Kolek planning to go pro
First, he is not. Yes, it has been uneven. But, as I noted above, I still don't think he has hit his ceiling.Second, this is a lazy argument.I'm open to firing any coach in any sport this season if you can make an argument for who should replace them and why that is an upgrade.So you fire Wojo, and replace him with who?1) Hotshot assistant. Since they have no track record, that is guessing that he works out. Besides, MU has done this many times with the hottest assistant names. See Hank, Majerus, O'Neill, Crean, Buzz and Wojo.2) Proven mid-major coach? So, you take Brian Wardle, or a Brian Wardle type, and hope they are not the next Bob Dukiet or Mike Deane. Good luck3) Take a big "name." St. Johns did this with Chris Mullins and Georgetown did with Patrick Ewing. How's that working out.4) A retread? See My Ben Howland comments above. So, you can Wojo and hire Steve Lavin, or a Steve Lavin type. Feel better?My point is you have to be absolutely sure Wojo is at his ceiling and that is not acceptable. I do not think he is at his ceiling. So firing him and means you are ready to throw a dart at the NCAA coaches convention and take whatever ass it hits. Are you really ready for MU to do that? Is that an upgrade?
Forget about greater than the sum of their parts. Has Wojo ever made a team play to the sum of its parts?How many really good players have left the program over his tenure only to play a lead role on a team ranked much better than ours? Wojo has had the pieces to create consistently Top 25 teams if they played to the sum of their parts.I am probably in the minority here, but I think the talent on this year’s roster is actually really really good. Probably the second best roster Wojo has ever had behind the Howard/Hausers year. They just play so painfully disjointed and out of synch that it makes us, frankly, a bad basketball team. Nobody’s skills compliment those of the guy next to him, our offense is dominated by the 1 on 1 game, and we turn the ball over so prolifically that we haven’t even had a good look at a game where we can get into a set consistently.Is that all coaching? Maybe or maybe not. But it’s not very fun to watch right now.
I'm open to firing any coach in any sport this season if you can make an argument for who should replace them and why that is an upgrade.So you fire Wojo, and replace him with who?
3? And 2 of them are currently on teams at the very back end of the top 25.
Deonte Burton, Duane Wilson, Joey Hauser, Sam Hauser I think of just right off the top of my head. So that’s at least 4...
Duane Wilson had a "lead role" at Texas A&M? He averaged 9 points for them and started 16 games. 5th in minutes, 6th in points, 5th in games started. And they were a 7 seed who was in the top 25 for just one of the last 9 polls of the season, and none of the last four heading into the NCAA Tournament.
That's not entirely fair to Duane. He was playing pretty well up until his knee injury.
You have quite a liberal definition of "really good player".
Well he injured his knee in February so not being in the Top 25 for last four weeks of the year actually helps my case that he was playing a lead role on that team. They were ranked in the Top 10 when he was healthy. The knee injury also defeats your point that he started only 16 games.9 points (6th on his team), 4 assists (1st on his team), 1.1 steals (2nd on his team), 2 rebs (7th on his team as a point guard, no less).Sounds like he played a lead role when he was healthy. Note that I never said THE lead role as I know you love to try to play semantics.You paint him to be a scrub to absolve Wojo of wrongdoing.
I mean, if 9/4/2 is a lead role then there are a LOT of guys with lead roles around the country.
Only a Sith speaks in absolutes. On his team - he was playing lead role when he was healthy. Sorry Wades...
I don't know what your definition of "lead role" is, but he certainly wasn't anywhere near the player that Davis, Hogg, Williams, or Gilder were. He played 22 games for TAMU. He started 16. I don't know why you're pumping him up. (Well, I do. You think it makes Wojo look worse)It'd be like claiming Junior Cadougan was playing "lead role" (again, whatever that is to you) for Marquette's Elite 8 team. Which is silly. He was just a guy at TAMU. But sure, throw him in there as a "lead role" guy on a "top 25" team.If "lead role" is "point guard," then that drops the number from 3 to 0, as Burton and the Hausers are not playing point guard, and TAMU was not a top 25 team. If "lead role" is "major reason for team success," then Duane was certainly not that.
Alright - Duane Wilson was trash and had nothing to do with the direction or success of TAMU and we’re lucky he decided to grad transfer.Is that better? You win.
Only a Sith speaks in absolutes.
The last time we had revenue issues was in the 1980s, when the Baby Boom finished being educated, and look what we got -- BOB DUKIET! I'm disgusted by the UConn game on several levels and place the blame for that failure on the coaching staff. We've had too many meltdowns in recent years but as our Brother Heise points out, before you make a change, be sure you can do better.For the record, Brian Wardle AINT IT!
Honestly, I feel Wardle has a stronger resume than Wojo did. Wojo had a lot of great experience with Duke and Team USA, but he was never the main guy. Wardle has shown how he can lead a program. Not all of it has been great to be honest.
Let's go back to the mid-1980s. MU abandoned Rick Majerus after three lackluster years and hired Bob Dukiet. That was an unmitigated disaster both ways.Dukiet killed the program.I was a student at the time and what many are saying here about Wojo are the same thing that was said about Majerus back then. Majerus lost the team (see his "words" with Dwayne Johnson), he could not recruit (see Joe Wolf) and he was a bad game manager. In other words, he hit his ceiling.I've been trying to say it can take a decade or more for a new coach to hit their stride. I gave the examples of Willard, Wright, Coach K, and even Bobbly Hurley. Wojo is still in the learning period, it should be over in a season or two. I would rather let this play out then blow it all up and start over at the bottom of the conference.MU made a disastrous choice of dumping Majerus. Because his ceiling was very high, and this is what he did at Utah (and not MU).1990–91 Utah 30–4 15–1 1st NCAA Division I Sweet 161991–92 Utah 24–11 9–7 T–4th NIT Third Place1992–93 Utah 24–7 15–3 T–1st NCAA Division I Second Round1993–94 Utah 14–14 8–10 T–5th 1994–95 Utah 28–6 15–3 1st NCAA Division I Second Round1995–96 Utah 27–7 15–3 1st NCAA Division I Sweet 161996–97 Utah 29–4 15–1 1st (Mountain) NCAA Division I Elite Eight1997–98 Utah 30–4 12–2 1st (Mountain) NCAA Division I Runner-up1998–99 Utah 28–5 14–0 1st (Pacific) NCAA Division I Second Round-----Bailing on Wojo now because everyone is upset about the Conn game (I am too) can indeed be program suicide. Like it was suicide to dump Majerus.
Thanks.Not exactly what I said. But when every argument you have fails miserably I suppose that's what you have to go with at the end of the day. I mean, you honestly championed 2 rebounds per game and being 7th on his team in rebounds per game because, well, point guard. When's the last time Marquette had a point guard that averaged UNDER 2 rebounds per game? This year their point guard is at 3.4 and 5th on the team. WOW! Last year their point guard was at 5.0 and 4th on the team. SHEESH! The year before their point guard was at 4.0 per game and 5th on the team. GOODNESS GRACIOUS! The year before that, 3.0 per game and 5th on the team. INCREDIBLE!Seriously. He was just a guy. Nothing wrong with it. He would've helped Marquette. But to pretend Wojo let this uber talented player slip away only to see him kill it for a wildly successful team is beyond revisionist history.
I watched every game Duane played at Texas A & M until he got injured and then followed the team the rest of the season since I invested the time.I think an accurate description of Duane’s role was as a spark plug at the point guard position . He added some dynamism to their offense that enabled the other guys to reach their best potential . I thought Swaggy played similar to how he did his first season at MU. I felt bad for Duane when he got hurt because he was giving his all every game , which was one of his hallmark traits .