I found him, redux

in honor of VCU's run to the Final Four (and all the KU fans' souls which were crushed along the way), here is a FBC first: i'm re-publishing one of my own blog posts. please note that by doing so, i'm in no way suggesting that Shaka Smart will definitely leave for another job, or, if he did, that NU would be able to afford him. clearly this dude will be able to choose from any BCS opening he wants, and it would never EVER be a good career move to leave VCU for Northwestern.

i'm simply using yesterday's win as an opportunity to pat myself on the back for spotting greatness so early. also, it's much more fun to re-read the comments from Smart and Norwood Teague considering recent events. (the original post is here, for anyone in the mood for classic AC vs. Anonymous arguments)

3/29 edit: Shaka's wife has a Master's from Medill. i can't believe they let this guy get away.

3/31 edit: "Chicago is my favorite city in the whole country."

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this is him. this is the guy. the man who will lead Northwestern basketball to the Promised Land. forget for a minute that he was just hired as head coach by another school. NU isn't throwing out Carmody just after they made the NIT. but when BC's contract is not renewed after the 2009/2010 season, this is the coach who should make the leap from a great mid-major job to the Big Ten Conference.

his name? Shaka Smart. "hmmm," you're wondering, "i like the sound of 'Smart' but 'Shaka' doesn't sound like the kind of name that would fit in with the Northwestern administration." but wait, i can explain. a brief bio:

• 32 years old
• native of Madison, WI
• coached/recruited for five years in the midwest (Akron, Dayton)
• served as an assistant under Billy Donovan

and there's more:

• played basketball at Kenyon College, but only after deciding not to go to Harvard, Yale or Cornell. graduated magna cum laude. as a senior was North Coast Athletic Conference Scholar Athlete of the Year. was one of 20 student-athletes selected for the 1999 USA Today All-USA Academic team and received a NCAA postgraduate scholarship.

i dare you to read this article and tell me Shaka Smart wouldn't immediately energize an NU program badly in need of it.

"WREAK HAVOC ON OUR OPPONENTS' PSYCHE"

are you kidding me?!?! VCU even had Billy Donovan as part of yesterday's press conference! i'm calling on all NU boosters to put aside some money right now. we'll use it to take care of whatever trifling little buyout will be necessary to get this guy to Evanston in 12 months. mark it down - you heard it here first.

First-hand account of Saturday's win

from a friend of FBC:


"Our NU contingent at the game was decent (120 tickets sold through the alumni website). Because Boston College did not have a lot of fans there and because Boston College was generally sucking, we were pretty loud. When we yelled for the NU player introductions, the coaches turned around (we were in the upper level behind the bench) in surprise. When Carmody did the shift change with around a minute left to get the scrubs in, one of the assistants grabbed him and gestured towards us. Then he walked along the bench and talked to the players and gestured towards us again. After the post-game handshakes they came over and waved and celebrated with us. I thought it was pretty cool that the assistant recognized that they needed to appreciate the vocal fans who had shown up to support them 1,000 miles from Evanston. Then, in honor of FBC, I decided that it was a sure good thing the assistant thought of it, because Carmody is far too douchey to ever come up with such an idea."

Juice's career not finished yet

Northwestern will host UW Milwaukee on Wednesday night. i'm not entirely sure how that happened, but i'll take it. let's hope Wildcat fans are not outnumbered in our own building. and thank God NU was invited to the NIT, because earlier the school had announced that it was not interested in the CBI.

i generally agree with Loretta8's comments on twitter and SoP that NU is in no position to turn down any chance at postseason basketball. Jim Phillips' competitiveness is well-documented, so i guess i understand how he would look at the CBI as a slap in the face. i also understand there are financial obligations of playing in the CBI, at least at home. but i would look at it as an opportunity to grow the program and take advantage of extra practice time for the returning roster. the cynical side of me thinks that perhaps Jim didn't want to give BC credit for a "third consecutive postseason appearance." but all of that is irrelevant now - call the banner company to get a third NIT in the rafters!

in other news, sadly i'll miss the first weekend of the tournament this year due to some (wife's) family obligations in the Dominican Republic. on the plus side, this is the second consecutive year a NU blogger planned a trip to the Caribbean in March with absolutely no chance of missing the Wildcats' first tourney appearance.

and finally, how about some dap for Ed DeChellis. for the last few years he has been on more "hot seat" lists than Carmody. the support that PSU hoops team doesn't get from the university is ridiculous. and although the Bryce Jordan Center is newer than Welsh-Ryan, that doesn't mean it's much better. and yet, two years ago DeChellis got an NIT title, and obviously this weekend he did what BC has never been able to do: string together enough wins at the end of the season to get the committee's attention. that plus Ed's absolute ownership of NU makes Bill Carmody look even worse.

So much for that

A second inspiring effort against the Fuckeyes came up short today. My biggest sports fan pet peeve is complaining about the refs, so you won't hear me bitching about any foul calls. As a shout-out to FBC's early days, I did think about titling this post, "I hate you Luka Mirkovic." What a miserable two days for him. I hate to admit it, but late in the second half I was thinking it would have been nice to have Kyle Rowley today- five fouls to give, if nothing else.

Even if NU had held on, it would have been nearly impossible for them to win two more in two days. With such a short bench the 'Cats looked gassed, and some of those late jumpers were well short. Hate to see Juice go out like this - wondering what could have been - but hopefully he's not finished quite yet. Who knows, maybe NU will even get a home game out of this. See you Sunday on ESPNU.

100% Pure

Juice is the man. we already knew this, but he has really played out of his mind down the stretch of this season. all week he's been saying: "we still plan on making the NCAA tournament. we're going to Indy to win four games." today there was no way he was letting NU lose. it's great for him that some national media guys - who may be watching their first NU hoops of the season - get a chance to recognize what a tough player he is.

who the hell knows what's going to happen on Friday, but it was an inspiring effort all around. with such a short bench, guys stepped up and - for the most part - didn't make mistakes. i do not like NU's chances without Capocci and Cobb playing defense, but maybe we'll get some sweater vest karma working in our favor.

Your Summit League update

sadly the 2011 IUPUI season ended with a loss to Oral Roberts in the Summit League tournament. when i saw the final score, i was reminded of the afternoon of February 17, when a spontaneous twitter attack erupted from Michael Hadley: College Basketball fanatic, Summit League aficionado, and IUPUI Jaguar super-fan!

Mikey took issue with my discussion about NU's options if the Wildcats are not invited to the NIT. he started off by claiming he doesn't "really care one way or another about @firebillcarmody's opinions on his (or her) own school/coach/etc" and then proceeded to assail those opinions.

it made for high comedy at the time, and of course the most preposterous of his statements is that "Post season basketball is post season basketball." if that were true, sports fans everywhere would be tuning into ESPNU on March 13 for the NIT selection show, a nation of white-collar workers would be scrambling next Monday to fill out CIT brackets for the office pool, and IUPUI's own gym would feature a picture of its 2010 CBI squad alongside the 2003 team that made the NCAA tournament.

so don't be sad about the loss, Mike. IUPUI finishes the year with a 19-14 record, so they'll likely end up in the CBI or CIT, which according to you, is just as good as playing in the big dance. enjoy the ride.

for those who weren't following along last month, here you go:

Hooray! Championship Week is here!