Does Wojo get canned?

[Galway Eagle]

FWIW, Wake Forest, a private school with a basketball-first athletics program, in the middle of COVID, did fire their head coach last Spring. They have a smaller enrollment than Marquette, and has a larger athletic expense line due to football. His buyout was around $15 million, if I recall.

Somehow they were able to come up with a buyout.  I get not being able to compete with state schools, but this a small Baptist school in NC (with a strong basketball history and tradition). If a school wants to fire a head coach, they will find a way.  I guess the question is whether or not Marquette will want to in a few short weeks.

Wake is very well endowed compared to Marquette plus the ACC football money helps their athletic budget.

[The Hippie Satan of Hyperbole]

FWIW, Wake Forest, a private school with a basketball-first athletics program, in the middle of COVID, did fire their head coach last Spring. They have a smaller enrollment than Marquette, and has a larger athletic expense line due to football. His buyout was around $15 million, if I recall.

Somehow they were able to come up with a buyout.  I get not being able to compete with state schools, but this a small Baptist school in NC (with a strong basketball history and tradition). If a school wants to fire a head coach, they will find a way.  I guess the question is whether or not Marquette will want to in a few short weeks.

The University of Wisconsin schools are doing quite poorly financially compared to many of the private schools.  I wouldn't doubt that is the case in many states.

[dinger]

Pat Forde has him on the list of "probably not fired, but getting dire" list here: https://www.si.com/college/2021/02/08/ncaa-basketball-john-calipari-jim-boeheim-status

Steve Wojciechowski (13), Marquette. He looked like the golden hire who would sustain the work of Tom Crean and Buzz Williams, but the follow-through hasn’t been there. In late February 2019, Marquette was 23–4 and ranked in the top 10. Then the Golden Eagles went flat the rest of that season and haven’t recovered. Record since then: 28–28, as a prized pair of twins transferred. Wojo is now 9–10 in Year 7, with two NCAA appearances and no tourney wins to date.

[The Hippie Satan of Hyperbole]

Pat Forde has him on the list of "probably not fired, but getting dire" list here: https://www.si.com/college/2021/02/08/ncaa-basketball-john-calipari-jim-boeheim-status

Steve Wojciechowski (13), Marquette. He looked like the golden hire who would sustain the work of Tom Crean and Buzz Williams, but the follow-through hasn’t been there. In late February 2019, Marquette was 23–4 and ranked in the top 10. Then the Golden Eagles went flat the rest of that season and haven’t recovered. Record since then: 28–28, as a prized pair of twins transferred. Wojo is now 9–10 in Year 7, with two NCAA appearances and no tourney wins to date.

Forde must think all white boys look alike.

[MU82]

Forde must think all white boys look alike.

Maybe he was thinking Hrbek and Killebrew transferred.

He's probably right about Wojo's status, though.

[dinger]

Forde must think all white boys look alike.

Twins, but just separated by a few years.

[WarriorPride68]

Wake is very well endowed compared to Marquette plus the ACC football money helps their athletic budget.

Not sure how this ended, but Wake atleast didn’t think they were obligated to pay the (full) buyout because of misdoings

https://twitter.com/goodmanhoops/status/1255853290442686464?s=21

[MU82]

FWIW, Wake Forest, a private school with a basketball-first athletics program, in the middle of COVID, did fire their head coach last Spring. They have a smaller enrollment than Marquette, and has a larger athletic expense line due to football. His buyout was around $15 million, if I recall.

Somehow they were able to come up with a buyout.  I get not being able to compete with state schools, but this a small Baptist school in NC (with a strong basketball history and tradition). If a school wants to fire a head coach, they will find a way.  I guess the question is whether or not Marquette will want to in a few short weeks.

Many thought Manning was gonna get fired a year earlier but they gave him one more chance, and he failed miserably again.

That could serve as a cautionary tale to the MU honchos.

But then again, by body of work, Manning made Wojo look like John Wooden.

There haven't been too many coaches in recent years to last 6 years at a P6 school with the kind of record Manning had at Wake, a once very proud basketball school. In looking up his record just now, it was even worse than I had remembered!

[rocky_warrior]

So you guys can create a new "fire Wojo" thread a day and say the same things over and over. Or you can accept the fact and move on.

Moving on is hard apparently.  I choose to just keep supporting the team.  It's really the only thing a fan is responsible for.

[TAMU, Knower of Ball]

FWIW, Wake Forest, a private school with a basketball-first athletics program, in the middle of COVID, did fire their head coach last Spring. They have a smaller enrollment than Marquette, and has a larger athletic expense line due to football. His buyout was around $15 million, if I recall.

Somehow they were able to come up with a buyout.  I get not being able to compete with state schools, but this a small Baptist school in NC (with a strong basketball history and tradition). If a school wants to fire a head coach, they will find a way.  I guess the question is whether or not Marquette will want to in a few short weeks.

It helps when a donor says that they'll pay the buyout. If you know anyone, tell them to give Lovell a call.

[brewcity77]

YES   Probably the only way to create any excitement or sense of optimism would be a new coach.

Not just a new coach, but a coach that will draw a crowd. Whether that's stylistically, like Oats (maybe DeVries) or on name recognition like Beilein, it would have to be a hire that moves the needle. Those are not easy hires to make. Honestly, it's probably not the kind of hire Marquette has ever made in the past.

[muwarrior69]

It helps when a donor says that they'll pay the buyout. If you know anyone, tell them to give Lovell a call.

If a donor could afford pay to for Wojo's buyout why not throw in a little extra and buyout Lovell as well.
Wipe the slate clean.

[Shooter McGavin]

I think it's a possibility and should be the expectation for Wojo if he is the coach next season.

Assuming everyone comes back (big if but I'm more confident than I was before), we should be an improved team next season. We're losing roughly 40% of our production from this year's team. The average is usually around ~45% so we will have a slightly above average amount of production coming back. Not only that, but I think most would agree that the production leaving (Koby, Theo, Jamal) is more limited in their ability whereas the significant returners (Carton, Dawson, Lewis) appear to have much higher ceilings.

The recruiting class is in the top half of the conference and contains two players (Mitchell and Aidoo) that appear to be ready to play right away.

I'd agree that a transfer is necessary for me to feel good about next season. With insta-transfers being a thing this season, we will have plenty of options to choose from. I'm not worried about any of the big three transferring and I think Jose, Dexter, and Oso are all likely to stay. Greg and Sy are the only two I think may end up being transfers.

It's hard to project what next season will look like due to the extra COVID year, but the general wisdom seems to be that most seniors won't use their COVID years. If that holds true, most teams will be losing significant pieces next season:
Nova: Gillespie and Samuels (possibly JRE and Moore to draft)
Creighton: Ballock, O'Connell, Jefferson,  and Mahoney (possibly Zegarowski to draft)
Seton Hall: Mamu, Cale, Reynolds, and Aiken
UConn: Polley, Whaley, Carlton (possibly Bougknight to draft)
Xavier: Scruggs, Johnson, Griffin, and Carter
St. John's: Should be really good next season
Providence: Watson and Horchler (possibly Duke to draft)
Georgetown: Blair, Pickett, and Bile
Butler: Thompson, Bolden, and Nze
DePaul: Moore

Based on who's coming back and assuming guys like Bougknight and Zegarowski go pro, I'd put Marquette in the top half next season. Add in the recruiting class and a transfer and its not too far to top 4.

This of course assumes that Wojo can actually make the team as good as the sum of its parts which based on the last two seasons, is far from a guarantee. The complaint years 1-5 was that he couldn't make the team more than the sum of its parts. Lately, he hasn't even been able to do that.

This scenario would get some people off the ledge and more engaged but it better happen from the get go.  A few bad losses in the non-conference season against teams that the fan base expects to beat and there will be revolt.

But if what you predict happens with regard to the talent we have staying and the incoming freshmen are ready to play, they could be good.  They need to be better than the sum of their parts for the first time under Wojo.

I too agree they will not fire Wojo.

[Vino-D]

It's 7 years and he's shown no growth as a coach. Inconsistent offense, at times phantom defenses, way, way to many turnovers, and coaching decisions that at times are at best completely confusing. He's not going to get better as a coach, it would have shown by now, he's mediocre at best, and if MU wants to be a middle of the pack BE team, then keep WOJO, but if they want to compete, he's got to go.

[DFW HOYA]

Pat Forde has him on the list of "probably not fired, but getting dire" list here: https://www.si.com/college/2021/02/08/ncaa-basketball-john-calipari-jim-boeheim-status

Who has a better track record at this point:

Coach A: Seven year record of 124-91, 56-65 (.462) in Big East, two NCAAs, last ranked in 2019-20
Coach B: Four year record of 54-55, 22-41 (.349) in Big East, no NCAAs, never ranked in Top 25

[Galway Eagle]

Who has a better track record at this point:

Coach A: Seven year record of 124-91, 56-65 (.462) in Big East, two NCAAs, last ranked in 2019-20
Coach B: Four year record of 54-55, 22-41 (.349) in Big East, no NCAAs, never ranked in Top 25

Coach A. But for two of the four most storied programs in the Big East neither is getting it done.

[DFW HOYA]

I was going to include coach C but that wouldn't be fair to anyone.

Six year record of 64-106, 20-79 in the Big East, contract inexplicably renewed by a departing AD.

[bilsu]

My point is that next year's roster, without a transfer in, could be worse.

I do not see how next year's roster as it stands now is going to be any good. The base is to weak. No way MU wins a Big East game next year without Carton, Garcia and Lewis. For MU to win all three need to have good games. Based on how inconsistent these players have been this year, there are only going to be a few games next year where all three are having good games at the same time. Those games we will win. The rest we will lose.

Does another coach with this same team have significantly better results is the real question?

Wojo' is responsible for the talent on the floor and if you realistically look at it it is not good enough to finish in the upper tier of the Big East. This is were most of us differ. The common theme on this site is Wojo can recruit, but he cannot game coach. I think Wojo works very hard at recruiting, but does not have enough success to have MU be really good. Most, if not all, of our Big East losses this year have been to teams with more talent.

[goldeneagle91114]

Guys. Wojo is coming back. The layoffs coupled with the loss ticket revenue (in the millions) makes it impossible to buyout the head coach and also the assistant coaches. Not a lot of money but significant is  that BE shares its NCAA Tournament credits. They're for six years. No credits from last year and the shares from 6 years ago ended. That's about a third reduction.

As for "Hausergate." The only people that have a problem are a few people here. No teammates followed them out the door. The Admin. didn't make any changes to the program. Didn't prevent Stan from getting a HC job. We're still drawing top recruits from some of the best programs in the country (and these AAU guys know everyone and everything). Maybe. Just Maybe the Hausers (or one of them) were the problem and no one inside the program was sad to see them leave.

So you guys can create a new "fire Wojo" thread a day and say the same things over and over. Or you can accept the fact and move on.

If Joey and Sam would have returned, the team would have been in all of the top 25 Pre-seaon poles. It would have brought brand cognition back to Marquette. I also believe (If the Hausers and Markus could have mended relationships) that the team would have figured out a way to win (even with Wojo coaching) and would have been top 15, and ready for a potential tournament run.

In addition, Joey would now be "The Guy" on this year's team which is in desperate need of one, and would have helped solidify a strong base to grow future teams from.

Say what you want, but Wojo lost control of his locker room and the program is paying the price.

[rocky_warrior]

Say what you want

OK.  I'll say it.  Joey was the locker room problem, helped start this downward trend, and it's Wojo's fault for ever bringing him in at all.  Since you allowed us to say what we want

[goldeneagle91114]

OK.  I'll say it.  Joey was the locker room problem, helped start this downward trend, and it's Wojo's fault for ever bringing him in at all.  Since you allowed us to say what we want

And why was Joey upset? OK. I'll say it - Markus was injured in Feb. and like a true warrior wanted to tough it out. Even with his injury, Wojo still ran the "Markus show" though both Joey, and Sam could have helped shoulder the load. We all watched Markus shoot absurd shots, while Joey and Sam stood wide opened. This board couldn't figure it out, and I'm sure the Hauser's were in the same boat and became pi$$ed.

[Billy Hoyle]

If Joey and Sam would have returned, the team would have been in all of the top 25 Pre-seaon poles. It would have brought brand cognition back to Marquette. I also believe (If the Hausers and Markus could have mended relationships) that the team would have figured out a way to win (even with Wojo coaching) and would have been top 15, and ready for a potential tournament run.

In addition, Joey would now be "The Guy" on this year's team which is in desperate need of one, and would have helped solidify a strong base to grow future teams from.

Say what you want, but Wojo lost control of his locker room and the program is paying the price.

The "way too early" top 25's had us top 5 to top 10 before they left.

One thing to consider is that there was relatively little movement last year and will be relatively little this year as well. That means a deeper pool of potential coaches looking to move on with less competition.

[Jables1604]

Moser has Loyola back in the Top 25 in both polls.

[Silkk the Shaka]

Moser has Loyola back in the Top 25 in both polls.

[rocky_warrior]

"Markus show" though both Joey, and Sam could have helped shoulder the load.

You talking about the Joey that shot 35% on 6.7 shots per game in Feb 2019?
https://www.sports-reference.com/cbb/players/joey-hauser-1/gamelog/9999/#20190205-20190227-sum:gamelog

Meanwhile "hurt" Markus shot 43% on 18 shots per game in that timeframe.
https://www.sports-reference.com/cbb/players/markus-howard-1/gamelog/2019#20190205-20190227-sum:gamelog

Shocking that the coach wouldn't have deferred to Joey.  I know!

Edit, I'll eat some crow.  I had to look up when Markus was injured, going from the presumed Feb 20 timeline to the end of the season.:

Markus 35% on 18.3 FGA/game
https://www.sports-reference.com/cbb/players/markus-howard-1/gamelog/2019#20190220-20190321-sum:gamelog

Joey 42% on 7.7 FGA/game
https://www.sports-reference.com/cbb/players/joey-hauser-1/gamelog/9999/#20190220-20190321-sum:gamelog