Fire Buzz Williams

[Ari Gold]

It's not buzz's fault. DJ was so much of an on the court presence. He would give us 10-12 points a game and be a leader. Thats what the team lacked in its losses. with DJ out we needed a leader. We had to take on the four toughest teams in the conference w/o our top LEADER.  These games aren't the fault of Buzz.  Seriously people need to cut the "i blame buzz williams" garbage

[CTWarrior]

Last year we were a miracle bucket away from going to the sweet 16. We lost no contributors, and will somehow go into the tournament with the same, if not worse seeding.

It's funny how a 6 foot shot by a 7 foot tall lottery pick without a defender going up to challenge him has evolved into being a miracle shot.  I think that Fitzgerald and especially Barro were significant contributers last year, not to mention Dominic James, who was a MAJOR contributor.

As for Buzz, for me it's hard to figure how good a coach he is.  He had four very talented, creative players on offense and he was smart enough to go with a motion offense and let them do what they do best.  That same philosophy would probably be a lot less effective next year.  I'll have to see what he does there.

Our defense this year has been terrible, despite obvious improvement in that area from James.  The two headed combo of Barro/Burke has been replaced by Burke/Butler, so our worse defense is most likely caused by less effective interior personnel.  Frankly, I don't know what he could have done given his roster.

Given what he was for a roster, I think Buzz has done a fine job, because he coached them the best way they could be successful.  But his main players were very experienced and just needed to be trusted to do their own thing.  We'll see what he does next year with a team that will need a strong coach.

[muwarrior87]

Whether it was intentional or not, I liked when Wesley was giving his senior speech how he thanked Buzz for letting him sprout/come out of his shell...something to that extent.

[bilsu]

Fire Buzz Williams and we lose at least half of our incoming class. That is the quickess way to make Marquette as bad as DePaul. Frankly you are an ***** for wanting to fire a coach after he losses his star point guard with a broken foot and has to play four ranked teams in a row.

[Moonboots]

Whether it was intentional or not, I liked when Wesley was giving his senior speech how he thanked Buzz for letting him sprout/come out of his shell...something to that extent.

I think "unleash me" was the exact terminology.  Awesome, Wes.

[Niv Berkowitz]

For better or worse...had MU hired a veteran coach that understands how to use timeouts correctly, we wouldn't be having this debate right now. And THAT was the one criticism of hiring Buzz in the first place. It was the fact that MU gambled when it shouldn't have had too. We are now reaping that.

[Daniel]

I think "unleash me" was the exact terminology.  Awesome, Wes.

Yeah - I videoed it on my Flip and he said,
"I want to thank Buzz for finally unleashing me!"  

And the crowd went wild!!

[skianth16]

For all the replies about James being out but still hanging in there against some top teams- you're only proving my point about Buzz. Our guys stepped up and filled his spot pretty well. Acker has done a great job and so has Cubillan, both despite limited playing time this season. And as a result of their games we hung in there and had a chance to win a few of these past games. BUT because of some poor decision making by Buzz we didn't get as good of a chance as we should have.

Against Louisville we were down 4! with 15 (or so) seconds to play. Why not foul?! I don't understand the gameplan there. Yeah, it's a small chance to pull that out on the road in Freedom Hall, but at least give them a chance to try.

And today was awful. We were tied with 8 seconds left and there's no TO to set up a play? Terrible terrible decision.

Buzz may be a great assistant coach, but when he's calling the shots, any team he's in charge of is never going to reach their full potential.

[chapman]

3 future NBA players, outside of top 20, 6/7 seed in the NCAA tournament. You are happy with this?

I just want to give everyone warning, that especially if we lose Wednesday, but even if we go 1-1 in the BET, to not whine, complain, or have a cow if our seed is even worse than a 6 or 7.  You can cite the good record or a couple key wins, but a last 12 of 5-7, a last 10 of 3-7, a 5 game losing streak, and falling flat after losing a key player will not be rewarded at all by the committee.  So there shouldn't be one gripe about an 8,9 or even a 10 seed when we're playing like an NIT team.  We probably should have a better seed, but we don't deserve anything. 

[bma725]

For all the replies about James being out but still hanging in there against some top teams- you're only proving my point about Buzz. Our guys stepped up and filled his spot pretty well. Acker has done a great job and so has Cubillan, both despite limited playing time this season. And as a result of their games we hung in there and had a chance to win a few of these past games. BUT because of some poor decision making by Buzz we didn't get as good of a chance as we should have.

Against Louisville we were down 4! with 15 (or so) seconds to play. Why not foul?! I don't understand the gameplan there. Yeah, it's a small chance to pull that out on the road in Freedom Hall, but at least give them a chance to try.

And today was awful. We were tied with 8 seconds left and there's no TO to set up a play? Terrible terrible decision.

Buzz may be a great assistant coach, but when he's calling the shots, any team he's in charge of is never going to reach their full potential.

Yeah, the game plan was the problem.

Clearly it wasn't the fact that Acker gave up a career high to Andre McGee and Buzz had no one else to put on him.

It also couldn't have been the fact that Jerel went 3 for 19 from field and 2 for 5 from the FT line.

The Louisville game was lost because of what the players were incapable of doing, not because of game planning.

[skianth16]

For better or worse...had MU hired a veteran coach that understands how to use timeouts correctly, we wouldn't be having this debate right now. And THAT was the one criticism of hiring Buzz in the first place. It was the fact that MU gambled when it shouldn't have had too. We are now reaping that.

thank you! very very well said. Obviously the thread title was a little exaggerated, but I think you're right to say it was a gamble that didn't pay off.

But most gambles have some type of risk reward payoff. I just don't see that with Buzz.

[MilWarrior]

I'm sick of everyone talking about how this season ended when we lost Dom's defense - "our best defensive player".

1. Did DJ win BE defensive player of the year? No. Jerel is our best defender. Period.
2. Everyone blames AJ Price going off on Acker guarding him and not DJ. Newflash, Jerel was guarding him.
3. Who was guarding Scottie Reynolds when he went bonkers? DJ

I miss DJ more than everyone, but you take away Acker's dumb turnover today and he has played more than admirably. The coaching mistakes far FAR outweigh the step down from DJ to Acker.

Fact is, with a better coach, we win today and at worst split between UCONN and Lousville. That makes us a top 10 team.

Newsflash: YOU, are an idiot. I doesn't matter who's coaching this team right now. We just played 4 top 25 teams in a row with 4/5 of our starters. Do you really think this team is BE Championship material? Final Four material? We can do without bandwagon/sky is falling fans like you.

[skianth16]

Yeah, the game plan was the problem.

Clearly it wasn't the fact that Acker gave up a career high to Andre McGee and Buzz had no one else to put on him.

It also couldn't have been the fact that Jerel went 3 for 19 from field and 2 for 5 from the FT line.

The Louisville game was lost because of what the players were incapable of doing, not because of game planning.
[/quote]

Yeah, that's obviously why we lost. But we were still in it! Why don't you undersatdn that? Despite all the things you just mentioned we were still only down 4 with 30 seconds to go! No matter how many points mcgee had and how cold Jerel was, we still had a shot at the end, but Buzz didn't do much to help that chance

[skianth16]

Newsflash: YOU, are an idiot. I doesn't matter who's coaching this team right now. We just played 4 top 25 teams in a row with 4/5 of our starters. Do you really think this team is BE Championship material? Final Four material? We can do without bandwagon/sky is falling fans like you.

More like it hasn't mattered who has coached the team up until right now. If we had more experience on our sideline the end of our season could have been much different. The good coaches are the ones who make things happen against good teams. Anyone is going to beat Depaul, but when you can come up with defensive adjustments at halftime to slow down AJ Price or come up with an offensive play when you're tied with 8 seconds left... That's how GOOD coaches win games

[MilWarrior]

Yeah, the game plan was the problem.

Clearly it wasn't the fact that Acker gave up a career high to Andre McGee and Buzz had no one else to put on him.

It also couldn't have been the fact that Jerel went 3 for 19 from field and 2 for 5 from the FT line.

The Louisville game was lost because of what the players were incapable of doing, not because of game planning.


Yeah, that's obviously why we lost. But we were still in it! Why don't you undersatdn that? Despite all the things you just mentioned we were still only down 4 with 30 seconds to go! No matter how many points mcgee had and how cold Jerel was, we still had a shot at the end, but Buzz didn't do much to help that chance

Tell us how coaching would have won the game. Tell us, of the available coaches last offseason, which coach could've won that game for us?

[bma725]

Yeah, the game plan was the problem.

Clearly it wasn't the fact that Acker gave up a career high to Andre McGee and Buzz had no one else to put on him.

It also couldn't have been the fact that Jerel went 3 for 19 from field and 2 for 5 from the FT line.

The Louisville game was lost because of what the players were incapable of doing, not because of game planning.


Yeah, that's obviously why we lost. But we were still in it! Why don't you undersatdn that? Despite all the things you just mentioned we were still only down 4 with 30 seconds to go! No matter how many points mcgee had and how cold Jerel was, we still had a shot at the end, but Buzz didn't do much to help that chance

You're incorrect on the time.  Wesley threw up that three with 14 seconds left in the game.  By the time MU was in a position to foul, there were 10 seconds left.  Even if you assume Louisville misses, MU would have to get the rebound(unlikely), race down court and hit a shot(even more unlikely) and then foul again.  There simply wasn't enough time at that point to pull it off.  Plus given how the team was playing, extending the game likely would have made it worse.  With the way Jerel was shooting, another possession simply gives him a chance to throw up another terrible shot, and Louisville would have just won by a larger margin. 

[skianth16]

Tell us how coaching would have won the game. Tell us, of the available coaches last offseason, which coach could've won that game for us?

I think that every single high school coach in the country would have had the common sense to call a time out and draw up a play for a chance to win the game.

[bma725]

More like it hasn't mattered who has coached the team up until right now. If we had more experience on our sideline the end of our season could have been much different. The good coaches are the ones who make things happen against good teams. Anyone is going to beat Depaul, but when you can come up with defensive adjustments at halftime to slow down AJ Price or come up with an offensive play when you're tied with 8 seconds left... That's how GOOD coaches win games

Tell us exactly what you would have done to slow down AJ Price?

James is gone, so he's not an option.  Price was tearing McNeal a new a-hole so clearly he's not working.  What possible player do you have to put on him?  Cubi, Wes, Butler, and Lazar are too slow.  Acker is too short.  You can't go zone, because they'll abuse the zone with Thabeet.  You can't go box and 1 because whichever 1 you pick can't stay with him, and they have too many talented players for the box to handle.  You can't double team him, because their other players are just too good.  There's literally no solution out there other than hoping that he misses, because no one that was available to play was good enough to stop him.

You're severely overestimating the talent on this team when you assume that there actually was something different for Buzz to do.  No coach, not Buzz, not Crean, not anyone could have stopped AJ Price that night with the available talent that Marquette had.

[skianth16]

You're incorrect on the time.  Wesley threw up that three with 14 seconds left in the game.  By the time MU was in a position to foul, there were 10 seconds left.  Even if you assume Louisville misses, MU would have to get the rebound(unlikely), race down court and hit a shot(even more unlikely) and then foul again.  There simply wasn't enough time at that point to pull it off.  Plus given how the team was playing, extending the game likely would have made it worse.  With the way Jerel was shooting, another possession simply gives him a chance to throw up another terrible shot, and Louisville would have just won by a larger margin. 

My bad on the time, but my whole point is that our guys didn't even get the chance to TRY. 4 points isn't all that bad. Teams foul down by much more than 4 in the last ten seconds. And do they usually lose? Yes. But sometimes you get a miracle. Buzz sure talks about praying a lot to not even hope for that miracle...

[ChicosBailBonds]

For better or worse...had MU hired a veteran coach that understands how to use timeouts correctly, we wouldn't be having this debate right now. And THAT was the one criticism of hiring Buzz in the first place. It was the fact that MU gambled when it shouldn't have had too. We are now reaping that.

The thing is, it probably didn't pay off this year which is unfortunate considering how special this group of players is.  That being said, we will have to judge this hire a few years down the road.  That's when we will really know.  I think Buzz's staff is quite good and if he can have multiple good recruiting classes, we will be ok. 

[skianth16]

Price was on fire that game, that's obvious. But to say that no coach in the country could slow him down is pretty bold. If Buzz plays Cubillan for 2 minutes to let Jerel rest, it could have helped. If we try a double team and let Stanley Robinson take some jumpers, that could help. If you try a box and 1 and switch your 1 every couple of minutes that could work.

The point is that the coach of the #10 team in the country should be able to come up with something! You know that Pitino or Boeheim or Williams or Coach K would have a game plan to alter Price's game for the second half. No one just concedes and assumes that an opponent is unstoppable.

[VegasWarrior77]

For the fun of it I went to the Wash. St. board.  Tony Bennett was criticized for: 1) calling a timeout at the end of the game and then running a crappy play that didn't put the ball in the right player's hands; 2) Not developing the freshman players on the team; 3) Not developing the 4 seniors on the team; 4) Not playing a bigger/smaller lineup; 5) Not recruiting better (amongst other things).  Is he not a  "hot" young coach anymore?

MU finished about where they should have.  If you think we had the talent to finish ahead of the top three you are delusional.  That's speaking with my head and not my alumni heart.

[bma725]

Price was on fire that game, that's obvious. But to say that no coach in the country could slow him down is pretty bold. If Buzz plays Cubillan for 2 minutes to let Jerel rest, it could have helped. If we try a double team and let Stanley Robinson take some jumpers, that could help. If you try a box and 1 and switch your 1 every couple of minutes that could work.

The point is that the coach of the #10 team in the country should be able to come up with something! You know that Pitino or Boeheim or Williams or Coach K would have a game plan to alter Price's game for the second half. No one just concedes and assumes that an opponent is unstoppable.

Have you seen Cubillan play this year?  What makes you think that in 2 minutes of game time he wouldn't do even more damage and an allow Price to go off even more.  He's shown absolutely nothing on the court that would make you think he could do it.  By sticking with McNeal, Buzz was in fact making the smart decision.  If your former Big East Defensive POY can't stop him, then you don't have anyone who can.

Further, you show a complete lack of knowledge if you think those legendary coaches would switch their defenses to stop a player.  Boeheim plays a 2-3 zone.  That's it.  Every possession of every game since the late 1980s, Syracuse has played a 2-3.  If someone goes off, then they go off.  He sticks with it because he knows that's what works most of the time.  Coach K plays a straight man to man and has for nearly all his coaching career.  You must have missed the game two years ago when DJ tore up Duke and Coach K refused to do any switching on him.  If a player goes off then so be it, Coach K just tries to outscore them.  Pitino is known for being completely stubborn in his defensive approach.  Even when his press isn't working, when his team is getting killed by it, he still continues to do it game after game possession after possession.

If you look at the great coaches throughout the years, you'll find that most of them don't go around adjusting their defense.  They play one way because that's their best way to win most of the games they play.  They don't go around changing it for one player or one team because that's not how they've built their teams.

[Avenue Commons]

I don't think you can attribute much of the success of this season to Buzz. He walked into a gold mine with this team. Williams didn't turn these guys into the players they are today. As much as I hate to say it, Crean is the reason we won 23 games this season.

Williams' decision making is awful. He seems to think that by ignoring all the basic coaching rules that he will be successful, but it's coming back to bite him now that we have a tougher schedule. He has brought absolutely nothing to the table this year.

Do you know ANYTHING about the game of basketball?

Are you going to tell me that Dominic James, a three-time All-Big East basketball player who is a potential NBA draft pick is NOT a one point difference in a tie game at the end of regulation against Syracuse?

Your post offends my intelligence and, I would hope, your own.

If you knew ANYTHING about basketball, you would know that this team rotates better on D than any of Tom Crean's teams, takes better shots, and over all plays better as a team.

Buzz Williams has done an unbelievable job of maximizing these kids' talent. They were/are a Top-10 team without a low post presence at all. They have Hayward (a 2) playing the 4 and Burke (a 3/4, maybe) playing the 5. In this respect they are/were at a disadvantage in every game against every opponent with a traditional lineup.

If you don't think that Dominic James is a 1-point value over Maurice Acker (a decent NCAA hoops player but not a 3-time Big East player with a shot at the NBA) then I don't know what to tell you.

I would hope that you were one of the people at the game who stayed for the seniors' speeches. They deserved your respect. If you did, you would have heard Wesley Mathews thank Buzz Williams for letting him play his game (my words, not his, I forget his exact terminology). The message was clear that Crean restricted his development and ability for the first three years.

The same is true for this whole team. I don't give an f**k, who recruited them, all I know is the 4 seniors and Hayward together could play with anyone in the country. As the last three years showed that was not the case with Tom Crean as head coach.

Without DJ this team is a good, but not spectacular NCAA team. But to say that Buzz Williams should be fired shows profound ignorance and you should be ashamed of your self.

I wish I wrote this whole post in CAPS and could tape it to your front door.

[WarriorHal]

MU went 23-8 overall and 12-6 in the toughest conference in the country. And by all accounts, Buzz has an excellent recruiting class coming in. Not sure that's what gets a coach fired. When we were 9-0 in the BE and ranked #8 nationally, we were probably a little overrated. If we had played UConn, Louisville, Pitt and Syracuse earlier in the season with James, chances are we would have ended up with the same record. The 0-4 finish makes it seem worse than it is. Of course, w/o James, we will be lucky to win one more game this season.