Private Parts

In today's NCAA landscape, there are private schools across the country that are vying for national championship trophies in their respective sports. For proof, we have to look no further than 2009. A year in which we saw Duke (private) play Butler (private)in the most Caucasian laden NCAA championship game we will ever see unless Edward Norton's character from American History X inexplicably becomes head of the tournament selection committee. Moreover, in football, Texas Christian University finished in the top 5 of the BCS standings for the first time in their school's history. I guess Chicago sports fans are going to have to learn to gain a heavy interest in the Northwestern's Womens Lacrosse dynasty (woof), because that's the only Chicagoland University sport that has won anything notable in the past 10 years. I'm happy that the Northwestern has something, I really am. But Womens Lacrosse brings in about just as much revenue as the school would make hiring New York from Flavor of Love to make cold calls for donations to the school's alumni. With that being said, Northwestern at least has something to call their own. The only thing DePaul calls themselves is "last in the Big East" in just about every sport that they participate in athletically, particularly Mens Basketball.

In 2009, DePaul went 0-18 in the Big East and what's left of Blue Demon supporters insisted that the blame should be shouldered by Jerry Wainwright, who coincidentally happens to be identical to the principal in the Breakfast Club. No one man should be responsible for 18 consecutive losses. No matter how many mafia affixed delinquents in pinstriped suits sat in section 113 and screamed "You're done here Jerrrrryyyyyyyyy!!!" like he owed them 100 lbs. of capicola while they beat their fists in their palms like they're going to wack him in his post-game press conference, it wasn't all his fault. DePaul basketball had hit rock bottom, and everyone involved was mutually responsible. Wainwright does deserve some blame, he let recruits like Jerrel McNeal flee to Big East rival Marquette and even got a decommitment from Cully Payne, who found Iowa to be a better fit. Really? He lost a recruiting battle to Todd LickLiter and Iowa?!? The same guy who could barely get his maladroit son, Little John Lickliter to commit to be a Hawkeye? How this all transpired so fast from the Quentin Richardson era I'll never know, but it happened as fast as the uttering of possible side effects at the end of an Immodium ad. But the Demons had a chance to get on track again when they fired Wainwright and searched for a new face for their program. It's easy to see that DePaul's biggest recruiting coup is the city of Chicago, and they needed to put their inability to recruit the city in the past behind them, and hire someone who could get kids from the 312 to want to come to DePaul. Isiah Thomas could have worked, he would have kept DePaul administration sweating like an extra in A Time To Kill hoping that he wouldn't commit a recruiting violation, but there is no doubt that Chicago kids would have joined his camp. Equally as dangerous but similarly as rewarding would have been the hire of Memphis Assistant Coach Rod Strickland, who was a once a star at DePaul himself and acquired just enough grease off of John Calipari's hair to make DePaul meaningful in the Big East with some big-wheel recruits. Still, with the possibility to resurrect the Basketball program tempting them like a plate of Red Lobster's cheddar-baked biscuits in front of Tony Siragusa, they declined and took the well-lit city street instead of the shortcut through the back alley of Cabrini Green.

If you look at 2009-2010's AP All-American team, you will see a collection of talented basketball stars, a group of which hail from the same area of OUR state. However, Evan Turner, Jon Scheyer, Jacob Pullen and Sherron Collins all chose to attend a school that is a far cry from the rumble of the Armitage Brown Line stop where DePaul's campus sits. Perhaps the newly hired Oliver Purnell will bring an excitement to DePaul basketball that we haven't seen since Q and Bobby Simmons used to sell out the Rosemont Horizon against Cincinnati. Perhaps he could start a winning tradition that could pursue DePaul students to sit in traffic for an hour on the Kennedy Expressway to attend a game against Marquette on a Tuesday night. Or, perhaps Gerard Butler will win an Oscar for his role in The Bounty Hunter, Ron Santo will win the Chicago Marathon in record time, and ESPN personality Woody Paige will marry Lindsay Lohan in a closed ceremony at the Century Regional Detention Center (come on, that's funny).

As for pick of the day, the Pulse Man had a lot to say after last night's betting debacle. He affirmed to me that yesterday's pick was not entirely thought out as he completely forgot how bad the Brewers bullpen was. He also reiterated that they have LaTroy Hawkins under contract(a perfectly viable reason not to bet on them),and that he doesn't care "how fast his Coffey comes" as long as it doesn't give up 3 run homers. Although Soriano was the only Cub without a hit going into the 8th inning and made us think we had a chance at winning--like contestant 29 on the premiere of the Ochocinco show. Either way, we lost and are looking to the Phillies and Marlins (and Scott Stapp of course) to get us back on track today by combining for under 8.5 runs at (-115).

Pick of the Day: Phillies vs. Marlins- UNDER 8.5 (-115)

RECORD:(8-7-0)