State of the Program

There was a lot of talk this afternoon on Ahoya about the state of our basketball program and what our expectations were. My expectations for this season weren't too high. First, I didn't like the leadership of this team and I still don't after watching the games this season. I don't want to go into specifics on this one, maybe after the season. Otherwise, I didn't feel we had enough playmakers, guys who would take over games if need be. We didn't have any guys like Robert Jackson and Cordell Henry, who could win a bunch of games for you, but could take over and win some. So I expected we would be worse than last year. Looking at the Sagarin ratings, right now, we're about the same. What dissapoints me is how poorly we played to start off the conference season. I really felt that we were just into the tournament with our out of conference resume. We played horrible in back to back Thursday nights at Memphis and at Depaul. Then Diener got injured and I think a lot of people used that as a crutch for Charlotte and UAB, two more winnable games. Then we lost two "stomach-punch" games, @ TCU and Louisville which would have really helped put us back on the bubble. I read an interesting analysis by a Clemson fan last night who said that he knew his team was improving because they were winning games on the road again. Look who we have beaten on the road this year: Oakland, Tulane, SLU, and ECU, not too stellar. And I really do expect more out of a coach who gets paid the money that he does. I expect us to average Top 50 in three years (including Final Four) and we aren't even there right now (52. 3, by my calculation). We need to improve, bottom line.

Cubs/ Ticket Day
I was in the virtual waiting room for about nine hours today, trying to get tickets to a game and I finally got in about 8 PM tonight. I'm going on April 10th to see the Brewers on my way back to Milwaukee, when I'm home that weekend. Tommorrow, I plan on getting to Miller Park early, so I can get tickets for 4 of their night games when I know I will still be at good old MU. No new news, although Arizona Phil over on Cub Reporter reports that Hollandsworth, Ramirez and Dubois are really smoking the ball. Good sign.