Marquette Men's Basketball Season Begins Tomorrow!

The 2008-09 edition of the Marquette Men's hoops team is set to be unveiled for the first time at the Bradley Center this season. Saturday's exhibition opener against Colorado State Pueblo will be broadcasted live by MUTV on www.gomarquette.com and in the dorms on channel 99, starting at 1:00 CT. Brian Henry and Jonathan Ficke will have the call.
Marquette will be without injured guard David Cubillan, sidelined swingman Joseph Fulce, and transfer Liam McMorrow. But the game will give fans the opportunity to see new Head Coach Buzz Williams pacing the Bradley Center sidelines for the very first time.
Remember to tune in to MUTV's coverage of the game on www.gomarquette.com.

Brad Galli
MUTV Assistant Sports Director

MUTV Interview: Patrick Hazel

Sophomore forward Patrick Hazel joins us for a brief interview.

Notes from Haunted Hoops

For all who are interested, Coach Buzz Williams did mention that he has been on the job for 206 days during his speech at the fish fry. What was also interesting is that he tries to not use a microphone when he speaks in front of large groups. He does that as well as not use a whistle during practice. According to him, he wants to teach his players to key in on his voice, rather than a whistle, because during games the men with whistles won't be able to make adjustments for the team.

The scrimmage following the dinner was well balanced. However there were a few things that stuck out, which may be seen during the season. First, Joe Fulce is very fast, but can get into foul trouble very easily. During the second 15 minute half he recorded 4 fouls in just 11 minutes of game play. Next, Dwight Burke seemed to be very effective under the rim; but this must be taken with a grain of salt, because he was facing his own teammates, who are undersized. Of the younger players, I was impressed with the way that Jimmy Butler played, but he'll be behind a number of players at the 3 spot this year and may not find much playing time. Chris Otule was decent, but he will need to play more aggressively on the boards to be competitive in the BIG EAST.

In other news, AD Steve Cottingham said that the student section is sold out, as are all of the tickets for the Wisconsin game. He also said that he expects the UCONN and Syracuse games to be sold out by the end of next week, when individual tickets go on sale.

Ritchie Donnelly
MUTV Sports Director

MUTV's Growth Since My Freshman Year

In Chapter 2 of Imperial Purple by Edgar Saltus, Augustus Caesar is quoted as saying, "I received Rome in brick, and shall leave it in marble."

As Marquette Madness approaches, I sat back and thought about what a huge undertaking this remote broadcast is. While I do not quite share the extreme view of my contributions to MUTV as Caesar did to Rome, his quote made me think about the advances that MUTV has gone through over my years at the station. When I first joined as a freshman in the Fall of 2005 it was technologically impossible to broadcast live events from the AL. During that year MUTV was also completely reliant on tape-to-tape editing. Furthermore, the Sports Department did not have direct access to Marquette Athletes.

Now it is the Fall of 2008 and I am in my senior year. I like to think that I have grown at least a little wiser, but I know that MUTV has grown exponentially. The Madness broadcast on Saturday will be our third live broadcast from the AL this year alone (last year we had 8). MUTV is now almost completely digital, creates 12 new shows every week and streams many live broadcasts every semester. And every Wednesday we work with the Athletic Department to schedule four to six athletes to come to studio 7 in Johnston Hall for MUTV Sports: Sit down with a Marquette Athlete, which can be seen on this blog, gomarquette.com and muscoop.com.

But the advances don't end there. The Madness broadcast has grown in leaps and bounds. When MUTV first attempted to broadcast the event, only a two man crew provided audio to one camera that was focused on the floor of the AL. When viewers go to Madness this Saturday, they will see a crew of nearly 30 students, with 5 cameras, technical crews in 3 different locations, and a 4 seat set next to the court for interviews with athletes, coaches and beat writers. If you can't make it to the AL, and will be watching on gomarquette.com, you will see a broadcast with the most video footage and graphics that have ever been used in a live remote broadcast at MUTV.

The Madness broadcast has taken on a life of its own at MUTV as I'm sure it has within the Marquette Basketball community. We at MUTV hope that you enjoy the broadcast this Saturday, but we also hope you appreciate the tireless efforts that so many people at MUTV have gone through over the years to make this possible.

Ritchie Donnelly
MUTV Sports Director

Marquette Madness, Saturday

We're less than one week away from the "kickoff" of MU Hoops this year (They've begun practicing but Madness was moved back a week because the students were on Fall Break). MUTV will be broadcasting it live from the Al starting at 5:30 CST on GoMarquette.com. Suffice it to say we have big plans and high hopes. There are a number of interviews being lined up with coaches, players and more; we have a number of videos about the program, its history, its present and its future. We've got a lot planned.

The Sports staff, Jonathan Ficke, Ritchie Donnelly and Brad Galli will be anchoring the broadcast; it will be produced by Brian Henry, and there are a ton of other hard-working students that will be instrumental in the production.

During the run up to the broadcast we will be posting interviews with the players, information about the broadcast and a ton of other MU Hoops-related info. Check back later this evening for a video of a 5-6 minute interview with point guard Maurice Acker.

Check out GoMarquette.com for more information about Marquette Madness:
http://gomarquette.cstv.com/sports/m-baskbl/spec-rel/102008aaa.html

Jonathan Ficke
Assistant Sports Director

Rosiak on Snaer and one MUTV Guy's Perpsective:

Let's be honest, he'd be a wonderful get and as Rosaiak says:

"Snaer was in the gym early and spent his time working on his catch-and-shoot and free-throw shooting. I'm not breaking any ground in saying this, but Snaer sppears to be every bit the deadeye perimeter shooter he's been billed as being. He possesses picture-perfect form, has nice lift and a feathery follow-through and touch."

Who could honestly say we wouldn't want the kind of contribution that he would bring.

The point I'd like to make is that Buzz is bringing in more than one top flight recruit. The potential to get Jamil Wilson is good, but the potential to miss him and still get the kind of recruit that Snaer represents is better. Hopefully, Buzz's ability to recruit beyond just one top target will result in deeper classes and not just one spectacular class followed by two or three mediocre classes.

To be honest, a recruit of Snaer's potential could be program changer. Hopefully we put the best face forward and Buzz lands a huge get. If we miss Snaer, this kind of recruiting means that he second best option is still a great get.

Jonathan Ficke
MUTV Assistant Sports Director
MUTV Sports Blog Editor-in-Chief

Jay Bilas: "Big East toughest" conference

The talking heads from Bristol are starting to chime in about this year's upcoming men's basketball season. Jay Bilas, writing in his ESPN Insider blog ranked the Big East as the nation's best conference from top to bottom saying: "UConn, Louisville, Pitt, Notre Dame, Marquette, Georgetown, Villanova, Syracuse and West Virginia likely will be NCAA tournament teams. Cincinnati, Seton Hall and Providence could be near the line at the end."

He's saying that there will "likely" be nine teams from the Big East in the Big Dance. In addition there could be three more on the bubble come March. It's great to hear that the Big East is going to be the best conference in the country, but it just reminds us that from the beginning of conference play to the end of the season, every single game is going to be a battle.

It's a good thing that we have veteran leadership that has been through tough Big East schedules before; we've got another tough one this season.

Jonathan Ficke
MUTV Assistant Sports Director