Hello, 2020! ... Here's hoping the rest of the New Year can live up to my first week

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Just got back from a great (but too short!) trip to Chicago and Milwaukee.

So much fun with our adorable grand-twins Logan and Jack (aka "LoJack"), and of course their parents Ben and Sammi.

LoJack loves Grandma! (And vice versa!)

Grandpa hangin' with da boyz

As they close in on their 5-month birthdays, the boys have gotten so big. Fun little personalities. A lot of smiling, as Logan demonstrates ...

The boys even are showing an affinity for TV (uh-oh).

Saturday was a darn near perfect day ...

• Drove up from Chicago to Milwaukee with Robbie, Ben and Mickey (Ben's father-in-law) for the Marquette-Villanova game.
• Found a free parking spot on the street within 3 blocks of the arena. I loves me some free parking!
• Met Marquette buddies Tom and Jim at a local establishment before the game to share some great memories and laughs. Also shared some beverages, which in my case were New Glarus Moon Man and Spotted Cow.
• Watched our Warriors play very well in defeating the No. 10 team in the country.
• No trip to Milwaukee is complete without a dash to Leon's for amazing butter pecan frozen custard.
• Went to Ben's in-laws' place in the northern burbs to eat deep-dish pizza and to spend a few hours with family: Ben, Sammi, Mickey, his wife Linda, Sammi's sister Lauren, various dogs ...  and, of course, the stars of the show, Logan and Jack.
• Drove back to my son's place to tuck in LoJack.
• Watched the end of the Patriots' playoff loss to Tennessee. Bye-bye Brady!

Hard to beat that!

Rob took this artsy-fartsy photo of 3 old farts:
Tom, Mike and Jim

Mickey, Ben, Rob and Mike up in the Fiserv Forum nosebleed section

Marquette's All-American guard, Markus Howard,
takes it right into the teeth of Villanova's defense
(Photo credit: gomarquette.com)

Leon's butter pecan ... The best treat in the entire world!

Naturally, we were sad to say goodbye on Sunday. And when we got home, we had a ton of work staring at us, as we just had both bathrooms renovated and the entire downstairs painted. 

On Monday, it was back to practice with my Community House Cavs, who just returned from winter break. We'll take a 3-2 record into our first post-break game on Thursday, Jan. 9.

I hope everybody had as great a start to the New Year as I did.

Oh, and here's lookin' at you, kid!

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All basketball is fun, and winning basketball - as at Ardrey Kell and Marquette - is most fun of all

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Our seniors -- from top, Steph, Riley, Nia, Kennedy and Deeya (manager) --
make a pyramid with Coach Buseick.

On Jan. 4, our Ardrey Kell Lady Knights opened the 2019 portion of our schedule with a loss to our archrivals, South Mecklenburg High. We blew a 12-point fourth-quarter lead. It was our 3rd loss in 4 games, a highly unusual stretch for a program that has been consistently ultra-successful. And it gave us a 1-2 conference record, with both losses coming at home.

We were hurtin'.

Our fine coach, Jeff Buseick, had talked about the Buster Douglas-Mike Tyson fight earlier in the season, and I decided to expound on that theme after one of our practices.

Remember how Coach talked about the Douglas-Tyson fight? Well, he was only a few years old when that took place while I watched it live, but he still did a great job talking about all of the highlights. The one thing he left out was this: Tyson actually knocked Douglas down in the 8th round. The ref was counting ... 1-2-3-4 ... if it gets to 10, Tyson wins by knockout ... 5-6-7 ... Buster is in trouble ... 8-9 ... Douglas got up at 9 and then the bell rang. He literally was saved by the bell. And then, 2 rounds later, Douglas knocked out Tyson to complete probably the greatest upset in the history of sports.

Well now, we've been knocked down. At AK, we're not used to it, but it has happened. How are we gonna respond? Six of our next 7 games are on the road, including games against the 2 teams we just lost to. What are we gonna do? Are we gonna quit, or are we gonna get up off the mat and fight? Let's get up off the mat, ladies, and show the world we're still AK!

The girls all cheered and it was a feel-good moment for us. As an assistant coach, I don't usually get to give rah-rah speeches.

Fast-forward to the present. Last night, we finished the regular season by rallying for a great win over Olympic on Senior Night. It was our 9th straight conference victory since that 1-2 start, and we're near the top of the league standings again.

I'd love to say that my speech had a single doggone thing to do with it, but I know better. These girls are tough-minded and talented, and they deserve all the credit.

Besides, given the way we've dominated the conference the last many years, one could argue that WE are Mike Tyson in this analogy!

Whatever, it's fun to be winning again.

We take a 19-5 record into next week's conference tournament. The state tourney is the week after that. This time of year is so much fun.

Go AK!

One of our players called this photo
"Ending Segregation."

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And speaking of basketball ...

Huge win Saturday for my Marquette Warrior Eagles, the No. 10 team in the nation!

A few days earlier, we had lost at home (to St. John's) for the first time all season, and now we were playing the defending national champions.

We got 38 points from our star, Markus Howard, and solid contributions from several other players, and defeated No. 14 Villanova 66-65.

Getty Images

It was what we call "National Marquette Day," when folks from all over the country gather in their cities to watch the event on TV.

I was "volunteered" to run our event in the Charlotte area.

We had a nice turnout and a lot of fun!

Followed that up last night with a decisive victory against DePaul. It was fun going to a sports bar with Robbie to watch that game right after the AK girls had defeated Olympic -- a great double-header for me.

We're ready to take the Big East title and have a great run in the NCAAs.

We Are Marquette!
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