Kolek planning to go pro
MikeSI ran an article in the immediate aftermath of Wojo's hiring. The key point is that K's other assistants had decidedly mixed results as head coaches but that Wojo was set up for success at MU.Do you feel Wojo delivered on that promise?https://www.si.com/college-basketball/one-and-one/2014/04/01/steve-wojciechowski-duke-coach-k-marquette-head-coach
One might as well say, "His big cup of ice water proves that he'll never be a good coach."
You might be onto something. Obviously, anyone who drinks that much water must sweat a lot. Ah-ha, you see? It's so obvious!!! There's only one possible conclusion: Wojo is nervous and lacks the confidence to make tough decisions in big games.
I think the only thing you can question about Wojo's resume isn't the length of time he spent as an assistant, but the fact that he only played and worked at one school for one coach before he got to Marquette. The only one on that list that is similar is Mark Few. Every other coach played or worked at other places, and I think that diversity of experience helps them. IMO of course.
The guy could have left for other gigs multiple times at Duke, he chose not to.
Wojo has one hole in his time at Marquette. NCAA success. When this season is over he will have won between 105 and 110 games in years 2-6. He will have made the tourney 3 of the last 4 years. The year he didn't, he won multiple games in the NIT. He has recruited high character players, kept MU out of the papers for negative off court activities and has a top 10 class coming in. But, the difference between perceived success and failure is post season record.
Weber, too. He was Keady's assistant even longer than Wojo was K's assistant. Some don't like Weber because he hasn't been a consistently good recruiter, but he got Southern Illinois to the Sweet 16, brought Illinois within a few points of a national title, and got Kansas State to the Elite 8. All after spending 18 years sitting next to Keady on Purdue's bench.Of course, one could argue that Wojo would have been well served to have spent a few years at a school like Southern Illinois, learning how to be a head coach, before taking a P6 job.
Jim Boeheim and Phil Martelli.
He chose not to or was never offered? I personally do not know of a program that actually offered him the gig and he said no thanks.
TowerTake out the first year and he is barely .500 winning in the BE. That is not that impressive. Big hole in my book.
Well yeah. That's the difference.Boeheim yes. Martelli no.
Because he worked one year as a grad assistant at the D-III school where he played?OK.
Right. That was my whole premise. That Wojo played and coached at one school under one coach before leaving for Marquette.So when you bring up a coach who played at a different school, under a different coach, that is outside the premise.
If you take out his first year and this year (since we're less than half way through the BE season), Marquette has 39 Big East wins. That's the fourth highest total of all Big East teams, behind Nova, Xavier, and Seton Hall. I'd hope Marquette could eventually flip with Seton Hall and move into the top 3, but that seems about right to me. I know some people here think this program should be winning 14+ Big East games and be within 1 game of a BE title every single year, get into the S16 every year with a shot at a FF every couple years, etc. But realistically we're about the 3rd best program in the Big East.
If you leave his first year in and take out last year (which ended in a disaster) his record is 35-45 not counting this season. You can cherry pick the stats any way you want. Maybe if you took out all the games they lost on Saturdays and all the games they lost wearing the baby blues, and all the games they lost by under 5 points you could really get that win total up there.
I think Wojo gets an Incomplete, Crash. Like some others, I'm concerned that he might never truly deliver, but I'm more patient and optimistic than many. But this shifting of your goalposts has nothing to do with whether his being on K's bench for more than a decade "proved" something about his ability to be a head coach. All one has to do is take a look at the long list of outstanding coaches who spent double-digit years as an assistant to see that it's silly to try to use that as a mark against Wojo.One might as well say, "His big cup of ice water proves that he'll never be a good coach."
I didn't cherry pick anything. I looked at the years Goose referenced and didn't include the less than half season the BE has played so far this year. If I included that I believe the results would be the same, as Seton Hall and Nova are 2 of the 3 schools with more wins than us as it is and nobody else has enough wins to pass us this year.