Konnichiwa!

It is a pleasure to welcome Marquette graduate Dan Fitzgerald to Cracked Sidewalks. After transferring in from Tulane, Dan played for the program from 2005 through 2008 where he averaged six points per game while nailing 40% of his three-point attempts. MU went 69-31 during Dan's three years on the court. We tracked Dan down in the Twitterverse and he agreed to jump in on Cracked Sidewalks to offer us a first -- perspectives from an active professional basketball player.

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Hello from Japan, where this Marquette Golden Eagle is now playing professional basketball. I am very honored the guys at CrackedSidewalks asked me to contribute to their site! I am four years removed from playing for the Blue and Gold, and I always love to stay connected with the Marquette family in any way possible. I'd love to share my experiences and opinions about anything that is MU basketball and tell you about my life playing overseas.

First a quick update. I graduated from Marquette in 2008 majoring in Marketing and entrepreneurship. Since then, I have been playing professionally overseas, spending my summers in Milwaukee/Chicago. I've traveled to 12 different countries, so far on my 4th season having played in Germany for two years, Switzerland, and now currently in Japan for the Sendai 89ers.

This past summer, I married my beautiful wife, Dominika, who played tennis at Marquette. She is now a photographer, so we both hope to show readers an accurate and entertaining look at living and playing overseas.

Watching Marquette Madness online got me all jacked up for the season, like I'm back in Milwaukee playing myself! I think I can speak for all former players playing overseas that we still get pumped up for Marquette games, even if now we're just watching them. I like the direction Buzz has the program going, Marquette being known as a hard-nosed, tough, disciplined squad. I'm positive teams know it will be a battle when they line up against us. Our preseason ranking is respectable, and hopefully the guys have even higher goals. So, here's to a great season which I'll be following closely... from afar.

I hope you'll enjoy reading my posts, and feel free to post any comments or send in questions (see the nav bar on the right. I'd be happy to reply.

GO MARQUETTE!