Buzz took over in April 2008 and when the dust settled his roster for this year was as follows: class of 2011 - Joe Fulce. class of 2012 (reclassified to 2013 due to injury) - Chris Otule. class of 2013 - empty class of 2014 - empty. There were NO, ZERO, NADA programs in the Big East and maybe only one in the entire country (Indiana) that was faced with the kind of rebuilding we encountered for THIS YEAR. We could be a laughingstock last place Big Ten team like IU - instead we're a sweet 16 NCAA tournament team. Anyone who's not overjoyed with the job Buzz did putting this year's team together is a hater or a moron or both.
When the dust settled after Buzz was hired, he saw three players depart from a roster that was oversubscribed by one. He had exactly two scholarships to fill--he gave one to Jimmy Butler, and one to Liam McMorrow.
On July 1 of 2008 (Buzz's 85th day of being head coach), 13 of 13 scholarships were filled--
4 in the class of 2009: Burke, McNeal, James & Matthews
3 in the class of 2010: Hayward, Cubillan, Acker
4 in the class of 2011: Butler, Fulce, Mbakwe, Hazel
2 in the class of 2012: McMorrow & Otule
Plus 1 verbal in the class of 2013: Williams
When Mbakwe left, Buzz had coached him for 139 days (plus 213 as an assistant). When Hazel left, Buzz had coached him for 371 days (plus 213 as an assistant). If you're going to suggest that 352 days is not enough time for Buzz and Trevor to get to know each other--and 584 not enough for Buzz and Pat to get to know each other--we'll just have to disagree on whether or not Buzz is at least partly responsible for their departure.
Second, I have to point out the irony of you suggesting that anyone who doubted Buzz's recruiting was a hater or moron--because it was 18 months ago that you yourself argued that anyone who expressed
optimism over Buzz's recruiting "
had an agenda"--which is I think your code for being a "hater and a moron."
You recall that I was the one who thought that Butler and DJO and Buycks would perform well--you were the one who thought they were legitimately 12th place players.
In fact, you might recall our back-and-forth comparing the 2004 team to 2010. I was the one who gave Buzz credit for recruiting a better team than Crean did in 2004--you claimed, oh, no, Buzz wasn't possible of recruiting to that level.