Gearing up for Big East meet

When Ted Lasso, manager of fictional club AFC Richmond in the television show “Ted Lasso,” brought his entire team down to a sewer as a metaphor for ignoring the critics, I thought one thing: This is something Marquette men’s basketball head coach Shaka Smart would do.

Smart has preached the importance of relationships and growth as a team from within in his two years at the helm of the Golden Eagles.

In my little time at Marquette, I have grown fond of Smart and his somewhat cheesy habits, like having his players write down how they want to help their teammates on a piece of paper and put it into a water pitcher so “they can pour into each other.”

Or how he hands out dominoes after each game to the players he feels exemplified the “domino effect” in that given game.

There are many more Smartisms or culture building activities that Smart does, but everything culminates under his belief of building something up together as one.

Sounds a lot like Lasso right? And his importance of relationships and “belief?”

Lasso makes it a point to know every member of the team, including the kit man and waterboy, something that had not been a priority to his predecessor. He always remembers birthdays and stories about people. But most of all, he cares about who everyone is beyond the pitch.

If that isn’t Smart-esque, I don’t know what is.

And you’d be right.

Smart is very knowledgeable about basketball, whereas Lasso is incredibly stupid in regards to soccer, to the extent that he didn’t know draws existed in the sport until after he was hired as head coach.

But that doesn’t mean the similarities do not exist. Both coaches wholeheartedly believe that a successful program is one that has been built up to be great, and developing players around a unified system is better than getting the flashiest player who has a lot of stars next to his name.

They also both work tirelessly to form a relationship between management and the team’s players and staff.

Lasso has spent hours in his boss Rebecca Welton’s office and even pushed her to come to the dressing room after games. The AFC Richmond players are also always happy to see her, even letting out a big cheer when she walked onto the team bus in the latest episode.

Smart, likewise, always made sure Marquette University President Michael Lovell was involved in the men’s basketball games. When the Golden Eagles won the Big East Tournament in New York City, Smart ensured that Lovell got a piece of the net after the game.

I have no idea if Smart has watched “Ted Lasso,” or what his thoughts on the upbeat and happy coach from Kansas City are, but I do know that there are similarities between the two.

So, as you watch the final six episodes of the Emmy Award winning comedy about a goofy coach with weird but meaningful -isms, try and count how many times you find yourself saying, “That’s something Shaka would do.” Because I bet it will be a lot.

Golden Eagles head to Drake Relays to prepare for postseason

By Benjamin Hanson benjamin.hanson@marquette.edu

Marquette Track & Field has been competing in the Drake Relays since Olympian Ralph Metcalfe competed in the event back in the 1930s. This year, the Golden Eagles will travel to Des Moines, Iowa to use the event as a stepping stone toward next month’s Big East Championships.

Graduate student distance runner Emily Noone said she has been watching the Drake Relays since she was little, as it holds a historic spot throughout collegiate Track & Field.

“It’s crazy to think that when I was a kid I’d be watching it on TV and now I’m in college racing in it,” Noone said. “It’s a super cool event and when you go to the university, it’s like a big holiday with such an amazing legacy and history behind it.”

Along with the celebration, senior sprinter Julian Wright said this is a time for the athletes to push themselves against tougher competition.

“What Drake does is gives us a chance to actually see competition that we would never see,” Wright said. “It gives us a chance to get pulled by others or drop some faster times because of the level of teams we face. We want to be able to perform and step up to that stage and make it known that just because we go to Marquette doesn’t mean we’ll be losing to anyone.”

As the season nears its end, head coach Bert Rogers said this meet serves as extra practice for the Big East Championships.

“There are a couple of events that would be nice to be able to run fast at Drake and sort of have that under our belt as we’re headed towards the Big East,” Rogers said. “There’s a couple of those relay races that we haven’t been able to piece together, so I’m hoping we can get a good one in out there along with the other non-traditional relays.” performances have been at bigger meets when I have a little bit more pressure and competition to push me,” Noone said. “The Drake Relays are definitely a perfect environment for that kind of stuff and to even be a a fast turnover, but it’s something that helps us prepare,” Wright said. “Those back to back days competing at Drake are just like conferences where we’re competing back to back too. The similarity and short time difference between those two events help a lot.”

Noone said with a high level of competition to be expected at the meet, it will push her to be at her best.

Following the Drake Relays, April 26-29, Marquette will compete in the Wisconsin Classic in Madison the weekend after before the Big East Championships May 11-13.

Rogers said with a quick turnaround between meets, it will allow his team to ride a wave of momentum and use pieces from each of their last two meets before the conference championships at Villanova University.

Julian

simulation for tougher Big East competition.”

Rogers said the competition is very different from any others that they encounter throughout the season.

“For a lot of the track event people, it’s going to be a weekend where they’re doing very minimal individual stuff,” Rogers said. “The vast majority are running relays we don’t usually see outside of this meet, so the team does get excited to do those different kinds of things and try to put their names up in the record books.”

Wright said that because of this meet, the team is able to carry over key aspects that it can use to its advantage at the end of the season.

“It’s hard with it being such

“We really want to be starting to hit our peak at this point at Drake and then we’ll go to Madison next week to kind of tune up any last minute race stuff we want to address so that we’re prepared for the Big East,” Rogers said. “There’s sort of this month long stretch that has a rhythm to it of being able to compete, relax a little and then be faced with go time.”

Wright said the momentum of the last month in the season is a huge tool to help get athletes prepped for competition at the Big East Championships.

“Especially for the Big East, the Drake Relays and Madison are priming us to get so many people into the finals, get so many more points, medals, podiums and pictures of happy faces,” Wright said.

“I think for Big East, with the preparation we’ll be able to do, we’ll be able to get top three. I really can see it.”

@JackAlbrightMU

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