Doc

No way. Not a fluke. Although that run at the Big East title last year will be hard to duplicate down the road, given that the conference is so much deeper than anyone could have anticipated. Six-and-a-half teams that could beat you on any given day.

Now let's see if we can get everyone who showed up on campus last night into the stands for our B-ball game against Stetson! With the Gators biting the big one against Kansas, we're down to only 41 unbeatens! And while we're at it, let's get those same fans to show up for our women's basketball games too. No question that they deserve it every bit as much!

If you think our commercials are bad, what about that Big East promo? It's a total disgrace! Watching it, you would think our conference only had the three teams shown. How about representing all school equally? At least the old C-USA spots had the good sense to give all members face time.

If the title game goes OSU-Mich, couldn't the Rose Bowl then select Notre Dame to play USC? I know it's a rematch, but it's still Notre Dame money and Notre Dame publicity. If so, then the Sugar Bowl picks next, so I guess it doesn't help our cause that it's in the middle of LSU country. Any chance they would pick Louisville over LSU and a rematch vs the SEC champ? Wishful thinking on my part, I guess.

Thanks for sharing your experience! It must have been awesome being there to see it unfold in person, considering how great it was just watching it from a small TV in a sports bar with no sound. A truly remarkable victory. That's too bad about the WVU fans at the game. Most Big East football fans I've encountered on the road (UL, UC, UConn, Pitt, and even WVU) have been extremely polite, although I guess it's much easier to behave oneself after a victory. The biggest break had to have been the weather. We've all seen what happens when the mercury drops and it was something like 8 degrees, windy, and snowy for Thanksgiving last year in Morgantown. Well, have a safe trip home and perhaps we'll cross paths at the bowl game.

Good one, Sheriff! But I'm NOT a gynecolgist. If I knew what those ESPNU guys were saying, I would have shown them my go-go-gadget finger. Our basketball winning streak is a winning streak, or non-losing streak if you prefer -- no losses since March 1. And with the Fightin' Greenbergs going down tonight, we're left with only 58 unbeatens. The countdown continues!

Ha!! Yes I kept the L-Ville cup to add to my Big East collection. Haven't seen the tape. I got pretty excited after that TD and I guess that comes from watching too many AZ Cardinals games where TD-onside kick-TD-onside kick-TD combos are usually required in garbage time. One of these days I'll see it actually happen. . .

. . . that's if you go by time since last loss rather than number of wins. By my count, only 11 schools in D-1 finished last season with a victory (national champ, NIT champ, and nine others without conference tourneys or who didn't qualify for one), and eight have already gone down to defeat this year. Only Florida and TAMU-CC have gone longer without a loss. Also, for what it's worth, with Georgia Tech's impending loss tonight, the number of unbeatens will dwindle to just 60. Several more to go down before we take the court again. Still on that list: UCF, Greenberg's Hokies, upcoming opponents Richmond, MoSt, TAMU-CC, Wake Forest, and six other Big East schools. What does this mean? Well, about 8 years ago we took a winning streak in to mid-December and got some national attention before Tennessee knocked us off at home in OT. It didn't, however, get us any votes or any extra conference wins. Still, I'll take any positive spotlight over those "only team to not win a conference game. . ." tags they were flashing on the ESPN ticker last year.

Have already ordered my MSG tickets, but no plane ticket. . . of course I'm driving to Hartford and NYC come March whether our teams are there or not. For what it's worth, the Sagarin ratings currently have us ahead of six Big East schools. Non-conference record doesn't play into tie-breakers, but I'd rather beat the likes of FIU and SC St. than have losses to Wofford and Jackson St.

And how much did we lose when Louisville beat West Virginia? Or when Rutgers beat Louisville? I don't think anyone in Rutgers cares about the great disservice they did to the conference by upsetting Louisville. I say, win both games, pass Rutgers, and take a big portion of the BCS publicity and money for ourselves. If the Rutgers-WVU game is still meaningful to us, anyone else up for a trip to Morgantown???

The way I see it, Rutgers, even with two losses, stays ahead of South Florida in the BCS rankings. Our only shot is to win out and have Rutgers lose all three remaining games. Highly unlikely for the BCS, but still mathematically possible. which is more than Miami and Florida State can say right about now. But wouldn't it be the Fiesta Bowl? I think they get the last pick this year and the Orange Bowl would probably take Boise State ahead of us.

After hearing and reading nothing but doom and gloom for this season, I'll take a victory any day of the week. And a solid performance as well. Buffalo is not half-bad and probably a tougher opponent than most we'll face this non-conference season. And look around the Big East and you'll see plenty of other teams struggling this first week, like highly touted DePaul. And yes, all twelve teams in the Big East tournament last year went to either the NIT or NCAA. A winning overall record and a 12-seed in MSG should do it, though I'm not saying we'll cover these.

Who else is going to make it to the game this weekend? It's just a four hour trip for me from St. Louis but I haven't heard if there is going to be a pre-game gathering like there was at Kansas.

I admit it, I couldn't resist the urge to purchase a Gators hand-towel this week. That way, when I'm playing our fight song at select road softball/baseball games next year, I'll have something with which to clean out the spit-valve.

Fortunately, I was out at a sports bar for that Seton Hall game. My hat made more than a few trips into the big screen that night. At least I didn't have to pay for any damage.

Incredible! Congratulations to Solomon Jones and best of luck in Atlanta! I stand by Coach McCullum, but whether you do or don't, there's no question this helps recruiting tremendously. Even in a bad year, you still play in a conference that gets enough exposure to make these dreams come true. How many Golden Knights got drafted tonight? Bulliever, thanks for the video clip! After storming out of a sports bar in Orlando after they kept taking away the volume from my TV (which others were watching too), I made it home just in time to miss the selection. . .

JewBull, yeah, got a few more days off than expected this week so I'm visiting the family in Orlando. Ricky, sorry I missed you. . . I was already out looking for a place here in Orlando to watch it.

I'm back in Florida this week -- wondering if anyone's up for an NBA Draft watch party Wednesday night. Just name a place and perhaps we can get together a group of the Bulls faithful.

We haven't been the Brahmans in over twenty years, but I'll give that website credit for doing their research and correctly identifying the type of bull Rocky is (or is supposed to be). I'm still partial to the previous costume, though, over the current steroided incarnation. Anyone else on-board with changing the womens teams back to "Brahmans" to avoid the gender-specific label? As for Otto the Orange, I have to rank him far higher than the website did. The squat-and-bounce and squat-and-roll routines always get a laugh from the crowd.

I'm also not convinced that an OCS should be a priority for the school at this time. Nothing wrong with the atmosphere at RJS (and I haven't even been to the "big" games since 2002). For comparison, I happened to be passing through West Virginia last Thanksgiving and stopped at the Pitt-WVU "Backyard Brawl" and the atmosphere there wasn't much different than what you'd see at our home games (I believe they have an OCS in Morgantown). I've never been to a football game at Gainesville, Tuscaloosa, etc, but I have to believe that the atmosphere at those games differs from ours due more to the relative importance their fans place on college football -- it seems they have nothing else to live for in those towns and a significant portion of their fans are not students, nor alumni, nor employees. I really don't see that happening in Tampa and building an OCS won't bring in those non-USF-affiliated fans. Winning would do more. However, as for that pirate ship in the endzone, no one hates the Bucs more than I do. So, instead of storming the field after the next big win, how about storming the ship and carrying out its masts onto Dale Mabry instead of the goalposts? Don't think security would anticipate that. . .

For those who believe McCullum needs more than a trip to the Garden to stay on-board, keep in mind that all teams who made it to New York last season got into the Big Dance or the NIT. And all four who went to the NIT won at least one of those games. So six conference wins and an overall winning record might just do the trick. However, I see fewer than six conference wins getting a ticket to the Garden next season, and four or five might get you in if you win the right games (negating my MSG=NIT theory). The teams who finished 10th through 15th basically split all the games among themselves, creating that ugly log-jam with what amounted to "play-in games" between RU-SJU and ND-DePaul on the final weekend. With ANY kind of spread between the haves and have-nots, a team can very realistically get in with 4 or 5 victories. Unfortunately, some of our biggest beatdowns came at the hands of the 13th, 14th, and 15th placed teams.

Any more crying from that guy, and I say the Big East kicks him out -- to the Metro Conference, perhaps? I'm sure C-USA would be happy to have him back. . .

The Big East already has a "17th" school -- Loyola (Md) for lacrosse only. I have never been a big fan of single-sport-only schools and so would not favor adding ECU or anyone else for that matter. I think it's pretty clear that the Big East will stand as it is for now, although some of the other rumors for the future I've heard out there include: Notre Dame added for football -- solves scheduling mess, pretty much everyone's happy (except ND), but obviously won't happen. Too easy. Notre Dame to Big10 for all aports, Penn State to Big East for all sports -- the fans in South Bend fantasize about the Big10 and during our basketball game there, they announced scores from Michigan, Michigan St, Purdue, etc., before any scores from the Big East. Penn State has always longed to be in a strong east coast conference. And hey, both schools are now about even in football and men's BBall. . . but the realignment penalties will probably prevent this from happening any time soon and I don't think Penn State would favor the dropoff in football competition (though only temporary of course). Notre Dame totally out, and Central Florida to Big East for all sports -- whenever the currrent contract runs out with ND, the conference may set an ultimatum to join in football (see above) or say goodbye to the Big East for all other sports. If Notre Dame tries to call the bluff, they get the boot, and Central Florida takes their place. Rumors say that the conference indeed wants to get an in-state rivalry going in football. Plus, it would relieve some of the problems with travel-partners in the less lucrative sports. Rumors only, of course. I personally would be OK with any of the above, yes, even UCF to replace ND. I'm also fine with Villanova or Georgetown making the jump if committed and a bit more ready. But agreed, no rush.

With the new logo in 2003, the school decided to officially add "South Florida" to the list of unacceptable names used by media or on merchandise (like "St. Louis" is for Saint Louis or "Depaul" is for DePaul; S.Fla, So.Fla, and South FL were already on the banned list). Although mostly ignored, it was a bad idea in my opinion. I've found that depressingly few people outside of Hillsborough County can correctly identify all three words represented by U.S.F. which ultimately leads to your typical mistakes. I've even encountered someone who was familiar with "South Florida" sports but thought "USF" was a different school! I guess the university has since backed off its stance (that "South Florida" is not to be used in print except as "University of South Florida" and then only the first time, and thereafter could only use USF . . . ), and my last trip to the campus bookstore found more official merchandise with "South Florida" written (although "The University of" is always in small print, never far away). UCFKnights04, point taken and agreed. Although, there are a few waitresses here in St. Louis who intentionally call us "Southern Florida" when I ask for a game on TV simply because they know it gets under my skin. . . oh well, at least it saves me money on the tip.

Beautifully done, Sheriff! Although, I must admit, a part of me misses the old Sheriff I remember who thuggishly "attacked" a pair of flag-waving Memphis fans in the Dome or the one who "allegedly" led a midnight raid to Gainesville's campus on the eve of a BBall game. . . As for that sewer known as Gainesville, couldn't agree more. Although, nice softball complex. I do plan on mailing their softball coach a "Property of FAU" T-shirt when I can get my hands on one. No question about Doug Woolard. He's always been known as a stand up guy. His departure from SLU made BIG news here in St. Louis (the only time our logo made it on the local FSN broadcast), and keep in mind that the Billikens are really only an afterthought here(Mizzou and Illinois are the main events). But as for soccer, I'm afraid that's more a St. Louis city thing rather than a Woolard thing. Saint Louis U has been a soccer power since the 1950s and the city is one of the very few hotbeds for the sport in the U.S. What really blew me away was the fact that SLU's homecoming is not BBall, but rather soccer. . . when they played us in 2003, I found a 2,500+ capacity crowd, and was nearly mauled by the mascot. I confess that I have never been to a home soccer match at USF, but I don't suppose we come anywhere close to that number or atmosphere.