But the big story in the media is the serious chicken wing shortage for the Super Bowl. Yep, we've got our priorities straight! It's on to Buffalo Wild wings to play some buzz time trivia. The missiles go off in 20 seconds.

I could not resist, I had to watch the media coverage of the senate and house hearings on Benghazi by Hannity on Fox and Rachel Maddow on MSNBC. For those that did not watch these unbalanced reports, let me summarize...
Fox - Lead story, Hillary loses composure. They interview Rand Paul who they believe rightfully blasted Hillary when he said "if I were president you would have been terminated". Fox reports that they did not get answers from Hillary that everybody wanted, and even criticized the panels for not asking tougher questions.
MSNBC - Rachel doesn't even make it the lead - they chose instead the pentagon's decision to open combat for women. When it came time to cover the hearings, she basically said that after all the politically motivated grandstanding, one cannot help but be informed by Hillary of how embassies all over the world are under constant attack, and that Hillary is the victim of leading a State department that has to operate on a shoe-string budget. Further, she concludes by asking if the most high profile Secretary of State in HISTORY (Hillary) cannot get the funding she needs, how does this bode for incoming secretary John Kerry?
It's hard to believe how screwed up this country is when we have news reporting like this. I feel like I had to take a shower after watching. I will admit that I don't watch these programs often, and I should exercise my right to ignore "unwatchable programs", but don't you think it's scary that these two prime time news shows are influencing so many people in this country??

I just had a chance to watch the president's speech, and I'm curious what others in Nova Nation think. Obama is no doubt a great orator, and given the chance to prepare a speech he hits it out of the park almost every time. After four long years, however, I am convinced that he is an empty suit. Every time he started a thought as "We....the people..." I'm thinking he has little to do with the majority of Americans. A lifelong politician who has found a way to sidestep every issue his detractors has presented (Benghazi, Fast and Furious, the fiscal cliff). He uses Newtown Ct. to make us believe in his commitment to make every child's life safe and precious, but guarantees planned parenthood that their funding is secured (I know there are a lot of pro-choice people out there, but do yourself a favor and research how evil and corrupt planned parenthood is, regardless of your stance on abortion). One might also believe he is on the humble side of God, yet his attacks on religion (or more accurately his disdain for any religious voice) convinces me to think otherwise.
In short, I think we, the people, are screwed for another presidential term.

A #8 seed vs Nebraska in the Durham region.

Keep it going Nova!!

Early brackets

5 people sot at gun shows on gun appreciation day. Great PR for that one! Too funny.

I was able to see some of the meet on the live telecast from the Armory. Some thoughts ...

Denault looked very strong and smooth in the 3000. He and Williamsz exchanged leads throughout the race - like they were just taking turns leading. Denault pulled away over the last lap of so.

Lipari...? She looked very good. She stalked Koons for most of the race; took the lead with a couple of laps to go; lost it to Koons; and then came back to win in the stretch comiing off the last turn. Very impressive.

Summer Cook ran well. She is a very big girl. Not fat; just a very big girl. She is still listed as being on the swimming team and their season is still going on with big meets coming up. Is she doing both? Remember the men had a runner who was competing in Big East championships in both swimming and track on the same weekend in NYC. Is she a junior or senior athletically?

Akande finished 4th but appeared to have taken sick (stomach or digestive problems) during the race and was having trouble afterwards.

It appears that it was Courtney Chapman acting as the rabbit for this race. Noticed that she finished 3rd in mile in about 4:54, which is a huge improvement over last week, which is good. I expected a lot more from Chapman than she has shown thus far. Thought she was the best of the soph class and would now be a key member of 4x1500 and eventually Big East champion. They need to smooth-out her running style. Moves her arms inefficiently.

VU has nothing in men's 400. Galato will be of no help with 4x800.

Tully has quietly become one of VU's better performers. Did not expect this when he arrived, but has nice 800 time of about 1:51+ I believe; had good moments in XC, must be considerd for a leg on 4xmile.

At Penn Relays, men will be major players in DMR, 4xmile and 4x800. How do you split the talent? Saw Michigan take all three with a core of Nick Willis and Nate Brennan and Andrew Ellerton. Don't believe Ellerton ran on 4xmile (too lazzy to look it up). My point: Michigan had two stellar performers in Brennan & Willis who ran on all three relays. In VU's case, it would have to be McEntee & Williamsz. The problem is the 4xmile and 4x800 are both on Saturday. Can Williamsz & McEntee do both or do you focus on one - 4x800 - and forget about 4xmile? Or split the pair - Williamsz on 4x800 and McEntee on 4xmile - and find someone to replace the other - Kieran Brennan / Lampron on 4x800 (after seeing Galato, last night, I do not think so) and choice of two from Mildenhal, Lampron, Tully on 4xmile. Tully is very important in this discussion. Be interesting to see if VU runs 4x800 at Millrose and who makes-up the team...
This post was edited on 1/19 3:02 PM by sebastianc

The LadyCats survived the running of the Bulls today, holding a team averaging 78 points a game to only 49 points, the 11th time this season Nova has held an opponent under 50. Devon Kane deposited three foul shots with only 0.3 seconds left on the clock and a heave from the backcourt went well wide to give Nova the closely contested win in a poorly officiated game.

Nova started out strong, with SFU having to call a time out not three minutes in, trailing 7-0 on a Rachel Roberts three and two Laura Sweeney layups. The Cats continued strong, pulling down a ton of rebounds off SFU misses. Taylor Holeman had five boards in the first five minutes of the game and Sweeney finished the half with 10 boards. Two three pointers by Lauren Burford, a Roberts layup and a short shot by Caroline Coyer pushed the Nova lead out to 17-7 at the 11:15 mark.

From that point on, the first half belonged to Andrell Smith, scoring 12 of SFU's points in a 16-5 run to close out the half to lead Nova by 1 at 23-22. SFU came at Nova with a full court press after each made basket and Nova coughed up the ball a few times on bad passes and Nova did not score their 18th and 19th points until only 1 minute remained in the half. With incredible team speed, SFU was scoring points only seconds after grabbing defensive rebounds at the other end, or off turnovers. Roberts paced the first half scoring with 8, Burford 6 and Sweeey 4.

The second half started with a barrage of fouls, SFU picking up their sixth team foul at the 15:37 mark. At that point Sweeney went to work from the left corner from a spread formation, continuing to drive her defender to the hoop, generating points or fouls. SFU was not offering any help to her defender and she pretty much had her way. After being behind by as much as 5 at the 17 minute mark, Nova caught up to SFU at 33 with 12 minutes to go on a short Kane bank shot and their first lead in the second half 17 seconds later on a Kane free throw. The game was then nip and tuck the balance of the game with Nova never able to get more than 4 points ahead and SFU never able to get better than a tie score.

In a key sequence, Andrell Smith (20 points on the night) picked up her 4th personal on an offensive foul with 5:18 to go and Caroline Coyer attacked her on offense and fouled her out just over a minute later on a drive to the basket. An SFU three pointer tied the score at 47 with 3:15 to go, and no one was able to score again until Sweeney knocked down two clutch free throws with 1:12 to go. SFU immediatley responded with a layup to knot the game again at 49 with 53 seconds left. With 36 seconds left Holeman overthrew a pass to Sweeney on a perfectly executed pick and roll, turning the ball over to SFU. After using most of the 30 second shot clock, a short SFU shot was corralled by Holeman, who kicked the ball out to Roberts on the right side. A long pass down the right sideline forced Kane to come to the sideline, catch the ball with her back to the basket, turn and heave a no-chance shot up just before the buzzer as an SFU player bumped hard into her. The contact was enough to warrent the foul call and Kane then calmly sank the first two shots to get a 51-49 lead. After a time out by Nova to set the defense for the final 0.3 seconds, Kane nailed the third free throw, SFU got the ball to their 3 point shooter at just outside the half-court line but her shot had no chance. Happiness Reigns!

Once again Nova managed to find a way to win without shooting espcially well and going through a long scoring drought (ten minutes, 50 seconds). The defense performed well enough to get back and thwart most attempts by SFU to run us out of the building. SFU's shooting was even worse than ours (17 of 65 vs 16 of 49 for Nova). Sweeney led Nova with 16 points and 11 boards and really controlled the tempo of the game for most of the second half, except when she sat down for a bit with her fourth foul. Roberts tacked on 13, Burford and Kane 6 apiece. Nova won the board battle 44-41, with Holeman finishing with 9.

Outstanding Efforts - Holeman and Sweeney controlling the boards for the entire first half. Kane coming through with the game winning free throws for the second game in a row. Another overall good defensive effort, keeping a speedy,high scoring team in check (29 points below their average). Sweeney moving up to 9th place on the all time scoring list with 1,336. Next up on the list is current Drexel coach Denise Dillon with 1,355. Her 701 career rebounds puts her only 2 behind Jackie Adamshick (who played in the alumni game this afternoon) for 7th place on that career list.

The "need to improve on" column - plenty of opportunities to knock down threes again today and not much success ( 5 of 23), only one in the second hafl), some shots far off the mark. If teams start really backing down in the lane or zoning us, the three point shooters need to produce. We have managed to get through four Big East wins without needing a lot of threes, but this can't continue. If we simply shot 33% on our threes over the past 7 or eight games we would have blown everyone away, and had Delaware in a tight game at the end.

The Future - With Syracuse losing today and Notre Dame and St. Johns facing off tomorrow, only one team other than Nova will remain undefeated in the Big East. Nova is now 15-2 on the season and 4-0 in the Big East. Both represent the fastest starts for the team since 1986-87. We head up to Providence on Wedensday night - hopefully no one will be looking past them to a big game against Syracuse at 6 p.m. next Saturday night at the Pavilion. Two more wins may very well set us up with an unbeaten record in the Big East and a Top 25 ranking before we head up to face UConn the following week. Come on out and support this team! Admission is free to anyone with a ticket stub from the men's game against Syracuse that morning.

Added link to PhilaHoopsW storyline 1-20-13
This post was edited on 1/20 8:04 AM by tpenter

Mel Greenberg storyline

Penn gave Nova all it could handle tonight, and it took a second half Wonder Women act from Laura Sweeney to put away the Quakers 48-44.

The game started sloppy, but Nova put up some good defensive pressure and got out to a 16-8 lead on a Sweeney layup at the 9:50 mark and it looked like we were off to a solid win. Things went down hill for Nova after that. Nova failed to score over the next five minutes, allowing Penn to tie the score at 16 all. Devon Kane then hit a short jumper to get us back out in front at 18-16, but we then went another 4 and a half minutes without scoring, falling behind 23-18 with only 37 seconds left in the half. Taylor Holeman then hit a huge three from the corner to get us back to 23-21 at the half. Things would have looked pretty bleak if she missed and Penn had been able to score at the other end before the break.

The epic struggle continued to start the second half with Penn running off the first six points, driving the ball into the lane each time, staking us to a 29-21 deficit. At that point Penn had outscored us by 21-5 over a 12 minute span during which we only scored two baskets.

Then it was time for the Sweeney show to begin. A short shot, a foul shot (putting their starting center on the bench with 3 fouls), followed by an assist on a layup by Holeman, and then a layup on a feed from Megan Pearson. Seven points in a span of 2:15 brought us back to within 1 with 15:30 on the clock. After a three ball by Penn, we had a Sweeney layup, a Sweeney free throw, a Kane three, and Sweeney layup, jumper and free throw, interrupted by a Holeman jumper, followed by another Sweeney layup and then a big Kane three pointer. After all that we had a 46-40 lead with 4:30 to play.

After a couple of missed shots at both ends, Penn pulled within 4 with a foul shot with 2:57 left on the clock. From there it was a pretty amazing display of keep-away by Nova. Caroline Coyer missed a three ball 28 seconds into the shot clock but Pearson rebounded the ball, then Pearson missed a lane shot with 2 seconds on the shot clock and we got a deadball rebound. Kane then missed her shot with 2 seconds left on the shot clock and Sweeney got the offensive board with 53 seconds left, but was called for an elbow after being double teamed. Nova had possession of the ball for more than two full minutes during that incredible stretch. Penn worked a play to get a layup with 27 seconds left. Penn then took a foul that they had to give, but could not foul again until there was only 7 seconds left, putting Kane on the line for two. No problem, she made both and Penn never got another shot away.

Good Stuff - a W even though we did not play very well. Sweeney - 19 points (15 in second half) on 8 of 12 shooting with only one miss from inside the three line, 8 boards, 3 assists, 2 steals, pretty much single-handedly won the game. Taylor Holeman seemingly improving with every game, 24 minutes, 9 points on 4 of 5 shooting, 6 boards, great defense. Kane nailing the pressure foul shots. Undefeated Big Five champs for the second year in a row! 14-2 overall record!

Not very pretty stuff - being outplayed by Penn for long stretches, inability to connect on many threes (5 of 20), missed foul shots (7 for 12). Seven turnovers in the first half put us in a hole (10 total for the game). Just an ugly win.

Added link to Mel Greenberg game summary 1-17-13.
This post was edited on 1/17 8:29 PM by tpenter

PhilaHoopsW game summary

Orlando Florida is the latest hotspot for gov't insanity. They are insisting that a couple uproot their vegetable garden they use to live on and brings excitement to their neighborhood. Stupidity.



This post was edited on 1/8 12:41 PM by FrostyCold1

please view the video.

So a female Republican congresswoman from West Virginia--a state that's trending more Republican--with name appeal in that state announces she will challenge Rockefeller in 2014 for his Senate seat, and the Club for Growth and the Senate Conservatives Fund come out not a week later and announce she isn't conservative enough.

They've learned nothing.

In a clinic second half, Nova dissected the Pitt defense, ramped up their own defense and stifled Pitt with a 35-21 second half smackdown after leading by only 2 at the half. Sweeney won raves on the internet broadcast and rightfully so - 18 points on 7 of 13, with 10 rebound, 4 assists, 5 steals and 4 blocks. Rachel Roberts added 14 on 5 of 9 including 3 of 6 on threes and added 7 assists, Caroline Coyer kept us in the lead by nailing 3 threes in the first half to finish with nine and Taylor Holeman followed up her 7 for 7 night against DePaul with a 4 of 5 effort for 8 points.

Game totals - 27 of 58, with 9 of 27 on threes, 29 boards vs 31 for Pitt, only 7 turnovers, 24 assists on 27 baskets, 8 steals and five blocks. Points in the paint were 32 of which probably 26 were layups. The offense ran to perfection in both halfs, but the threes weren't falling in the first half, even after Pitt switched out to a zone to try to stop us from scoring inside. The threes started to fall in the second half, ending a six game dismal stretch where we couldn't score the long ball.

After giving up the opening score, Nova ran out 11 straight points causing an early Pitt time out even before the Nova second team took the court. Pitt then regrouped to score 9 of the next 11 points to close to 13-11 with their run interuppted by a pretty break out play from Coyer to Kane in the corner to Leer down the lane for a layup. A Roberts three pushed a Nova lead out to 25-19 before Pitt ran off 8 straight to take the lead again at 27-25. A short shot by Holeman ended the run and two Coyer threes helped Nova stay ahead at the break at 33-31.

The clinic started right off of the opening whistle for the second half - Sweeney layup, followed by Sweeney short jumper in the lane and a Roberts 3 pushed the lead back up to 40-31 with 17:40 remaining in the game. Pitt once again got some offense going and closed to 45-41 with about 14 minutes to go and the announcers were impressed by the way Pitt was scoring against the Nova team that was only giving up 48 a game. From that point on, Pitt would only put 11 more on the board, with a Megan Pearson three, Sweeney on a cutter, a Sweeney drive and a Roberts 3 ball blowing the game open at 55-41 with 10:32 to go. The lead got up to as much as 19 with layup after layup each trip down the floor, followed by a Burford three from deep in the corner. Sweeney got her double double with her 10th rebound at the 6:45 mark.

The team is off to a 3-0 start in the Big East for the first time since the magical 2002-2003 elite 8 year, with only Syracuse, Notre Dame and St. John's undefeated at 2-0. The LadyCats go for the outright Big Five title at Penn on Wednseday night at the Palestra and return home on Saturday to face our nemesis in South Florida. Make it out to Penn if you can, but certainly plan to be on hand on Saturday to see us get our first ever win over the Bulls (lady Bulls?, Bull-ettes?). If you missed the game on the internet, Comcast Sportsnet has it on tape delay at 11 p.m. tonight (Saturday).

WIll post up links later to any interesting stories or photos that I can find.

Go Nova!
Link added 1-13-12 to Mel Greenberg's game story.

This post was edited on 1/13 9:25 AM by tpenter

Use this link to get a few game photos from Pitt website - http://www.pittsburghpanthers.com/view.gal?id=132890

This post was edited on 1/13 9:32 AM by tpenter

Greenberg game write-up

I found that on Pitt's broadcast schedule.

After scoring her 1000th point mid-season last year to become the 23rd Nova woman to eclipse that mark, she quickly surpassed eight others ahead of her to finish the season with the 15th highest point total. Going into today's game she was tied for 14th place with 1,261 points. The 15 points she put up today moves her to 1,276 into 13th place ahead of Michele Thornton (1,261) and Liad Suez-Karni (1,274). Just ahead are Nikki Bendix at 1,280, Helen Koskinen (Harry's wife) at 1,292 and Katie Davis (1,293). With just 18 more points she moves into the top ten career scorers.

On the rebounding career totals, her six boards today moves her to a total of 664, already good enough for 9th on the all-time career list. Just ahead at 677 is Denise Dillon (current Drexel head coach), and Jackie Adamshick at 703.

Not to be overlooked, Laura had five steals today, increasing her career total to 175.

Barring significant injury, Laura should finish up this season and career with the sixth most points and fifth most rebounds in Nova history. Not too shabby.

Kelsey Margey just set a new 1000m record for the Armory, breaking the old record which was also held by a Villanova woman-- 2:43 and change.

Breaks her personal best by over 5 sec.
This post was edited on 1/11 7:12 PM by excattyguy

I can't read any posts after KJ's one about States that have paid in deserve to get some pork.

Please continue here if u want

Whoo-Hooo! Happy days appear to be here again.

In their first signature Big East win in more than three years, Nova not only made a statement but punctuated it with a blow out victory. Nova jumped out early and built a 10 point lead that held up all the way until half when DePaul closed to within nine at 34-25. Laura Sweeney and Taylor Holeman got layups and Rachel Roberts had a three ball followed by a beautiful backdoor cut for a layup and Nova was off to a 9-0 start. The second team came in and with some foul shots and a pair of nice drive layups by Devon Kane and the lead ballooned to 21-8 and extended to 27-12 when the first team got back on the court. Just an all around awesome display of offense and tough defense at the other end. Lots of rebounds, even on the offenseive glass, with a couple of putbacks to boot. Only two turnovers, one on a 3 second call.

DePaul managed to cut the lead to 8 at 36-28 after a steal and conventional three point play, but then it was off to the races once again. The next 12 Nova baskets were all layups or short shots as the rotation offense kept finding cutters open or Sweeney or Holeman open in the lane. With a Roberts layup at the 11:37 mark Nova had a commanding 18 point lead. The high water mark occured at the 5:37 mark when Roberts ended any suspense by nailing a three ball to lead 63-40 and Harry cleared the bench shortly after.

Truly a team effort, Sweeney with 8 points, 8 boards and 4 steals, Lauren Burford with 4 points but 7 assists, including several dazzling backdoor efforts, Roberts 19 points on 8-15 shooting, Holeman with a career high14 points on 7-7 shooting with 6 boards and Kane with 10 points and 3 assists and generally made a pest of herself driving the lane almost at will. Team shot 29-64, but only 3-25 on three pointers as the outside shooting remains stagnant through five or six games now. We won the rebound battle by a wide margin including lots of offensive rebounds to keep possessions alive. 19 assists with 11 turnovers, with several of them occuring in garbage time.

Hopefully a breakout game for the Wildcats - 2-0 in the Big East with four more winnable games before the gauntlet of UConn, Notre Dame and Rutgers. Away at Pitt on Saturday with the game broadcast free on the web on the BigEast channel as the game of the week. A win there and we should see more votes in the top 25 poll and keeping a terrific RPI rating going.

Good stuff - see above. A totally dynamic display. Taylor Holeman seemingly coming into her own the last few games. Tough defense, rebounding and now scoring some much need points inside for her. We really need her production in the Big East games to come. She was chosen as the star of the game tonight.

Downers - not much to speak of other than the three point shooting.

Will look to add a link to Mel Greenbergs game story on Thursday when he posts up to PhillaHoopsW. Will check to see if any pics or videos get posted to DePauls website also.

PhilaHoopsW article in attached link. Nice comments about Nova from coach Bruno.




This post was edited on 1/9 10:17 PM by tpenter

This post was edited on 1/10 6:50 AM by tpenter

PhilaHoopsW game summary

Awesome win for our lady Cats.

Tax more... spend more... run up another trillion dollars (plus) in debt. So much for "balance".....

In truly great escape fashion, the Nova ladies pulled one out of the hat to edge Cincinnati 54-51 today.

Lauren Burford was on fire to start the game hitting five of six shots to put up 14 points before going out with her second foul with about seven minutes left, with Nova leading 18-14. After that Cincinnati exerted some pressure and outscored Nova by 13-5 to go into half with a 27-25 lead.

Nova only got to within 2 points twice in the second hafl, the last being at the 14.54 mark. Cincinnati managed to hold a 4 to 6 point margin most of the way until a Pearson 3 ball with 3:37 pulled them to within 47-45. After trading a couple of baskets Pearson again came through with a short shot to tie the game at 49 with 1;17 left.

After a Cincinnat miss and a Caroline Coyer rebound, the next offensive possession had Coyer hit a three ball on a feed from Pearson to take a 52-49 lead with 19 ticks left on the clock. After a Cincinnati layup at 9 seconds brought them within one, they immediately fouled Coyer who hit both free throws to finish the scoring at 54-51.

Sweeney posted 15 points, almost all in the second half, Burford finished with the 14 first half points and Coyer added 10 to the total. Nine turnovers, with only 2 coming in the second half, even up on the rebounds at 33 apiece.

A scary one, with a happy ending. More inconsistent offense, but enough to overcome a relatively mediocre Cincinnati team. Much more needed if a win against DePaul on Wednesday is going to be possible.

P.S. - added link to Cincinnati website for game story, photos and Cin. coach quotes.
This post was edited on 1/6 7:08 PM by tpenter

Cincinnati website game recap, photos and quotes

We're Back!

Well, The girls are back...

back to being able to put down the wins...
to holding on in the final stretch or even coming back like today...

back to torturing the fans with these last minute and close wins...
why do they have to torture us like this?
I wasn't grey-haired when I started watching this team...

This is the best team we have had in ten years and I think they will prove it going forward.
I like your summation of the season, tpenter, but I am looking for at least 12 wins down the stretch and
my ignorant optimism says... Lets win them all. On a given day, they can beat anyone.

This team is going to surprise. They are going to grab wins where it is not expected and they will
make the NCAA championship cut.

The more they win, the more they will believe and the better they will become.

Who knows? Maybe it is time for them to beat UCONN again...
Don't laugh me off...
Nobody expected it the first time and certainly not the second time...

If this team keeps it together and can get the timing down to fire on all cylinders at the same time
(or at least a few more cylinders at a time) they will be tough to beat.

There is a lot of talent on this years squad and I think they want it bad enough to make it happen.

GO NOVA WOMEN!

With a 23 point win against Dartmouth last Sunday, the Wildcats finished up the Big East pre-season with a 10-2 record, losing only to Delaware and Minnesota. Neither were totally unexpected, but the fact that we were never really in the game against Minnesota and the wheels fell off in the second half against Delaware were certainly disappointing efforts. The LadyCats have one non-conference game remaining against Penn in a few weeks to win the Big Five outright. They are guaranteed at least a share of the title as Penn lost today at home against St. Joes. A win against Penn is all the more important in positioning the team for a possible NCAA berth. All told, the team had a fine start, winning a lot of games by 10+ points, a rarity in these parts, especially against good mid-major teams like Bowling Green, South Dakota State and Princeton, with other key wins over Temple and St. Joes. Disappointing offensive lapses of late against Temple, LaSalle and Delaware are hopefully not an ominous omen of things to come. All of that left us with a fine RPI and strength of schedule ranking which should hold up all the way through the season end if we can win more than half of our remaining games.

Starting with Cincinnati on Sunday, every Big East game is big for the team this year. I would suggest that an 8-8 record might not be enough to get to the big dance, unless at least two of those wins come against marquee teams. So nine wins are what we probably need and those most likely would start with two against Providence (home and away), Cincinatti, Seton Hall and Pittsburgh (all on the road) and Marquette at home (payback game). Two more prospects are the home and away with Syracuse (especially if their coach once again tries to zone us the whole game). That's about it for the games we should win (on paper) for eight wins. Assuming that we could win all of those, at least one more win would still be needed from either DePaul, USF, Louisville, Notre Dame or St. Johns (at home) or UConn, Rutgers or Georgetown (all on the road). The likely prospects would be USF who we have never beaten, Rutgers who we have not beaten for about 10 years, and St. John's. The rest would be an upset of minor to major proportions.

Nine wins in the Big East with a win over Penn puts at 20 wins going into the Big East Tournament with a bye on Friday to face a bottom feeder on Saturday, with a win there also important for NCAA selection committee. The Big East overall is down this year and we may only get six or seven teams into the NCAA so there will be little room for a letdown. Charlie Cream's ESPN bracketology has us on the outside looking in, not even in the first four out at this point. Starting out with a win over Cincinnati and getting a big upset over DePaul would be a big kickstart to getting us votes in the national polls and some more recognition in the bracketology talk. One game at at time - it all starts tomorrow with Cincinnati. Even on their court I think we are 10+ points better than they are. Hopefully we can get up early and keep up the offensive pressure to avoid letting an inferior team hang around to the end and possibly steal a win from us (see Marquette 2012).

Go Wildcats!

Got off to a great start thus week. Hillary is very sick. Joe Manchin tries to rise above with CALM. Rubio and Rand vote down a bill to protect their right flank. Rand I can understand because he's an ideologue like his father. Rubio...just doesn't feel natural.

Does Boehner survive the blunders of the last 48 hours? First, he is totally taken out of the talks for the fiscal cliff legislation and now he is getting destroyed by Chris Christie, Peter King, and Chuck Schumer for his failure to get the Sandy funding thorugh. Sure, it will go thru on Friday, but the term "Boehner Betrayal" is becoming common phraseology.

Gotta think there are some House Reps who are calling for a change in speakership. Cantor left him on both issues.

NRA/Lapierre press conference today was simply fascinating in its stupidity. It should be used by every college PR professor on what exactly NOT to do in a time of organizational crisis. It was just bizarre. Scored less than zero points for their cause. It was more train wreck TV than jersey shore ever was.