"My rule was I wouldn't recruit a kid if he had grass in front of his house.
That's not my world. My world was a cracked sidewalk." —Al McGuire

Wednesday, December 09, 2009

37-0? Wait, UWM claims win 108 years ago against MU Dental School

Forgive us for the late update, apparently there was a game last night against a huge rival and 19,000 screaming fans were expected to pack the joint. The Brew City Battle, the easties vs the westies, the Cream City Civil War, the Miltown Scrum, the pubes vs the privates......

Unfortunately it didn't happen. 14,400 fans, many taking on the Halloween disguise of blue Bradley Center seats, showed up to watch a rebuilding Marquette Golden Eagles squad defeat UWM (apparently they prefer to be called just Milwaukee but the memo hadn't reached us yet) for the 37th time in a row. MU has never lost in this series, making it the longest winning streak in NCAA history against one opponent without a loss. Syracuse has beaten Colgate 44 straight times, but has lost least once in that series.

Final score was Marquette 71, UWM 51.

Scuttlebutt in the local papers indicates MU will bend over even more in this series and go to a 2 for 1 deal in which MU plays 2 games at home and 1 game at UWM. Compared to a UW-Madison deal where 4 games are played in Madison and 1 game at UWM. The love fest that now exists between MU and UWM is at such levels we feel obligated to help out another school build up their program with no tangible benefit to ours. I'm sure somewhere, someone, has convinced themselves that traveling to UWM (and now UWGB) every other year will endear us in the hearts and minds of fans across the state of Wisconsin. Count me as highly skeptical. MU is a private, national university that has always been viewed with contempt by many of the other basketball programs (and fans) in the state. I don't see that changing one bit, but it certainly provides additional heft to their programs.

There's a reason why UCLA doesn't play AT Loyola Marymount, AT Long Beach State, AT UC Riverside, or why Georgetown doesn't play AT American University. Others will point to Xavier vs Cincinnati as an example where it works. Well yes, because Xavier and Cincinnati are both high quality basketball programs that go back decades. Maybe we want to adopt the DePaul & St. John's model of playing at Fordham or at UIC every so often....those are certainly two programs to emulate (that last line should be in teal).

37-0 officially now.....though for some comedic reading there are some UWM fans that claim the official records provided by BOTH institutions are wrong and that MU actually lost to UWM sometime between the Paleozoic and Mesozoic eras. They actually believe that a win against the MU Dental School prior to us even having a team is supposed to count. What's next, intramural victories? Pickup games with 3 UWM guys plus a MSOE grad student defeating a few MU guys and benchy from MATC? It's fun when they don't believe their own athletic department or the NCAA official record book. Must be a huge conspiracy.


A few articles from the "game" last night, including a nice article on George Koonce who is going through some trying times of late with the passing of his wife.



MU downs UWM 71-51 (Journal Sentinel)


MU - UWM series to be extended and more given to UWM \ George Koonce finds comfort

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