Big week for basketball, and I'm psyched!

[SmellyCat]

This week the following three things:

1) The opener vs. Lehigh. We unwrap our presents and see what we've got. Is Brooks playing? Is everybody healthy? Is Windham going to be in the rotation? Is Leach ready? Can Nicholson do more offensively than dunk? Is Martinelli ready to become a star?

2) The first big test: Dayton. Is NU ready to play a good team (on the road no less)? Can this team step up without Boo's steady hand?

3) Bennerman to announce. Another thread said it's between NU and Michigan. Will this be the final (and best?) piece of the fantastic 2025 class that is the first class to truly reap the benefits of the back-to-back NCAA appearances?

 

[PurpleWhiteBoy]

This week the following three things:

1) The opener vs. Lehigh. We unwrap our presents and see what we've got. Is Brooks playing? Is everybody healthy? Is Windham going to be in the rotation? Is Leach ready? Can Nicholson do more offensively than dunk? Is Martinelli ready to become a star?

2) The first big test: Dayton. Is NU ready to play a good team (on the road no less)? Can this team step up without Boo's steady hand?

3) Bennerman to announce. Another thread said it's between NU and Michigan. Will this be the final (and best?) piece of the fantastic 2025 class that is the first class to truly reap the benefits of the back-to-back NCAA appearances?

I share your enthusiasm for Monday's games. Most looking forward to Windham, but wouldn't mind seeing a few Hunger Strikes to supplement the Nicholbombs.

Need something creative for Martinellis unstoppable post moves. "Martini with a Twist" is a little too long.
"Dirty Martini?"

Its been a long offseason.

 

[SmellyCat]

I like "Hunger Strike." "Dirty Martini" maybe isn't quite there, but it's early in the season for us too. If only "Martinelli Sparkling" weren't such a mouthful.

 

[GOUNUII]

I like "Hunger Strike." "Dirty Martini" maybe isn't quite there, but it's early in the season for us too. If only "Martinelli Sparkling" weren't such a mouthful.

I’ve got great seats for the Dayton game. Just a stone’s throw from my home in Cincy. I’ll proudly be a NU purple dot in a sea of Dayton red … my next most favorite team.

Anybody else making the trip? UD Arena is one of the great venues in college hoops. Close to 60 years old, you would never guess it. Shaped like a headless bird of prey riding the prevailing wind. Modern in every sense. Always a 13,500 sellout.

Go Cats!

GOUNUII

 

[NJCat]

I’ve got great seats for the Dayton game. Just a stone’s throw from my home in Cincy. I’ll proudly be a NU purple dot in a sea of Dayton red … my next most favorite team.

Anybody else making the trip? UD Arena is one of the great venues in college hoops. Close to 60 years old, you would never guess it. Shaped like a headless bird of prey riding the prevailing wind. Modern in every sense. Always a 13,500 sellout.

Go Cats!

GOUNUII

I was looking for tickets on the secondary market, and there just aren't any. Prices in the lower bowl range from $450 to $1,487, and these are corner seats. UD fans actually go to the games. NU fans take note......

 

[GatoLouco]

I was looking for tickets on the secondary market, and there just aren't any. Prices in the lower bowl range from $450 to $1,487, and these are corner seats. UD fans actually go to the games. NU fans take note......

That is always the case for Dayton games. I live under 2 hours away. I have been to pretty much every arena within 2 hours. But I have not made it to Dayton. Decent tickets are always expensive, even against minor competition. It's either pay a lot, or settle for very bad seats. So I keep postponing checking it out.

Having said this, the Cats give the motivation to endure bad bleacher seats. I will be there Saturday.

 

[Hungry Jack]

I’ve been to Dayton. Not much else to do there but watch basketball.

 

[SmellyCat]

The Packard museum was pretty cool when I went there 10 years ago.

 

[PurpleWhiteBoy]

I’ve been to Dayton. Not much else to do there but watch basketball.

We took my son down there when he was looking at prospective universities.
I thought the campus was nice, but my wife was less than happy with the adjacent "town."
(Not downtown Dayton, but the rather seedy area just off campus)
The massive cemetery bordering campus to the north didn't help.
She vetoed.

 

[Hungry Jack]

We stopped there to tour some weird rock garden this summer en route to DC. Cute but weird place.

 

[GOUNUII]

The Packard museum was pretty cool when I went there 10 years ago.

As is the Air Force Museum, and the NCR South and Moraine golf courses. The Pine Club supper club is an icon. The only restaurant to ever decline a dinner reservation for a sitting President. When they say they don't take reservations they mean it. Dorothy Lane grocery shopping might be as good as it gets anywhere for the serious foodies in the crowd. And the remnants of Dayton's glorious past include a handful of neighborhoods that would remind you of Westchester County in NY.

City really took a hit when GM, Delphi, NCR and Mead Paper all moved their corporate and manufacturing operations elsewhere. Use to be Southwest Ohio was the Machine Tooling capital of the Country. Until Asian competition won out.

Maybe the best part of Dayton is its easy and inexpensive lifestyle in close proximity to Cincy, Indy and C-bus. Those cities are thriving today.

GOUNUII

 

[GOUNUII]

We took my son down there when he was looking at prospective universities.
I thought the campus was nice, but my wife was less than happy with the adjacent "town."
(Not downtown Dayton, but the rather seedy area just off campus)
The massive cemetery bordering campus to the north didn't help.
She vetoed.

How long ago was that? Affectionately known as the "ghetto" by Flyers, the University bought it all up from private landlords and really cleaned it up .... at least by comparison to what it was many years ago.

GOUNUII

 

[PurpleWhiteBoy]

How long ago was that? Affectionately known as the "ghetto" by Flyers, the University bought it all up from private landlords and really cleaned it up .... at least by comparison to what it was many years ago.

GOUNUII

It was summer of 2020, during Covid. Definitely the Catholic/Jesuit playbook now. The universities are almost all urban, so surrounding areas can get run down - Notre Dame, Marquette, Saint Louis, Dayton to name a few - in similar situations.