Oso planning to go pro
I feel silly for having to make this arguement.
I personally think the whole securing the state's best players is stupid. Sure we should try to land the best players in state, but I think that the focus should be on finding the best players, period. If we have the option of landing the best player in Wisconsin who is the 100th best player in the nation or landing the 5th best player in Texas who is the 70th best player in the nation, we should take the player from Texas every time.
Same here as you clearly haven't coached a basketball team.
The "four Wades" argument is reminiscent of the "Da Bears" guys on SNL for a variety of reasons.
2002---My point is this is a year we could wait and see. No need to rush to sign anyone other than a stud. I would have, and I believe Buzz still is, waiting to hear Wilson's final decision. My gut says that if Wilson calls Buzz the offer is still on the table.Kids and coaches are fickle. Buzz might just be playing hardball with the kid. Before anyone says we are out of scholies...there is no such thing in today's game. We will have 2-3 kids we can chase off if need be at semester or after the season.
wow, what a comeback. Clearly you haven't watched what happens to marquette when we go against 1's and 2's who we can't "out athletic". People talk about getting torn up by bigs and it happens on occasion but when our 1/2 can't drive on the opposing guard we can't score. And that's when we get blown out. All you said was that the big three would cause turnovers. You really think that would be enough to win a game, they would be dominated phisically every position. 4wades would put up more highlight reel dunks than our 2008 squad would manage layups. But I guess you know all about that because clearly you've coached against wade like talent when running your girls 7th grade team. Why did your post only cover what would happen on one half the court. Doesn't sound like a good philosophy for someone who is such a seasoned vet of the game.
The argument about "securing the border" is awkward, to say the least, unless one considers that college basketball is more than winning games. It is about making money, too. (Or is it about making money first?) In any case, securing the border is about getting WI college b-ball fans in general, or fans of a particular player or school, to be fans of MU. The more WI players that go to MU the more attention MU gets on the ground in WI. That's not a bad thing, and probably something to aim for, as fans that live closer to the arena are more likely to fill seats, buy t-shirts, send their kids to college there, and on and on.
MU will get more fans by winning period. It is irrelevent if the team is made up of a kid from Racine Horlick or a kid from Hawaii.
In Milwaukee, or southeastern Wisconsin winning matters more than where the team is from. But not in the rest of the state. Having Wisconsin kids on the team is very important to a lot of people that might become MU fans in the Northern and Western parts of the state. MU suffers from being in Milwaukee, a part of the state most people would rather forget about. MU suffers from being an urban university, something a lot of people look down on. MU suffers because it is seen as a school that only the rich can afford, and is viewed as being full of elitist little rich kids from out of state. Winning won't change any of those issues. Putting a kid on the team from Clintonville or Hayward or Chippewa Falls might. Look at Madison. It's the state university, but it gets a big boost from having a lot of Wisconsin kids on the team. Bo Ryan would not be viewed as the god many people think he is if that team had a bunch of kids from Chicago, Houston, New York, Indianapolis etc. But fill the team with kids from Appleton, Randolph, Madison, Wisconsin Dells, Reedsburg, Blue Mound etc and suddenely he's one of the greatest coaches in the history of basketball. I'm not saying you sacrifice winning just to put more Wisconsin kids on the team, not at all. But you have to be willing to accept that you won't be as popular without those kind of kids on your team.
And we care about being popular, why? Face it, we will ALWAYS be ALL the things you listed to the Wisconsin faithful. Let them be a good Big10 team, while we strive to win the BEast. Let Bo continue to get his clock cleaned by lower seeds.
Because the popularity helps in multiple areas. It helps Buzz or any other coach go into some town in the northern part of the state and get a big time recruit like Brian Butch or Greg Steimsma or Keaton Nankivil. Say what you want about them being big white stiffs, but MU would have won a ton more games the last few years with any of those guys on the team.Popularity helps in merchandising, in getting people to come in from other parts of the state to catch a game, in getting people to send their kids to one of Buzz's camps etc. I can remember when KO was coach there were a ton of kids from outside Milwaukee that used to come to his camps because they wanted to be like Jim McIlvaine and Robb Logtermann and Craig Aamot etc. It means something to a heck of a lot of people to have someone they can relate to on the team.
Hard to win games if you don't rebound. Its hard to win if you don't play defense. Wade was great but had weaknesses.
I have lived most my life in Wisconsin outside the city of Milwaukee, and I hate to break it to you, but there is *no* interest in Marquette basketball outside of the pockets of alumni that live in these burghs. I live in Fort Atkinson, and I guess if there was a guy from the local high school who made it to Marquette, the locals would follow...but when he graduated they'd go right back to red and white. I caught the MU/UW game in a local bar with a bunch of friends last year, and I was the *only* one there out of a few dozen who was rooting for the beloved alma mater. Getting Jamil Wilson on the team won't change that one bit.
Well, that's nice and all, but I would rather have Buzz recruit the best players he think will help us win instead of trying to capture the vast, untapped market of Antigo.