Rumors du jour.........

After a quiet day (a few quiet days, in fact) for the MU coaching search, late this afternoon two rumors gained momentum on the message boards.

First - - The MUScoop and the Dodds boards each report that MU could announce the hiring of its new head men's basketball coach on Tuesday. If so, that could mean Buzz Williams is in line to be the next coach.

Second -- A thread on the Dodds board indicates that Steve 'The Homer' True reported on his radio program that he's hearing a rumor that MU will throw $2M at Washington State head coach Tony Bennett. Also per MUScoop, Mike DeCourcy indicated on TSN Radio earlier today that Bennett is still in play. Same thing on the Dodds board.

Of the two, here's hoping the Bennett rumors are most accurate.

Official bias

UPDATED
Anybody up for a couple of lead pipe locks? Well, we have two for you, so ante up!

1. First, take MU to win and cover when Pat Driscoll is officiating the game.
2. Second, bet big on MU to lose outright if Reggie Greenwood is officiating the game.
   

Sarcasm aside (we don't condone, support or even have an interest in gambling of any kind), recent history reveals some interesting trends with this pair of officials.

With a tip of the cap to Pardner over at MUScoop, there's one common denominator in each of Marquette's five road wins this season - - - Pat Driscoll is one of the officials. While some MU fans were upset with Driscoll calling the Nova game, we'll show you why his presence is grrrrrrreat for the Golden Eagles. Borrowing shamelessly from Pardner, here are the numbers for Driscoll:

• This season Driscoll has officiated five MU games -- all road games -- and all wins. Again, that's every single road win for MU this season.
• Since MU joined the Big East, the Golden Eagles are 9-1 in games Driscoll worked, and 11-2 overall. The only losses were at DePaul last year and the Winthrop game.
• The kicker? Driscoll arrived late in the first half against Villanova. The result? MU turned a seven point deficit into a 10 point road win.

Here are the 2007-2008 box scores for Driscoll's MU games:

• MU wins at Wisconsin
• MU wins at Cincy
• MU wins at Seton Hall
• MU wins at St John's
• MU wins at Villanova

Not everything is lovey-dovey when Driscoll is the ref. After all, we did call the St. John's Free Throw Rate "garbage". There's no way that a team should get to the line over 90% of the time that they take a shot. Also, note that even in these games, Marquette lost on Free Throw Rate factor three out of the five times. Speaking frankly, we don't actually believe that Pat Driscoll is making any calls that influence the game in Marquette's favor. It's more likely just an interesting anomaly, but at least MU fans should lay off complaining when Driscoll works our next game.

Next up is official Reggie Greenwood. Marquette is a rotten 1-6 all-time in the Big East games he has officiated. This year, Marquette is 0-3 in the Big East games Greenwood has officiated. Here are some specifics:

• Greenwood's crew whistled us on average 26.7 fouls per game vs. 15.3 for our opponents in his Big East games with MU this year.
• MU averaged 13.6 FT's per game in these three losses vs. 33.3 for our opponents--a 19 FT gap per game!
• The only Big East game MU won with him was the inaugural Big East opener against UConn. Hey, it only took Steve Novak turning in the greatest individual performance in Big East history to overcome Greenwood's influence that night.
  
• Greenwood evens out somewhat in out-of-conference action where MU is 5-6 overall in his games. Of course, that also includes games against opponents like Sacramento State.
  

Doesn't Reggie Greenwood appreciate aggressive guard play? Anyway, here are the box scores from the three Big East losses in Greenwood's games:

• MU falls at West Virginia
  
• MU falls at UConn
  
• MU falls at ND
  

Look at the comparison of the Free Throw Rates for those three games. Although it doesn't particularly stand out, at the time of the WVU game, this was the highest Free Throw Rate an opponent had achieved against Marquette. We also said at the time that this was not a gripe about refs, although new information makes us less sure. While we did get crushed by UConn, and fouled a lot late, that is a startling discrepancy between the two teams. Finally, after the Notre Dame game, we wondered if there was a legitimate gripe about Free Throws. After all, Marquette shot zero free throws in the last 15 minutes of the game, and our FTR was in the bottom 2.5% of all expected results.

Do we think that Reggie Greenwood is conspiring against Marquette? Hardly. However, the patterns suggest he calls the game a particular way that does not favor our defense. For whatever reason, the team has not adjusted to account for his tendencies this year.

Pat Driscoll, your table is ready at Mader's this Saturday evening with our compliments. Reggie Greenwood, the city of Milwaukee is closed on Saturday, please try another locale.

Pardner, thanks!

**this post reflects content from Pardner, NYWarrior and Henry Sugar
**updated to further clarify our position regarding this post

A most unique all-time MU team.......

Cupcake season is in full swing and we're looking for a diversion. Voila! How about the Marquette All-Time "If he could have only done it again. . . " team.

Ryan Amoroso is the team captain for this bunch. Hey, its cupcake season. Click on the link and jump in.

Alumni Update: Jamil Lott & Tony Smith

A Scooper with sharp eyes noted that this past weekend Jamil Lott and Tony Smith finished up their degrees at Marquette's December graduation.

Follow the link to discuss Tony's chances of having his number retired.

Hearty congratulations go out to Jamil & Tony!

Bilas with more love for MU -- and a history lesson

Nothing spikes interest in a program like a signature out of conference win on national television. ESPN's Jay Bilas throws heaps of well-deserved praise on Marquette in his weekly update over on ESPN.com -- which the guys at MUScoop used to build a history lesson for the MU faithful. Check it out.......this program has an amazing heritage.

MU running up the score? TC comes out firing

Rosiak has the latest in his blog........an unusually agitated Tom Crean fires away at the notion that MU ran up the score this past weekend against one of the programs in the University of Wisconsin system -- and how the message was delivered from the easily defeated cross-town coach. Talk about it on MUScoop.

This lousy series can't end fast enough.

November Wiki Top 10

Happy Birthday, MU Wiki!

A birthday silently passed on November 6th. Just one year ago, the Marquette Sports Wiki was born. Thanks to a handful of volunteers, the wiki is up to 600 pages of sports information from Marquette's history to its future. We're serving up over 2,000 pages of MU info daily, and growing fast.

So, I'd like to acknowledge the volunteers who've helped create and maintain this wiki. We need more people just like them to continue our growth. 77ncaachamps, rocky_warrior, SoCalwarrior, spartan3186, MU Chi_IL, YoungMUFan4, oldwarrior81, talltitan34, ons20, MarqGold17, mwbauer7, notkirkcameron, PuertoRicanNightmare, nywarrior, ziggysfryboy, sir lawrence, MoSarsour, marqptm, spiral97, nd3boy. (And others. Sorry, we weren't keeping track for the first few months!)

November Marquette Wiki top ten:

• 2007 Season Page
• Jersey Project
• MU Bars
• Freeway
• All-Time Leading Scorers
• Alphabetical Player Listing
• 2008 Season Page
• MU vs. Oklahoma State 2007
• MU Football
• Pat Hazel

Other interesting pages:

• Jarod Lovette
• Amal McCaskill
• MU vs. Duke 2006
• Bob Dukiet
• 1940s Football Programs
• 2007 Women's Volleyball
• Big East Conference
• All-Time leading Rebounders Scorers Stealers Blockers Assistors
• Ice Hockey
• 1986 Season
• 1974-75 Basketball Programs
• Jon Harris
• Paul Newman

Want a free MU Schedule Magnet mailed to you? Click here.

Marquette hosts low mid-major this week

and there are plenty of tickets available for the game, one that is an 'important issue to.....fans of college basketball and the city of Milwaukee' according to an athletic administrator in town.

How is this possible?

Some fans are SHOCKED.......SHOCKED I tell ya! that seats remain -- good seats -- for this much anticipated game between Marquette and a low mid-major.

Remember, this is a game that could have been played in Miller Park in order to accommodate 20,000 fans. Heck, the Milwaukee Journal-Sentinel even redefined the term 'rivalry' when the series was announced.

Note to Bobbi Roquemore and Bud Haidet; 34-0 does not a rivalry make. Nor does low mid-major fan apathy. As of this morning, fans can buy 10 seats together for Friday's game and sit along the sides of the court. No need to fill the corners for Al this time.

Marquette opens season against IUPUI

The nationally-ranked Marquette Golden Eagles open the 2007-2008 campaign on Saturday night at home against the IUPUI Jaguars. Tipoff is scheduled for 7:30pm CST. IUPUI won its only exhibition tilt, an 84-45 thrashing of Brescia University.

The Jaguars, the pre-season favorite to win the Summit League, are led by the conference pre-season player of the year, junior guard George Hill. That Hill is the pre-season POY is remarkable -- he was redshirted last year after breaking his foot early in the season. The Jags finished the 2006-2007 campaign at 15-15 without Hill.

As a sophomore, Hill averaged 18.9 points per game on 51% shooting. Hill's primary running mate looks to be 6'5" SF Austin Montgomery, a senior who averaged 14ppg last season and shot 40% from beyond the arc. The Jags are coached by Ron Hunter, a former UWM assistant and two-time Mid-Continent Conference Coach of the Year.

Marquette counters with the nation's deepest backcourt and an exceptionally deep roster. It is year three of the Three Amigos -- and expectations are understandably high in Milwaukee following a 24-10 season a year ago.

Time to ball.

Want to watch the game on the Internet? Click here to find out how thanks to a fan on MUScoop.

Media Notes

• Read the GoMarquette preview here.
• Marquette game notes (.pdf).
• UIPUI game notes (.pdf).
• A few regional TV options are listed here by IWB, including SNY.
  

MUScoop.com turns 1

Happy Birthday to MUScoop.com!

A year ago today, two Marquette alums, rocky_warrior and spiral filled a void in the community by creating a new forum for MU chatter.

The Scoop is going strong, with over 34,000 posts, 823 members, and 2,100 daily visitors, monthly newsletters, hundreds of game-photos, many videos and huge wiki. All in 365 short days.

Not all websites make it through a year, especially with strong internet brethren like Scout. I think we've been surprised by its success.

On a personal note, I was fortunate to be invited to help moderate Scoop and write for Cracked Sidewalks, and the partnership between the two sites has been outstanding, with a tremendous amount of shared traffic.

Thank you MUScoop, and thank you CrackedSidewalkers!

Analysis of Recent MU History and a Coaching Comparison

Follow this link to an exceptionally well-written and researched post by Henry Sugar on MUScoop. Things are trending ever-upward at MU.

Great job, HS.

ESPN's Big East Preview

ESPN takes an early look at the 2007-2008 Big East season today. The main article talks about the difficulty in moving to an 18-game league schedule, and includes capsules on each team. The MU bit is predictable (the standard great guards, lets see if the frontcourt can hold its own logic ). Sigh.

Bilas takes the honors of predicting the league champs -- and pegs MU as the Big East's third-best team behind Louisville and Georgetown, and in front of UConn, Syracuse and Pitt. Surprisingly, Bilas pegs PC as just the 9th best team in the league -- me thinks they exceed those expectations.

Read it all right here on ESPN.com.

Discuss it here at MUScoop -- several good posts in this thread.

Open Scrimmage

Bullets from last night's Open Scrimmage:

• Around 500-600 showed up. The lower bleachers were rolled up, which was a good move, it made the crowd look much larger.
• First 45 minutes were drills. The music was pumping the entire time, and I can't get "Party Like a Rock Star" out of my head.
• MU played a series of scrimmages, Blue vs. Gold, DJ vs. Acker. Gold wins!
• Acker looks great. Quick, looks to pass, nice shot. Great addition.
• DJ was DJ. Looked sharp, leads the team.
• Mbakwe has a lot of talent. He'll contribute quickly defensively and on the boards.
• Hazel .. gosh. I don't remember him being in the middle of anything last night.
• Mr. Basketball Christopherson .. shot well in drills, our #2 3-point guy behind Fitz. Didn't do much in the scrimmage.
• Matthews played very well, as expected. Led all scorers with 16. McNeal was McNeal.
• Ooze .. not a lot of offensive progression from last year.
• Trend looks a shade heavier, decent defender with those long arms.
• Must-get recruit Frank Ben-Eze was in town for this one.
  

August 28th and watching MU basketball. Gotta love it.

UPDATE: Here's the box score from GoMarquette.com

Here are some pictures from tonight's Open Scrimmage.

MUScoop newsletter: cool idea, part deaux

here's the second installment



Welcome to MUScoop.com's monthly newsletter!

We'd love to get your feedback - send it to muscoop@muscoop.com or post it to the suggestions board

1. July Highlights

• New Assistant for MU: Buzz Williams
• Travis Diener - Indiana Pacer
• MU's Big East Opponants Released
• MU going to Vancouver
• Jerel McNeal named Top Stopper
• McNeal nor Matthews made Pan-AM team.
• Jarod Lovette update

2. July Off-Topic Scoop Threads

• Steve Novak is getting married
• MU-Pedistrian Mall between Cobeen & Tower
• Ok, which one of you is Coach Crean?
• Universal Health Care? MUScoop has all the answers.

3. What's coming up in August?

• In August, we'll know if our 4 incoming recruits are all on campus, and look for more information on the scholarship situation
• Marquette will have a few team practices in advance of their trip to Vancouver. First game of that trip is on September 1st at noon versus the Moult Athletic.

4. Marquette Sports Wiki

As you may know, one of the best places to look for Marquette information is the Wiki, at http://wiki.muscoop.com. If you haven't visited, here are a few examples of some great information you can find on the Wiki:

• MU Basketball - Start Page
• Mo Lucas
• Fr. Kelly
• Tom Copa
• Scott Merritt

A wiki, of course, depends on volunteers. We need your help. Spend a few minutes and update your favorite player's page. Or, maybe you remember 1995 like it was yesterday, and can improve the season recap for that year.

Oh, what's the point. None of you are going to help, you ungrateful slobs!

If I've guilted you into it, help us here:

• Robb Logterman
• Rick Majerus
• 1991-1992

5. Sports Sites of the Month:

• Marquette Sports Wiki
• Big East Basketball Report
• College Hoops Net
• Yellow Chair Sports Blog

We at MUScoop.com look forward to seeing you in the boards as we all eagerly look forward to the next season. Please remember that this site is dedicated to being "by the fans, for the fans". If you have any suggestions at all to improve YOUR site please post it to the suggestions board. Until next month ..

Wiki Top 10

Every time I write about the Marquette Sports Wiki it gets a large spike in traffic. So I know you're interested.

I was looking at the website stats, and how it's grown from 10-15 users/day to 150-200+ users/day in the 7 short months it's been alive. That's a lot of folks consuming Marquette information on a daily basis!

Top 10 Most Viewed:

1. 2007-08 Season Page - Includes Known Schedule
2. 2007-08 Recruits
3. 2008-09 Recruits
4. 2006-07 Season Page
5. Mike McCarter - "Freeway"
6. Real Chili Info & Recipe
7. MU Drinking Games
8. Marquette Graduation Commencement Speakers / Speeches
9. Alphabetical Player List
10. Tom Crean

But, some of those top 10 are there because they were promoted in a posting somewhere.

So here's a list of 10 pages that have some great info, and shouldn't be missed:

1. MU Coaches through the ages
2. Doc Rivers
3. Bobble Heads
4. 1973-4 Season - NCAA Runners-Up
5. Marquette Game Jerseys
6. 1993-4 Season - Great Midwest Champs
7. Brian Wardle
8. Bo Ellis
9. Jimmy Mac
10. Ticket Stubs of the Ages

Make sure .. if you go to the wiki today, don't just look at one page .. surf around! There's hundreds of pages of info on the seasons and your favorite players.

And of course, if you know something, please share it. Click "Edit" on any page, and type away!

BREAKING NEWS: Big East Schedule Announced

The 2007-2008 Big East schedule was announced (well, at least the home-away opponents) today. MU will play an 18-game conference schedule highlighted by home and home games against the following teams:

• Seton Hall Pirates
• Notre Dame Fightin' Irish
• Louisville Cardinals

As for the rest of the schedule:

Home
Notre Dame
Seton Hall
Louisville
Georgetown
Providence
Rutgers
South Florida
Pittsburgh
DePaul

Away
Notre Dame
Seton Hall
Louisville
UCONN
West Virginia
Villanova
Cincinnati
St. Johns
Syracuse

Su-weeet.......MU at MSG against the Johnnies, finally. And wow, its good to see MU draw PC, Georgetown, Pitt and to a lesser degree DePaul at the Bradley Center this year.

Regarding the home/home games, that's a decent draw for MU. On the surface it is slightly more manageable than last year's mirror games, though SHU should make a big leap forward this coming season. The match-ups make sense: Louisville has emerged as arguably MU's fiercest rival, ND is a traditional rival, and playing SHU provides the program with greater visibility in the NYC/NJ area (hello recruits!).

Follow the discussion here.

Check here for MU's 2007-08 schedule so far.

MUScoop newsletter: cool idea

The fellas at MUScoop have instituted a new feature -- a newsletter........just received mine this afternoon -- it wraps up current and past threads, features, Wiki updates and more. Cut/pasted below verbatim:




Welcome to MUScoop.com's inaugural newsletter!

We're starting a new feature where each month we'll attempt to summarize important events, let you know about new things happening on the site, and what's coming next month for Marquette Basketball.

We'd love to get your feedback - send it to muscoop@muscoop.com or post it to the suggestions board

1. June Highlights

• Dominic James Withdraws from NBA Draft
• Bradley Center adds $1 ticket fee
• Season Ticket Reseating - June
• $5M Soccer Stadium - Crean gives $100k for effort
• 2007 Recruiting: BE #1, MU 10th in BE
• All-Time Walk-on Team
• Asst. Coach Sichting Leaves for Timberwolves
• Tim Buckley rejoins MU as Director of Basketball Ops
• Coach Rabedeaux was named one of college basketball's top 25 assistant coaches on Monday by Rivals.com. The decision was based on recruiting ability and knowledge of the game.

2. June Off-Topic Scoop Threads

• Midwest Express closer to be taken over
• Marquette makes the PC news
• NY Times and JFK Terror Plot not on Front Page in NY Times

3. What's coming up in July?

• McNeal, Matthews & James try out for USA Basketball's Pan Am Games
• Look for MU to fill Sichting's Assistant Coach position and other staff changes.
• July-August, we'll know if our 4 incoming recruits are all on campus, and look for more information on the scholarship situation

4. Marquette Sports Wiki

As you may know, one of the best places to look for Marquette information is the Wiki, at http://wiki.muscoop.com. If you haven't visited, here are a few examples of some great information you can find on the Wiki:

• MU Basketball - Start Page
• Amal McCaskill
• Dan Fitzgerald
• Aaron Hutchins
• 2006-07 Season Capsule - Everything from the roster, to box scores of each game.

A wiki, of course, depends on volunteers. We need your help. Spend a few minutes and update your favorite player's page. Or, maybe you remember 1995 like it was yesterday, and can improve the season recap for that year.

Help us here:

• Robb Logterman
• Bob Dukiet
• 1992-1993

5. Sports Sites of the Month:

• Marquette Sports Wiki
• Cracked Sidewalks
• GoMarquette.com
• ESPN MU Page
• Rosiak's Blog
• Big East Basketball Blog

We at MUScoop.com look forward to seeing you in the boards as we all eagerly look forward to the next season. Please remember that this site is dedicated to being "by the fans, for the fans". If you have any suggestions at all to improve YOUR site please post it to the suggestions board. Until next month - happy rebounding.. err.. boarding!

If you would like to be removed from this list, and all future MUScoop mailings (including breaking news announcements) just go to your MUScoop profile's notifications section, deselect "Receive forum announcements and important notifications by email" and click "Save settings"

Where are you now: Mike Bargen

Ah the wonders of Google. We now know that Mike Bargen, Marquette graduate, is the new head coach of the Butler (KS) Community College Grizzlies. Congratulations on your first head coaching position, Mike!

Here's a blurb on Bargen's latest recruiting success.

Maybe Mike's MUScoop Wiki page could use an update? Jump in!

Tim Buckley back to Marquette?

Nothing official on the former MU assistant and Ball State head coach -- but folks at MUScoop are talking about it.

Wiki Contest continues.........

Don't forget to Wiki!

Edit:

We've had a great start, with some nice new pages:

• MU All-Time Series Records
• Scott Christopherson Page
• Trevor Mbawke Bio
• 2007 NCAA Transfers
  

And many more MU Schedules. More to come.

Please, join in: Even if you're not gunning for a prize, just donate a few minutes of your time to help the project and fill out a section or two!