Go Big Blue

[brewcity77]

I never understand this way of thinking.  Where I grew up all of the people that went to catholic grade schools and high schools all cheered for Marquette over what was then non existent Wisconsin.  I can only think of a few people that actually went to MU.  There is a ton of non alum support for MU in Milwaukee because it is the local school.

Why wouldn't some guy from Baraboo or Fondy cheer for Wisconsin? It's the STATE school.  Same thing exists in every state in the country.  It's arrogant to think you need to be a graduate to cheer for the school.

WI is unique because there is only 1 D1 football team and 2 major Bball programs.  SO unlike Michigan or Florida the state isn't very divided
 

I never understand why fans of other fanbases would come here when they are on the verge of a Final Four. I don't tend to visit other sites unless there is pertinent, immediate Marquette related news. Maybe the occasional schadenfreude (yesterday's ShakaWatch meltdown at VCU was kind of fun), but so many of you guys seem to spend near as much time here as you do on your own sites.

My issue isn't as much the non-grads cheering for UW-Madison, it's the expectation that everyone in the state should cheer for UW-Madison, and that many of the biggest Marquette haters are people that didn't go to UW-Madison.

To the first point, UW-Madison is a rival. That is reason enough for me to not cheer for them. Yet I constantly have (non-alumni) fans asking why I don't cheer for them. As though them being a rival and me utterly hating Bucky isn't enough, they act as if it's some obligation of all people in the state. I never lived in Madison, I never went to Madison, and honestly, I can't stand the city of Madison, so why would I cheer for UW-Madison? It's senseless.

No one should be obligated to cheer for a team. UW-Madison is not my local basketball school, Marquette is. UW-Madison is not the school I went to, Marquette is. Many people didn't bother cheering for UW-Madison in the 1970s and 1980s because they simply sucked. Yet those same people now seem to be obligated to cheer for them. My wife grew up a Duke fan. Liked Laettner, cheered for those early runs, that was her team and she still cheers for them. Yet she's called a traitor for not cheering for UW-Madison. She never went there, she has always cheered for a different team, why should she flip on the team she's enjoyed watching for 25+ years? Just because UW-Madison is good? That's stupid.

Second point should be self-explanatory. The most bitter Badger fan I know didn't go to UW-Madison. She went to a UW-System school upstate, yet constantly badmouths Marquette. Why? We're not a rival. Not a local rival, not a distant rival, we have nothing to do with her school. Yet her and countless other idiot Wisconsinites like her that have no connection or attachment to UW-Madison or Marquette feel this incessant need to constantly bash the school I went to and try to put us down for seemingly no reason. I honestly don't know why they do. But they embrace Frank Kaminsky like he's their own love child and crap on everything blue and gold despite having no tangible connection to either other than the geography that they were maybe born within 100-200 miles of the city of Madison. Many of these people are also Milwaukee natives. It amazes me how many people that didn't go to either school but are from Milwaukee end up cheering for the Badgers and having a massive hate woody for Marquette. Makes no sense. Marquette is more their local school than UW-Madison is, yet they stick by Bucky like he's Ted Bundy in an ice cream truck.

So that's why I have that way of thinking. Screw UW-Madison. I hate the city, school, and team, and always will.

[MU82]

Guard play wins in the NCAA.

This is often true but not always.

Is Dekker a guard? He has some guard skills, one reason he will be a first-round draft pick, but he is not a guard. He destroyed Arizona, a very good defensive team. Kaminsky destroyed their center. He was just named AP POY.

Kentucky has very good guards, certainly better than Wisconsin's. But Kentucky often wins because it dominates its opponents down low. ND had no prayer against Towns. Maybe Wisconsin won't, either. I certainly hope not because I will be rooting hard for Big Blue.

[statnik]

I never understand why fans of other fanbases would come here when they are on the verge of a Final Four. I don't tend to visit other sites unless there is pertinent, immediate Marquette related news. Maybe the occasional schadenfreude (yesterday's ShakaWatch meltdown at VCU was kind of fun), but so many of you guys seem to spend near as much time here as you do on your own sites.

My issue isn't as much the non-grads cheering for UW-Madison, it's the expectation that everyone in the state should cheer for UW-Madison, and that many of the biggest Marquette haters are people that didn't go to UW-Madison.

To the first point, UW-Madison is a rival. That is reason enough for me to not cheer for them. Yet I constantly have (non-alumni) fans asking why I don't cheer for them. As though them being a rival and me utterly hating Bucky isn't enough, they act as if it's some obligation of all people in the state. I never lived in Madison, I never went to Madison, and honestly, I can't stand the city of Madison, so why would I cheer for UW-Madison? It's senseless.

No one should be obligated to cheer for a team. UW-Madison is not my local basketball school, Marquette is. UW-Madison is not the school I went to, Marquette is. Many people didn't bother cheering for UW-Madison in the 1970s and 1980s because they simply sucked. Yet those same people now seem to be obligated to cheer for them. My wife grew up a Duke fan. Liked Laettner, cheered for those early runs, that was her team and she still cheers for them. Yet she's called a traitor for not cheering for UW-Madison. She never went there, she has always cheered for a different team, why should she flip on the team she's enjoyed watching for 25+ years? Just because UW-Madison is good? That's stupid.

Second point should be self-explanatory. The most bitter Badger fan I know didn't go to UW-Madison. She went to a UW-System school upstate, yet constantly badmouths Marquette. Why? We're not a rival. Not a local rival, not a distant rival, we have nothing to do with her school. Yet her and countless other idiot Wisconsinites like her that have no connection or attachment to UW-Madison or Marquette feel this incessant need to constantly bash the school I went to and try to put us down for seemingly no reason. I honestly don't know why they do. But they embrace Frank Kaminsky like he's their own love child and crap on everything blue and gold despite having no tangible connection to either other than the geography that they were maybe born within 100-200 miles of the city of Madison. Many of these people are also Milwaukee natives. It amazes me how many people that didn't go to either school but are from Milwaukee end up cheering for the Badgers and having a massive hate woody for Marquette. Makes no sense. Marquette is more their local school than UW-Madison is, yet they stick by Bucky like he's Ted Bundy in an ice cream truck.

So that's why I have that way of thinking. Screw UW-Madison. I hate the city, school, and team, and always will.

It obviously goes both ways, and this is where both sides should have the nads to at least respect the other team (maybe not root for them, but there shouldn't be such hatred amongst neighbors for college teams, high school hatred makes a bit more sense given the local nature).

[HutchwasClutch]

No one should be obligated to cheer for a team. UW-Madison is not my local basketball school, Marquette is. UW-Madison is not the school I went to, Marquette is. Many people didn't bother cheering for UW-Madison in the 1970s and 1980s because they simply sucked

This is exactly when choosing up sides as a very young HutchwasClutch, I chose MU, and have never looked back.  They were the school I identified with because I grew up in a Milwaukee suburb.  I sure didn't identify with UW over in Madison.  I never went to Madison, except passing through, until I was in college.  

Plus, I never went to MU, wanted to, just wasn't in the cards.  But my father went to MU, several other close relatives were MU alums, thus further leading me to easily identify with MU besides the hometown factor as the school I was going to live and die with in the college basketball world.  My uncle even played on an MU freshman team coached by Hank Raymonds in the 60's. (that too made quite the mark on an impressionable, young, HutchwasClutch!)

Last, I'm a traditionalist at heart, so throw in that MU was still good  in the late '70's, into the 80's, I was just a little too young to remember the Al years and title, but I knew the story very well, and UW not only sucked, but was an absolute joke as a program, that cemented I would be a lifelong MU fan with the other reasons above.  UW was just mocked and ridiculed during the 80's when I was a kid, I sure wasn't going to climb aboard with that loser, even as an alternative to MU.  It was MU all the way, and I joined in on laughing and mocking at the joke that was UW basketball.  They made zero tournaments from 1947 until 1994!!  What more needs to be said about how rotten they were.  

And like many here, I can't change who I am, and pretend to like them even a little now.  My hatred for their basketball program runs as deep as it did as a kid.

Go Kentucky!!

[brewcity77]

And like many here, I can't change who I am, and pretend to like them even a little now.  My hatred for their basketball program runs as deep as it did as a kid.

That bit always gets me. People that act like you can just turn fandom on and off clearly have never had an emotional investment in a team. I'm sure it can be argued whether such an emotional investment is good or bad, but I am just not emotionally capable of cheering for the Badgers.

[MUEng92]

Kentucky has very good guards, certainly better than Wisconsin's.

Not according to this Wisconsin fan, I mean JS beat reporter

http://m.jsonline.com/sports/badgers/wisconsin-vs-kentucky-basics-matchups-b99474302z1-298650611.html

[Spaniel with a Short Tail]

I think the Kentucky model is bad for college basketball. That's why I'd like Wisconsin to win just to keep Kentucky from winning. Plus, we have a tenuous family connection to Kaminsky.  OTOH, I think that if Kentucky wins maybe college administrators will step up and do something to return college basketball to...colleges. Kentucky is like a team full of ringers invading your Wednesday night softball league. Heisenberg has a post about how the remaining top recruits are waiting on decisions from Kentucky's roster before announcing their college selections. How many years in a row will we have to deal with Kentucky and its NBA apprentice program before action is taken. (end of rant)

[Jay Bee]

CBSSports.com is lying about the Badgers. "flirting with 1.3 points per possession" is complete nonsense.

LNH Fact Check HERE

[ChicosBailBonds]

Nope, you're the one trying to compare Tom Crean to Coach K.  Therein lies the embarrassment.  Coach K lost by 30 to maybe the best college basketball team ever.  He since then has won 4 NCAA National Championships.  Tom Crean took the worst loss ever in a Final Four to a team that didn't even win the Tournament that year and has never been even close to another Final Four again.

Not comparing him at all.  I'm saying any coach can get drilled, regardless of how accomplished they are.  Bob Knight got drilled continuously at the end of his career.  It happens.  Just as someone as accomplished as Coach K can lose to a Mercer or Lehigh in their first games.  It happens.  Boeheim, Self, Coach K, Knight and everyone below them.....EVERYONE below them.

Bo Ryan I would say is one of the best coaches in college basketball, until last year he had NEVER been to the Final Four.   Many good coaches never get there. 

I noticed you are backing down off the Wade couldn't be recruited by any other high major program....good call on your part, because he most certainly could have from all power conferences sans the ACC.

[ChicosBailBonds]

Probably not.

Notre Dame shot under 30% from 3 ... and it's a good thing for Kentucky because if one more goes in, it's ND in the FF.

And Wisconsin is better than ND. Quite a bit better, IMHO.

Is the line really 10? I thought I saw 5-6.

The line opened at 6, down to 5.  I was in Tahoe this week, walked down the block to the Nevada side and placed $500 on Wisconsin.  I think Wisconsin is better than Notre Dame. 

[ChicosBailBonds]

Biggest gripe I have with Badger fans is the large number that are not UW grads. If you went to Whitewater or La Crosse you are not a UW alum. At bar last week I asked at least ten people if they were UW grads and only two actually went there. My conclusion is if you did not attend college or went to other state school you are a Badger fan.

Really hoping Badgers get buried tomorrow night.

They are UW alum....that's why they hyphen all the schools.  Each school is a hyphen school, that way they can all say they are alum of the University of Wisconsin hyphen ___________

[OnWisconsin]

Most people have a favorite sports teams long before 18. Why would college athletics be any different? Sounds petty..

[4everwarriors]

The line opened at 6, down to 5.  I was in Tahoe this week, walked down the block to the Nevada side and placed $500 on Wisconsin.  I think Wisconsin is better than Notre Dame. 

Early retirement or bust, hey?

[MUEng92]

I think the Kentucky model is bad for college basketball. That's why I'd like Wisconsin to win just to keep Kentucky from winning. Plus, we have a tenuous family connection to Kaminsky.  OTOH, I think that if Kentucky wins maybe college administrators will step up and do something to return college basketball to...colleges. Kentucky is like a team full of ringers invading your Wednesday night softball league. Heisenberg has a post about how the remaining top recruits are waiting on decisions from Kentucky's roster before announcing their college selections. How many years in a row will we have to deal with Kentucky and its NBA apprentice program before action is taken. (end of rant)

Honest question, should that last part been in teal?

What can be changed to correct this "wrong"?  What exactly are they doing wrong?  To expand on your bar softball league analogy, is the NCAA supposed to just come and say, "you guys are too good so we are kicking you out of the league"?

[ChicosBailBonds]

Early retirement or bust, hey?

My wife would kill me if she knew how much I threw at that game.     I just see Wisconsin winning, but hopefully they lose by 4 and it's a double win for me.

[4everwarriors]

Oh, I see. Another pw'd Scooper. 

[MU82]

Honest question, should that last part been in teal?

What can be changed to correct this "wrong"?  What exactly are they doing wrong?  To expand on your bar softball league analogy, is the NCAA supposed to just come and say, "you guys are too good so we are kicking you out of the league"?

It is not Kentucky's fault that it plays by the rules as set up by the NBA and NCAA. Some people just don't get this.

I don't think Bo -- or many other coaches -- would have passed on Kentucky's 1-and-dones just because they are 1-and-dones. Hell, Coach K has been loading up on 'em in recent years.

Anthony Davis: "Coach Ryan, I really want to come to Wisconsin. It's my dream school."

Bo: "Sorry, young man. You are too good and you probably won't be around for more than a year or two, so hit the bricks and take your talent to Kentucky."

Um, I don't think so.

If and when the rules get changed, Kentucky won't be allowed to have 1-and-dones. Neither will Duke or anybody else. And some folks will have to find other reasons to bitch about Calipari.

[brewcity77]

If and when the rules get changed, Kentucky won't be allowed to have 1-and-dones. Neither will Duke or anybody else. And some folks will have to find other reasons to bitch about Calipari.

The thing is, the NBAPA wants those kids to start earning as soon as possible. The only possible middle ground I can see is a system like baseball. You can go pro out of high school, but if you go to college, you have to commit to being there for 3 years. Would improve the game and allow for sustained star power, while getting rid of the kids that have absolutely no desire in being there. And it's the one system the PA might go for because it would get the biggest stars earning money one year sooner.

[ChicosBailBonds]

Oh, I see. Another pw'd Scooper. 

Guilty as charged

[MU82]

The thing is, the NBAPA wants those kids to start earning as soon as possible. The only possible middle ground I can see is a system like baseball. You can go pro out of high school, but if you go to college, you have to commit to being there for 3 years. Would improve the game and allow for sustained star power, while getting rid of the kids that have absolutely no desire in being there. And it's the one system the PA might go for because it would get the biggest stars earning money one year sooner.

That would be fine with me, though for some reason nobody remembered to ask me!

[ChitownSpaceForRent]

In honor of today's game.

Aaron Harrison Against Wisconsin: https://youtu.be/0WQNR4R4AHQ

[ChicosBailBonds]

In honor of today's game.

Aaron Harrison Against Wisconsin: https://youtu.be/0WQNR4R4AHQ

I think you meant this

<a href="https://www.youtube.com/v/0WQNR4R4AHQ&amp;feature=youtu.be" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer" class="bbc_link bbc_flash_disabled new_win">https://www.youtube.com/v/0WQNR4R4AHQ&amp;feature=youtu.be</a>

[ChitownSpaceForRent]

For what it's worth, I'm down in Champagne this weekend and all of my friends and other people down here said they usually cheer for the Big 10 to win except for wisconsin. They really wouldn't mind seeing wisconsin lose, so we're not the only ones who find their fans insufferable.

[ChicosBailBonds]

For what it's worth, I'm down in Champagne this weekend and all of my friends and other people down here said they usually cheer for the Big 10 to win except for wisconsin. They really wouldn't mind seeing wisconsin lose, so we're not the only ones who find their fans insufferable.

Champagne for the weekend....did you lose a bet?  Work release program?   

[Jay Bee]

For what it's worth, I'm down in Champagne this weekend and all of my friends and other people down here said they usually cheer for the Big 10 to win except for wisconsin. They really wouldn't mind seeing wisconsin lose, so we're not the only ones who find their fans insufferable.

You're like.. IN sparkling wine?