Let the Wild Rumpus Start!

UPDATED

(or... a flimsy excuse to link to the "Where the Wild Things Are" Trailer)

After a tortuously long off-season, in which the only news that popped up lately seemed to be bad news, College Basketball is back! Now, with the proverbial "young but talented team", the Marquette community can enjoy the adventure that the 2009-2010 season will be. That's right... tonight is Midnight Madness!

Here's your flimsy link between "Where the Wild Things Are" and this year's basketball season. The classic story, with minimal words, is essentially a tale of how children master feelings. Well, I don't know about you, but I have all kinds of feelings about his season, including hope, fear, excitement, and disappointment. This year could go all kinds of different directions. In addition, as the trailer linked above suggests, inside each one of us is the same hope, fear, and adventure. Flimsy link #1 is that each of us represents Max on our adventure through the season. Midnight Madness is the beginning of our Wild Rumpus. (Plus, I kind of like thinking of this year's team as the Wild Things from the classic tale, but don't have enough hubris to believe that nickname is either valid or going to stick.)

However, after initially posting, MUScoop.com reader dsfire was disappointed that we didn't explain whose nickname was The Wild Rumpus or why he should start... and then suggested it be Frozena. So there you go... flimsy link #2 Rob Frozena is "The Wild Rumpus". Let the Wild Rumpus Start!

Regardless of which Wild Rumpus you want to start tonight, Check out GoMarquette.com for additional details on the Madness. As has been previously stated, the festivities kick off at 6 pm with a Women's Volleyball game, and then continues into Marquette Madness. Doors open as early as 5 pm if you want, and Madness starts no later than 7:30. If you are local, show up and you'll receive a free long sleeved t-shirt and a poster. In this year's twist on the dunk contest, all the judges will be from the Milwaukee Bucks. This includes none other than Assistant coach Jim Boylan, a former Marquette player and member of the 1977 National Championship squad (duh), as well as Charlie Bell, Joe Alexander and Brandon Jennings. Give Alexander a healthy boo. To get yourself ready, check out a sneak preview of the Marquette Madness video.

If you can't make it there, MUTV is streaming the event online. Online fans will need to click on just one link to gain access to the complete event. Here is the link for the web stream. To build some hype for the event, MUTV has introduced a new TV reporter (it's actually a minute-long clip from Joe Fulce and some other guys). In this clip, Fulce calls Frozena "Peter Parker", which is actually pretty funny. Evidently Fulce has not heard that Frozena's real nickname is "The Wild Rumpus".

Andy Katz gives what is one of the better previews on Marquette. It is cautiously optimistic about the season. You've got to read it. Rosiak also mentions it too in his blog post, but his focus is on the Blue Ribbon grades for Marquette (Backcourt: B-minus, Bench/Depth: B-minus, Frontcourt: B, Intangibles: C). If you are an ESPN Insider Subscriber, you can read the full information here.

More on Media Day

Good morning out there in Marquette-land. With one day to go until the basketball season "officially" kicks off at Midnight Madness, yesterday was Marquette's Media Day.

Your first stop of the day should be to scroll down (or click here for the Media Day Videos). Good stuff... I particularly like the first video with Buzz as he addresses questions about the team. If you don't have time, or need to take it on the go, just grab the GoMarquette.com podcast from Buzz.

If you're too impatient or prefer to read the transcript, check out Rosiak's blog entry from yesterday for the full text. Rosiak also delivers a feature story this morning. I found it interesting that the point of this article was about who would play point. However, if you check out the video, Buzz skips directly to talking about who would play the 2 and 3 positions (going big or small). There's also some info in there about Fulce coming back strong and the closed-door scrimmage with Virginia. Just like in previous years, MU is going to go without another exhibition game in favor of a scrimmage.

From the JSOnline, Bob Wolfley discusses Buzz as his own worst critic. Frankly, it's really a good article that shares insights about how Buzz would have done things differently in some of the games last year.

Want to check out pictures from yesterday? Here are the links from GoMarquette.com as well as the photos from the Journal-Sentinel.

As for a few more links... The AP has a story about Buzz' quest to run 244 miles over forty days. Evidently, it was his promise to the team after they completed Boot Camp, and the rest of the story talks about the same Boot Camp. Foulpole2foulpole has a story with Joe Fulce, who is guaranteeing a dunk championship. That would be great, if for no other reason than it signaling Fulce's return from injury. WISN.com also has a small article in which they mis-spell Dominic's name. Seriously?

Finally, and looking forward, IWB has a list of players that will be at Midnight Madness. Hey Buzz... Get yourself some coffee (NSFW)

It's Boot Camp Time

GoMarquette.com released their information on the Boot Camp.Checked out the update on this year's Boot Camp. Last year's camp was notable in that it resulted in the first few injuries, which derailed the first seasons of Otule and Fulce. More than anything, let's hope that no one gets a foot injury now. Make sure that you click through to the link and check the video clip. It's worth checking out.

As a reminder, Midnight Madness kicks off in a week. We are about a week away from the triumphant (or something like that) return of Marquette basketball. It really seems like basketball is kind of sneaking up on the season, even though it's been ages since the last time Marquette played. Doors will open at 5 p.m. in advance of Marquette Madness. The AD is opening things off with the MU women's volleyball team hosting Georgetown in BIG EAST action at 6 p.m. If they want to try and drive extra butts to watch women's volleyball, that's alright with me. However, the main event begins shortly after the conclusion of the volleyball match, but no earlier than 7:30 p.m.

Get in the spirit of Midnight Madness with a Team Preview by Villanova By the Numbers. GreyCat has been doing a really good job with previews for every BE team this year (check them out here), so we'll excuse that he gave us credit for making the S16 last year.

Keeping with the Boot Camp theme, if you can make it, why not show up to Al's Run as well. It starts on 12th Street and Wisconsin Avenue... right on the Marquette University campus TOMORROW! And if you're a student, it doesn't begin until 10:30. Check here to register now, or grab some event info.

Thanks to everyone that donated to Al's Run! yesterday, especially our TWO anonymous donors. After a slow start, awesome Marquette fans came together to break through the goal of $1977. There's still time to hit the new goal, so if you haven't donated click here and join the spirit of generosity. Every little bit helps!

Marquette Madness: catch it online this weekend

Finally.

On Saturday at 7pm CDT, Marquette will host its annual Marquette Madness at the incomparable Al McGuire Center. Thousands of fans will jam the arena -- and if you can't be one of them be sure to catch all the action on-line, live. Click here for details on how to access the MUTV feed as well as that of ESPN Radio in Milwaukee.

With MU's smart, aggressive promotion of the event, expect a packed house. And in the dunk contest and a bushel of key recruits scheduled to attend -- including Nick Williams, Jared Swopshire, Iman Shumpert, Erik Williams and certainly others -- the place will be jumping. FWIW, this will be Iman Shumpert's final official visit before making his decision.

UPDATE
Todd Rosiak updates the entire list of recruits on campus this weekend.....loads of talent, highlighted by the names above. Check it out on Todd's blog here. (and note that Todd's latest updates always appear on the right side of our blog - take a look)

Cracked Sidewalks will be there to cover the event ..... so keep it here for first-person impressions of the festivities.