Stop blaming the coach

[4everwarriors]

Actually, he exposed Markus for being only a one dimensional player. Never coached him to be a complete player. Howard may love him now, but will likely feel cheated later.

[WhiteTrash]

I blame the fans that suck, not Wojo.

The fans, coronavirus and leap year are all to blame!

(Oh, and Trump too!)

[The Sultan]

I fully support Marquette.  I fully support our players - they seem like good dudes.

I just don't think the coach is very good.

[warriors78]

Actually, he exposed Markus for being only a one dimensional player. Never coached him to be a complete player. Howard may love him now, but will likely feel cheated later.

right, that's exactly what the coach did as opposed to:  hey come play at a high major program with practically every game televised on national TV.  you can play all the minutes you want starting day one as a freshman.  feel free to shoot from wherever and whenever you want.  you'll be the focal point no matter what even if other players get upset and leave the program.  you are the program because you have the talent and character that Marquette is privileged to have, whatever you need to get you to the next level we will support be it playing point guard, shooting guard, anything at all.  we'll even try some zone defense so you don't get exposed even though man to man is all i know from Duke as a player or assistant coach

thanks for all the insightful replies back, was good reminder of why i don't post often

[MDMU04]

Higherin' a coach iz a crapshoot. Wee soiled our Haggars on dis won. Adios ta ewe and da horse ya road inn on, aina?

Doc I'm sorry but you're getting it all wrong.

The NCAA tournament is the crapshoot.

Hiring a coach is very scientific. You hire a guy, then must stick with him for at least a decade and a half for continuity. Then you should be able to judge competence, an hopefully your coach will have enough rolls of the dice in the crapshoot to have won an NCAA tournament game by then.

That's how I'm told this works.

[keefe]

Wojo has tactical coaching flaws, but Marquette is lucky to have him and he's lucky to be here.  It's a mutually beneficial relationship.  He's doing a phenomenal job recruiting and is keeping the program relevant and in the top 25-40 which I'm happy with.  I'm not sure what expectations are for most, but I don't ever want to go back to being irrelevant I'm enjoying this era starting with Crean.

In five of last six games lost, the team (excluding Howard) shot 29%, 23%, 27%, 21% and 35% from 3pt range.  This offense relies on the 3pt shot given limited inside scoring options and that FG% won't beat anyone especially as many shots are uncontested (thanks to Howard).  The officiating in the DePaul loss was horrendous and lopsided in DePaul's favor, but to their credit hitting 31 free throws at 90% is something I can't recall ever seeing.  Howard needs to make better decisions too.  The whole team needs to step up!

Did Wojo give you back the knee pads after you wrote this?

[warriors78]

Did Wojo give you back the knee pads after you wrote this?

why do you ask, does your mom need them back?

[PuertoRicanNightmare]

right, that's exactly what the coach did as opposed to:  hey come play at a high major program with practically every game televised on national TV.  you can play all the minutes you want starting day one as a freshman.  feel free to shoot from wherever and whenever you want.  you'll be the focal point no matter what even if other players get upset and leave the program.  you are the program because you have the talent and character that Marquette is privileged to have, whatever you need to get you to the next level we will support be it playing point guard, shooting guard, anything at all.  we'll even try some zone defense so you don't get exposed even though man to man is all i know from Duke as a player or assistant coach

thanks for all the insightful replies back, was good reminder of why i don't post often

This is insanity. His job is to win games for Marquette not kowtow to Markus Howard. You've inadvertently explained exactly why Wojo has been a disaster. Howard "is the program?"

[keefe]

why do you ask, does your mom need them back?

No, your wife told me she needs them. 3rd Fleet is in town.

[NCMUFan]

Look, Coach Leitao knew what it took to beat Marquette.  Pound it inside and rack up fouls.  MU did not have the personnel or skill to stop it.  It worked and eventually DePaul overcame.  Maybe we could of won with a better game plan.  Maybe Wojo knows the limitations of this team. Some teams may try to slow the game down to win, Wojo thinks this team has the best chance to win by playing at a relatively fast pace.  We get lots of turnovers which no one is happy with, but seems like we are in most games.  We don't have the most talented team although I like all the players.  Could Wojo coach better?  Maybe, but he sees this team every day.  I got to believe he understands his players skills and limitations and tries to maximize things to his advantage.

[f/k/a humanlung]

Actually, he exposed Markus for being only a one dimensional player. Never coached him to be a complete player. Howard may love him now, but will likely feel cheated later.

Sadly, I believe this to be true.  Markus has the heart of a lion and deserves better.

[f/k/a humanlung]

why do you ask, does your mom need them back?

To the board in general:  When was the last time we had a "mother joke" as a response?  Anyone?

[brewcity77]

Look, Coach Leitao knew what it took to beat Marquette.  Pound it inside and rack up fouls.  MU did not have the personnel or skill to stop it.  It worked and eventually DePaul overcame.  Maybe we could of won with a better game plan.  Maybe Wojo knows the limitations of this team. Some teams may try to slow the game down to win, Wojo thinks this team has the best chance to win by playing at a relatively fast pace.  We get lots of turnovers which no one is happy with, but seems like we are in most games.  We don't have the most talented team although I like all the players.  Could Wojo coach better?  Maybe, but he sees this team every day.  I got to believe he understands his players skills and limitations and tries to maximize things to his advantage.

DePaul does have the perfect guy to take advantage of what Marquette can't do, especially on defense. But as Paul Reed didn't play last night, this is a tough one to reconcile.

[Eldon]

Actually, he exposed Markus for being only a one dimensional player. Never coached him to be a complete player. Howard may love him now, but will likely feel cheated later.

I think this is correct.

To use a dental analogy. Kids love candy and Wojo promises a full store of it.

Then, alas, comes the toothache.

[Class71]

I want some of the stuff this guy is taking. If it can make this look good it must be some good stuff.

[willie warrior]

Did Wojo give you back the knee pads after you wrote this?

No, he kept the kneepads, but he did get a reach around.

[Stretchdeltsig]

Our concern at the beginning of the year was having some consistent scorers around Howard after we lost the Hauser brothers.  Sam would have alleviated a lot of our late season scoring woes that have plagued this team, and getting a player of his caliber and experience is difficult based on the timing of transfers. 

We hoped that Bailey, Sacar and others would step up as consistent scoring options this season, but that just hasn't happened.  The only consistent scoring option has been Howard and I'd rather see him take more contested shots than let some of the guys shoot an open 3 right now.  We may need Howard to just play hero ball to have a chance at any run in the tourney.

Agree 100%. Markus plays too unselfish. We need him to play point and make things happen by assisting and scoring.  Our biggest problem is the lousy coaching. Specifically the lack of game time adjustments. So no is not a good game coach.

[MU Fan in Connecticut]

Top 25-40 is barely relevant.  Relevance is winning some tournament games, which is difficult to do as a 6 to 10 seed.

BTW the refs sucked both ways, don't be a blind homer. If you asked a DePaul fan (if you could find one) they would say the refs favored Marquette.

The DePaul fans behind me we're shouting profanities at the refs all second half.  I heard "let them play ref" mixed in with the curse words a zillion times.