James enjoys the Buzz, media updates

Jeff Goodman of FoxSports catches up with Dominic James -- who has nothing but good things to say about Buzz Williams, Trevor Mbakwe and Chris Otule (along with a shot at Tommy Irsay).

Goodman also reports that 2008 combo guard Varez Ward will visit Texas this weekend -- no word on any interest regarding MU.

Mike DeCourcy writes up an incongruous review of the Buzz Williams hire....strangely TSN says MU made a decision 'in a panic', but ultimately rates the hire as a solid 'B'.

In honor of Buzz......Buzz 'I Hate New Media' Bissinger that is, Deadspin is worried about Dwyane Wade these days. Dating Star Jones? Are you kidding me.

Media Updates

UPDATED
Just a few quick links before things kick off tomorrow night.

Basketball Prospectus previews the conference tourneys for the Big East, as well as Conference USA, Mountain West, Atlantic 10, and the Pac-10. Marquette is given a 90% chance of beating Seton Hall and a 56% chance of making it to the semi's. Our odds of winning the whole tournament? 15%! Pomeroy also says:

I believe Marquette would be the first team to go 4-0 in two different conference tourneys if they were to pull this off. Back in '97, they won the CUSA Tourney by winning four games in four days.

Dwyane Wade's season is over. If you didn't catch it this morning, Steve Novak was also on the front of espn.com.

The JSOnline Weekly Marquette Report (still not calling it Golden Eagles) covers who is Hot and who is Not

Rosiak's preview calls Seton Hall a good matchup, and discusses how our current draw in the Big EAST tournament is favorable. Concerned about winning three times in one season against an opponent? According to Spiral97 at MUScoop.com, in 2007 a team that won the first two games ended up winning 71.4% of the time.

The Journal-Sentinel also published their All-State Starting Five CB Team, and Dominic James was left off of the list. Michael Flowers was named Player of the Year, so good for him. Frankly, I really can't quibble with Dominic James being left off the list. He finished third in cumulative net points for Marquette at 81.2 pts, just behind Lazar Hayward (82.8 pts) and Jerel McNeal (98.0 points). However, I do have to wonder how much of this is due to the fact that James has had two highly criticized games in the last week. Is this just an example of recency bias?

Former Marquette recruiting target Frank Ben-Eze has decommitted from Harvard, according to the NY Times. Although, Marquette is already one player over the signing limit, there is a good chance we'll see him more in the future. Connecticut, Boston College, Cincinnati, Pittsburgh, DePaul and Rutgers have already inquired about Ben-Eze's availability.

The Bracket Project, an aggregation of NCAA seeding prognostications, has MU listed as a 6 seed right now.

Finally, The Big East Basketball Report posted its annual post-season bloggers' all conference selections. Click here to check it out.

Here's a look at the 2007-2008 Cracked Sidewalks All-Big East ballot:

Big East POY
Luke Harangody: toughest player in the Big East

FIRST TEAM
Roy Hibbert .... best player on the best team in the league
Donte Greene .... high energy, productive player
AJ Price ... finally arrives as the player many expected to see years ago
Kyle McAlarney ...... exceptional bounce back season
Terrence Williams ..... best all-around player in the league

SECOND TEAM
Jerel McNeal .... one of the league's best disruptors
Dominic James ... played through injury and turned in a productive season
Kentrell Gransberry .... a beast on the blocks
Deonta Vaughn ... key to the surprising Bearcats
Jeff Adrien .... an absolute load for the Huskies

THIRD TEAM
Sam Young ..... versatile forward led the Panthers
David Padgett .... Ville's most vital player?
Jerry Smith ..... solid all-around performer
Jonathan Wallace .... under-appreciated talent
Scottie Reynolds .... somewhat of a sophomore slump but still among the best

Big East Freshman of the Year
Dante Greene

All-Freshman FIRST TEAM
Jonny Flynn
Dominique Jones
DaJuan Blair
Mac Koshwal
Dar Tucker

All-Freshman SECOND TEAM
Austin Freeman
Justin Burrell
Mike Coburn
Antonio Pena
Corey Fisher

Coach of the Year
John Thompson

Defensive Player of the Year
Hasheem Thabeet

Most Improved Player
Sam Young

In case you weren't at the BC: FF 5 year ceremony

This video was shot at the MU / Pitt game half-time ceremony.

8 minutes total .. first 2 minutes is the montage video .. at the 2 minute mark is the player intros .. 4 minute mark is Tom Crean .. 6 minute mark is DWade .. 7 minute is Travis' speech.

The beginning video grab is a bit shaky, as people were bumping me around. Sorry.

Wade and Diener deliver a night to remember for MU alums

I doubt many alums had a better basketball weekend than those who attended the Marquette Club of South Florida's most recent event. On Saturday night, the alums gathered to watch Dwyane Wade's Miami Heat top Travis Diener's Indiana Pacers......and the night was capped by a meet & greet with the pros.

With special thanks to Dan Reinfeld of the MU Club of South Florida, here's a slideshow of the post game gathering. Very nice!

Two quick alumni updates

OK, more content to come later today but in the interim, here are a pair of items passed along from fans of the blog:

• "McGuire," Dick Enberg's one-man play about Al McGuire, will run at Hofstra University's Black Box Theater in Hempstead, NY on Feb. 9 and 10. Here is the blurb from the Daily News.
• Also, if you have the good fortune to live in South Florida perhaps you can jump into the fun when the Miami Heat host the Indiana Pacers game on Saturday, January 26th 2008 at 3:30pm. I should have posted this last week (skiing got in the way!) -- because the MU club down there will host a post game meet and greet session with Dwyane Wade (and hey, maybe Diener shows up too). OK, I am green with envy. For more info click here.
  

Madness Recap

UPDATED:

Notes from Marquette Madness:

1. Great crowd. Packed house, standing room only. Although somehow it didn't feel jammed like the Bradley Center. I suppose that's the difference between 18,000 and 4,000 fans.

2. Crean and company must have gotten finished watching the Karate Kid series, as they were introduced decked out in karate outfits. Crean arrived on court via a 4-wheel ATV that, god help us, nearly tipped over on several of his sharp turns. Players took turns karate-chopping boards with Big East opponent's logos.

3. DWade was in the house. After a one-act skit where Crean directed us to a "malfunctioning" jumbotron with a taped Wade message .. suddenly Wade appears and brings the house down. Fantastic!

4. Dunk Contest - Many missed dunks, says this white boy who can't jump. The famed Wes Matthews-jumping-over-something (ATV) was missed twice, and they didn't let him risk a third attempt. Jerel McNeal won the contest.

5. The scrimmage started a bit after 9pm. Comments:

• Team looked way better than previous "first" practices. Why? Two words: Oh, Canada! The 10 extra practices and 4 Vancouver games had a clear effect on how close the team is to "mid-season" form. That trip gets Marquette a month ahead of everyone.
• Mo Acker is a huge, huge addition. Runs the team well, shot 4-8 on 3-pointers. 6 assists, Zero turnovers? Nice. Will get a lot of minutes this year, and be the difference maker in many games.
• Blackledge was a surprising scorer for his team. Visable improvement since last year.
• Lazar led all scorers with 18 .. but he took 16 shots to get there.
• Ooze grabbed 9 rebounds .. Trevor with 8. Nice.
• Tommy Brice, DNP. Come on. Give a dog a bone!
• Box Score Here

Photos of the scrimmage.

Here are a couple of videos I shot from my seat:

---

Team Introductions:




DWade:


Dunk Contest:

Got Wade?

MU does.

The All-Star and NBA Champion made a surprise appearance at Marquette Madness tonight, much to the delight of the fan base ....... and perhaps to the amazement of key recruiting targets Iman Shumpert, Jared Swopshire and Nick Willlams. Nice work, TC and DWade.

Details here from Todd Rosiak.

Photos from Marquette Madness here at MUScoop.com

The morning buzz

A few nuggets to get you going this morning:

• I'd like to pass along a warm welcome to all of the Iowa Hawkeye basketball fans who are linking over to us from their Rivals premium board. Based on our tracking several hundred of you are spending time here on the blog checking out the latest Tom Crean 'rumors'. Hawkeyes, is Tom Crean going to Iowa? What is the buzz in Iowa City? Seems like wasted energy to me . . . . Crean might leave MU someday but not for Hawkeye (or Wolverine) nation. The Iowa job is suicidal right now considering the dramatic upgrade in the Big Televen coaching ranks these last couple of years. Sampson, Matta, and Tubby will finally help the Big Ten deliver a better product in the coming years, and at a school like Iowa where you can't outfit a top 20 team consistently with home-grown talent --- that makes a difficult job even more untenable. Kentucky? Well that is another matter.
  

• Second item of interest: Rick Majerus was on Mike & Mike in the Morning moments ago talking about the possibility of a college coach taking over the Miami Heat job next season. There are strong rumors that Billy Donovan could get a shot at the manning the sidelines on South Beach. While professing no inside information, Majerus openly speculated that the only other college coach he could see jumping to the Heat (if Donovan didn't take the job) was Tom Crean based on his relationship with Wade. Well, we'll see. College coaches making the jump to the NBA is not exactly a successful fraternity.

• Kudos to Dwyane Wade for remembering and embracing his roots at Richards High School in Oak Lawn. Check out DWade's work with his high school alma mater via this article at the Chicago Sun-Times.

Cassie at SomeCheeseWithThat offers perspectives on the 2006-2007 season and a look ahead to next year. Some of it is terrific, but there are problems in spots -- specifically with assertions that are used to support larger points she is trying to make.

For example:

• Cassie takes McNeal to task far too much, calling him a "disappointment" and teeing off on his shot selection by claiming he had "a willingness to settle for the outside shot that spread to the rest of the team." Where to begin, eh ('disappointment' is so ridiculous I won't address it futher. That's a mindless claim.). While shot selection may have been the case in the non-conference schedule, that assertion does not hold up in conference play. Overall, McNeal shot 31% from three-point range last season, but a closer look shows that he shot a respectable 38% in conference play -- a substantial increase in his final 14 outings. Contrary to Cassie's contention, McNeal actually took fewer three-point shots per game in conference play (3.2 attempts per game) than in non-conference action (3.4 attempts per game) and hit them at a much higher rate.

• Cassie, you might be disappointed to know that James, Matthews, Fitzgerald, and Cubillan all showed depressed three-point shooting percentages in conference play. Good thing McNeal bucked the trend.

• MU attempted more than 23 three-pointers per game on the non-conference slate. During Big East play that number decreased nearly 22% to a more palatable 18 attempts from deep each game. The notion that "the team was too content to stand out on the perimeter and jack threes" was true in spurts in certain games (and due to injury late in the season), but hardly a problem that plagued their overall offensive effectiveness as the season played out.

• One more nit with her blog, "Other than David Cubillan there was not a guy on the team who didn’t make you cringe when he jacked one up." Cassie, Dan Fitzgerald hit more three-pointers than Cubillan last year, and was nearly equal in shooting percentage (.423 to .425). Fitzgerald also made more threes and had a higher shooting percentage from deep in conference play than Cubillan.

Win it for Wade

With Dywane Wade back on campus to have his jersey retired, the Marquette Golden Eagles (19-4, 6-2) return from a six day layoff on Saturday afternoon when they host the Providence Friars at the Bradley Center. MU is the talk of the Big East after ripping off six straight victories following a disappointing 0-2 start in conference play. Tom Crean's crew made great strides during the first half of conference play despite playing five of their first eight Big East games on the road.

The Friars enter Saturday's game at 14-6 overall and 4-3 in the Big East. Providence defeated MU 74-59 last month. Tim Welsh's young Friars have not played since defeating UConn at the Hartford Civic Center last Saturday to earn their first road win in conference play.

Providence is led by the efficient Herbert Hill, who delivers 17 points and 8 boards per game. Hill has been even better in conference games where he leads the league in both scoring and rebounding. The senior post player shoots a blistering 67% from the floor and played one of his best games of the season against MU when he hung 23 and 9 on the Golden Eagles. Sophomore point guard Sharaud Curry returned from suspension several weeks ago, and paid immediate dividends for the Friars. At 16ppg, the talented sophomore keys the Friars' attack. Still, the toughest matchup on the floor for the Golden Eagles will be sophomore Geoff McDermott. The 6'7" power forward is the Big East's most versatile player, pouring in 12ppg to go along with 10 boards and a team-high 5.4 assists per outing. When your power forward leads a team in assists, you can bet that creates huge matchup concerns for the opposition. McDermott dominated Marquette last month, just missing a triple double (11 points, 11 assists, 9 rebounds). McDermott had more assists than the entire MU team -- yuck.

While Curry missed the Big East opener, MU was without Jerel McNeal and although Wesley Matthews played, he had not practiced much leading into the contest. During MU's six-game tear, McNeal has been the team's most vital performer, setting the tone both offensively and defensively as the Golden Eagles turned the season around. Much like last season, McNeal's performance in conference games is superior to his performance on the out-of-conference slate. With McNeal healthy, MU has played stifling defense during the six-game run (sans the USF outing) -- something they failed to do at The Dunk to open conference play.

Marquette will retire Dwyane Wade's jersey #3 in a ceremony on Saturday. Here's a nice photo essay on DWade from Marquette Hoops.

The AP filed this one.

Here's a game preview from Eric Silver on scout.com.

Here's the MUScoop information header for Saturday's game.

SI subcribers: Marquette's Regal Eagle

I am not an SI subscriber but for those who are, click here to read their feature on Dominic James -- 'evoking memories of Dwyane Wade'.

Here is the link.....non-subscribers can read the first few paragraphs.