Awful fans

[brewcity77]

Yeah, now they come off. I would say his overall success for a new head coach was above average (at least).
They weren't all his guys, now that they are, we can fairly assess his recruiting / coaching ability

What, now that his oldest high school recruit is a sophomore? Well, the juniors and seniors he's recruited seem to be doing pretty well. Four of our five starters, and one of our best bench players. And I guess you can accurately predict exactly what Cadougan, Blue, Williams, Jones, Gardner, Otule, and Wilson will do over the next 2-3 years? Give me a break.

Buzz has frustrated the hell out of me. Too often he waits too long to call the timeout. His defense seems erratic at best. None of his freshman recruits have yet become superstars. His hair isn't as good as Tom Crean's. But none of those are reasons we should even remotely think about making a coaching change.

Listen, I love this team, but they do drive me nuts at times. Buycks driving against Louisville. No one covering the post against Vandy (Or Louisville, or UConn). No one being willing to step up against Becky Vadger. There's plenty of reason for frustration.

But there's also plenty of reason for optimism. When you look at how we have played, we could be 19-2 right now. Gonzaga was winnable. Wisconsin was winnable. Vanderbilt was winnable. Louisville, Notre Dame, UConn, all winnable. And in that list are the current #5, 14, 15, 19, and 22 teams in the country. The simple truth is we can play with anyone. Is it fair to expect some of those results to go our way? Yes. Absolutely. And it's perfectly fair to be disappointed that we didn't get wins in at least 2 or 3 of them. But to say that it's time to evaluate if Buzz's neck should be on the chopping block is just silly.

Last year at this time we were 12-8 (3-5). So we're already technically a bit better off. We were also beginning a streak in which we rattled off 9 of 10, including a road win over a ranked team. Last year, this was the time when it came together and we started turning close losses into close wins. I hoped that it would come sooner this year, it didn't. Too bad, so sad. But if we can figure it out again this year, there's no reason we can't finish by winning 8 of our last 10. Even winning 6 of them would have us in position to get into the tournament. And once we get there, we already know we can play with anyone. Maybe all these hard lessons will pay off and we spring an upset en route to a Sweet Sixteen bid.

And who knows, maybe we don't. Maybe we go 5-5 down the stretch, miss out, and go to the NIT. Does that mean it's time to fire Buzz? I sure as hell hope not. I think he gets a minimum of 5 years. Let's see what Cadougan looks like as a senior. Let's see if Vander Blue can become a first-team Big East type of player. Let's see if Jamil Wilson can be our Wesley Johnson. Let's see if Juan Anderson or Jamal Ferguson can be that stunning underrated recruit that helps lift us to the next level.

While everything that happens now can cause us to wring our hands, get frustrated, and eventually help us make a decision on whether or not Buzz will still be here in 3-4 years, it's absolutely ludicrous to even think about pulling the plug after this year or the next, no matter what happens. Just like Cadougan, Otule, and Blue are young players who haven't yet acclimated to this level, Buzz is a young coach who is still learning the ropes. Let's give him a legitimate chance to prove his worth before we use those ropes to hang him.

[wyoMUfan]

Never mentioned pulling the plug, I was just stating that feelings of frustration can be focused and pointed at him.
I also think he will be our head coach for years to come.

[rico49]

BREWCITY77 above has it "right on" in his last paragraph.

Remember this Summer when some fans were miffed when MU was not ranked in the ESPN top 40?
Remember when we couldn't wait for the season to prove Andy Katz wrong in his pre-season predictions?
Excitement everywhere...until we started to play games.  Then the reality of young, new players and a limited experience game coach began to unfold.  These players are playing hard, and the coach is still on a learning curve, but the above quote NEEDS to be considered by all of us, and we need to "get real" on what we are as a team and be what we will be in the future....with a QUALITY POINT GUARD coming down the pipeline next year.  This team and coach WILL GET BETTER, "patience, grasshopper".

A trip to the NIT may not be the worst thing to happen, and could be the "tough love" that this team needs to improve.

[Stretchdeltsig]

We want to win.  In order to win Buzz should play the best players during crunch time.