Buzz Walks it out!

World Cup Controversy

I was watching the France vs Ireland soccer game which was the second leg of their playoff game, to advance to the 2010 World Cup in South Africa. I am a huge soccer fan so I really wanted to watch this match. I should also mention, I am have dual citizenship with France and the US. That being said—I was wearing my France soccer jersey cheering “Allez les Blues!”

For those that didn’t see the game, France was up 1-0 on aggregate before the game even started, having won the first leg in Ireland. In order for Ireland to advance they needed to score two goals in the Stade de France or shutout France and score at least one goal in extra time (two 15 minute periods) and if the game was still 1-0 Ireland at the end of extra time, the game would go to penalty kicks.

Well, Ireland came out the gates fired up. They were clearly the better team in the first half which is why they went into halftime leading 1-0 when Robbie Keane scored in the 33^rd minute. However, in the second half momentum shifted, but at the end of regulation, Ireland was still winning 1-0 meaning overall the score was tied 1-1 on aggregate forcing extra time.

During extra time, France dominated. Then in the 100^th minute (I believe) Nicolas Anelka, juked Shay Given, Ireland’s Goal Keeper with a clear opportunity to score in the box to tie the game but Given, took Anelka down but NO penalty kick was called.

I was watching this game in a soccer hooligan’s pub and the audience was split 50/50 on France and Ireland supporters. The entire bar thought the referee called a penalty kick and none of the Ireland fans complained that the referee pointed at the spot in the box. We all thought France would now have the chance to take the lead in aggregates and finally advance to the 2010 World Cup. However, from the angle of the camera man, the ref did not point at the penalty spot… he was pointing for a goal kick! Again, referee missed a major call!

It wasn’t until the 104^th minute when William Gallas scored after a right footed pass from Thierry Henry. However, the referee made another WRONG CALL. The referee pointed to the center stripe to acknowledge Galas’s go ahead goal. After a replay showed, Henry, clearly saved the ball from going out or bounds (baseline) and guided the ball to his foot and dished a pass to Gallas who headed in the goal. After seeing what Henry did, in slow motion, it was difficult to celebrate such a controversial and wrong goal.

France ended up winning 2-1 in aggregate goals earning them a spot in 2010. The ref missed two obvious calls:

1. One call, in favor of Ireland, when Anelka was taken down in the penalty box and NO call was made.

2. One call, in favor of France, when Henry clearly handled the ball with his hand that lead to the go ahead goal.

That being said, I think both calls were monumental and cancel each other out. The media is NOT talking about the MISSED penalty kick call on Anelka. So I recommend that everyone look at the entire game instead of just that handball!

France is in... I’LL TAKE IT! Maybe, FIFA should consider implementing replay?

Marquette GoldenEaglesFan see's Wade in DC

Yesterday, I was on the Washington Wizards website when an ad came up saying that all Wednesday games is student night! I looked at the schedule and saw the WizKidz were going to play the Miami Heat which meant Dwayne Wade, former star Marquette star that lead the Golden Eagles to the Final Four was going to be in town! When I saw that tickets were only $10 with a student ID, I used my old MU ID b/c there's no date on it!

Of course, our seats were in the nose bleeds, but we had plans to sneak into the lower bowl. After the first quarter and the Heat man handling the Wizards we took the escalators from the 400 level to the lower bowl. We snuck into the lower bowl with the usher wasn't paying attention and watched a terrific basketball game.

I gotta give the Wizards credit because they came back from a 20-point deficit to make it a game in the 2nd half. The score was changing every possession (one moment Heat where up then after looking down to have a sip of beer Wizards were up).

Then with 2 minutes to go in the game, I moved seats again to sit along the rail were the Miami players exit the court, to head to the locker-room. Wade and the Heat took control in the last 2 minutes blocking shots and making free-trows which gave them the 4 point victory.

At the end of the game I was in perfect position to get my Marquette #3 Dwayne Wade jersey signed. Wade came running off the court high-five everyone and saw my jersey and paused, then gave me a high five and ran into the locker-room. Not to sound greedy but I really wanted my jersey signed! I already got a high-five from Wade when he came to Milwaukee for Marquette Madness! Oh well, maybe next time he'll sign it!

The Heat won the game 93-89 with Wade scoring 40 points! It's always great to see former Marquette players succeed.

We are... MARQUETTE

MU Bball 2009-2010 Season

As you all know—I am obsessed with Marquette Basketball. The 2009-2010 schedule has come out and I since I am living and working in the Washington, DC area I did not purchase season tickets.

However, I will be making at least one game this season. I will be attending the MU vs UW game December 12th, in Madison. My grandma and uncle have season tickets center court about 10 rows up so I will be wearing my blue & gold.

I am also going to try to travel to the game at WVU (Dec. 29) since it’s only a 3 hour drive from where I reside. I will also try to drive up to Philly (Jan. 9) for the game against Nova depending on if I can find tickets.

I am so excited for the season to tip-off that I am flying to Chicago for the Tip-off dinner October 23rd. Hopefully my girl friend and I wont be the youngest ones there.

Grad Searching Employment

Most people growing up change their minds of what they want to be when they grow up. Most boys say I want to be a fireman. I want to be a truck driver. I want to be a policeman. But when boys become teens they realize they want to become scientists, engineers, lawyers or doctors. Then once in college they study biology, take physics, read a ton of cases or cut up cadavers.

Well for me... my vision growing up has never changed. I have always wanted to work in athletics whether it was for a college or professional team. Most people go through phases in life where they change their appearances. Not me. I dress the same as I did when I was five years old. Weather permitting I wear shorts with a lanyard hanging out of my left pocket, flip flops, and a sports jersey or t-shirt.

My nickname growing up was Wisco because all I wore was Badger stuff since my entire family attended UW-Madison. I broke the tradition by attending Marquette. During those 2 hours in December when MU battles UW-- "I am not part of the Remington family" said my Grandma. Here is a list of what I am up against in this family rivalry.

UW-Madison Almuns
- My grandparents
- My dad
- My sister
- 4 uncles
- 1 aunt
- 8 cousins
- (3 cousins: prospective students)

Marquette Alums
- ME

As you can see, I stand out. My passion has always been sports and God has given me the gifts of being able to write properly and be creative. I would love to apply my talents to work for an athletic department. I have example of my work posted on my digital portfolio at www.GoldenEaglesFan.weebly.com Where you can also find my resume posted.

I work well both individually and in team settings. I can help in a front office answersing calls, dealing with fans, alumns and customers. I can promote and market a team by using social media or creating print ads. As a graduate in communications I have strong interpersonal skills so I can create events and meet and greet donors. Anything dealing with communications and or public relations -- I would be a great asset!

So please if you want a young, creative and passionate individual please consider me.

Reflection on Twitter

My professor Gee Ekachai or better known as @FvrythingPR on Twitter introduced Twitter to our class at the start of the semester and required all her students to create an account (for those interested in following me I am @GoldenEaglesFan).

When Gee showed us and explained the concept of "tweeting" on Twitter, I thought it was pointless and stupid. I saw it as a lame version of Facebook with the status bar. However, after tweeting, following people and exploring Twitter for 3 months; I can see the benefits and its addiction.

For this assignment we were supposed to tweet at least twice a day during the month of March. We were also supposed to respond to other peoples' tweets. Gee also provided specific questions such as:

1. Number of tweets you did since March 1.
   
2. Content of your tweets in general. Were they about your thoughts, your wearabouts, your sharing of links, ect.?
   
3. Number of retweets.  Whose tweets did you retweet? What kind of topics did you retweet? Why did you retweet? 
   
4. Number of replies. In general, who did you reply to? What prompted you to reply? Were you asked a question or you wanted to add opinion?
   
5. How many people are you following? How many people are you following?
   
6. Your positive experience. Your most negative experience.
   
7. Did you benefit from being on twitter? If yes, how?
   

Answers/Reflection:

1. To be honest, I can't believe Gee actually made me count all my tweets during the month of March but I had around 150 tweets.
2. The content of my tweets were mainly around Marquette Basketball. Being March Madness do you expect anything different from me though? However, I also tweeted while we had guest speakers such as:
   
   • CD Vann, founder of SOHObiztube: @thatwoman_soho (twitter)
   • Steve Glynn, President of Spreenkler: @spreenkler (twitter)
   • Augie Ray, Experiential & Social Media Marketing Professional: @augieray (twitter)
   • Tannette Elie, Journalist for Milwaukee JS: @telie (twitter)
   • Al Krueger, founder of Comet Branding: @AlKrueger (twitter)
3.  I also tweeted about stories or videos I found and gave the link to view them. If others found something I liked I "retweeted" (RT) their post. However during the month of March I only RT seven times. Some of the things I RTed were from:
   

• Robyn Keuler, MU student: @Robyrd5 (twitter) - Topic: Marquette Bball (#mubb)
  
• Mary Schless, MU student: @gldneaglegrl (twitter) - Topics: #mubb and class
• Marquette University: @MarquetteU (twitter) - Topic: #mubb
• Marquette Athletics: @muathletics (twitter) - Topic: #mubb
• CrackedSidewalks: @CrackedSidewalks (twitter) - Topic: #mubb

Obviously, you tell that I AM A FANATIC about MARQUETTE BASKETBALL and love to read articles and tweets from journalists and fans. I also love watching videos from MU press conferences and thanks to Twitter I know where to go! CrackedSidewalks has everything I need!

4. As for replies; I replied around 60 times during the month of March. I mainly replied to tweets from classmates and professors that interested me. Again, my main interest in replies was sports. When some one commented on a game I saw and had a reaction, I responded. I also replied to people tweeting about their social life. Some people that I replied to included:

• Cara, MU student: @cmac42 (twitter) - Topics: social/life in general
• Sara Johnson, MU student: @SenoraBeeps (twitter) - Topics: social/jokes
• Gee Ekachai, MU professor: @FvrythingPR (twitter) - Topics: #mubb/social/jokes
  
• Linda Menck, MU professor: @digistorygal (twitter) - Topic: social/jokes
  
• Robyn Keuler, MU student: @Robyrd5 (twitter) - Topics: #mubb
  
• Mary Schless, MU student: @gldneaglegrl (twitter) - Topics: #mubb and class
• Rachel Ward, MU student: @RachelNWard (twitter) - Topics: #mubb

5. After 3 months on Twitter, I am now following 61 people with 86 followers.

6. My best experience with Twitter is being able to read comments form people watching the same game that I'm watching and simultaneously respond. However, I have had a negative aspect with Twitter and it is stupid people. Anyone can express themselves on Twitter and write whatever they want. I've had some people reply to my comments about #mubb who are have no clue what they are talking about and pretend like they know what's up.

7. That being said. My experience on Twitter has been very beneficial. Again, at first I thought it was stupid and pointless but after being a loyal participant, I think it's great. I am able to follow people with similar interests as me. I'm also able to follow my friends and respond to their thoughts and comments no matter where I am thanks to twitterberry!

Thanks GEE for introducing Twitter to me!

Senior Night

Senior Highlights: Thanks Jerel, Dominic, Wesley and Dwight for making my 4 years at Marquette so memorable!




Buzz "That's my guy" and Dwight talking




Wes, Jerel and DJ the Best Trio in College Basketball

A Sad Day for Marquette Bball

I was on Twitter today when one of my followers CrackedSidewlks posted a link from a Louisville blogger. At first when I started reading the entry, I thought this blogger was going to be inconsiderate about Dominic James "DJ" and his career ending injury; but after reading the entire post, I appreciate his thoughts from one sports fan to another.

Zakem2002, the Louisville blogger, describes DJ's best traits. He explains that his traits were:

1. DJ established himself as the floor leader of one of our more bitter rivals in Marquette
2. DJ did it as a freshman, solidifying his place alongside Laettner, Prickett, and Diener as a guy who would seemingly take a decade to graduate from college
3. DJ was a pretty good ball player on both ends of the floor; lightning quick, good handles, good defense, decent shot
4. DJ always seemed to have better than "pretty good" games against Louisville

Zakem2002 continues by saying "Yes, I despise Dominic James for all the reasons outlined above, but venturing deeper into my soul, I come to find why I like him even more. The reasons to like James are far more obvious than the reasons not to."

Zakem2002 concludes with "I hope that on Sunday Dominic James is on the floor when his team is warming up an hour or so before the game. If he is, I might take the time to walk down and tell him all the reasons that Cards fans hated seeing him check into games, but why they hate seeing him on the sidelines even more."

I feel like Zakem2002's loyalty to UofL and his passion for sports is equivalent to my loyalty to Marquette and my passion for sports. I would appreciate to meet Zakem2002 and if DJ attends the game Sunday, I would personally introduce him (Zakem2002) because DJ is one of my friends.

Thanks to Marquette Head Coach, Brent "Buzz" Williams, I will be traveling to Louisville for the first time to attend the "Whiteout." Buzz was generous and provided me with 4 tickets to the game for being such a devoted Marquette fan. I have traveled to 5 MU away games this season (NCstate, Rutgers, Notre Dame, DePaul, Georgetown) am 5/5 on MU victories. Hopefully my attendance Sunday will bring MU another victory.

We are... MARQUETTE!

Traveling to Our Nation's Capitol

With another win last night, the Men’s Basketball is currently tied with Pitt at #2 in the BIG EAST. We are only a ½ game behind the first place team UConn and have a tough challenge this weekend at Georgetown.

I am originally from Arlington, VA which is located across the Potomac River from Washington, DC. As a result, I always travel to D.C when my school competes against the Hoyas.

My organization is planning for a huge turnout of support from current students and alumni. They are anticipating this support because my school has a program entitled Les Aspin Center which is a program to prepare current students to serve the public effectively and ethically and to provide opportunities to enhance public policy awareness through educational programs. In addition, there is large population of alum’s that live in the DC area. This is why my school reserved Clyde’s, a very popular restaurant bar, adjacent to the Verizon Center.

The Alumni Association and the Blue and Gold Fund deserve credit for planning and creating this event. The event will begin at noon, Feb. 21. Because this is a private event organized by my school, no Hoya fans are welcome!

Also, Friday night my friends and I are planning to go out in Georgetown supporting my school’s colors (blue and gold). Anyone is welcome to join us as we hop around on M street!

We are... _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _!

The Big East Conference

The Big East Conference is a one of the major conference in D1 intercollegiate athletics. There are 16 universities in the Big East ranging from private to public state schools. “The league aims and expects to compete at the highest level and does so with integrity and sportsmanship (www.bigeast.org).” The Big East represents 18 different sports but none are bigger than Men’s Basketball. The Big East is arguably the best conference in Men’s Basketball in the country. 8 Big East teams are ranked in the top 25; 4 of which are in the top 10 (ESPN/USA today poll).

I am currently a senior at one of these Big East schools writing this blog for my PR-writing class. The organization which I am apart of has a simple mission:

“Our mission is to strive for excellence in academics, athletics, leadership, and service to others in the Jesuit tradition, while embracing equity in opportunity, good sportsmanship, and ethical conduct.”

I personally have friends who compete for my university and they are living examples that athletes at my school follow this mission. My friends that compete and represent my school are competitive, loyal and extremely genuine which not only makes them great athletes but great leaders in society.

Across the country there are stories about student-athletes who forget the real reason why they are at school… to get an education. Some student-athletes let their athletic abilities go to their head and ignore the student aspect of the meaning of student-athlete. At my university, our athletic department stresses the importance in academics and requires all students-athletes to attend mandatory study hall sessions where tutors are available to help students with homework and projects.

My school’s athletic department also devotes a lot of time and energy promoting our athletics. For every basketball game they seem to have some promotional deal which headlines the game, for example: free t-shirts for the first 10,000 fans. This is a great way of marketing our school name and attracting fans to come to our games which provides revenue for our athletic department.