Scholarship table
Wojo will have to coach differently this year with an athletic small team vs. having the Hauser, tall slow but good shooters. Backcourt is the strength, see if figures it out. Buzz did.
A few thoughts, first based on the OP of the first thread:Yes, Wojo got his first head coaching job at a high major thanks to his work at Duke. Just like Tommy Amaker at Seton Hall, Johnny Dawkins at Stanford, and Chris Collins at Northwestern. Duke assistants generally go to high majors.I agree about mid-major coaches having a leg up on career assistants. Yes, there are success stories like Roy and Izzo, but most of the big names are guys that proved they could outperform their peers at lower levels before getting a shot at the big time. I prefer that route. Coaches like Self, Miller, and Bennett won at lower tier jobs before getting a shot to compete at top programs and demonstrated an ability to lead a program. That means they already had to recruit, manage boosters, manage egos, work refs, and all the other things associated with being a head coach. There's less of a learning curve for those guys than there is for a career assistant who may have been told about the rigors of the big chair but never actually sat in it.All that said, the general consensus seems to be that people like the players on the roster. Not just Markus, but guys like Theo, Elliott, Koby, Bailey, and Sacar have all shown flashes of potential and/or demonstrable growth in their time here. Wojo gets credit for that. He has been successful recruiting at the high school level, traditional transfers, and grad transfers. He has done a good job of getting assistants who can recruit quality players and quality people. And he's done so while maintaining the image of a clean program after a few blemishes under Buzz.I hope he's successful in the coming seasons. If he's not, I hope we look to current head coaches rather than hoping again for the next Roy Williams because success from the former seems like a stronger strategy than success from the latter.
Would Brian Wardle still be here if we hired him instead of Wojo 5 years ago and he had posted the exact same results?
TAMUI do know, Newsie is right on you knowing ball.
Yes. I can't think of a single coach who was fired immediately after earning a 5 seed or better in the NCAA tournament without an off the court scandal. I'm sure it's happened in the history of the NCAA but I'm 99% sure it hasn't happened in the 2000s.You can be frustrated all you want with the results, it's your right as a fan. But the reality is that Wojo isn't currently close to the hot seat. To everyone besides a vocal minority of Marquette fans, he is one of the better young coaches in college basketball.
Thanks Brew I knew someone would have more good examples of both kinds off the top of their head.I guess I just have a lot more respect for the guy that squeezes on a sweaty rumpled wristband so he could visit one more recruit. Wojo has been handed all the opportunities to be a successful high major coach, I would argue that even the Brass forebearance with him is based on his lineage. Would Brian Wardle still be here if we hired him instead of Wojo 5 years ago and he had posted the exact same results?
Right, would have been better to say would Wardle still have been here after 4 years.And some people say 5 seed, others say finishing the season losing 6 of 7, in the process choking away a conference title and getting seal clubbed by a 12 seed. Potayto potaato
Right, would have been better to say would Wardle still have been here after 4 years.And some people say 5 seed, others say finishing the season losing 6 of 7, in the process choking away a conference title and getting seal clubbed by a 12 seed, which had the #2 pick in the NBA draft. Potayto potaato
Right, would have been better to say would Wardle still have been here after 4 years.
I agree with TAMU that Wardle would still be here. Two years of rebuild followed by NCAA/NIT/NCAA with the best season the most recent would keep almost anyone in their job.I try to be hard but fair on Wojo. A lot of what he's done and hasn't done has been frustrating, but the trend is up. If next year is a 4-seed or better with at least 1 NCAA win and there's not a huge dropoff after as we reload with a sold class, it may not be at the pace we want but the direction will keep him safe.
The difference with the Hausers leaving is the 'knowns.' With them, the whole team was known. The predicted rotations were so deep that the question was who was going to cede their minutes to KM. Who was going to leave due to lack of projected minutes? Cain and Anim? Then 65 minutes walked out the door. And everyone else stayed. And now there are some 'unknowns'. But there is still talent and potential. This is a long way of saying that I agree with bc77 that the 19-20 team may be currently undervalued.