It has to be hard for a fan of Mambo Number Eight. It's a snappy tune, holds up well after all this time, but just a few inches away on the phonograph record of life sits Mambo Number Five. Mambo Number Five gets all the attention. Both tunes were originally released in 1949. Only Mambo Number Five is paid any attention by the mainstream today. Meanwhile Mambo Number Eight exists only to the few that get it.

www.youtube.com/watch?v=OgPVDRczMTU

Eastern Michigan is Mambo Number Eight.

Rob Murphy came to Mambo Number Eight from Syracuse, brought the 2-3 Zone with him, and has done things that Ron English could have only dreamed possible.

This game will be a meat grinder. The Bobcats figured out the zone last year, but were beaten handily the last time they travelled to Mambo Number Eight. Their performance against the Bowling Green zone on Wednesday has Mambo's fan salivating.

That is not the only reason Mambo's fan is salivating. To get fans there early and often, the first 500 fans through the Convocation Center gates will have access to the Tim Horton's Breakfast Bar, featuring donuts, bagels and coffee, as well as a limited edition "Beat Ohio" shirt. I will happily add one of these shirts to my collection of things nobody wanted. It will go next to my Milton Barnes bobblehead.

The combination of an 11 AM start preceded by a free breakfast for a select few, and the probability of morning snow showers has me thinking hard about traveling on Friday, catching opening night of Sesame Street Live at the Fox Theater and working a comp for a hotel room at the Motor City Casino. Doing "The D" on Friday will also help me to only have to travel route 23 and the prison hitchhiker corridor one time. The early start time also means I should be able to get to Mom Wilson's Country Sausage Mart between Marion and Columbus on the way back to sweet, sweet Jackson before it closes. I'd drive through anything for Mom's Jalapeno Cheese Wiener.

Please please please never put the words "mom" and "wiener" in the same sentence again.

FJM- 

Joe, you remember that Kathy and I were there on that Polish American day, right?  That's the game following our blowing the big lead and losing to Toledo.  Then, at Eastern, I don't think we scored until the 11:00 minute mark, right? 

I remember that!

And it was by far the scariest trip I've made to an away game. I don't think saying we saw >40 different 'accidents' (cars in ditch, crashed, or in median) would be a stretch. Second place was a UB trip. FB or BB, the weather stinks getting to EMU nearly every time. Hope it doesn't get as bad as they say, I'm planning on heading up again.

Only way we win this game is by Makin' It Ugly. Beat the zone by Bashing it, Drive into it, Dish it, Slash it, with no abandon and no regard for self health, or ref help.

I tried to make the trip to the game today, but the highways were so bad this morning I turned around and came home.  I like east of Cleveland and didn't even make it downtown.  Safe travels to anyone that was able to make it up that way.

Doesn't look like we did.

Crowd must be a factor. 
Tough to get up and play in front of 111 fans. 
Cue the next thread topic. 

The fouls against us are easy to call because we look desperate. Smooth we are not so far.

I wouldn't say anyone but Stevie is playing well. He has about half of our points and two thirds of our made field goals.

Edit: Stevie should have at least another bucket because of that bogus charge call.

2 missed dunks? Win or lose, we are a sloppy team.