You Know Its A Good Day When ....

[Taj79]

... Notre Dame loses. Mizzou loses. And Dayton is sitting at home just like we are. Ah ... life is good.

Can't wait to see that Marshall kid from Oakland against UNC. He made Alabma A&M look foolish but I thought he thought he was better than he really was. I got a feeling his 15 minutes of fame are over. I also love it when fans like those Oakland fans show up on camera sputing the index finger and yelling "We're Number One." Maybe for last night. Oh well, I'm glad they got to experience it.

Anybody catch the ND/Holy Cross game? There was no one in the upper ring of the Joyce Athletic Center whatsoever. Most of the lower bowl seats were empty as well. The students in the pea-green shirts behind the HC second half basket were also somewhat far and few between. Nice to see the Irish go crash and burn.

Could maintain enough interest in the Mizzou game to stay up and watch it. But did notice that the arena was also sparsely populated. NIT blew it ... Dayton ahd 18 wins and would have been good for 12k per game for the first two at least.

What does it say that the visitors won three interesting matchups in this farce? Western Michigan, Holy Cross and DePaul all went in to what had to be considered "better" programs and places and all three won. And Miami went down at South Carolina. Nice job, ACC. When do the Temple alums start crying for Liebowitz over Chaney?

Short of Christmas, I love this time of year! The Bills have to get to the point where they crash this party more times than not.

[billiken_roy]

i cant fault anyone with bad attendance for the nit. first off, you got programs in that for the most part are a little disappointed they arent in the other tourney. second, they give you about 6 hours notice to make arrangements to attend the game.

i chose to watch the mi$$ouri depaul game. great game and diener played great. depaul was a decent center from being a very good team imo. brumfield is just a big body.

for the life of me i cant understand why sammy mejia is not the focus player of that team. he is splendid. i hope liddell is sammy mejia II.

holy cross winning was a shocker. especially at south bend. gotta believe the irish fandom is furious this morning. i need to find me a notre dame message board to read today.

[kshoe]

I remember after a Depaul-SLU game Drake's freshman year Romar was asked if he recruited Drake and his response was "We liked Drake a lot but we already had Drew and basically they were the same player." Can't help but laugh at that quote.

[billikenmetz]

They should of played the game in the Ft. Wayne Memorial Colliseum...capacity crowds favor the Irish...hey, kind of funny that no one showed up...I think the ND students thought they would roll over that small Juco that Rudy went to before transferring to Notre Dame...not thinking that this Holy Cross is in Worcester Mass and is a Jesuit institution. I think ND has a problem all together with Jesuit universities from the Bay State (BC, anyone)??

[slu72]

...if Mizzery announced after the game they had given pretty Q a 5 year extension on his contract, and if the NIT scheduled ND's loss on St. Patty's day.

[slu72]

...same type player except our Diener played in slo mo.

[billiken_roy]

i dont think drake is really any significant amount faster than drew, it is just drew appears to have more confidence and wants to take the shot. how many times in drew's career were we all screaming for him to just shoot the ball? you dont have to tell drake to take the shot.

[kwyjibo]

Well, unlike the ESPN crew who seemed to spend most of the game making up excuses for Notre Dame, I had the Holy Cross pegged as the likely winner well in advance. Holy Cross played BC to a standstill earlier in the year (BC won in overtime). Most of Patriot League was terrible (Bucknell is not either) but even winning 17 games in a row against terrible teams is not easy. Notre Dame lives and dies by the 3/sharpshooting (and they have some good shooters) and plays below average otherwise. Their rebounding and turnovers were a joke. Anyone who says they were the "best team left out of the tourney" should be fired for malpractice. But apparently our close-minded "experts" always seem to know better than a careful objective view (which did not show that Notre Dame was anywhere close to an at large).

[billiken_roy]

while i never watched notre dame once this year, i am surprised at your description. one would think a team with francis, cornett, cornette, and isreal on the roster would have a pronounced effort to utilize that size and athleticism. that is sad.

[MUTGR]

He also had Missouri's defense working in his favor. You have to factor that in.

[kwyjibo]

The ND bigs were incredibly soft last night and Holy Cross had some size that at least did fundamental things right (like boxing out). Notre Dame had some freshman (Lurtz?) who never plays at least get in there and mix it up (and actually get some boards off the bench). Particularly in the first half I felt I was watching some bad instructional film with Notre Dame playing what not to do while trying to rebound. Not that the guards should be left off the hook. There were a dozen embarrassing turnovers last night. Collin Falls actual passed the ball to a hustling Holy Cross player for an easy lay-in late in the game. James Worthy would have been proud.

Further NIT info as one of the few people who have actually seen certain small Northeastern schools and Memphis. While I do not like Memphis, I cannot see how Northeastern can match up against them physically (they do not have much height, althoug one guy is a great leaper, and worse they have little muscle). IF the officials "let them play" in the true spirit of NIT matchmaking (I mean officiating), Memphis will win in a cakewalk. Jose Berrea is a great fireplug guard for Northeastern and should keep the game respectable with about 20 (although if Memphis is able to "muscle" him they might shut him down too).

While I like JTIII at Georgetown as the coach, I think BU has a very good shot at the Hoyas. BU plays really hard D and has some scrappy O in Carr and Bell. Expect a low scoring affair and whoever plays smarter down the stretch winning (BU has some real bad FT shooters but they will keep the ball away from them down the stretch).

[kwyjibo]

Scratch that about Northeastern. Their best player, Berrea, has been suspended for "rough play" against Vermont. Memphis in a cakewalk.

[SLUBandTBone]

Correct me if I'm wrong but I believe that Holy Cross is run by the priests of the Holy Cross order, not the Jesuits. Notre Dame is also run by Holy Cross priests.

[bonwich]

You're wrong. Notre Dame is CSCs (including my late great-uncle, Szygysmund Jankowski); Holy Cross, despite its name, is Jebbie.

[kwyjibo]

The College of the Holy Cross in Worcester, MA is very Jesuit. Holy Cross College is in South Bend, IN and is indeed run by the Brothers of the Holy Cross (and "Rudy" is a trustee). Notre Dame University is in South Bend and there is something about them founded on "Jesuit principles" but I think are Holy Cross.

[bonwich]

I'd never heard the J-word associated with ND, but there is something on its Web site to back you up:

"The University of Notre Dame was founded in late November 1842 by a priest of the Congregation of Holy Cross, Rev. Edward Sorin. His original land grant of several hundred acres was the site of an early mission to native Americans, but included only three small buildings in need of repair. The land had been purchased by Rev. Stephen Badin, the first Catholic priest ordained in the United States, and left in trust to the Bishop of Vincennes, Indiana, for anyone who would found a school on the site. Father Sorin and his companion Brothers of St. Joseph (later the Holy Cross Brothers) called the fledgling school, in their mother tongue, L'Universite de Notre Dame du Lac. The University was officially chartered by special act of the legislature of the State of Indiana on January 15, 1844. It is worthy of ecumenical note that a Methodist state senator, John B. De Frees, was responsible for this action and for the writing of the University's charter as a degree-granting institution.

"In fact, the early Notre Dame was a university in name only. It encompassed religious novitiates, preparatory and grade schools and a manual labor school, but its classical collegiate curriculum never attracted more than a dozen students a year in the early decades. Based on the ratio studiorum used by the Jesuits at St. Louis University, this curriculum included four years of humanities, poetry, rhetoric and philosophy, plus offerings in French, German, Spanish and Italian and various forms of music and drawing."

- Bonwich (South Bend native, Jesuit-trained)

[Quality Is Job 1]

I can't believe this online community is actually breaking down the NIT and its bracket! And SLU isn't even playing in it.

I hope that for the next 15 years or more the Billikens (and maybe the Mizzou Tigers, too, if they wake up and make the needed changes) will be playing in the NCAA Tournament and no one will be talking about the NIT, unless it's to note that Marquette is in it again.

[kwyjibo]

Brad's alma mater is in the D-III Final Four. Maybe someone can break down the Pointers vs. York (PA.)!

[courtside]

I would agree with the beginning comments of Roy on his first post.

People...it is the NIT...for goodness sakes. Are you really going to judge a team or school on that...lol....you can't be serious?

The NIT is interesting only for those schools who make it...that weren't disappointed not making NCAA. If you get a good game in there...that is a bonus.

[courtside]

at IU just over 5000 watched them lose to Vandy.....

and so it goes......