Can Marquette be "The Next Villanova"?

[GoldenEagles03]

On the Shaka Smart Show at Dave and Busters Shaka has said multiple times that when he recruits kids he tries to talk to everyone to get an idea of who the kid really is. From family members to a janitor he wants to hear everyones perspective.

One thing I really like about this team (that may get pushback from some) is that they seem to play for each other and have a healthy dislike of their opponents.  They aren't out there being buddy-buddy with their opponents like you saw in the past with Markus Howard and Myles Powell.

The old-school attitude of you are my enemy while we are inside the lines unless you are wearing the same jersey. I love that. I think if Shaka is that in depth with his recruiting and guys continue to buy in to this style then we are set up incredibly well for the future.  Maybe not the next Nova but that's fine. Be the next best version of Marquette.

[The Equalizer]

Again, you are purposefully looking over the 6 year gap between 2009 and 2015 and comparing Shaka's second class to Wright's much later classes. Wright's classes in the 8 years following his 4th ranked 2009 class were ranked 41st, 22nd, 27th, 36th, 48th, 29th, 45th, and 28th. Shaka's first two classes have been ranked 20th and 57th (so far with an unranked international player who doesn't factor into the class ranking). You are cherry picking 4 recruits that were spread out over 13 classes...all of whom came over 6 years after 2009.

You also left off #11 Mouphtao Yarou from that 2009 recruiting class. And again, it's about recruiting guys who make it known that they are only planning on staying a year and aren't a fit culturally. Brunson, JRE, Whitmore, and Spellman don't match that.

Wright's highest rated class of all time was 2009, ranked 4th in the country. In the 8 years following, he didn't have a single class ranked in the top 20. He tried a year that was all about gathering 5-star talent despite them not matching his culture. It blew up in his face. He has told the world that after the 2009 class he shifted his focus from rankings to culture and the results support his assertion. Is your assertion that Wright is full of crap?

1. I don't care about classes.  I've only been talking about individual recruits.
2. I didn't "leave out" Yarou.  He was a a five-star, but unlike Wayns and CHeek, he wasn't focused on getting to the NBA as soon as possible, was actually a four-year player, and won kudos for sticking around for the 2013 season and mentoring Ochefu.
3. I'm not going to say Wright is full of crap, but I'm also going to look at his actions in addition to his words.

4.  Let's be honest about when Wright realized his 2009 class was a mistake.  YOu seem to think it was in 2009.  I think its more likely after 2012.  Hell, they didn't even play their first game together until the 2010 season, and they finished ranked 9th in the AP.   The 2012 disaster is the point that Wright shifted his recruiting strategy to add culture in addition to ranking.

Let's divide Wright's recruiting over the last 20 years into two ten-year periods--before the 2012 season and after. 

Over the 10 years from 2003 (earliest data that 247 has) through 2012, Wright recruited:
5 five-star players (and yes, this includes 3 in 2009 class alone) or 18% of the total listed recruits, 10 players ranked 25-100 (36%) and 13 players ranked 100+ (46%).

Then, in the 10 years from 2013 to 2022 (which includes the time after the 2012 season which is when Wright claims he shifted to focusing on culture), he's landed six five-star players (23%) 13 players ranked 25 to 100 (50%) and 7 ranked 100+ (27%). 

So what I've been saying all along is true.  WRight did not stop caring about player ranking.  He's actually more five star players and more 25-100 ranked players than the previous 10-year period.  You can say whatever you want about focusing on culture, there was no tradeoff of player quality for better culture--he's simply adding a focus on culture and being more selective while continuing to pursue the same (or better) players that he has always landed.

Meanwhile, there is a sharp difference in how Shaka's recruiting has been impacted.  If we compare his leaving Texas for Marquette as analogous to Wight's 2012 season, right down to the similar "I'm going to focus on culture first" statements, we see a different mix of recruits:

Shaka at Texas, recruited 3 five-stars (14%), 15 ranked 25-100 (72%) and 3 below 100 (14%)
Shaka at Marquette so far recruited 0 five-stars, 1 ranked 25-100 (13%) and 7 ranked below 100 (87%)

And i'm not going to entertain the notion that Shaka simply hasn't had time to learn how to recruit in only two classes. He's been a head coach for 13 years, including seven at the high-major level.  He managed to land 3 players ranked 25-100  in his first year making the transition from VCU to Texas, and a five star, two more 25-100 and another 100+ in his second class.  He certainly has more skill, more connections, and more experience now than he did then. 

[Galway Eagle]

1. I don't care about classes.  I've only been talking about individual recruits.
2. I didn't "leave out" Yarou.  He was a a five-star, but unlike Wayns and CHeek, he wasn't focused on getting to the NBA as soon as possible, was actually a four-year player, and won kudos for sticking around for the 2013 season and mentoring Ochefu.
3. I'm not going to say Wright is full of crap, but I'm also going to look at his actions in addition to his words.

4.  Let's be honest about when Wright realized his 2009 class was a mistake.  YOu seem to think it was in 2009.  I think its more likely after 2012.  Hell, they didn't even play their first game together until the 2010 season, and they finished ranked 9th in the AP.   The 2012 disaster is the point that Wright shifted his recruiting strategy to add culture in addition to ranking.

I'd say he realized it was a disaster when the fight broke out right before st Mary's in 2010 and certainly realized it was a mistake after a crappy year (considering the sophomore recruits) in 2011

[TAMU, Knower of Ball]

4.  Let's be honest about when Wright realized his 2009 class was a mistake.  YOu seem to think it was in 2009.  I think its more likely after 2012.  ​

I stopped reading here because this shows that you have no idea what you are talking about.

Both Jay and Shaka have talked about getting caught up in the need to have  the highest ranked class at expense of all else and realizing that they needed to make a change. It worked for Jay, we'll see if it works for Shaka.

[The Equalizer]

I stopped reading here because this shows that you have no idea what you are talking about.

Well then maybe you should read the rest because that's where I provided the 20 years of recruiting data and break down every recruit into five-stars, 25-100 and 100+ to see actual recruiting trends.

And frankly, if you don't look at the data, how do you know what you're talking about? 

What's funny is that your last criticism was that I didn't include all years, and my examples were "cherry-picking."  Now I use all the data, and you "won't look at it" because I "don't know what I'm talking about." 

Both Jay and Shaka have talked about getting caught up in the need to have  the highest ranked class at expense of all else and realizing that they needed to make a change. It worked for Jay, we'll see if it works for Shaka.

And my only point in response is that the two coaches may have made similar statements, but reacted in diametrically opposed fashion.

Jay Wright said he was going to focus on "culture" and data shows that he continues to build a majority of his roster by recruiting elite five-star players and highly rated top 100 recruits. 

Shaka Smart also said he was going to focus on "culture", but is no longer building a majority of his roster from five-star elite players and highly rated top 100 recruits.  He's pursuing under-the-radar, hard-working 100+ types.

[JakeBarnes]

Well then maybe you should read the rest because that's where I provided the 20 years of recruiting data and break down every recruit into five-stars, 25-100 and 100+ to see actual recruiting trends.

And frankly, if you don't look at the data, how do you know what you're talking about? 

What's funny is that your last criticism was that I didn't include all years, and my examples were "cherry-picking."  Now I use all the data, and you "won't look at it" because I "don't know what I'm talking about." 

And my only point in response is that the two coaches may have made similar statements, but reacted in diametrically opposed fashion.

Jay Wright said he was going to focus on "culture" and data shows that he continues to build a majority of his roster by recruiting elite five-star players and highly rated top 100 recruits. 

Shaka Smart also said he was going to focus on "culture", but is no longer building a majority of his roster from five-star elite players and highly rated top 100 recruits.  He's pursuing under-the-radar, hard-working 100+ types.

Shaka was also pursuing AJ Casey, Leon Bond, and Seth Trimble. And now Skyy Clark. For 2023, he's pursuing Jonathan Lamothe, Dailyn Swain, and Justin Edwards (a 5*). I am sure the composite rankings matter almost zero to him and he wants players--regardless of rank--that buy into the "circle" and culture first and foremost.

 The difference for Shaka between Texas and Marquette, however, is that Top 60 kids to make a top 10 class to make boosters feel good is no longer a requirement for recruiting.

[TAMU, Knower of Ball]

Well then maybe you should read the rest because that's where I provided the 20 years of recruiting data and break down every recruit into five-stars, 25-100 and 100+ to see actual recruiting trends.

And frankly, if you don't look at the data, how do you know what you're talking about? 

What's funny is that your last criticism was that I didn't include all years, and my examples were "cherry-picking."  Now I use all the data, and you "won't look at it" because I "don't know what I'm talking about." 

I didn't keep reading because I'm aware that your SOP when arguing with someone on this site is to steadily increase the length of your posts until you can out-fatigue the person you are arguing with. I'm not really interested in playing. This also demonstrated to me that you didn't understand the situation at Nova and that you were building your argument on a faulty premise.

Further, you keep insisting on bringing up how many top 100 recruits Wright brought it after 2009. That's really not relevant to the conversation. The argument isn't that Wright stopped recruiting highly rated recruits. The argument is that he stopped recruiting highly rated recruits for the sake of recruiting highly rated recruits and at the expense of culture. Shaka claims to have had a similar breakthrough after Texas. It doesn't matter how low ranked  Shaka's recruits are. What matters is that at Texas he was chasing one and dones and top ranked classes. Now he's not. Jay Wright chased one and dones and a top ranked class in 2009, and now he's not. That's the similarity. Wright is a better coach than Shaka (and just about everyone else) so yes, he's getting higher ranked recruits than Shaka right now. Maybe that will change. Maybe that won't. What won't change is that they both had a similar change in approach to recruiting.

As for your numbers, look at Brew's post below this one for some proper context. You tried to make Jay's 5-star or bust phase into a 10 year thing when it was really only a three year thing.

[brewcity77]

You two are talking at cross-purposes, but that might be deliberate. This seems to be relevant yet avoided:

Again, you are purposefully looking over the 6 year gap between 2009 and 2015 and comparing Shaka's second class to Wright's much later classes. Wright's classes in the 8 years following his 4th ranked 2009 class were ranked 41st, 22nd, 27th, 36th, 48th, 29th, 45th, and 28th.

So after years of going away from the 5-stars he landed in 2009, Wright had a long stretch of what looks like culture building. Once it was clear that culture was working (the 2014-15 teams that earned top-2 seeds) he went back to sprinkling in 5-stars.

It seems pretty clear that there are three eras of recruiting from Jay. The 2001-2009 buildup where 'Nova established some NCAA success and then tried to compete with the blue bloods (most notably in 2007-09 when 5/7 recruits were 5-star per 247). Then the 2010-2014 era where they went away from 5-stars around the sort-of-public blow-up over the coachability of the 2009 class. Finally, the 2015-today era where 'Nova has gone back to sprinkling in 5-star players.

Jay landed his first 5-star in 2007. He had five 5-stars from 2007-09 out of seven recruits (71.4% 5-star) which was the "let's go blue blood" period after NCAA success. Then he had zero 5-stars from 2010-2014, which seems like a clear shift from that 07-09 philosophy as they built culture. Then from 2015-today, they brought in six 5-stars out of twenty-four recruits (25% 5-star) which is definitely sprinkling them compared to the short period after landing his first 5-star. And that matches his public comments.

[The Equalizer]

I didn't keep reading because I'm aware that your SOP when arguing with someone on this site is to steadily increase the length of your posts until you can out-fatigue the person you are arguing with. I'm not really interested in playing. This also demonstrated to me that you didn't understand the situation at Nova and that you were building your argument on a faulty premise.

Further, you keep insisting on bringing up how many top 100 recruits Wright brought it after 2009. That's really not relevant to the conversation. The argument isn't that Wright stopped recruiting highly rated recruits. The argument is that he stopped recruiting highly rated recruits for the sake of recruiting highly rated recruits and at the expense of culture. Shaka claims to have had a similar breakthrough after Texas. It doesn't matter how low ranked  Shaka's recruits are. What matters is that at Texas he was chasing one and dones and top ranked classes. Now he's not. Jay Wright chased one and dones and a top ranked class in 2009, and now he's not. That's the similarity. Wright is a better coach than Shaka (and just about everyone else) so yes, he's getting higher ranked recruits than Shaka right now. Maybe that will change. Maybe that won't. What won't change is that they both had a similar change in approach to recruiting.

This is patently false.

Jay Wright made 20 offers to five-star players from 2009 through 2017 (prior to the 2nd national championship), which include  11 one-and-done players, and another 6 two-and-out players.

2010: Two offers: Corey Joseph (who picked Texas, played one year) and Will Barton (who picked Memphis, two years)
2011: no five star offers
2012: One offer DeJuan Coleman (Syracuse - 4 years)
2013: offered Aaron Harrison (picked UK, two years), Andrew Harrison (UK two years) and Tyler Ennis (Syracuse, one and done).
2014: offered Chris McCullough (Syracuse--one year) and  Karl-Anthony Towns (UK one-year)
2015: Landed Jalen Brunson (four years), also offered Isiah Briscoe (UK Two years) and Thomas Bryant (Indiana two years)
2016: Landed Omari Spellman (one year), also offered Rawle Akins (Arizona - two years)
2017: Offered Nick Edwards (Kentucky three years), Mohamed Bomba (Texas -one year), Kevin Knox (Kentucky one year), Lonnie Walker (Miami one year), Quade Green (Kentucky-four years), Trevon Duval (Duke one year), Colin Sexton (Alabama one-year)

As for your numbers, look at Brew's post below this one for some proper context. You tried to make Jay's 5-star or bust phase into a 10 year thing when it was really only a three year thing.

And purely coincidence that it was the very three years that the Villanova roster was jammed for playing time on account of five five-stars already on the roster.

If you're a HS senior with a five-star rating and enough talent to play right away for virtually any team in the country, are you going to choose a school with five five-star players ahead of you where there's a chance you might have to sit for two or three years?   

In 2013, as soon as all five of the prior five-stars had moved on,  Jay was right back to making multiple offers each year to five-stars, including 11 one-and-dones. 

[MU82]

So far, Shaka has given me no reason to be disappointed in either his recruiting or his culture-building.

Over time, I think he will be able to attract many high-4-star recruits and occasional 5-stars, all of whom will fit the culture he is building at Marquette.

Once he has firmly established that, maybe he'll even go for the "right kind of" (in his mind) 1-and-done. (Of course, there's a chance the next NBA/NBAPA CBA will again let kids go right from preps to the league.)

4 pages into this thread, I still think Marquette could be "the next Villanova" -- a Big East team that makes the NCAAs every year, often advances to the second weekend, and is recognized as a legitimate Final Four/national title contender.

FWIW, I don't think a team has to win 2 natties in 3 years like Nova did to be "the next Nova." I'd put Gonzaga at the same level, and they've never won it all.

[fjm]

This is patently false.

Jay Wright made 20 offers to five-star players from 2009 through 2017 (prior to the 2nd national championship), which include  11 one-and-done players, and another 6 two-and-out players.

2010: Two offers: Corey Joseph (who picked Texas, played one year) and Will Barton (who picked Memphis, two years)
2011: no five star offers
2012: One offer DeJuan Coleman (Syracuse - 4 years)
2013: offered Aaron Harrison (picked UK, two years), Andrew Harrison (UK two years) and Tyler Ennis (Syracuse, one and done).
2014: offered Chris McCullough (Syracuse--one year) and  Karl-Anthony Towns (UK one-year)
2015: Landed Jalen Brunson (four years), also offered Isiah Briscoe (UK Two years) and Thomas Bryant (Indiana two years)
2016: Landed Omari Spellman (one year), also offered Rawle Akins (Arizona - two years)
2017: Offered Nick Edwards (Kentucky three years), Mohamed Bomba (Texas -one year), Kevin Knox (Kentucky one year), Lonnie Walker (Miami one year), Quade Green (Kentucky-four years), Trevon Duval (Duke one year), Colin Sexton (Alabama one-year)


And purely coincidence that it was the very three years that the Villanova roster was jammed for playing time on account of five five-stars already on the roster.

If you're a HS senior with a five-star rating and enough talent to play right away for virtually any team in the country, are you going to choose a school with five five-star players ahead of you where there's a chance you might have to sit for two or three years?   

In 2013, as soon as all five of the prior five-stars had moved on,  Jay was right back to making multiple offers each year to five-stars, including 11 one-and-dones.

Dude. Reading your posts is exhausting

[TAMU, Knower of Ball]

This is patently false.

You don't know that. You are assuming that because they were one and dones at other universities that Wright would have still recruited them and that they would have been one and done at Nova. It's also possible that Wright offered them before they were thought off as one and done talents. It's also possible that when Wright told them that his plan for them was for them to stay two years that they crossed Nova off their list. It's also possible that Wright talked to the kid once and the kid counted it as an offer so his offers graphic would look cooler on twitter. Offers can mean that a school is going all out to land a kid or they can mean that they talked on the phone once. All we do know for certain is that Wright has never had a one and done ever and that he didn't bring in a single five star for six years after what he has identified as his aha moment.

And you are again missing the point for at least the fourth time now. How many highly rated recruits Wright offered/landed does not matter. The argument isn't that Wright stopped recruiting highly rated recruits. The argument is that he stopped recruiting highly rated recruits for the sake of recruiting highly rated recruits and at the expense of culture.

Again, Jay Wright himself doesn't agree with you. So unless you're calling him a liar, I'm not sure why you are this dug in on this.

[Uncle Rico]

You don't know that. You are assuming that because they were one and dones at other universities that Wright would have still recruited them and that they would have been one and done at Nova. It's also possible that Wright offered them before they were thought off as one and done talents. It's also possible that when Wright told them that his plan for them was for them to stay two years that they crossed Nova off their list. It's also possible that Wright talked to the kid once and the kid counted it as an offer so his offers graphic would look cooler on twitter. Offers can mean that a school is going all out to land a kid or they can mean that they talked on the phone once. All we do know for certain is that Wright has never had a one and done ever and that he didn't bring in a single five star for six years after what he has identified as his aha moment.

And you are again missing the point for at least the fourth time now. How many highly rated recruits Wright offered/landed does not matter. The argument isn't that Wright stopped recruiting highly rated recruits. The argument is that he stopped recruiting highly rated recruits for the sake of recruiting highly rated recruits and at the expense of culture.

All this.  Not all offers are equal

[The Equalizer]

You don't know that. You are assuming that because they were one and dones at other universities that Wright would have still recruited them and that they would have been one and done at Nova. It's also possible that Wright offered them before they were thought off as one and done talents. It's also possible that when Wright told them that his plan for them was for them to stay two years that they crossed Nova off their list. It's also possible that Wright talked to the kid once and the kid counted it as an offer so his offers graphic would look cooler on twitter. Offers can mean that a school is going all out to land a kid or they can mean that they talked on the phone once. All we do know for certain is that Wright has never had a one and done ever and that he didn't bring in a single five star for six years after what he has identified as his aha moment.

And you are again missing the point for at least the fourth time now. How many highly rated recruits Wright offered/landed does not matter. The argument isn't that Wright stopped recruiting highly rated recruits. The argument is that he stopped recruiting highly rated recruits for the sake of recruiting highly rated recruits and at the expense of culture.

Again, Jay Wright himself doesn't agree with you. So unless you're calling him a liar, I'm not sure why you are this dug in on this.

And for the fourth time, you've mischaracterized what I've said. I've never once disagreed with the premise that Jay Wright put more stock into a cultural fit in his recruiting players after Wayns and Cheek departed.  Yet you keep posting the straw man that I'm disagreeing with Wright and goading me to "call him a liar."

Just stop it. I don't and never have disputed Jay Wright's statement.  I believe he does use culture in his recruiting, and probably didn't pay enough attention in 2009.

You seem to object to my observation (supported by ample data) that his focus on culture hasn't stopped him from offering and landing high-ranked recruits and that there has been no decline in recruiting quality. 

You have your alternate facts (class rankings instead of player rankings, using only three years instead of 20 years, claiming fake offers from Villanova are posted on twitter to look cool (on that one, seriously?!?  A commitment to Kentucky or Duke isn't cool enough?). 

So let's summarize here and see where there's common ground:

Premise 1: Jay Wright started considering cultural fit in recruiting:  We both agree here.
Premise 2: That focus on culture did not lead to a decline in recruiting.  I say no decline.  Do we agree?

[TAMU, Knower of Ball]

claiming fake offers from Villanova are posted on twitter to look cool (on that one, seriously?!?  A commitment to Kentucky or Duke isn't cool enough?).

Are you really not familiar with that phenomenon? Long before commitments, recruits often put out images of themselves with the logos of all the schools that have offered them. There have been instances of players including the logos of schools that are in contact with them but not offered just for the purposes of making it look like they have more offers than the do.

Just stop it. I don't and never have disputed Jay Wright's statement.  I believe he does use culture in his recruiting, and probably didn't pay enough attention in 2009.

You seem to object to my observation (supported by ample data) that his focus on culture hasn't stopped him from offering and landing high-ranked recruits and that there has been no decline in recruiting quality. 

That is part of his statements, that he stopped focusing on recruiting rankings and wasn't recruiting guys who saw themselves as one and dones because they weren't a fit for his culture. No one has ever said that Wright stopped landing "high-ranked recruits". But he did stop landing them for the sake of landing them and at the expense of culture. And while he never stopped landing high ranked recruits, the rate that he recruited 5-stars at did drop dramatically.

Premise 2: That focus on culture did not lead to a decline in recruiting.  I say no decline.  Do we agree?

We do not, if we're only looking at recruitment of 5-stars. From 2007 to 2009, Wright tried to keep up with the likes of Duke and Kentucky and recruited more 5-stars than non-5-stars. After that didn't work, he took 6 years off from 5-stars (and top 4-stars with only 1 top 50 recruit, #49 Daniel Ochefu) and since then has recruited 6 5-stars over 8 classes (.75 5-stars per class) after recruiting 5 5-stars over 3 classes (1.67 5-stars per class) from 2007-2009. Or if you prefer, 6 5-stars over 14 classes (.43 5-stars per class) if you include the 6 years where he didn't recruit any of them.

No one has ever said that there was a decline in recruiting. Just a shift in approach. You can win by recruiting a bunch of one and dones, you can win by recruiting a bunch of 3-stars who fit a system, or some hybrid. Wright went from recruiting a bunch of 5-stars to recruiting only 4-stars to recruiting most 4-stars but getting a 5-stars in about 3 out of every 4 classes.

[Spotcheck Billy]

Can we lock this thread?

[willie warrior]

Wow. What a pissing contest this thread has turned out to be
Face it. Both are great coaches and are experienced. Edge to Wright based on more recent success
Shaka looks right now to be most focused on culture recruits than Wright  but not by a lot. Still believe Shaka needs to land some real studs going forward. Making the dance, getting some wins and doing better in BEast should greatly help that.
Bottom line is that Shaka does deserve 2 more years to observe how successful he can be. Wright already has already earned his stripes at Villanova.

[Galway Eagle]

 Willie is the voice of reason... we have reached the darkest timeline.

[rocket surgeon]

Wow. What a pissing contest this thread has turned out to be
Face it. Both are great coaches and are experienced. Edge to Wright based on more recent success
Shaka looks right now to be most focused on culture recruits than Wright  but not by a lot. Still believe Shaka needs to land some real studs going forward. Making the dance, getting some wins and doing better in BEast should greatly help that.
Bottom line is that Shaka does deserve 2 more years to observe how successful he can be. Wright already has already earned his stripes at Villanova.

one of the few here who follow instructions and shows his work +++  can't go wrong with winnin willie warrior here!  come on kids-learn from the man

[shoothoops]

In the past decade, Villanova has:

7 Big East Regular Season Titles.
5 Big East Tourney Titles
2 National Titles

[wadesworld]

In the past decade, Villanova has:

7 Big East Regular Season Titles.
5 Big East Tourney Titles
2 National Titles

Right.

The answer is no.

[MU82]

Stoopid Villanova was too stoopid in 2013 to realize that it was impossible for them to be the next Villanova.

Shoulda settled on being the next Maryland.

[bradforster]

Wow. What a pissing contest this thread has turned out to be
Face it. Both are great coaches and are experienced. Edge to Wright based on more recent success
Shaka looks right now to be most focused on culture recruits than Wright  but not by a lot. Still believe Shaka needs to land some real studs going forward. Making the dance, getting some wins and doing better in BEast should greatly help that.
Bottom line is that Shaka does deserve 2 more years to observe how successful he can be. Wright already has already earned his stripes at Villanova.

Wright has "already earned his stripes."  Is this the understatement of the century?  He's the best coach in college BB - no scandals, eight regular season BE titles, five BE tournament titles and a couple National Championships in the last five years.  Oh, and he's already in the Basketball Hall of Fame. 

[MU82]

Wright has "already earned his stripes."  Is this the understatement of the century?  He's the best coach in college BB - no scandals, eight regular season BE titles, five BE tournament titles and a couple National Championships in the last five years.  Oh, and he's already in the Basketball Hall of Fame.

Some here woulda fired Wright in 2013.

[bilsu]

Maybe we should try to be Creighton first. Creighton has made four Big East championship games in 9 years. I do not think MU has ever made a Big East championship game.