MU hosts UConn

I know we've been dark here on Cracked Sidewalks for the last several days, thanks for bearing with us as we manage through busy times at the office and with work-related travel. Strangely enough -- via a quirk of unrelated developments -- four of us will be at the UConn game tonight on our blog's 6th birthday. (!!!) Thanks so much for your readership and for making our slice of the interwebs a part of your Marquette basketball experience.

Back to hoops.

So MU (13-7, 4-3) went into South Bend over the weekend and delivered another exquisite second half collapse --- offensively, defensively and Ed Hightowery*. Hey Ed, MU does not need help blowing second half leads, it is something of a signature move. Jimmy Butler summed things up pretty nicely when he said, "We've got to stop relying on our offense so much and guard on the defensive end, and I think everything will start to turn around if we do those things."

Co-sign.

Tonight it is time to get it right with fifth-ranked UConn (16-2, 4-2) in town. With a win the Warriors would move to a comfortable 5-3 in league play but a loss would leave MU at 4-4 with back to back tilts against Syracuse and Villanova to follow. NIT, hello.

Food for thought. MU could not contain Ben Hansbrough off the dribble last weekend. Tonight the Warriors will have to contend with the nation's second-leading scorer, Kemba Walker (25ppg), who's signature move is the dribble drive. Gulp.

Time to sack up, MU. Ken Pomeroy thinks the Warriors have what it takes, predicting a 75-72 win for the good guys.

• Here's the MU podcast for the week.
• MU game notes.
• Rosiak on UConn's strong performance to date.
• Rosiak on Kemba's dominant play.
  

Pardon the interruption...we just turned four

Four years old with 1,641 posts and counting.

Our simple formula seems to work: No editorial structure, no ads, and no money -- just plenty of passion for Marquette basketball and this fad called the Internet. Thanks to kind folks like you our readership continues to grow steadily. Please know that we greatly appreciate your visits to the site. With our stable of passionate alumni contributors, we'll continue to cover the program and are always open to your suggestions and comments for improving things around here.

Speaking of improving, I am about to audit MUScoop's upcoming seminar on 'how to build an Internet community with no ads and no subscriptions.' If you hadn't noticed, traffic at MUScoop.com is up 210% year-to-year. Congrats fellas, that's impressive. We look forward to teaming with you guys in the years ahead.

Now, let's beat the freakin' Irish.

Cracked Sidewalks turns three!

1,269 posts and counting....

When we started this blog three years ago, none of us had any expectations about what might happen. So far, so good -- it is still loads of fun and our readership continues to grow, that's a good combination.

Thanks very much to the terrific group of contributors who have helped us along the way, especially the core group we have now. In addition, to the guys at MUScoop -- you're terrific partners out here in cyberspace, many thanks.

Most of all, thanks to the readers for making our hobby a part of your Marquette basketball experience. We'll continue to do what we do best here -- aggregate content from around the Web and produce rich, compelling, original content on the Marquette Golden Eagles.

........and now back to basketball.

Happy Blogiversary to us

.....who knew!

We're still alive and kicking two years later here at Cracked Sidewalks. Many thanks to all of our readers and passers-by -- we appreciate your interest and feedback. We'll continue to do our best to be a viable contributor to the Marquette basketball community.

I want to also thank the contributors we've had on the blog, past and present, for making Cracked Sidewalks worthwhile - -

* Thread Killer
* muwarrior92
* Marquette 84
* mu_hilltopper
* marq_2000
* mutpm
* Warrior94

Thanks, fellas.

Finally, I'd like to thank the team at MUScoop for allowing us to cross-market our site within their community. Your support is much appreciated, thank you.