Marquette Makes "Smart" Decision

So the Marquette Golden Eagles (and, yes, I still think of them as the Warriors!) have hired Shaka Smart as their new men's basketball coach.

Smart move, in many ways.

An Oregon High School grad (Go Panthers!), Shaka Smart will bring a new attitude to Marquette, one which the previous coach, Steve Wojciechowski, let get away. A disciple of Duke's Mike Krzyewski, Wojo (128-95 in seven years) saw his street cred among Wisconsin players (among others) go south when the Hauser brothers (of Stevens Point) both transferred out to other programs. This after Wojo let high-scoring (and high shooting) Markus Howard pretty much run the program.

Smart won't let that happen. He had success at VCU with players who played with a chip on their shoulders, guys who played hard and together. He took VCU to the 2011 final four and made Sweet 16 appearances the following two seasons before he was hired by Texas.

In six years, he posted a 190-86 record, but this year the No. 3 seed Texas team was upset by 14-seed Abilene Christian in the opening round of the tournament.

But keep in mind that in Texas, basketball usually seems like an after-thought. This is a football first school in a football first state in a football first region.

Over 12 seasons, Smart has a record of 414-272. Can he get Marquette back to the national stage? Al McGuire set the gold standard for the school, going 296-79 in 13 seasons AND bringing back a national championship in 1977. Lofty goals, for certain, but I think this program is headed in the right direction.

Baseball Should Limit The Dreaded Defensive Shift

 That scourge of baseball, the dreaded "defensive shift" has one again raised it's ugly head.

Today's baseball managers tend to over-use it. The Milwaukee Brewers, for example, employed a shift 44.4% of the time last season, the fourt-highest rate in baseball. That's not likely to change in 2021.

But it's a tactic that's been around for decades.

I was reading "The Big Fella" recently, a great biography on Babe Ruth by Jane Leavy. To quote the passage:

Having created the expectation he (Ruth) understood it was his job to fulfill it. During the 1946 World Series, the St. Louis Cardinals employed a then radical defensive shift to foil Ted Williams, packing the right side of the infield and leaving the left virtually unprotected. "They did that to me in the American League one year," Ruth told Frank Graham. "I coulda hit .600 that year slicing singles to left."

"Why didn't you?" Graham asked.

"That wasn't what the fans came out to see."

Sadly, too many of today's ballplayers ignore what the shift presents.

Fun fact coming from that Babe Ruth book...the Yankees added pin strips to their uniform look -- now a classic -- to make Ruth look svelte!

Major League Baseball is going to test several new rules in the minor leagues this season. MLB wants to limit defensive shifts, change the pickoff rules for pitchers, expand the size of bases and perhaps test automated strike zones.

I'm fine with most those, and perhaps adding the DH to the National League should be a thought as well. But as for automated strike zones, I think we need to skip that. Call me old school, but I still think the human umpire gives spice to the game. Just as long as said umpire is consistent! When the strike zone changes from inning to inning, or from the start of the game to the end, that's a BIG problem.

Got my Opening Day tickets for April 1st! We had tickets for Opening Day 2020, and we all know how THAT worked out, but I rolled the credit over and was given the opportunity to purchase early.

So, our little group (Stevie joins Garrett and I) will be among the "Chosen 12,000" cheering on the Crew against the Minnesota Twins. Nice thing about the smaller crowd -- less traffic, easier parking, less lines. It's all good.

Time For Bucky To Think Outside Of The Box

 Let's talk Wisconsin Badgers winter sports for a bit.

Women's hockey? They just won their sixth National Championship. Kudos to Coach Mark Johnson.

Men's hockey? Back in the National Championship tournament for the first time in six years, and Coach Tony Granato's squad is a Number One seed in the 16-team tourney with a great opportunity to win it all.

Men's basketball? Coach Greg Gard's squad closed out a somewhat disappointing season with a quick exit in the NCAA tournament, falling to a Number One seed (Baylor) after shocking North Carolina. Streaky team on offense, but it was Baylor's defense that sent Bucky home. Still, Wisconsin went dancing, again.

Women's volleyball? Technically a fall sport competing now in this Covid-19 season, but still this squad is the top-ranked team in the nation and the program is consistently ranked among the best under coach Kelly Sheffield .

Then there's the women's basketball team. WHY can't Wisconsin put a competitive team on the court? Hell, they haven't had a winning season since the 2010-11 season, and haven't been in the NCAA tournament since 2010.

Just hours (maybe minutes!) after falling in the Big Ten tournament, Athletic Director Barry Alvarez fired Coach Jonathan Tsipis. In five seasons (counting this year's 5-19 record, and a pathetic 2-18 Big Ten mark) Tsipis was only 50-99 overall and a miserable 16-74 in conference.

To add insult to injury, the team's best player, 6-1 junior forward Imani Lewis, entered the transfer portal.

Come on, Barry. Let's think out of the box on hiring a new coach, maybe take a long, hard look at bringing in someone out of the WNBA. Wisconsin hasn't been able to attract most of the state's top women's talent, keeping them home like the Badgers have done in football.

Certainly someone with a WNBA background might be able to stir things up a bit, bring some attention to a program that needs desperately needs it.

Shake things up, Barry. Do the unusual.

What does Wisconsin have to lose?

It's NCAA Tourney Bracket Time!

 We've waited a long, long time for this -- the return of the NCAA men's basketball tournament.

March Madness, in all it's glory, is back this week after getting sidelined in 2020 by Covid-19. That means that Virginia and Coach Tony Bennett have been, technically, the defending champions for two years.

It's a wild tournament field to be sure.  It's been a long time since teams like Kentucky, Duke and Louisville didn't get invited to the Big Dance. The streak of 24 straight appearances ends for Duke, while Kentucky fails for the first time in eight years.

I always fill out a bracket or two, though the method for my madness is questionable at best. I've been known to pull for teams I root for (like Wisconsin and a few others) or teams I have a connection to (Louisiana-Lafayette and LSU from my time living down that was, as does Texas, coached by the pride of the Village of Oregon, Shaka Smart) or teams I just root AGAINST like Notre Dame, North Carolina, etc.

What's amazing about this year's tournament is the fact that nine of the Big Ten's 14 teams were invited, with two of them Number One seeds (Illinois, Michigan) and two of them Number Two seeds (Iowa, Ohio State). The last Big Ten team invited, Michigan State, needs to get through a play-in game to advance. The Spartans are only 15-12, and I suspect the selection committee may have given them this shot based on venerable coach Tom Izzo. That and the fact that the Spartans put up some serious wins down the stretch.

As for the Badgers, a team that struggled to a 17-12 record and went winless against ranked opponents (0-9) since the first of the year, getting a ninth seed was a gift. If the Badgers don't figure out a way to put the ball THROUGH the basket, not just around it, this will be a short stay. 

Wisconsin meets an 18-10 North Carolina team and it's veteran coach, Roy Williams. Since returning to his alma mater, Williams has taken NC to the tournament 13 out of 14 years, and seven times has been the Number One seed in the process.

Bucky has it's work cut out for it. But as we know, when it comes to this tournament, all it takes is a hot hand or two to give a team momentum.

Speaking of brackets, if you're interested go to Yahoo Fantasy Sports Tourney Pick'em; I've got a bracket group set up: Jim's Magnificent Group  (Group ID #3785). If interested and you need the password, reach out to me on facebook messager. 

Staying True To The Brew Crew

Ever the optimist, that's me.

But, seriously, the Milwaukee Brewers will challenge for the Central Division title. In fact, I think they'll win it with 88 victories. Maybe 90, but that might be a little crazy talk.

Beyond those darn Cardinals of St. Louis, I don't see another challenger in the division. Well, maybe the Cincinnati Reds, but they won't get much beyond a .500 record, if that. The Chicago Cubs? Rebuilding and in chaos. The Pittsburgh Pirates? That ship has sailed.

Sports Illustrated ranked Milwaukee 13th among the 30 MLB squads as a World Series favorite. (Of course, the cash-heavy, talent-laden Los Angeles Dodgers are first, but that's a conversation for another day.)

No, I do see the Brewers as winning this year. After all, whatever could go wrong in 2020 did go wrong. That's in the past. There are several things that need to sort themselves out. A few of them

• Christian Yelich returns to an MVP-caliber form. That shattered kneecap at the end of 2019 interrupted a season that was on the verge of a second straight MVP probably took more time to heal than anyone thought. But get him back to hitting above .300 again and Yeli leads the team to wins.
• Aivisail Garcia, a career .271 hitter, also returns to form
• Lorenzo Cain comes back after sitting out 2020 due to Covid-19 AND teams with free agent Jackie Bradley Jr. to form a great defensive center field tandem
• Kolton Wong wears our pitching like he did as a Cardinal AND gives the infield a lot better defense at second base
• Keston Hiura gets hits bat going again AND gives the team a better-than-average defensive firstbaseman
• The Mayor of Ding Dong City, Travis Shaw, comes back and gives the team some power
• The pitching staff, led by Brandon Woodruff, Corbin Burns and anchor Josh Hader, shines

Might be asking for a lot, but what the hey? It's spring and time for optimism.

Saw this on the MLB site that I found fascinating.....

Brewers

TL;DR: Great mascot, announcer and pitching

Christian Yelich is an all-world player, but he’s also human, as last year showed: Watching him get back to form is enough reason to get on board. But also, the Brewers themselves are just inherently likable. They have a massive, incredibly underrated fanbase that routinely passed three million fans in attendance a year, back when such a thing was possible. They also have Bernie Brewer, a mascot with a massive mustache that slides down a massive beer slide when the Brewers hit a homer. They also have a segment at their games where large personifications of meat race each other around the stadium. And, most of all, they have Bob Uecker. How do you not root for a team with Bob Uecker? Oh, and between Brandon Woodruff, Corbin Burnes, Josh Hader and Devin Williams, they have some nasty pitchers.

Watt Takes Arizona Over Green Bay

 For those Green Bay Packer fans  having a hard time coming to grips with why J.J. Watt chose the Arizona Cardinals over the Green & Gold, I have a simple explanation.

Money. Lots of it.

For all of the "gee, I want a shot at a championship ring" talk from Watt, it just came down to the money. Arizona gave Watt a two year contract worth $31 million -- with $23 million of that guaranteed!

Green Bay was never going to come CLOSE to that kind of deal, not with so many free agents of it's own to sign (Jamal Williams, Aaron Jones, Corey Linsley come to mind first and foremost).

Watt finds himself in a division with the Los Angeles Rams, San Francisco 49ers and Seattle Seahawks. That's something of a murder's row when it comes to getting to the playoffs.

In the long run, the Packers did themselves a favor by NOT getting J.J.