Tag / VCU

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200 Things To Do In Illinois – United Center

Illinois celebrated its bicentennial as a state in December of 2018. To celebrate, the Chicago Tribune published the Bicentennial Bucket List: 200 Things To Do In Illinois, celebrating the best the state has to offer in history, food, architecture, culture, sports, nature, drink, and oddities.  Now that the state is starting to open back up following the corona virus outbreak, I figured this was the second-best time to look through this collection and cover the ones I’ve done/eaten/seen.

We kick things off with one of the entries from the Sports category: United Center, from Chicago, IL.

Seeing the stars of the Bulls and the Blackhawks go to battle in the Madhouse on Madison is thrilling – or infuriating, depending on how the teams are doing.

But no trip to the Near West Side stadium is complete without genuflecting at a trio of statues commemorating former Chicago hockey and basketball greats Bobby Hull, Stan Mikita and Michael Jordan.  You’ll find Hull and Mikita outside, while His Airness is enshrined in an atrium that opened last year.

I’ve been to the United Center 10 times, for 4 Bulls games, 4 Blackhawks games, a 2011 NCAA tournament game, and a concert by the Royal Philharmonic Orchestra.  My first two Bulls games came in 1997, a month or two prior to Michael Jordan’s return to the team.  My only game during the championship years came in November of 1997, when I saw Jordan and Bulls defeat the Hornets.  3 of the Blackhawk games came during their lean years, with just one coming during their championship runs.  The NCAA tournament game saw the Purdue Boilermakers fall to VCU in a surprising upset.

 

by jim

The Decade In College Sports

The 2010s have drawn to a close and its time to take a look back at the previous decade.  Today, we are wrapping things up with college athletics, specifically football and basketball.  On the gridiron, this was not a particularly successful ten years for the boys in gold and black, with only 4 bowl games, none of which were particularly prestigious.  Things were considerably brighter on the hardwood, with 8 appearances in the NCAA tournament, including 2 losses in the Sweet Sixteen and 1 Elite Eight appearance.  Not to mention 2 Big Ten regular season titles.

I only managed to take in 3 football game over the past 10 years, all at Ross-Ade Stadium.  The home team managed to win only the first of those, and were frankly somewhat embarrassed in the other two.

Team Records
Team Won Loss Winning Percentage
Northern Illinois Huskies 1 0 1.000
Illinois Fighting Illini 1 1 0.500
Purdue Boilermakers 1 2 0.333

Things were a little better on the basketball side.  I made it to 9 different contests over the course of the decade, at 5 different arenas.  Of those 9, 4 were tournament games.  Purdue was involved in 8 of the 9 games, mostly against the Illini.

Team Records
Team Won Loss Winning Percentage
Virginia Commonwealth Rams 1 0 1.000
Northwestern Wildcats 1 0 1.000
Butler Bulldogs 1 0 1.000
Purdue Boilermakers 5 3 0.625
Illinois Fighting Illini 1 3 0.250
Vermont Catamounts 0 1 0.000
Middle Tennessee Blue Raiders 0 1 0.000
Iowa State Cyclones 0 1 0.000
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Time To Go Dancing

It’s that time of year again, as the nation’s attention turns to the college hoops scene for the next few weeks. I’m down to just one pool this year; one at my mom’s work.  Without further ado, let’s take a look at this year’s selections.

I’m not seeing much in the way of upsets here, with overall #1 seed Duke my pick to make it to the Final Four.

Purdue finds themselves the #3 seed, playing the first weekend in Hartford.  Given Virginia’s historic poor showing last year, I don’t see them doing much with the #1 seed, so I expect quite a few upsets in this region.

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College Basketball Tipoff

The Purdue Boilermakers kick of the 2017-2018 season today, meaning it’s time to take our second ever look at the results of the now whopping 14 college basketball games I have attended in my lifetime. You’d think it would be more, since I was a big fan and we had a great team while I was in school, but for some reason I only made it to 2 games while enrolled in college. The other 12 have been post-graduation, including the first two rounds of last year’s NCAA tournament in Milwaukee. Anyway, without further ado, here are the standings for those 14 games.

All-Time Team Records
Team Won Loss Winning Pctg
Virginia Commonwealth Rams 1 0 1.000
Butler Bulldogs 1 0 1.000
Purdue Boilermakers 9 4 0.692
Northwestern Wildcats 2 2 0.500
Illinois Fighting Illini 1 3 0.250
Vermont Catamounts 0 1 0.000
Middle Tennessee Blue Raiders 0 1 0.000
Long Beach State 49ers 0 1 0.000
Iowa State Cyclones 0 1 0.000
Houston Cougars 0 1 0.000
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Dancing Days

It’s that time of year again, as the nation’s attention turns to the college hoops scene for the next few weeks. I’m down to just two pools this yearone at my mom’s work, and one run by a friend, as the work pool died due to lack of interest.  I will be in Milwaukee tonight to watch the Purdue Boilermakers make their third straight tournament appearance, hopefully advancing past this first weekend.

Last year’s champion, Villanova, gets the overall #1 seed and are my pick to advance to the Final Four.

Purdue ends up as the 4 seed in the Midwest, and I have them going to the Elite Eight, before falling to Oregon.  I have tickets to the first two games, so I hope they can at least win those 2.

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Tournament Time

It’s that time of year again, as the nation’s attention turns to the college hoops scene for the next few weeks. I’m in three different pools again this year, one at work, one at my mom’s work, and one run by a friend.  The Purdue Boilermakers return to the tournament for the second straight year, though they will likely not have an easy go of it.

2016SouthThe South bracket has the overall #1 seed in Kansas, who is also my pick to win the whole shebang.

2016EastThe Big 10 is well represented in the East region, with both IU and Wisconsin picked to make it to the Sweet Sixteen.

 

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College Basketball Tipoff

mackeyarenaThe Purdue Boilermakers kick of the 2015-2016 season today, meaning it’s time to take our first ever look at the results of the whopping 10 college basketball games I have attended in my lifetime.  You’d think it would be more, since I was a big fan and we had a great team while I was in school, but for some reason I only made it to 2 games while enrolled in college.  The other 8 have been post-graduation.  Anyway, without further ado, here are the standings for those 10 games.

All-Time Team Records
School Won Loss Winning Pctg
Virginia Commonwealth Rams 1 0 1.000
Purdue Boilermakers 7 3 0.700
Northwestern Wildcats 2 2 0.500
Long Beach State 49ers 0 1 0.000
Illinois Fighting Illini 0 3 0.000
Houston Cougars 0 1 0.000
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Time To Go Dancing

It’s that time of year again, as the nation’s attention turns to the college hoops scene for the next few weeks. I’m in three different pools again this year, one at work, one at my mom’s work, and one run by a friend.  For the first time since 2012, the Purdue Boilermakers return to the tournament, though they will not have an easy go of it.

2015midwestrd1The Midwest bracket has the overall #1 seed, the undefeated Kentucky, who I envision will make it to the Final Four.  Purdue, should they make it past their first round opponent, will run into Kentucky in the second round, so it is extremely unlikely they make it past this weekend.

2015westrd1After winning the Big Ten Tournament, Wisconsin earned the #1 seed in the West bracket.  The only big upset I am picking here is Ohio State over VCU.

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by jim

It’s Tournament Time

It’s that time of the year again, as the nation’s attention turns to the college hoops scene for the next couple of weeks.  I’m in three different pools again this year, one at work, one at my mom’s work, and one run by a friend.  Once again, Purdue is sitting out the tournament, but I can take some solace that IU is as well.

2014SouthNot much in the way of upsets here in the South region, as I have overall #1 seed Florida making it to the Final Four.

2014EastI see Michigan State making it out of the East region. Continue reading →

by jim

It’s Dancing Time

It’s that time of year again, as the nation’s attention turns to the college hoops scene for the next couple of weeks. I’m in three different pools again this year, one at work, one at my mom’s work, and one run by a friend. No Purdue in the tournament this year, so my picks were made mostly with my head and not my heart, though it pained me to have IU going as far as I did.
2013_Midwest_Rd1
I have Louisville coming out of the Midwest region.

2013_West_Rd1
New Mexico is my pick to come out of the West region. Continue reading →