Wisconsin

Purdue at Fort Wayne (81) vs. University of Wisconsin at Milwaukee (79) 02/02/2025

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Game #140 of 364 38% complete

This is the final game of my three game road trip to the Milwaukee area. Last year, I had a four game set ready to visit all four schools in Wisconsin. A huge blizzard hit which prevented me from flying in. The weather this year has been a pleasant 40 degrees without a snowflake in sight.

The nickname of the Purdue at Fort Wayne (Fort Wayne for short) is the Mastodons. This had to be a scenario where the school founder said “You know let’s pick a name that I know no other school would possibly use”.

Back in 2005, the Panthers of UW Milwaukee made history as a 12 seed by getting to the Sweet 16 upsetting number seed 5 Alabama and number 4 seed Boston College before succumbing to the number 1 seed Illinois. A little known fact is that Bruce Pearl now the coach of Auburn coached that team. This event is a definite cause of celebration considering the fact the the Panthers have only appeared four times in March Madness.

Rasheed Bello on Fort Wayne was on fire hitting key daggers in his 23 points to help the Mastodons to victory. Bello, a 6-foot dynamo from Chicago who played his freshman and sophomore seasons at Division II UW-Parkside, was unstoppable down the stretch notching free throws and three pointers when it looked like the Panthers would be making a comeback. Overall, the Mastodons hit 13 three pointers in the game.

As an added bonus, I watched the Memphis Grizzlies play the Milwaukee Bucks at night. It was cool to see former team mates Andree Jackson (Bucks) and Cam Spencer (Grizzlies) chatting it up before the game.

So now for non basketball stuff. I took a tour of the Pabst Mansion in downtown Milwaukee. Mr. Pabst was a sea captain but married into a family of brewers from Germany. Pabst Brewery was the first brewery in Milwaukee thereby making Mr. Pabst a rich man. To the sadness of many Milwaukeeans, the name Pabst is now owned by Anheuser-Busch from St. Louis a bitter rival for Milwaukee breweries. I was told by the docent not to order any Anheuser-Busch beer in a Milwaukee downtown bar.

Would an Operation 351 trip not be complete without a trip to the local zoo!

Finally, let me talk to you about my new friend Daniel. I went to the Milwaukee Brat house to get some wings talked about in Trip Advisor. I was fortunate to catch the last table opening up. I ordered my wings and a beer. A young man with hair down to his shoulders was looking around for a place to sit and asked if I can share my table. I said of course and we slowly got into a conversation. I am always very curious about strangers I meet on these trips. Daniel was his name and he was 23 years old. He had just drove from Texas to Wisconsin to get a job as a truck driver. He just finished CDL school and was hoping to hook up with a job here. He wanted to bring up his girlfriend and other family members when he got settled. He told me about Texas and actually helped me with some info about my next trip to Texas. It was a great conversation. Despite how we are all divided these days, it was nice to find common ground among two adventurers. As we both left the restaurant and went our separate ways, I gave him my blog card so I hope he is reading this. I wish Daniel the best of luck in his life journey.

UConn (77) vs. Marquette (69) 02/01/2025

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Game #139 of 364 38% complete

I have been a UConn fans since the late 1960’s when my Dad would take me to the New Haven Coliseum to to see the Huskies play another Yankee Conference league opponent. I have lived and died with this team for some 50 odd years. I have attended all their Final Four victories except for the last one when I made a promise to my daughter to watch the grandkids that weekend,

So to say that I was pumped for this game was an understatement. However, I was very pessimistic of our chances. We were 7.5 point underdogs playing the 11th ranked team in the country on their home court. To make matter worse, it was Marquette Day which occurs on annually on February 1st.

From a Marquette web site:

National Marquette Day is a tradition dating back to the 1960s that brings the Marquette nation united together in pride and spirit to honor the values of the University.

This was evident as I toured the campus during the day before the game on the day before. Families, alumni and students were all abuzz throughout the campus.

I paid $146 thorough TickPick for a seat in the second row of the arena. I arrived early as Marquette fans with their yellow attire filled in around me. My introverted self was evident in that I was not going to be that one loud mouth opposing fan who stood out from everyone else in that section.

My how things changed!

Shortly before the game began, I look over and a see a row of fellow UConn fans marching in behind me. I was shocked to say the least. Since I was not wearing any UConn attire, I introduced my self and we then became the UConn horde of Section 217. I yelled and celebrated with high fives with my new friends as UConn started the game on an unbelievable roll. The pessimist in me knew that the Golden Eagles would make a run but it was fun to watch the stunned crowd sit there in disbelief. We did incur a lot of disgusted and angry looks for the Marquette fans in our section.

Solo Ball for UConn has established himself as one of the premier shooters in the country. He torched and silenced the Marquette crowd with a 25 point performance including seven three pointers and 11 rebounds. My boys had a great night shooting: UConn shot 59.5 percent (25-42) from the floor and 62.3 percent (12-19) from 3-point range – both season bests. Conversely, Marquette finished at 39.7 percent (25-63) from the floor and 31.8 percent (7-22) from 3-point range.

Alex Karaban, the UConn All -American, has suffered some barbs from the Husky faithful this year especially from the two missed free throws against Villanova to win the game. However, he is a steady presence and the leader of this club. His contribution to the team does not always show in the stats sheet but he is still their MVP in my opinion.

The Marquette fan next to me admitted that they are lacking a big time center which I agree with. The Marquette fans were civil and left us alone. After the game, one fan suggested place to visit in Milwaukee next time we were in town. I hope that we respect the opposing fans when they visit Gampel.

I am a sucker for animals in half time shows.

Here are some pictures of the Marquette campus:

When I walking into the arena, I was behind a bunch of Marquette fans. One guy mentioned that he wanted to beat UConn because he hated Hurley. I guess Dan with his antics does bring some of this on but I would not want my coach to be any less passionate.

To the UConn fans in Section 217, you made my day special. I shared my Operation 351 mission story with some of them. They seem genuinely interested and promised to follow me. I even saw some mentions on the UConn Boneyard. This day was an absolute blast. Creighton is the one Big East arena left to visit but not this year. Perhaps I will brave enough to wear the UConn colors there.