Let's establish a few things here.

1) Since The Dude publishes every Marquette loss presumably for "my benefit", I do feel compelled to tell him that I am actually not a Marquette fan.  Truth be told, I'm not a Shaka Smart fan either.  This all came about because The Dude ridiculously argued that Shaka was being short-sighted in NEARLY DOUBLING HIS INCOME by leaving VCU to take the Texas job.  While I defended Shaka in this instance as any sane person would, this truly does not translate to me being a Marquette fan.  So by all means Dude, keep on posting those Marquette losses (but never the wins, naturally, because any hope you have for credibility here sailed away years ago), and I'll just keep on thinking what a complete fool you are each time you do it.

2) It sure seems like UCONN hasn't played in a long time since it's been over a week since The Dude last mentioned them.  Wait, what's this?  UCONN lost last Friday night to St. John's?  I can't believe he didn't report that here.  I guess it follows the same reasoning why he failed to mention Gonzaga's rather humiliating loss to Portland State.

3) Now, let's talk about Wisconsin, who according to The Dude has "serious bubble concerns."  First, this was not even the case prior to last night's road win at Illinois.  Second, with this win, Wisconsin now has arguably the two best road wins of the season (at Michigan, who only beat Gonzaga by 40 points and has lost just once this season, and now at Illinois).  

Serious bubble concerns?  Wow Dude, you just know so much about college basketball, don't you?

The Athletic ran an article about coaches on the hot seat (and how hot their seats are).  Sadly, Red Autry and Steve Pikiell are both mentioned.  So too is Anthony Grant though this was positioned as a possible mutual decision (a retirement, given the personal tragedy he has endured).  

Remarkably missing from the article was Greg Gard, on track to take the Badgers to their 7th NCAA tournament in the past 8 seasons, and the head coach who has engineered the two best road victories this season.  (FYI..I am not a huge fan of Gard.  Nevertheless, it's just plain ignorant to write that someone is on the hot seat when they clearly aren't.)

Blind resume test:  is this team an at-large?

W-L:  18-7
KenPom:  32
NET:  33   Q1: 3-6   Q2:  5-1   Q3:  4-0    Q4:  6-0

The three Q1 wins are all Top 10 wins, two on the road against Top 5 teams at the time the games were played, the third a 21 point home victory against the #10 ranked program in the country..  Presently in 5th place within its 18 team conference, just a game and a half out of second place.     

Why it's none other than "serious bubble concerns" (according to The Dude) Wisconsin, who trounced Michigan State from the opening tip in a 92-71 win.  Another good call Dude.    

Jerome Tang was fired today

This was quite a rapid descent. Year 1, he made The Elite 8, with an almost entirely new team after Bruce Weber retired suddenly, almost all year 1 transfers

3 years later they 5-15 vs Quads 1-3.  1-11 vs the Big 12.

They do have 4 Quad 2 wins though which is 4 more than the 0-14 vs Quads 1 and 2 Marquette Squad!

Shaka Smart may well be next.  


 

The Dude wrote:

Jerome Tang was fired today

This was quite a rapid descent. Year 1, he made The Elite 8, with an almost entirely new team after Bruce Weber retired suddenly, almost all year 1 transfers

3 years later they 5-15 vs Quads 1-3.  1-11 vs the Big 12.

They do have 4 Quad 2 wins though which is 4 more than the 0-14 vs Quads 1 and 2 Marquette Squad!

Shaka Smart may well be next.  


 

"Let's see.  I think I'll post about Jerone Tang for absolutely no reason but to take another gratuitous shot at Shaka Smart."  Troll's gotta troll.

Naturally, The Troll missed the boat on all of this.  THE story concerning Tang is that he publicly blew up about his team, suggesting that they don't deserve to wear the K State uniforms and that most of them wouldn't be back next year anyway.  In turn, the school didn't just fire him because of a poor record but fired him with cause due to his explosive comments.  Tang will be fighting this legally as the school hopes to save a buyout in excess of $18 million.  So much has changed in this sport over the last 5-10 years.  A decade ago, firing him with cause would not have been taken seriously.  Today, I honestly don't know how this will go (probably an undisclosed settlement, but how much will Tang walk away with is anyone's guess).

Then there is Shaka, the guy who had the audacity to nearly double his salary when he left VCU for Texas.  (It's nice to know that there are folks out there like The Dude who would work for much less money than he could make elsewhere.  Though nice may not be the precise word.)     The bulk of the minutes this season have been going to freshmen and sophomores as Shaka is the lone power conference coach who has not dipped into the portal.  He has acknowledged this as a mistake in this day and age and will be portal shopping this offseason.  While I would never say never, Shaka will very more than likely be back at Marquette next season despite the whiny protestations of our resident troll.

GWRising wrote:

Gwmayhem - it is useless pointing out the weaknesses of the Dude's trolling posts. By the time you address them (full-time employment) he is on to the next troll. You just have to take comfort in knowing that you could take all of the Dude's basketball knowledge, place it into a thimble, and then realize the thimble is empty.

 
Very true Rising.  However, I noticed that another poster recently questioned him in a serious manner as if to suggest that The Dude knew the first thing about what he was talking about.  And we can't let this happen.  It's just not fair to anyone who thinks they might be receiving legitimate information from him.  It's pretty simple..just like it must be fun for him to incessantly troll this board, it's also fun for me to correct him.

Rhode Island beats Saint Louis!

NC State 82 North Carolina 58
Biggest win in that rivalry since 1962

Ohio State 86 Wisconsin 69 in a battle of bubble teams, big win for Ohio St big loss for Wisconsin. 

Last edited by The Dude (2/17/2026 11:30 pm)

Another home loss for Marquette, who falls to 0-15 vs Quads 1 & 2.

They also lost to Dayton Georgetown and Maryland in Quad 3 games, rough year for Marquette! 

 

Top 5 NET:

Michigan, Duke, Arizona, Illinois and Gonzaga

5 teams for the 4 #1 seeds


Saint Louis looks like about a seven seed after their their loss to Rhode Island

South Florida is obliterating Memphis

Could knock that victory of ours back  into a quad 1 win for GW since South Florida is nearing a 50 net.  As a neutral court game, that would be a quad one win for GW.

Tough year for Penny and Memphis

South Florida is 2-2 versus quad 1, 6 6-5 versus quads 1 and 2. Just as good as most of the bubble teams!


We lost at Saint Louis by 3, To the national champions, Florida by 10, play the toughest part of the schedule. Pretty tough pretty well

Still at a very respectable much improved Ken Pom of 80