MUScoop

What do you think?

Exceeded all expectations.  Let's go Warriors!

Awesome, awesome year. We had a deep, talented roster that fought hard every possession. Buzz was great on the sidelines and got the most out of our guys. We eventually ran into a buzzsaw today who exposed our limitations of poor outside shooting and mediocre, at best, point guard play. If Chris and Vander stick around for the next go-around, we will have the most talented roster that i can remember us ever having (im only 21) with the addition of the newcomers. There is no reason we can't go further than we did this year, and I will have very high expectations for the team next year.

Before anyone bitter about today's game answers, remember, 3 months ago this team was drawing up plays for Jake Thomas in a loss at UW-Green Bay.

It should be a unanimous 'A'.  Most on this board acknowledged this as a rebuilding year.  We were picked to be middle of the packin the BE.  After UW-GB, many here said we wouldn't be a tournament team.  How wasn't this season an 'A'????

A+. Both in terms of team success and entertainment value. I will remember some of these games for the rest of my life.

It should be higher than A. If you start with numbers and then the alphabet, I vote 0.

I went with a B, but would have said B+ were that an option. Suppose it depends on your preseason expectations. But I absolutely loved this team and couldn't be more proud of them. First Big East title, first Elite 8 for Buzz, bring on 2013-14!

Quote from: brewcity77 on March 30, 2013, 08:58:41 PM
I went with a B, but would have said B+ were that an option. Suppose it depends on your preseason expectations. But I absolutely loved this team and couldn't be more proud of them. First Big East title, first Elite 8 for Buzz, bring on 2013-14!

Your preseason expectations were what exactly?  A Final 4?  Winning it all?  How else could you possibly justify a "B"?

I highly doubt anyone truly would give anything other than an A knowing this a few months ago.

All B's are just too fresh with what might had been. Understandable. 

Quote from: ATL MU Warrior on March 30, 2013, 09:00:06 PM
Your preseason expectations were what exactly?  A Final 4?  Winning it all?  How else could you possibly justify a "B"?

My preseason expectations were 13-5 in the Big East and the Elite Eight. Reaching expectations or mildly exceeding them doesn't justify an "A" in my book. I've been high on this team since October and really feel this is the best team Buzz has had in his 5 years. I know that belief wasn't the majority for most of the season, but I'm basing my grade on what I felt this team should achieve. If you want an "A", you have to overachieve. I don't think this team really overachieved at all. It's just that the rest of the board didn't realize how good they were until the last six weeks.

Quote from: brewcity77 on March 31, 2013, 01:07:10 AM
My preseason expectations were 13-5 in the Big East and the Elite Eight. Reaching expectations or mildly exceeding them doesn't justify an "A" in my book. I've been high on this team since October and really feel this is the best team Buzz has had in his 5 years. I know that belief wasn't the majority for most of the season, but I'm basing my grade on what I felt this team should achieve. If you want an "A", you have to overachieve. I don't think this team really overachieved at all. It's just that the rest of the board didn't realize how good they were until the last six weeks.

Well good for you.  ::)

A.  Played very hard.  Got results.  Not much more you can ask for.

Overall performance a B+. Only disappointment in my eyes was the lack of talent we had coming back. I knew we would be down to some degree, but did not realize the problems until December. If not for Blue big improvement it could have been very long season.

Great job by all when all said and done. This type of effort with improved talent will be a blast to watch.

A++++++++

Some of you sure are hard to please...
If the Pope himself was at one of our games, I'm sure that there would be a couple of you that would still not be impressed  :D

Quote from: ATL MU Warrior on March 31, 2013, 06:26:15 AM
Well good for you.  ::)

You asked for an explanation, I gave it (http://www.ultimate-guitar.com/forum/images/smilies/shrug.gif)

Quote from: brewcity77 on March 31, 2013, 01:07:10 AM
My preseason expectations were 13-5 in the Big East and the Elite Eight. Reaching expectations or mildly exceeding them doesn't justify an "A" in my book. I've been high on this team since October and really feel this is the best team Buzz has had in his 5 years. I know that belief wasn't the majority for most of the season, but I'm basing my grade on what I felt this team should achieve. If you want an "A", you have to overachieve. I don't think this team really overachieved at all. It's just that the rest of the board didn't realize how good they were until the last six weeks.

Last year's team fully healthy was better than this year's. Easily Buzz' best to date. This year's team managed to avoid injury and exceed expectations, much like the '11 team. Same injury luck next year and we'll be cutting down nets. This year gets an A+ from me. Big East champs and deepest tourney run in a decade, all without a single three point shooter. Next year the deck is stacked, can't wait to see what Buzz delivers.

Guys

This team was driven by heart and and edginess. But, if being honest this was most frustrating team to watch that I can ever remember. There was not a lot great basketball played for long stretches. This was a team led by a coach who believed in each other. To answer question in thread it is hard not to be highly satisfied by the year. As editorial, this team drove me nuts and then next moment had me believing in them. We had games with more turnovers that FG's and hard to ignore that.

Weren't most of the Scoopers out there screaming NIT after UWGB? Ya'll better be saying A. BEast Regular Season Champs, 26 wins, 3 seed, and an Elite 8 appearance.

The specific question was DEGREE OF SATISFACTION with this year's team.

I want someone who voted for "B" to tell me how/why you were not satisfied with this year's team winning the Big East and going to the Elite 8. If you weren't satisfied, I'm curious as to what your expectations were for this team.

I could understand an Indiana or Kansas fan being displeased with an Elite 8 or Sweet 16 given their expectations. But for this year's Marquette team, this was nothing but an unqualified success. There is no other option than A in my book.

Avenue

They get an A+ for where they ended up in E8. You do have look at quality of basketball played and often they played very frustrating ball. My B+ grade factored in everything, not just a hot March. If you want a NCAA grade they get an A. If you want a six month grade I do not think they played excellent basketball often enough.

Quote from: Jajuannaman on March 31, 2013, 07:41:41 AM
Last year's team fully healthy was better than this year's. Easily Buzz' best to date. This year's team managed to avoid injury and exceed expectations, much like the '11 team. Same injury luck next year and we'll be cutting down nets. This year gets an A+ from me. Big East champs and deepest tourney run in a decade, all without a single three point shooter. Next year the deck is stacked, can't wait to see what Buzz delivers.

Next year's team is stacked, but can you really count on two new freshmen to suddenly make us a three point shooting team if that is all we are missing? I realize Novak was a frosh, but next years team will have to grind just as hard as this years team. They will grind, they will win, but it won't suddenly be a different group of guys that people see as a pretty team that wins easily.

I also give this year's team an A for gutting it out all year long.

Quote from: macman320 on March 31, 2013, 08:40:43 AM
Next year's team is stacked, but can you really count on two new freshmen to suddenly make us a three point shooting team if that is all we are missing? I realize Novak was a frosh, but next years team will have to grind just as hard as this years team. They will grind, they will win, but it won't suddenly be a different group of guys that people see as a pretty team that wins easily.

I get what you're saying Padraig, but I'm not just counting on Duane "I shot 58% from 3 in HS" and Jajuan "I should have been a McDonald's All American" Johnson. Look at Blue's 3P% improvement every year. I'll be shocked if he shoots under 35% next year. Jamil will be at 40%+. Not expecting pretty, we'll still be junkyard dogs. I believe Buzz said it best 2 years ago at halftime vs. Cuse: this ain't a beauty contest.

Okay, for everyone complaining about the B grade, here is my rebuttal. I am going to give grades based on my expectations. As I've said, my preseason expectations were a top-4 Big East finish, 2 Big East Tournament wins, and the Elite Eight. Just because most people underrated this team all year long does not impact how I am going to vote. I would grade the team on the following curve:

F - Complete disaster. Bottom half Big East finish and no postseason.
D - Disappointing. Middle of the pack Big East finish and NIT.
C - Acceptable. Top-6 Big East finish and NCAA bid.
B - Satisfied. Top-4 Big East finish and Elite Eight.
A - Exceeding expectations. Win Big East (regular season or tournament) and Final Four.

I graded this team as a B+. While disappointed with the early BET exit, sharing the Big East regular season pipped that and moved us up a half-letter. Past that, this team met my personal expectations. There are three circumstances that would have improved my grade:

1) Beat Cincy or 'Nova and win BE regular season outright. Those were winnable games but it didn't work out. Winning either of those would have been worth a half-letter.
2) Beat Notre Dame in the BET. I expected us to lose to Louisville, but not even getting there was a disappointment, especially against a team we so thoroughly dominated at the BC.
3) Beat Syracuse to get to the Final Four. Again, the Elite Eight was my expectation. To exceed expectations we needed to win one more game.

Had we done one of those three, I'd say A-. Had we done two of the three I'd say A. Had we done all three I'd say A+.

Jajuannaman - Agree to disagree. I feel this team simply had more options and was harder to stop than last year's. If you took DJO or Jae away last year, it pretty much shut us down. This year you could take away Vander or Gardner or Junior or Jamil or Lockett and there were other people that could step up. We didn't have nearly the depth last year. I would rate last year's team as Buzz's third best, behind this year and his first year with the Amigos and Lazar. Maybe that's just my opinion, but while maybe some of the individuals last year were better this year's overall team was better, and on any given night Vander, Jamil, Junior, or Gardner could have a Crowder/DJO type impact.

Avenue - I just felt this team was better than most of the rest of the people here do. When a team meets expectations, I'm not going to assign a grade that indicates I feel they exceeded expectations. Win the Big East outright, win (or at least make the final of) the BET, or go to the Final Four and they would have exceeded expectations and deserved an A.

And I'll say right now, my expectations for next year are even higher. I feel we should win the Big East, at least make the BET final, and make the Final Four. To get an A next year, they'll have to do more than that. Of course, depending on what happens over the next few months (players transferring, recruits not qualifying, injuries) I may adjust my expectations down.

I would have loved to see them hoist the Final 4 trophy up, but we fell short. We had the talent but our mind wasn't there. B+.  :-\