Let the Wild Rumpus Start!

UPDATED

(or... a flimsy excuse to link to the "Where the Wild Things Are" Trailer)

After a tortuously long off-season, in which the only news that popped up lately seemed to be bad news, College Basketball is back! Now, with the proverbial "young but talented team", the Marquette community can enjoy the adventure that the 2009-2010 season will be. That's right... tonight is Midnight Madness!

Here's your flimsy link between "Where the Wild Things Are" and this year's basketball season. The classic story, with minimal words, is essentially a tale of how children master feelings. Well, I don't know about you, but I have all kinds of feelings about his season, including hope, fear, excitement, and disappointment. This year could go all kinds of different directions. In addition, as the trailer linked above suggests, inside each one of us is the same hope, fear, and adventure. Flimsy link #1 is that each of us represents Max on our adventure through the season. Midnight Madness is the beginning of our Wild Rumpus. (Plus, I kind of like thinking of this year's team as the Wild Things from the classic tale, but don't have enough hubris to believe that nickname is either valid or going to stick.)

However, after initially posting, MUScoop.com reader dsfire was disappointed that we didn't explain whose nickname was The Wild Rumpus or why he should start... and then suggested it be Frozena. So there you go... flimsy link #2 Rob Frozena is "The Wild Rumpus". Let the Wild Rumpus Start!

Regardless of which Wild Rumpus you want to start tonight, Check out GoMarquette.com for additional details on the Madness. As has been previously stated, the festivities kick off at 6 pm with a Women's Volleyball game, and then continues into Marquette Madness. Doors open as early as 5 pm if you want, and Madness starts no later than 7:30. If you are local, show up and you'll receive a free long sleeved t-shirt and a poster. In this year's twist on the dunk contest, all the judges will be from the Milwaukee Bucks. This includes none other than Assistant coach Jim Boylan, a former Marquette player and member of the 1977 National Championship squad (duh), as well as Charlie Bell, Joe Alexander and Brandon Jennings. Give Alexander a healthy boo. To get yourself ready, check out a sneak preview of the Marquette Madness video.

If you can't make it there, MUTV is streaming the event online. Online fans will need to click on just one link to gain access to the complete event. Here is the link for the web stream. To build some hype for the event, MUTV has introduced a new TV reporter (it's actually a minute-long clip from Joe Fulce and some other guys). In this clip, Fulce calls Frozena "Peter Parker", which is actually pretty funny. Evidently Fulce has not heard that Frozena's real nickname is "The Wild Rumpus".

Andy Katz gives what is one of the better previews on Marquette. It is cautiously optimistic about the season. You've got to read it. Rosiak also mentions it too in his blog post, but his focus is on the Blue Ribbon grades for Marquette (Backcourt: B-minus, Bench/Depth: B-minus, Frontcourt: B, Intangibles: C). If you are an ESPN Insider Subscriber, you can read the full information here.