Duke

[milwaukeebill]

I grew up in STL and had season tickets to the Billikens. I came up to Milwaukee for school and now live up here. I am a season ticket holder to Marquette basketball games. We just played Duke and one of our message boards (muscoop.com) has a thread going on about Dike "Dookie" V and his 'preparation' for games. Here is what some have said:

- I remember a conversation with someone who used to work for ESPN. Vitale showed up on the set of SportsCenter and knew nothing about the team he was supposed to discuss. Not sure which team it was, but he asked the guy "what can you tell me about X?" The guy did some quick research, got their leading scorer, and fed some info to Vitale. Moments later, Vitale goes on air screaming "Oh baby, look out for the X's, and this kid (blank), leading them in scoring, is phenomenal, I love him, baby!"

As Benny said, Dickie V has a talent for turning a minute amount of information into the appearance of expertise. But he's only as encyclopedic as the producers that are feeding him the fuel for his schtick.

- Saw Dickie V 3 or 4 times at our hotel--breakfast and in lobby. The guy with him all the time was Schwab (Sp?). I am told he is ESPN's stat guru. Guess Dickie goes nowhere without him.

From what some have said, Dick Vitale doesnt know half as much about things as he portrays. If the SLU/Duke game is announced by Dickie V... mute it. Watching the Marquette/Duke game Monday was brutal. Dickie V has no shame in his love for all things Duke or Coach K... and it will likely be worse now since K got his 800th.

MUSCOOP is a joke.

[tigik]

My brother and I are going... get in Friday night... leave Saturday night... have tickets... just seeing Duke play is worth the trip... but seeing our Bills makes it better... win / lose ... really no difference... nothing better than college basketball at Cameron... should be a lot of fun

[slu72]

I canceled my trip to Durham when SLU broke its own regulations and allowed a highly paid ambulance-chasing-shyster into student court to take down our two best players. It would have been a great trip, fun to see how we matched up with Duke. We would have held our own.

Now, it will be ugly. Duke might have it on auto-cruise and take it easy on us if they are still undefeated. Coach K has class and might let Majerus off the hook. But if they are coming off a loss, they might drive us out of the building by 30+. I don't want to see that.

I basically had the same situation but it got complicated because my wife's firm's Xmas party is that night . The one where the bonuses are passed out. I originally got a pass on that, but knew there would be paybacks. Then when Hanging Judge Bean's DECISION came down I started having second thoughts. Wavered for a couple of weeks. Saw Duke play and said, I'm not going up there to watch a shock and awe game. So, my father in law gave the tickets to some friends. I do feel bad in a ways for the team because this one could easily get out of hand where Duke is subbing their bench mid 1st half and we're still gonna be like fish out of water. Unless Coach K is feeling some Xmas spirit they could ring up a hundy on us pretty quick. The announcers will be scratching their heads for something interesting to talk about. I'm not knocking us in any way. Duke is Duke and there's a reason they're rated #1 and we're #101 or something near there. Even w/ KM and WR, this was looking like a 20pt loss but that's somewhat competitive against these guys. W/O them let's just say, I think they're gonna know how Gen Custer felt when he looked over the hill at Little Big Horn and said, oops, this was a mistake putting this one the schedule and on national TV. The only good to come out of this will be these guys will get a chance to witness first hand what it takes to play at an elite level. Thank heavens it's in the morning hours and not a real prime time game and that it wasn't a home and home deal, because who'd want an automatic L before the season even begins.

[Quality Is Job 1]

I basically had the same situation but it got complicated because my wife's firm's Xmas party is that night . The one where the bonuses are passed out. I originally got a pass on that, but knew there would be paybacks. Then when Hanging Judge Bean's DECISION came down I started having second thoughts. Wavered for a couple of weeks. Saw Duke play and said, I'm not going up there to watch a shock and awe game. So, my father in law gave the tickets to some friends. I do feel bad in a ways for the team because this one could easily get out of hand where Duke is subbing their bench mid 1st half and we're still gonna be like fish out of water. Unless Coach K is feeling some Xmas spirit they could ring up a hundy on us pretty quick. The announcers will be scratching their heads for something interesting to talk about. I'm not knocking us in any way. Duke is Duke and there's a reason they're rated #1 and we're #101 or something near there. Even w/ KM and WR, this was looking like a 20pt loss but that's somewhat competitive against these guys. W/O them let's just say, I think they're gonna know how Gen Custer felt when he looked over the hill at Little Big Horn and said, oops, this was a mistake putting this one the schedule and on national TV. The only good to come out of this will be these guys will get a chance to witness first hand what it takes to play at an elite level. Thank heavens it's in the morning hours and not a real prime time game and that it wasn't a home and home deal, because who'd want an automatic L before the season even begins.

I'd like to think that the Billikens' defense under Coach Majerus is better than that. No more than somewhere in the 80s.