I don't like spreading rumors, but since everyone else is saying Pitt is headed to the Big 10, I might as well start speculating on the idea of a Catholic Conference.  This idea is not mine.  In fact, it's been floated many times before, by many different people.  Some of the more geographically-challeneged folks seem to think a college conference that spans four time zones is a good idea.  I beg to differ.

If there were to be a Catholic Conference, it would have to be limited to schools that are geographically much closer than California and New York.  Since I paid full price for the ESPN College Basketball Encyclopedia, I might as well get some use out of it.  Many of the schools in my hypothetical conference would come from the Big East, but a few others woud not.  The problem most Catholic Conference proponents have, is that they don't know which schools are Catholic institutions.  The "St." and "Loyola" schools are an easy mark, but that spreads everything out very quickly. 

I chose to look at the best Catholic basketball schools from a couple of different angles, starting with a historical perspective and then tried to narrow things down geographically.  Notre Dame is included, because they still think their football program is among the nation's elite and won't join a conference to play football.  I also tried to identify major markets, which would help with media exposure for the conference.  For that reason alone, DePaul and Saint John's should get the automatic nod.  My top ten historical schools would look like this (CB Encyclopedia ranking in parentheses)

1. Notre Dame (12)
2. Saint John's (16)
3. Villanova (21)
4. Marquette (24)
5. DePaul (26)
6. Georgetown (42)
7. Dayton (48)
8. St. Louis (53)
9. Xavier (59)
10. Seton Hall (76)

Other borderline schools that could be considered from a historical and geographical perspective include St. Joe's (56), Duquense (67), Creighton (86) and Holy Cross (100). However, I would think St. Joe's wouldn't make the cut, because they are in the same market at Villanova.

Looking at more recent success, I examined what these schools have done in the last ten seasons in terms of NCAA and NIT appearances.  They ranked as follows (NCAA/NIT):

1. Xavier (8/1)
2. Creighton (6/4)
3. Marquette (6/3)
4. Villanova (5/5)
5. Notre Dame (5/5)
6. Georgetown (4/4)
7. Dayton (4/3)
8. Seton Hall (3/2)
9. DePaul (2/3)
10. Saint John's (2/1)

This would knock Duquesne out of contention, since they only have one NIT appearance in the last 15 seasons and haven't been to the NCAA tournament since 1977.  That indicates to me that they aren't ready to compete at the same level as these other programs.  The same could also be said for Detroit and Loyola (IL).  Holy Cross (4/1) has been better lately, but their conference (Patriot League) is not that great.  St. Louis (1/2) has also struggled to be relevant as of late.

Finally, I looked at the current RPI for our contenders:

1. Villanova (3)
2. Georgetown (4)
3. Xavier (21)
4. Dayton (42)
5. Seton Hall (59)
6. Saint John's (60)
7. Marquette (61)
8. Notre Dame (71)
9. Creighton (108)
10. DePaul (136)

St. Louis betters DePaul at 131, but DePaul automatically gets in, because of their location in the Chicago market.  That leaves me with the question of St. Louis or Creighton.  Based on recent basketball success, Creighton is an easy choice.  However, they are in a much smaller market than Saint Louis and one that is the furthest west of the conference.  For those reasons, I'd have to go with St. Louis.  Will it happen?  Who knows?  It is fun to talk about, so let the debate continue!

Sometimes Homer asks me a question on his show and after I answer it, I feel like I didn't get my thought across clearly enough.  When that happens, I try to expand upon it here, just in case anyone who was listening stubles onto this blog.  The question he asked me today was about the advice I might offer to a top college basketball prospect about selecting a school, specifically an area sophomore, who is being highly-recruited by all the big school.

I don't know who this kid is, what position he plays or who is recruiting him besides North Carolina and I only know that, because I ran into Coach Williams at Signature Flight Support.  If he is that good, I have to assume UW-Madison and Marquette are also recruiting him.  What I told Homer was that the advice I would give any good Wisconsin high school basketball player- give some consideration to in-state schools, even if Marquette isn't one of them.

Mike Kelley isn't just a former Badger from a Final Four team, he's the guy who starred at Milwaukee Pius and still makes his home here in Wisconsin.  Robert Jackson isn't just the kid who transferred back to Marquette for his final season and helped MU get to the Final Four, he's the kid who starred at Milwaukee Washington and is stll a fixture at Marquette games to this day.  The list can go on and includes guys like Travis Diener, Tony Bennett and Steve Novak.  All of those guys stayed home for school, had great careers and are warmly welcomed by everyone. 

This isn't unique to Wisconsin.  I see the same thing happening all over the country, with guys like Damon Bailey and Calbert Cheaney in Indiana, Rex Chapman in Kentucky, John Stockton and all the other in-state kids who have done so well at Gonzaga over the years. Kevin Johnson was even elected Mayor of Sacramento!

There is something special about kids playing on college basketball teams in their home state.  I experienced it along with Robb Logterman and Damon Key at Marquette.  There was a unique sense of pride that we all felt, as people who grew up in Wisconsin, that we helped bring Marquette back to national prominence in college hoops.  When an out-of-state kid goes to one of the "marque" schools, he often ends up being just the latest flavor of the month, with two or three other players already being actively recruited to replace him.

I also encourage kids to ask the coaches recruiting them to answer this question- "If I couldn't go to your school, what school would you recommend?"  After all, college coaches are experts in this department and should be able to give sage advice in this regard.  I do caution kids to be careful of "safe" answers.  Any college coach worth his salt knows exactly who his competition is for a recruit.  Some college coaches may try to answer that question by saying something like, "If it's not us, it has to be Duke," even though he knows Duke is not recruiting that kid, he's not being honest.  That's not being honest and might be a good indicator of the integrity of that coach.

An honest answer will be one of the other schools who are actually recruiting the kid.  If all the coaches give the same answer, that should weigh in the decision.  Unfortunately, many coaches will give other safe answers- a school that isn't a rival, isn't in the same conference or even the same part of the country.  After all, why would any coach want to spend four years playing against and possibly getting beat by a recruit they missed out on?

Those of you who were listening to my segment with Homer last week heard me preview this album, but for those who weren't listening, I present my second awesome album (and band) that you've probably never heard of before.  Tito & Tarantula has had more band members than Menudo, but one constant remains- Tito.  If you saw the movies From Dusk 'Til Dawn and Desperado, you've heard some of the music and probably saw Tito on the screen for a few minutes as well.

This album flat-out rocks!  but... it's somewhat difficult to find.  A few of the songs are on iTunes in movie soundtracks, but the rest are only found on the CD itself, which is tough to find, although Amazon.com said they had one left as of this morning.  I have two copies, because I special-ordered them from two different stores, fearful that neither one would be able to track it down.  Thankfully, both did, but it took a while.

The other bummer about Tito & Tarantula is that they haven't toured in the US in years.  I almost wonder if there is some arrest warrant keeping Tito out of the country?  They are very popular in Europe and can draw crowds of 10,000 or more in some countries.  The music itself is a blend of rock and blues, with a "south of the border" flavor.  Heavy guitar riffs and all that cool stuff.  Their subsequent albums have been kind of a mixed bag, although their latest, Back into the darkness sounds like it's moving back in the direction of tarantism, which is a good thing.

In other news, Homer finally watched The Big Lebowski and loved it... at least for the first 45 minutes.

The D-List guys claim I am the tallest drummer in Division 1 basketball and that may be true.  However, I'm not the only tall drummer in D1 hoops.  At 6'11, Syracuse's Donte Greene may be a close second.  I am at the Carrier Dome today for the Syracuse game, wearing my brand-new pair of "Big Papa Pants," which are blue slacks with several dozen MU logos (exactly how many remains a closely-guarded secret). 

Needless to say, these pants catch the eye and generate a few comments.  One comment came from a local newspaper reporter and I responded by telling him I wear an MU band rugby at all our home games, so this is no big deal for me.  He then asked me if I played and I told him I occasionally sit in on drums.  He was surprised and indicated that former Syracuse forward and current Sacramento King, Donte Greene, has sat in with the Syracuse pep band.  He suggested I check YouTube, which apparently has several videos of Greene hittin' the skins, including this one- http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_nAy96wOdPg

Welcome to the club, Donte!

I was thinking of creating a blog with my five favorite albums (almost) no one has ever heard of, but decided instead, to give each of these albums their own due.  The first can best be described as a reggae version of Frank Sinatra's Duets, except instead of Frank, it's Toots.  For those of you who are not familiar with Toots or the Maytals and are too lazy to Wikipedia them, they're one of the more popular ska/reggae acts to ever come out of Jamaica.  That's right, Bob Marley was not the world's only reggae artist (and Harry Belafonte is not the only Calypso artist either).

Anyway, Toots got together with some of music's biggest names and produced True Love, which won the grammy for best reggae album in 2005.  All the artists performed Toots' songs with him and the list is a who's who of music, demonstrating the broad influence and appeal of the Maytals' music- Keith Richards, Ben Harper, No Doubt, Bootsy Collins, Trey Anastasio (Phish), Jeff Beck, Shaggy, Eric Clapton and Bonnie Raitt are some of the more well-known names.  I don't know if this album is on iTunes, but I bought the entire CD on ebay for a buck!  Just listening to Willie Nelson sing reggae is worth ten times that much!

When Marquette travelled to Villanova last weekend, we stayed at a Marriott hotel for the first time this season.  When I arrived in my room, I noticed a peculiar addition to my hotel room- a "Peep Hole Security Curtain."  This is the first time I've ever noticed one of these and if they were around before, I'm the kind of guy who would've noticed.  I don't think it's a coincidence that über perv/stalker Michael Barrett modified the peep hole on Erin Andrews' hotel room door at the Nashville Marriott.

The addition of this security curtain makes me wonder-  I doubt she'll ever stay at a Marriott again, but will the peep hole security curtain be a painful reminder to Ms. Andrews every time she checks into another hotel room?  Does the addition of the peep hole security curtain indicate an admission of guilt on the part of the Marriott corporation?  If so, one would assume Ms. Andrews received a substantial settlement and if that's the case, they might as well get their money's worth and name it after her.

The hotel in Columbus, Ohio where a similar crime was committed was never named, but the Airport Radisson in Milwaukee was identified.  I wonder if Radissons nationwide are also now equipped with similar curtains?