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Bucks. D+ Because of their stinking front office. I've never been a fan of Larry Harris but this link to a Journal Times article by way of Brew Hoop has me beginning to wonder if old Larry has been setup for failure. Despite a very restless fan base, a dismal record that includes blowout losses to some of the worst teams in the league, and being in possession of some very tradeable talent (Charlie V. maybe even Redd?) the Bucks have not been in anyone's mouth when it comes to trade rumors. So what are the Bucks waiting for? It has to be painfully obvious to everyone in the front office that this roster, as it currently stands, just is not going to get it done (how many times do I have to point out that Royal Ivey has been starting games this season?). We need a shakeup. Some players with fresh attitudes. And all Harris is doing to rectify this is sitting on his hands . . . or have they been tied for him? Could the inertia be coming from the very top, Sen. Kohl himself? But why? Why risk losing more of an already fragile fan base? Why not try to show the fans that you are willing to try something to make this team better? Unless you are seriously considering finally pulling the trigger on selling the team, as has been rumored more than once in recent years! Pure speculation but there has to be something to the Bucks inaction. And don't tell me no one wants to deal with us. As long as Isiah Thomas is an NBA GM any trade could be made anywhere with any team at any time.
University of Wisconsin men's basketball. C+ Badgers were looking to avenge their only conference loss and take the lead in the standings but instead they got more of the same when Purdue came and whupped up on them in the Kohl Center Saturday. Any loss in the Kohl Center is a whuppin for the Badgers who have now lost twice at home this season. Of course this loss drops them out of the top ten quicker than I would drop my pants on this chick I have been seeing a lot of on the web lately. Anyway let's see if we can complete a sweep of our own in Bloomington tonight. Another loss (outside of the Big Ten tourney) ranked opponent or not will put a serious cramp in our bid to get a favorable seed. Right now I can see them drawing as low as a 5 or 6. My feeling is we gotta run the table on the rest of the schedule and go deep into the conference tourney for people to take us seriously again. Doable but it's not going to be pretty. 8 games left 5 of them on the road ( strange according to uwbadgers.com we play at Northwestern back to back in successive days in the last two games of the season, but ESPN has us playing Ohio State back to back in Columbus at the end of February. I'll take Northwestern please).
Marquette University men's basketball. C Now's the time for a run starting with this win over Seton Hall. I think they can get 5 out of these last 7 games with wins over St. John's, Rutgers, Villanova, Florida Gulf Coastal (wtf?), and Syracuse. All of those should be winnable games for Marquette. That will put us at 22-8 probably good for a top 4 finish. Get to at least the semifinals of the Big East Tourney and that's 24-8 after weathering a season in the best basketball conference in the nation. Should be good for a 3/4 seed. Of course if they do not go at least 5-2 down the stretch they might be in real danger of missing the Dance.
Milwaukee Brewers. B GM Doug Melvin recently revealed that the Brewers picked up the 2009 option on Ned Yosts contract following the end of last season. But don't necessarily take that as a vote of confidence. Keeping that in mind I think Yost will be around at least another 2 years, even if the Brewers cannot improve on last year's performance. It just feels to me like the former Brewer centerfielder still has the team headed in a positive direction, feels right. Like how a lot of Packer fan's had a good feeling about McCarthy even before the season started. And even though it is colder than a witches tit outside spring training is right around the corner. Here's a look at the talent in the Brewers farm system.
Packers. Not much news coming from the tundra this week but on the former Packer tip check out who's back in the league. For those who click on the link but still draw a blank it is penalty machine DB Joey Thomas. One of many Mike Sherman picks that just kind of fizzled out. His main problem was he drew pass interference calls anytime the ball was thrown in his general direction, but apparently Bill Parcells thinks he can correct that.