MU Trib - WTF...

[rocky_warrior]

Is this satire, or just plain bitterness???

http://media.www.marquettetribune.org/media/storage/paper1130/news/2007/11/08/Sports/Gembballcolumn.Sy1.Rs2.Me3-3079466.shtml

Over before it begins
By: David Strittmatter
Posted: 11/8/07
New York (April 2, 2008) - Marquette's moderately impressive postseason run came to a screeching halt last night as UNC-Wilmington throttled the Golden Eagles 61-39 in the Final Four in Madison Square Garden.

Tom Crean & Co. fell just short of their quest to bring another NIT championship banner to the Bradley Center a mere 38 years after Al McGuire's Warriors conquered a 16-team bracket in 1970.

After beating the likes of Radford, Hofstra and Arkansas-Pine Bluff in the first three rounds, the Golden Eagles' bid to take home the 2008 NIT hit a brick wall against the Seahawks. Marquette's "live-by-the-three, die-by-the-three" offensive philosophy finally caught up the team that began the 2007-'08 campaign ranked No. 12 in the country.

Led by lackluster performances from juniors Dominic James and Jerel McNeal, who went a combined 3-for-19 from three-point range, Marquette failed to score 40 points for the first time this season. Despite his 29-point output in the quarterfinals just five days ago, James' NBA draft stock continued its slow, painful, Titanic-like descent.

With all the key players from 2006-'07 returning, this season began with much promise with an impressive runner-up finish at the Maui Invitational. Junior Wesley Matthews earned a place on the all-tournament team as he averaged 19 points per game and seven rebounds per game over three contests.

The Golden Eagles won the unofficial state championship with back-to-back victories over Wisconsin-Milwaukee and Wisconsin despite a seemingly absent frontcourt. Thankfully, Marquette found its shooting touch, making 55 percent from beyond the arc in the two wins.

Boasting a 6-1 record and ranked No. 8 in the Associated Press poll, Marquette once again fell to a lesser opponent and left fans shaking their heads. On Dec. 15, a day after the fall semester concluded, Sacramento State came to Milwaukee and beat the Golden Eagles 78-73 in overtime.

Marquette rebounded with easy wins over IPFW and Coppin State but again experienced an unthinkable setback against Savannah State, losing by 13 points in a game less competitive than it appeared.

Entering conference play at No. 23 with an 8-3 record, Marquette's play showed promise early. Picked to finish third in the Big East before the season, the Golden Eagles rose to the top of the conference after starting conference play 4-0.

When the team went to Louisville in mid-January, it appeared as if a fifth consecutive win was in the works. Despite a game rawer than sushi, big man Ousmane Barro dominated the contest's first 35 minutes before fouling out. Making just five of 16 free throws down the stretch, Marquette blew a ten-point lead to the Cardinals and suffered its first conference loss.

Defeats to UConn, DePaul and South Florida followed. The season then reached its low point in a 32-point loss to Cincinnati. The Bearcats slaughtered a Marquette team plagued by foul trouble, shooting woes and a defense less effective than the Munich Agreement.

Marquette emerged victorious in six of the last 10 games of the season behind guard play that ranged from stellar to incompetent. A 9-9 conference record earned the Golden Eagles the ninth seed in the Big East conference tournament. Selection Sunday did not look favorably on Marquette's 18-13 season record, after the Golden Eagles bowed out in the first round of the conference tournament.

One of the bigger names in the NIT, Marquette breezed through the opening rounds until they met their doom. On a positive note, the Golden Eagles' three wins in the NIT doubled the number of postseason wins since the 2003 Final Four run.

On a better note, regardless of the latter half of the season, Marquette will make the preseason Top 25 for 2008-'09.

david.strittmatter@marquette.edu

[Gwaki]

shows what a history major knows about basketbal

[jaygall31]

this is a joke..

[mosarsour]

Wow...what a jacka$$

[Schoolyard]

We ain't going to the KNIT.  We may very well lose in the 1st round of the Dance but we ain't going to the KNIT.  

[mu_hilltopper]

Yeah, they handed out a season preview before Saturday's game.  I can't say I read much of the paper .. but did read that guy's column, as he'd predicted us as NIT bound, which I would assume wasn't for satirical purposes.  So when I read his column .. I didn't think it was a joke.

.. one other comment .. at least half of the images in that preview?  Terrible .. blurry, wrong.  Don't know if it was the source, or the printing, but it made the paper look worse than high schoolers could put out.  (And mind you, that's coming from a guy who used to take pics for the Trib decades ago.)  Very disappointed.

[TallTitan34]

Yeah.  There's more than a few people on campus who think that article is . . . well total crap.

Our buddy asked him why he felt this and he said "You live and die by the three."  Funny he didn't mention the 3-ball once in the article. 

Can't be surprised though.  Seeing something positive about the team from the Tribune is a rare.  They seem to focus on why the team won't do well.

[MuMark]

After reading the article I have to say I felt sad for the writer.

Somebody should educate him about the Bob Dukiet years so he knows how far this program has come.

Regardless how the season turns out to write that crap about your own school before the season even starts is really sad.

Many writers try to be provocative so then can say I told you so if they turn out to be right.

If they are wrong nobody seems to remember.

[Desert_Eagle]

Wow...what a jacka$$

My thoughts exactly. Isn't the preseason suppose to be all about optimism?

[🏀]

The kid is an idiot. Someone should look up his ND Football predictions and how wrong they are. He's a big Domer.

[BaltimoreMC]

I actually thought it was funny.  If we don't watch out, that fiction could become a reality, though.  Maybe it's part of a growing b-ball program, where hanging around near the top isn't good enough anymore and there are expectations of success.  The part about "doubling the # of postseason wins since the 2003 final four" did sting a little.  Sometimes the truth can hurt.  Let's hope that this article is lockerroom motivational material for our final four appearance this year.  GO MARQUETTE!!!

[RJax55]

What a load of crap.

[Knight Commission]

His point seems to be that the team will live and die by the three. I think we will see some nights when the team is cold from the three, and we will lose as a result--and so I dont disagree that there will be some nights this year  when we lose to inferior programs, because the shooting is off and the frontcourt cant step up. It also makes us more vulnerable than a balanced team come tourney time.

He clearly went overboard though.

[Harrison]

good satire has the element of wit.  That was bad satire, on the level of a 6th grader.

[Nukem2]

I geuss journalism will not be his ultimate career...?  Truly a misguided and misplaced article by an uninformed individual.  I was reading this during halftime of the Green Bay game yesterday and i just scratched my head and wondered what the point was to the article.

[dwaderoy2004]

Over before it begins
By: David Strittmatter
Posted: 11/8/07
...On a positive note, the Golden Eagles' three wins in the NIT doubled the number of postseason wins since the 2003 Final Four run...

david.strittmatter@marquette.edu

[/quote]

what, did we have 1.5 postseason wins since 2003?

[PuertoRicanNightmare]

The only thing in that piece that's completely out of the question is being ranked no. 23 after losses to both Sacramento St. and Savannah St.

[tower912]

I had to squint.   After reading the article, I went back and checked the byline and could have sworn the "tr" in his last name was an "h".   Maybe it should be.  

[ChicosBailBonds]

I had to squint.   After reading the article, I went back and checked the byline and could have sworn the "tr" in his last name was an "h".   Maybe it should be.  

 

[MUshrooms]

what an idiot.  he's serious because in the prediction segment of the basketball preview this guy had them going to the NIT. 

[ToddPacker]

If we lose by 32 to Cincinnati I will throw up.  I don't think this guy has watched a basketball game ever.  I saw his "prediction" in the preview they handed out before the IUPUI game.  I turned to my wife and pointed at it and she just laughed.  While anything could happen, it would take a monumental collapse for us to be in the NIT.  Even in back to back seasons where we lost games to mid majors at home, we made it to the tourney. 

The funny/sad thing is, he probably feels vindicated because MU did not win its first game by 30 points.  "See, they're not as good as everyone thinks, blah, blah, blah."   

[Canned Goods n Ammo]

hmmm...

I guess if it's just an opinion piece... it's fine... but it's not really a good column.

It's just sensationalist journalism, not news reporting or even an interesting/fresh perspective based upon professional experience and opinion.

If the guy is really trying to prognosticate, he's cracked.

MU may not be as good as a lot of people think... but a 32 point loss to Cincy is stupid (along with a lot of other things in the article).

My guess is that this is a "column" designed to stir things up. I guess it has... but that doesn't mean it's good writing.

[Chicago_inferiority_complexes]

The kid clearly exaggerates a bit, and I know this is going to cause me trouble to post, but I think the piece is at least somewhat funny. You may or may not remember that the Trib had a piece last spring with a list of the 69 NCAA D-1 teams to win an NCAA tournament game last year to make a point of contrast of the past four years with 02-03.

As someone who arrived here in the fall of 2003, I do have to say that I was disappointed as a student with our post-season performance. It's fun to hear about the FF run from people who were at MU just 5-6 months before I arrived, and it would have been nice to have at least one minimally interesting post-season while here (I'm now a grad student).

[CWSKeith]

Despite a game rawer than sushi

What does that even mean?

If the Sun Times is looking for a replacement for Jay Marrioti, they've certainly got their guy.

[ecompt]

Note to Racine paper: When Woeful is fired, here's his replacement.