Yesterday witnessed the greatest Easter Monday classic ever played. The whole family was there for this one, including my parents who are down for a visit. The 85k fans were so loud that the TV camera shook on the final siren.

And the final two minutes.

There are something like 230 D3 schools. About 30 of them want to regularly be nationally competitive.  About seven or eight of those want to be championship competitive. Thats where the NIL money goes as well as the $250 a head fundraisers. There are plenty of schools who are there for guys who don't want to risk being displaced by a D1 transfer, only a few who are there to win.

From memory, I think there was a minor meltdown on this board when the Johnnies didn't go deep into the post-season this year with demands that something change so they do.  Well, make your choice: championship competitive or nostalgia lane.  Can't have both.

Bartch signed with the lions yesterday. He's fallen on his feet every time he joins a new team, better than the last.

Quote from: Retired Old Rat on March 25, 2026, 08:37:26 PMAs sort of a counterpoint to BDB, Johnnie Football Spring Standup

It is a fundraiser, but $250 is kind of steep.

What an odd photo of Gary Fasching. That is him on the left, correct?  He looks like Huey Lewis's less good looking brother.

Well... I'll be skipping the NFL game, now set for Sept 11.  $100 for fourth deck, top row nose bleeds.  $700 for bottom deck.

They'll get 95,000 in attendance.  At $400 average seat price... that's $38 million just in gate receipts.  Far out.  Too rich for my blood.

The Rams and 49ers will be playing in Melbourne next year on Sept 9th or 10th.  I wasn't planning to go, as the venue isn't good for the gridiron, but if Bartch manages to get another contract, I think I'll need to go to represent the Johnnies.

The Flying Squirrel for the win in the Oklahoma high school state wrestling tourney.


That link was broken?

https://youtube.com/shorts/buMPF4VowEI?si=R-f1rDDaeoCV1iPA

Quote from: GoldandBlueBU on March 05, 2026, 03:07:09 PMThe boys hoops team has a shot at state too - (#1 seed in their section) - the coach is an old friend, so I keep loose tabs on how they're doing.

It's all going crazy on Da Range.

Quote from: BDB on March 05, 2026, 08:26:04 AMDear Oz,

Good to see the Halloween Machine back in the state tournament. Interesting that their first round game is against Rosemount. Interesting because the Rosemount goalie had a video clip that went viral of him giving the double bird the second they defeated St. Thomas HS in the Section final. I realize this isn't UST, but close enough.

Aimed right at the St.Thomas fans he maintained the double flip off to the Tommie fans until one of his teammates grabbed him in celebration. I imagine Rosemount has been knocked out of going to the tournament more that once by the Tommie Cadets.

Anyway, go GR. The Halloween Machine has returned to St. Paul. 

I am very surprised that Rapids are in. They still don't have a winning record despite getting hot at sections.  I visited my parents in late Jan and the boys were five or six games under .500 even then. I'm surprised they got to sections.  Funny game.

I see they are playing right now. I'll put them on the radio in the background if I can.

I'm in Delhi this week and was thinking about the new AI search engines and how powerful they are. Using Grok, Twitter's LLM which I have found is the best search engine available by a long way and leaving Google well in the dust.  Anyway, I took a generic street picture, removed all the meta data and loaded it into grok. It not only picked the city, it picked the building behind me that I was standing outside of.

I wonder if the AD dept has the computer science department using some student job spots for training analytical models on opposition analysis. Play/scenario deep dives and trends, etc.  OC's and DC's will really be able to lift their games at the lower levels like DIII. 

The SJU home schedule is excellent this year. I'll be subscribing again and up at 4am on a Sunday for these games.

Also, Herberg needs to hit the gym.  His arms are a bit puny, eh?

Well, reading the press release, it seems Herberg presented a plan to improve the defensive performance, which is needed for a championship-quality team. Let's hope the pine curtain slams down on our opponents.

I would love to see our offence balance better as it's far too dependent on AirJohnnie, IMO. That being said, it was a real thrill when AirJohnnie made a triumphant return about 15 years ago after a good period in the wilderness.

Maybe some nice changes are in store. UI of D3 here we come!

Quote from: DuffMan on February 02, 2026, 01:19:47 PMA couple of changes on SJU's staff: Dumonceaux Elevated to Assistant Head Coach, Herberg Named SJU's Defensive Coordinator

What do you reckon this means for game plan emphasis, duff?

I just found out that Hawthorn's 6'6" midfield brute, Conor Nash (seen here just after putting Geelong's Grian Miers to sleep last season), was born in Fond Du Lac before his good Catholic parents returned to Ireland where he captained the national under-18's rugby union side for Ireland before deciding to take a chance in the antipodes playing Aussie Rules.

He coulda been putting the MIAC competition to sleep for the Johnnies if things had gone a little differently. He probably would have played for Oshkosh just up the road, really, but a guy can dream.