Favorite moment from the 2013-14 season

[starting5]

 It was awful...and the fact neither Jamil nor Davante even thanked him on Senior Day..while thanking everyone else..assistants, trainers, academic staff...spoke volumes about how he lost the team.  Not to mention if he were here.. Steve Taylor and JJJ would have bailed on him...and I'm sure Dawson gave it some consideration too.

That was telling to me at the end of the year, I said to my friends as we were leaving did you notice how nobody thanked Buzz this year. Buzz lost the team by trying to stick a square peg into a round hole the entire season

[dgies9156]

I didn't vote because my favorite moment was when it was over!

Last year our team laid an egg. Say what you want, there were too many slaughters, heads where the sun don't shine and outright losses that should not have been losses. Our coach left, I think, because he lost the team, lost the fans and knew reconstruction was not going to be easy. It never is.

Sorry to say, they just weren't fun to watch. That, folks, is coaching!

Our new coach has me excited and if I had to pick a moment, it was when Coach Wojo was named head coach at Marquette University. I'm in my church lighting my votive light and asking the Big Jesuit in the Sky, through the intercession of St. Al, basketball coach and national champion, to make sure Coach Wojo is the real thing!

[TAMU, Knower of Ball]

Our coach left, I think, because he lost the team, lost the fans and knew reconstruction was not going to be easy. It never is.

This is.....correct. Not the only reason, but one of the primary.

[GooooMarquette]

The most frustrating part on this board was the continued (opinion/not fact) insistence on those suggesting Buzz didn't have better options....when there is no question....Mayo is a better all around player than Jake....Burton...better than Juan....and entirely possible Dawson would have performed better than Derrick...as he can at least shoot the basketball....and largely...you simply cannot get worse production from your PG than what we got.

The end of the day...17-15 and missing the NIT sums it all up...terrible coaching job.

I agree with your opinions that Bart did a bad job, that Todd is better than Jake, and that Deonte is better than Juan.  I don't think John was a better option than Derrick, and the fact that Wojo brought in an experienced PG like Carlino suggests he has his doubts as well.

I wish Bert had given John more minutes, and said so many times last season.  Still, I think he ultimately started the right guy at PG, but not at SG or SF.

[Wojo'sMojo]

I agree with your opinions that Bart did a bad job, that Todd is better than Jake, and that Deonte is better than Juan.  I don't think John was a better option than Derrick, and the fact that Wojo brought in an experienced PG like Carlino suggests he has his doubts as well.

I wish Bert had given John more minutes, and said so many times last season.  Still, I think he ultimately started the right guy at PG, but not at SG or SF.

I think by bringing in Carlino, it speaks more about Wojo's  reservations about Derrick than it does about Dawson. How often do you see a returning senior starter get bumped to a backup role? Not very often and that is what seems very likely at this point. If Wojo had confidence in Derrick playing the same minutes as last year, there would be no need to bring in Carlino.

[NersEllenson]

I agree with your opinions that Bart did a bad job, that Todd is better than Jake, and that Deonte is better than Juan.  I don't think John was a better option than Derrick, and the fact that Wojo brought in an experienced PG like Carlino suggests he has his doubts as well.

I wish Bert had given John more minutes, and said so many times last season.  Still, I think he ultimately started the right guy at PG, but not at SG or SF.

My view is that given that Buzz chose to play Jake Thomas roughly 8 more minutes a game on average than Toddy Mayo, Juan Anderson roughly 4 more minutes per game on average than Burton...and not playing Gardner 30+ every game...showed he left a lot of talent sitting on the bench in favor of less talented players.  Feel the same applied at PG position.  I would have been fine, truly, with Derrick starting...but at least toward the end of non-conference play - or at minimum after the Georgetown game when Dawson showed what he could do in 30 minutes....to at least at that point split the minutes 20/20.

Refusing to do that on Buzz's part reeked of insanity, simply given that what Derrick was bringing to the team on the offensive end..at the most critical position for a team offensively...was truly some of the worst PG play in the history of high major basketball.  I've asked Derrick's biggest fans/supporters to find another PG in the last 20 years that got more minutes than any other player on his team...and only made 1, 3pt shot for the year, shot 43% from the FT line...and averaged less than 5ppg while playing 32 minutes on average...nobody has found one yet.  And...when Derrick refused to take any perimeter shots...and didn't need to be defended within 5' on the perimeter..that causes all kinds of problems for the rest of the team...which is why I certainly didn't think it would have been worse with Dawson playing equal time.

[NersEllenson]

Ners, hypothetically, how much improvement from 17-15 do you think we would have gotten playing your line up of Dawson, Mayo, Deonte, Jamil and one of our centers?

Do you think we would have won the BE?  Reached the NCAA?

I'd put the record at least at 22-10....for as many close games as we lost...in regulation and OT...the team wasn't far away at all from being a decent winner...and it did in spite of being totally handcuffed by the most ineffective backcourt pairing likely in the history of high major ball.  One guy simply can't shoot from anywhere outside of 3' from the basket....the other guy can only make 3 point shots.  A "shooting guard" should be able to make lots of 2 point FGs as well.

As you know - I value offense more than defense in a player...because even the best offensive players are only going to be successful 50% of the time..regardless of if they are being guarded by an elite defender or weaker defender.  Yet, if a player cannot bring anything to the table offensively (particularly at the guard position), those limitations essentially are with the team 100% of the time on the other end.  So..for example...say if Derrick is defending a player...he only shoots 35% for the game...but if Dawson defended the guy shoots 50%...the net negative of Dawson defending the player instead of Derrick is 15%...yet on the other end..offensively...Dawson is going to shoot 21% better from the 3 point line..35% better from FT line...and require that the defense guard him everywhere...because he's a legitimate threat to shoot the ball from the perimeter..and make it....now I understand Derrick's overall FG% for the season was a notch higher than Dawson's...but that is misleading in that virtually all of his makes came at the basket...and team's wouldn't even guard him on the perimeter...and he'd pass up wide open look after wide open look...his FG% if shooting 90% of his shots from roughly 3' and in should have been actually quite higher than what it ended up being.

The same argument can apply and be made for Deonte over Juan, Gardner over Otule...Mayo over Jake...last season was far and away the outlier in Buzz's tenure as far os ORating/Efficiency....the team needed all the help it could get offensively....and Buzz chose not to max the time of the guys who had the most offensive ability...

And again...for TAMU...that is my opinion...yet one I feel that is supported by the ultimate final record.

[TAMU, Knower of Ball]

My view is that given that Buzz chose to play Jake Thomas roughly 8 6 more minutes a game on average than Toddy Mayo, Juan Anderson roughly 4 1 more minutes per game on average than Burton...and not playing Gardner 30+ every game...showed he left a lot of talent sitting on the bench in favor of less talented players.  Feel the same applied at PG position.  I would have been fine, truly, with Derrick starting...but at least toward the end of non-conference play - or at minimum after the Georgetown game when Dawson showed what he could do in 30 minutes....to at least at that point split the minutes 20/20.

Excellent! Perfect! An argument with no attacking! Just reasoned points (besides the factual errors, corrected above)

Refusing to do that on Buzz's part reeked of insanity, simply given that what Derrick was bringing to the team on the offensive end..at the most critical position for a team offensively...was truly some of the worst PG play in the history of high major basketball.  I've asked Derrick's biggest fans/supporters to find another PG in the last 20 years that got more minutes than any other player on his team...and only made 1, 3pt shot for the year, shot 43% from the FT line...and averaged less than 5ppg while playing 32 minutes on average...nobody has found one yet.  And...when Derrick refused to take any perimeter shots...and didn't need to be defended within 5' on the perimeter..that causes all kinds of problems for the rest of the team...which is why I certainly didn't think it would have been worse with Dawson playing equal time.

Oh boy....1 step forward, 3 steps back

[TAMU, Knower of Ball]

And again...for TAMU...that is my opinion...yet one I feel that is supported by the ultimate final record.

That post was pretty good. No attacking. There are some made up numbers in there but they are at least "reasonable" estimations. The post before it. Yikes