Marquette "What Ifs"

[wadesworld]

Inspired by the recruiting thread, and I believe we've had this thread before but it's still a fun topic, what are your biggest Marquette "What ifs?"

For me it's easily "What if Dominic James hadn't broken his foot?"  While flawed, that team was awesome and was on a roll.  23-4, 12-2 in the Big East (one of the losses being a 1 point loss at South Florida...yuck) going into the UConn game.  UConn ranked #2 in the country.  My memory might be way off, but I remember it happening mid game and being in a real battle with them up to the point that he got injured.

For some it's "What if ODB never transfers out."  To me, you made a Final Four anyways, and you got smoked by Kansas.  If anything, he could've taken minutes or shots away from guys who had huge moments earlier in the Tournament (like Novak and Diener) and maybe the run never even happens with him on the roster.

[panda]

What if Larry Williams and Pilarz didn’t replace Wild and Cottingham?

[Dr. Blackheart]

Jay Whitehead’s elbow.

[Uncle Rico]

What if we could build a time machine and go back to 1977?  That would be awesome

[TAMU, Knower of Ball]

What if Crean lands Iman Shumpert?

What if Buzz let Kris Dunn come to his dream school?

What if Wojo didn't land Ellenson?

[cheebs09]

James is the biggest for me since I was in school at the time.

Some other ones I’ve picked up on are:

What if Al never retired?
- it sounded like there were some major Illinois recruits that wanted to play for Al like Isiah Thomas and Terry Cummings. Maybe Mark Aguirre.

What if we hired Denny Crum instead of Hank?
-It sounded like there were some legendary coaches interested when Al retired.

[tower912]

Jeremy Lamb.
Joe Wolf.

Majerus neats UNC and stays.

[Its DJOver]

Jim Chones leaving has to be up there.

[Galway Eagle]

What if Vander doesn't leave?

What if we landed Charles Matthews?

James not breaking his foot is big but that team was very small and got worked by a slightly above average Dayton team and good Tennessee team already and we hadn't played any of the toughest big East teams yet so I had some concerns.

[jfp61]

What if Rowsey's trash talk didn't ruin ben simmons?

[Frenns Liquor Depot]

Father Wild didn't make it a priority to reinvest in basketball in the mid to late 90's.

[wadesworld]

What if Rowsey's trash talk didn't ruin ben simmons?

Lol.  That was awesome.  Dorris Burke calling him a walkon.

[MuggsyB]

James is the biggest for me since I was in school at the time.

Some other ones I’ve picked up on are:

What if Al never retired?
- it sounded like there were some major Illinois recruits that wanted to play for Al like Isiah Thomas and Terry Cummings. Maybe Mark Aguirre.

What if we hired Denny Crum instead of Hank?
-It sounded like there were some legendary coaches interested when Al retired.

Your first three points are spot-on.  And had we gotten Thomas, Aguirre, and Cummings MU would at minimum have 2 more titles. 

[MUfan12]

For me it's easily "What if Dominic James hadn't broken his foot?"  While flawed, that team was awesome and was on a roll.  23-4, 12-2 in the Big East (one of the losses being a 1 point loss at South Florida...yuck) going into the UConn game.  UConn ranked #2 in the country.  My memory might be way off, but I remember it happening mid game and being in a real battle with them up to the point that he got injured.

That's mine, easily. It happened relatively early in that UConn game, and MU fought like hell. AJ Price had a career night.

With DJ I think they win that game, beat UL and Cuse to end that season 15-3 and probably win one of the toughest versions of the Big East ever. Top 3 seed, still think they make a Final Four.

[muwarrior69]

What if Al had no technicals called against him in the '74 Championship game.

[muwarrior69]

Jim Chones leaving has to be up there.

With Chones we could have beat UCLA that year and that is not an overstatement either.

[MU82]

I'll bring over the one I foolishly put in the recruiting thread as a response to another Scooper's post ...

What if Joey had picked Michigan State in the first damn place?

Wojo would have been crucified at first -- "How could you not get Sam's younger brother?" -- but Sam never would have left. The 2018-19 team still would have been very good -- and might not have fallen apart at the end because Joey wouldn't have been around to sulk, slump, commit turnovers and inspire the letter. And the 2019-20 team would have been excellent. Of course, our hearts would have been broken in 2020 the same way Dayton fans' hearts were, because COVID-19 canceled the tourney. And then the team still would have sucked last season, but maybe we'd still be stuck with Wojo because the two previous teams wouldn't have collapsed.

Also, what-ifs can go both ways, right?

What if Crean didn't work so hard to get Wade to Marquette? What if we hadn't hired Buzz as Crean's replacement because his resume was lacking? How would Crean and Buzz be remembered if we had lost to Holy Cross and Davidson, respectively? (Thank you, Travis and Vander for bailing us out!!)

[wadesworld]

What if #donedeal had been an actual #donedeal?  Would Shaka still have abandoned his havoc style to chase the 5 stars to appease the P6 conference fanbase?  Or would he have stuck to what got him to that point and continued Buzz's tough style of play at Marquette?

[MU82]

What if #donedeal had been an actual #donedeal?  Would Shaka still have abandoned his havoc style to chase the 5 stars to appease the P6 conference fanbase?  Or would he have stuck to what got him to that point and continued Buzz's tough style of play at Marquette?

That's a real good one!

[Herman Cain]

James is the biggest for me since I was in school at the time.

Some other ones I’ve picked up on are:

What if Al never retired?
- it sounded like there were some major Illinois recruits that wanted to play for Al like Isiah Thomas and Terry Cummings. Maybe Mark Aguirre.

What if we hired Denny Crum instead of Hank?
-It sounded like there were some legendary coaches interested when Al retired.

Denny Crum that is always my biggest what if.

What if Dwayne Johnson stayed academically eligible and we made the tournament , that has a sub element of  What  if we kept Rick

[Goose]

Denny Crum is biggest "what if" for me.

[NCMUFan]

What if the Hauser brothers stayed?

What if we didn't get Dwyane Wade?

[mug644]

What if Crean had ponied up the 100k for the soccer fields?

What if my comment to Dean Smith (seeing him leaving the MECCA as I was leaving Major Goolsby’s) after the heartbreaking loss that coincided with Al’s return as a TV announcer—“see you in the NCAA tournament, Coach!”—had come true? Does Majerus stay?

[Billy Hoyle]

what if Devin Harris hadn't spent his entire OV talking s--t about Travis and other members of the team and Crean didn't pull his offer at the request of the team? Harris, Diener, and Novak would have been one hell of a big three.

What if Hutch doesn't get injured then go to war with Deane in 1998 after we'd started 10-0? Does a third NCAA tourney get Deane more leeway and does LeDarryl Billingsley not renege on his verbal?

[Galway Eagle]

what if Devin Harris hadn't spent his entire OV talking s--t about Travis and other members of the team and Crean didn't pull his offer at the request of the team? Harris, Diener, and Novak would have been one hell of a big three.

What if Hutch doesn't get injured then go to war with Deane in 1998 after we'd started 10-0? Does a third NCAA tourney get Deane more leeway and does LeDarryl Billingsley not renege on his verbal?

Lot of interesting stuff in this that I hadn't heard before. Why did Hutch go to was with Deane? Did Harris think he was just joking around?