Tuesday Tidbits

If you’re wanting for more dialogue on the state of Northwestern basketball, our friends at Sippin’ On Purple have picked up the baton and the comments section is buzzing.  I’m looking to turn the tide today by listing a bunch of info in bulletpoint form that may help us smile. Feel free to add to it.

Luke Donald & Michael Jordan

Michael Jordan’s much-celebrated 50th birthday has come and gone, but hopefully his influence on budding golf buddy, Luke Donald, has not. There have been a few articles dating back to last week on the relationship and how Luke is trying to up his mental game from the best in the business at that aspect, while you know MJ is learning from one of the world’s best golfers. Here is one of those articles.

FYI…on Fitz

Fitz has changed his Facebook page photo to an image of the Lakeside Project/Ryan Fieldhouse. It has the subheader “The Future of Northwestern Football”.

Recruiting Mojo

Both PurpleWildcats.com and WildcatReport.com featured stories on Northwestern QB prospect, Chris Durkin, a Youngstown, Ohio native. Durkin is a physical beast – 6-4, 225 pounds and listed as a pro style QB, but is definitely athletic enough to run the ‘Cats spread from all reports. Durkin raved about NU and claims it will remain in his top three, regardless of what happens. Currently he holds offers from NU, Michigan State, Illinois and several MAC schools, but the big boys are knocking down his doorstep. The report on Durkin overlaps with many of the reports on recent scholarship offer recipients.  The fact that NU will be in the mix, they love Fitz, the academics, and it’s a team on a major upswing.

Rohan Nadkarni Props – NU Fitz History Through Players, Media & Morty

Kudos to The Daily Northwestern’s Rohan Nadkarni for this epic article spanning the entire Fitz era and beyond through the likes of Purple Mafia Media members like Teddy, AR and Rovell with player input from Persa, Demos, Peters and more, and of course el presidente, Morty Schapiro. Teddy was great in his assessment of Fitz’s media relations growth and I believe that is a post/article that is worth its own weight. Really neat perspectives in this piece.

Greeny Goes Off On NCAA

I happened to catch NU alum, Mike Greenberg, of ESPN Radio fame, go off this morning calling for NCAA President, Mark Emmert’s job.  Greenberg’s point, which echoed the likes of CBS Sports.com’s Dennis Dodd and ESPN.com’s Dana O’Neil, claimed that the governing body imposes “buck stops here” penalties against head coaches for things going on in their program, regardless of their knowledge.  Now, with a black eye investigation of the NCAA’s inappropriate behavior in obtaining information unethically in the University of Miami case, Greenberg was saying he sees no other way that this should end then by Emmert getting the axe. The NCAA should fall under a week’s worth of posts, as the striking contrast of all that’s wrong in college sports, starting with the fact the BCS has become its own entity and out from under the governing body.  Fitz has led the B1G coaching fraternity in pleading to the NCAA to reconsider it’s new free-for-all communication rules which are set to take effect on August 1.  I can’t recall Mike Greenberg going off on a person’s job like this.  It’s worth a listen.

LTP Flag Project

Man, do I have some photos to share! We’re way behind in posting these. Let’s get it back on track with Jeff M. who shared this photo from Avalanche Peak in New Zealand:

Jeff Meissner at Arthur's Pass National Park in New Zealand!