. Williams
I would rank Gardner, R. Jackson, Novak and Merritt higher than Otule, and Burke, Barro as arguably equivalent to Otule. And none of those guys have had 6 years in the system. But hey, its all subjective, isn't it? So Ok, he is the second biggest big in Kool Aid Land--and he is the next Roy Hibbert.

You forgot Chris Grimm

[keefe]

So those pictures of the Filipino girls, are they actually girls (i.e., females)?  I need to know before I use them...

The best early warning indicator is "Adam's Apple." Can't hide that.

[Canned Goods n Ammo]

Not sure what you consider a big, and if you define "last decade" as 2003 to present, here are some of the MU "bigs":
Gardner
McMorrow
Burke
Barro
Kinsella
Jackson Robert and Marcus?
Novak-admitted he did not play the 5
Merritt
E. Williams
I would rank Gardner, R. Jackson, Novak and Merritt higher than Otule, and Burke, Barro as arguably equivalent to Otule. And none of those guys have had 6 years in the system. But hey, its all subjective, isn't it? So Ok, he is the second biggest big in Kool Aid Land--and he is the next Roy Hibbert.

If Novak is a "big", then so are Jae and Jamil Wilson... which means MU isn't that bad at getting bigs, right?

[keefe]

The one on the left looks like my cousin...my male cousin.

I really wish we were still in the Philippines.  I mean shiet, half the Navy is Filipino.  keefe, are there a lot of Filipinos in the Air Force?

Anyways, yes, to get back on track, we need more aircraft carriers.

The AF has far fewer Filipino citizens than the Navy. The treaty specified actual numbers and the Navy got the majority. I think that is due to tradition. The USN used Filipinos as Messmen, Stewards, and Officer's Coop Cleaners on ships going back to 1900 whereas the Air Corps only started using them in the 1920's and service was restricted to our bases in the Commonwealth so Filipinos weren't emigrating to CONUS as they were in the USN through PCS moves.

What is fascinating is that because of this tradition Navy Filipinos have served continuously as Stewards and Messmen in the White House for more than a century. Filipinos served in those roles because the Navy restricted them to those rates (in the same way blacks were limited to certain career fields in all services until 1947.) The Navy only opened up other rates to Filipinos in the early '70's; it is amazing that such blatant racism was perpetuated for so long. With the end of the treaty we have stopped recruiting Filipinos in the numbers we once did but there are many enlisting as family of currently-serving military members.

I have logged time at both Clark and Cubi. We used to fly the bombing and EW ranges in Crow Valley where the low level experience rivaled the Star Wars scene. I liked Cubi as there was great diving right there. We used to rent those bungalows on Grande Island and dive all day then swill San Miguels at night. The Cubi Pt Officer's Club was one of the finest Fighter Bars ever created. Legends were born there. They had the that Carrier Arrested Landing device there that resulted in a lot of bruised egos.

There was some fine liberty outside the main gate over Sh1t River. Our squadron, the World-Famous Iron Claws, made the Marmont and the Bamboo Grove our rally bars. You could have a lot of fun on $10 US and still have change in the am. Even us happily married guys managed to have fun, even if our night ended at one of the monkey meat stands to get some grease in our guts.

As for carriers, we are now down to 10, I believe. That is almost half the number of just a few years ago. I will not disagree that carriers are important but I would question the mix of airframes. I am the son and grandson of fighter pilots and flew F 16s but I have to disagree that we need the Raptor and the JSX. The paradigm of air-air engagements fell with the Berlin Wall. Having a CAP capability is important but what we really need is more attack assets. A lot of Navy guys bemoaned the decomm of the F 14 but she was nothing more than a spectator in the AOR.

Why we build Raptors and decomm Warthogs is beyond me. The number of attack tails on the ramp is down 40% since 2005 because Mother Air Force wants air superiority assets - despite the fact there is not a single terminal air threat out there. Each Raptor costs more than $400 million while the JSX is $200 million per. The Warthog with the latest avionics suite costs less $15 million.

Ask any Grunt on the ground what his Close Air Support platform of choice is and he will say without hesitation the Warthog. The Marines on the ground have a saying, "Go ugly early," which means call in the Warthog on first contact. The A 10 puts more firepower with precision and loiters longer than any other fast moving airborne platform. The A 10 has sent more Hajis to Paradise than any other combat asset.

[swoopem]

I was fan of Ousmann. If the guy knew where the baseline was and didn't constantly step out of bounds when he was creeping under the hoop he would have added 4 points to his average. Yeah, he did that at least twice a game.

I'm going to say that CO is waaayyy better than Dwight Burke and only slightly better than Ous.

[Thomas' Danish Delight]

The AF has far fewer Filipino citizens than the Navy. The treaty specified actual numbers and the Navy got the majority. I think that is due to tradition. The USN used Filipinos as Messmen, Stewards, and Officer's Coop Cleaners on ships going back to 1900 whereas the Air Corps only started using them in the 1920's and service was restricted to our bases in the Commonwealth so Filipinos weren't emigrating to CONUS as they were in the USN through PCS moves.


As for carriers, we are now down to 10, I believe. That is almost half the number of just a few years ago. I will not disagree that carriers are important but I would question the mix of airframes. I am the son and grandson of fighter pilots and flew F 16s but I have to disagree that we need the Raptor and the JSX. The paradigm of air-air engagements fell with the Berlin Wall. Having a CAP capability is important but what we really need is more attack assets. A lot of Navy guys bemoaned the decomm of the F 14 but she was nothing more than a spectator in the AOR.

Thank you for the history listen, keefe!  I mean that sincerely too, not sarcastically.  radome might be unhappy with me, but there  isn't much I know about the military, much less my own Navy outside of BUMED (USN Bureau of Medicine and Surgery).

As far as the aircraft carriers, though, haha, I was referring to Al's aircraft carriers, not the kinds that we were supposed to play OSU on last year.

I hope the USS Satchel and USS Diamond make Marquette their homeport.

[keefe]

Thank you for the history listen, keefe!  I mean that sincerely too, not sarcastically.  radome might be unhappy with me, but there  isn't much I know about the military, much less my own Navy outside of BUMED (USN Bureau of Medicine and Surgery).

As far as the aircraft carriers, though, haha, I was referring to Al's aircraft carriers, not the kinds that we were supposed to play OSU on last year.

I hope the USS Satchel and USS Diamond make Marquette their homeport.

God bless Navy Pecker Checkers, Doc! The only reason I'm here today is because a random Black Hawk with four fully equipped Navy Corpsmen happened to be within 7 minutes of our pos after our team got hit. They stabilized two of us during the ride to Bagram. I don't recall a second of it but I'll never forget them. 

[willie warrior]

If Novak is a "big", then so are Jae and Jamil Wilson... which means MU isn't that bad at getting bigs, right?

Novak was 6'10'' and led the team in rebounding when he was a Sr. No he did not play the 5. Not sure what the real definition of a big is other than maybe 6'8" an plays mainly inside.

By the way some people now say Crowder is 6' 5". He did play inside however. Wilson--who knows. Some on this board say he can play some point.

And in answer to your question: Wrong!

[willie warrior]

Classifying Steve Novak as a "big" tells you all you need to know about willie's abilities to analyze basketball players.  Seriously, the guy is a very tall wing player.  A switchable as it were.

That's enough of my end of this debate with him.  This team was an E8 team last year with GD and CO...yet those players aren't good enough to get us to a FF?  Puh-leeze...

So that is your prediction then Captain Obvious--FF.

I threw Novak in there because he was 6' 10" and led the team in rebounding. I am well aware he plays the wing. Now let us hear your fantastic abilities to analyze talent, Mr. "Otule is better than Gardner"  Crickets!

[tower912]

Who said that Otule is better than Gardner?   He is a better defender and defensive rebounder, but DG is clearly the best offensive post presence since the RJax on the 03 team.   So, IMO, in the last 10 years, the best big man MU has had is Gardner.   Merritt may be second, I was just never a fan.    IMO, Otule is the 3rd (by a hair) best big of the last 10 years at MU. 

[Skatastrophy]

Who said that Otule is better than Gardner?   He is a better defender and defensive rebounder, but DG is clearly the best offensive post presence since the RJax on the 03 team.   So, IMO, in the last 10 years, the best big man MU has had is Gardner.   Merritt may be second, I was just never a fan.    IMO, Otule is the 3rd (by a hair) best big of the last 10 years at MU. 

Gardner has butter-soft hands. Merritt had bricks. It's a world of difference when it comes to those lightening quick passes down-low.

[GGGG]

So that is your prediction then Captain Obvious--FF.

I threw Novak in there because he was 6' 10" and led the team in rebounding. I am well aware he plays the wing. Now let us hear your fantastic abilities to analyze talent, Mr. "Otule is better than Gardner"  Crickets!

R.I.F.  I never said that. 

[MU Fan in Connecticut]

God bless Navy Pecker Checkers, Doc! The only reason I'm here today is because a random Black Hawk with four fully equipped Navy Corpsmen happened to be within 7 minutes of our pos after our team got hit. They stabilized two of us during the ride to Bagram. I don't recall a second of it but I'll never forget them. 

My dad was a Navy corpsmen in 1964 & 1965.  The story I got from my mom was the Navy was pushing hard for him to re-enlist.  He apparently wanted to, but he knew if he re-enlisted they would assign him to the Marines since they didn't have there own corpsmen and he would be on the front line in Vietnam.  He saw how badly shot up and heard stories from the wounded who were evacuated to his ship that he wanted no part of it.