The James/Stevens/Parham group (and I'd even throw Owens in there) has gotten much better and more confident over the course of the season.  It's obviously a great group to build around and add pieces in this portal cycle.  They don't get to where they are without the lumps (and frustrations) with the early season lineups with Jones, Hamilton and Lowery. 

As much growth and development a single transfer would have had (either a true center to push Gold more to the forward position, a shooting guard that could have played off the slashing abilities of Ross more, or a point guard to help facilitate looks within the offense), the staff bet on our guys, and thought they could make jumps that did not pan out.

I don't think they will not make the same mistake twice going into next season. 

Marquette has played 14 games in 2026 after playing 14 in 2025, this season. In both segments it has gone 5-9. If the record is equally miserable, why do I feel this burst of excitement? This and much more at the link.
LINK HERE

Quote from: MuggsyB on February 26, 2026, 07:38:20 PMWe had a 6'6-6'8 guy with tier 1 elevation?  Meaning a 36-40+ vert. Ty. 

Nigels elevation is near Artie Green

Quote from: panda on February 27, 2026, 08:00:49 AMDon't you mean 6'7

No,

I mean 6'6-6'8.

But I forgot about OMax and did not realize DO had a '37. 

Quote from: The Sultan on February 27, 2026, 02:27:52 PMHe's from Green Bay, used to work for the Packers, and at one point had an out in his contract for the job.

Yeah I doubt he'd leave now after the Super Bowl win, but last year it would have been interesting

Quote from: Dish on February 26, 2026, 10:21:05 PMMaybe the last year of the NFL team report cards coming out (some agents will probably leak it next year).

Matt LaFleur is disliked by his players more than you guys dislike him, he and the Packers really took it on the chin in this year's rankings (although to their credit, they are addressing the weight room). No organization fell more overall in this year's ranking than Green Bay and LaFleur had the second lowest approval rating of the 32 head coaches.

At least they didn't get an F last year in food/catering and somehow still got worse marks this year like the Bengals.  Especially since the Bengals made facility improvements that were well received.  Mike Brown is going to be a baffling skinflint weirdo until the day he dies.

Quote from: Pakuni on February 27, 2026, 11:55:34 AMEllison's first move after the merger was to announce plans to reduce 2,000 jobs companywide - about 10% of the workforce. That on top of a 3.5% workforce reduction a few months earlier.
Paramount entertainment's most valuable asset was Taylor Sheridan, who last fall announced he's leaving the company. And made it clear on his way out that it wasn't because of his personal compensation, but because of creative friction with Skydance and the company's insistence on him slashing production costs.

My suspicion is if they're going to try to impose production cost reductions on their most valuable assets, they won't hesitate to do it on their newly acquired properties as well. And whether there's an economic argument to be made for the layoffs last fall, it's hard to argue that cutting a tenth of your workforce won't affect quality.

My other thought is that Paramount is clearly overpaying for WBD and the only way for them to recover from that is through cost-savings measures. Will they find some bloat and redundancies that can be eliminated without it affecting quality? Sure, probably lots. But probably not enough to make this deal financially viable.
Either way, this has the potential to be another AOL-Time Warner.

That's fair.  Regardless of politics, you don't seem like the type to be that baseline of "Trump ally bad, so his business will be bad", so was curious the reason.

I don't necessarily automatically connect workforce slashing to a quick decline in quality, especially when its large mergers, but running a major media conglomerate is much different than being a movie producer and media production house, so the burden of proof of competency is certainly on him. I will say I saw a lot of people bemoaning the slashing of MTV properties domestically and abroad, but that actually made a lot of sense cause MTV has been nothing but a reality TV vehicle for almost 20 years.

The Taylor Sheridan thing is interesting cause that first deal was a MASSIVE success for Paramount, I think they paid $200-300MM for his contract and I saw something like $800MM they made on his properties.  But his deal with NBC/Universal is supposedly $1B so I find it hard to believe that money wasn't a significant component.  Especially since he doesn't know how to do low budget and his deal with NBC includes movies as well as series.

Quote from: Hards Alumni on February 27, 2026, 11:27:36 AMPeople openly mock what CBS news has become.  And they should.

Sure, but people mock ESPN and have a point, but that doesn't mean I assume all Disney programming quality will stink as well.

Quote from: MU82 on February 27, 2026, 12:32:46 PMWhy would Schneider want to leave the Seahawks? Why would the Seahawks let him leave?

He's from Green Bay, used to work for the Packers, and at one point had an out in his contract for the job.

Quote from: StillAWarrior on February 27, 2026, 01:04:39 PMSo...he didn't land on his feet? Are his feet 10' off of Beale?

Yes, and riding down in a silver Thunderbird. Thanks to Nark Cohn

Quote from: muwarrior69 on February 26, 2026, 09:30:35 AMWill the Big East return to winning basketball? I cannot remember a worse season for the league since MU joined. It is not just MU having to make adjustments this off season but a majority of the league.

Yet we are near the bottom of the league. Oh what a sorry state