Now Gottlieb talking about Buzz and OU

[T.V. Diener 34]

GottliebShow Doug Gottlieb
OU should and likely will target Buzz W, went to OCU, has done well at MU. He is from Tx.

This is from his twitter account

[esotericmindguy]

Possibly biased, but is Oklahoma, Arkansas, etc. better jobs than Marquette? And I'm not talking about private planes and all that bullsh*t, Buzz doesn't strike me as a guy who cares about that. Who gives you a better chance to win and compete on the highest level? I don't see how Oklahoma or Arkansas does that?

Lastly, he seems like a pretty religious guy....are public university coaches allowed to discuss religion or prayer?

[NersEllenson]

Possibly biased, but is Oklahoma, Arkansas, etc. better jobs than Marquette? And I'm not talking about private planes and all that bullsh*t, Buzz doesn't strike me as a guy who cares about that. Who gives you a better chance to win and compete on the highest level? I don't see how Oklahoma or Arkansas does that?

Lastly, he seems like a pretty religious guy....are public university coaches allowed to discuss religion or prayer?

The fact that OU and Arkansas have football programs are the biggest differntiators.  Both of these schools will always be in power conferences as a result.  MU's position is tenuous at best due to no football.  Plus you are recruiting to the "flagship" state school.  Lot easier to get kids out of Texas to Oklahoma, than to MKE.

The fact Buzz is regarded as a candidate for both Arkansas and Oklahoma...pretty much speaks to how college basketball experts/A.D's perceive the quality of job he has done at Marquette.  It also speaks to how these types of schools look to an MU and view it as a stepping stone job..as they feel they can sell more positives to a coach at a school like MU, Xavier, etc...

[PuertoRicanNightmare]

Who cares? I don't think he's going to leave, but if he does we'll get somebody else in here...hopefully one who's not a douche bag like our previous coach.

 Let's FOCUS ON FRIDAY'S GAME!!!

[ChicosBailBonds]

Who cares? I don't think he's going to leave, but if he does we'll get somebody else in here...hopefully one who's not a douche bag like our previous coach.

 Let's FOCUS ON FRIDAY'S GAME!!!

I hate it when douchebags take us to the Final Four.  I'm hoping the next coach we have will have drinks with all of us after the games at ( fill in bar name ). 

[ErickJD08]

I agree with PRN.  If he is hoping for an opportunity to get back to the south, then he'll bolt.  If he wants to be the next Coach K and build a program and be part of a school's history, he'll stay.  The guy has built himself from the ground up pretty well and he has some great opportunities.  Buzz strikes me as the kind of guy that is like the "Todd Mayo's" of the world that say "These people have been with me the whole way so I am gonna stick it out." but I don't know Buzz.  He's a great coach.  I am happy the guy is at MU.  I hope he stays.  But the speculation is stupid because I doubt Buzz is even thinking about this.  

[HoopsMalone]

Building up something for a decade would be good for Buzz.  If he leaves MU and fails, he is some guy who bounces around all the time.  He might end up as an assistant.  Buzz has the chance to at least keep repeating tournament bids at MU and build up a nice resume.

If he wants to go back to Texas, he should wait until the perfect job opens. 

[mviale]

Exactly - Marquette will be fine with or without Buzz. Love to keep Buzz, but we would survive.

[brewcity77]

Exactly - Marquette will be fine with or without Buzz. Love to keep Buzz, but we would survive.

Survive? Sure. But we're one Mike Deane away from becoming DePaul. If we ended up with a coach that wasn't part of our system, we could easily end up losing the bulk of our next two recruiting classes, and would probably see around 30-40% of the current roster transferring out. And if it's a guy that can't recoup those losses immediately, how long is it before we're irrelevant?

Granted, the JUCOs wasn't the only way Buzz could keep us going to the NCAAs, but after Crean left, it would have been very easy and understandable for this team to go to one tourney and then miss out for 3-4 years until Buzz's recruits developed. Instead, he found a way to bring in players that could compete at this level to keep us afloat and making the Big Dance while those 3-4 years went by. And if recruiting ratings are anything to go by, we could be challenging for the top of our league in 1-3 years, and possibly another Final Four appearance.

Look at how many coaches come in and don't get close to that at other programs. Any one of those could have been us without Buzz. It amazes me how often we seem to take him for granted. He's not without his warts, but I think we're fortunate enough to have him. And as long as he continues to learn, grow, and develop as a coach (while his team does the same as players) there's no reason he can't lead us back to the upper echelons of college basketball. That's not something you can say about most coaching hires.

[mviale]

Agree and would love to keep Buzz.  Lets just win and hope he becomes a really hot commodity.

[MU86NC]

Gottlieb is a complete tool and must be destoyed like ZAV E A.....

[groove]

I am sure he would/will do what most of us would do - whatever is best for his family. Does he have any kids? Hopefully he doesn't have them in MPS.

[Silkk the Shaka]

Brewcity77 - you summed up my thoughts about Buzz to a T!

[brewcity77]

My guess is that Gottlieb will link Buzz to any SEC or Big 12 job that opens. Just seems to be his M.O. Either that, or his source is in a recruiting battle with us. Either way, I take it with a grain of salt.

[rocky_warrior]

Granted, the JUCOs wasn't the only way Buzz could keep us going to the NCAAs, but after Crean left, it would have been very easy and understandable for this team to go to one tourney and then miss out for 3-4 years until Buzz's recruits developed. Instead, he found a way to bring in players that could compete at this level to keep us afloat and making the Big Dance while those 3-4 years went by. And if recruiting ratings are anything to go by, we could be challenging for the top of our league in 1-3 years, and possibly another Final Four appearance.

This is the point that seems to get lost on those that say Buzz is "trending down".  The other option was *likely* (not assuredly) to trend way down last year (removing Butler, Buycks, and DJO from the team).  No offense to Mo, Cuby and Lazer, but they couldn't have done it without those guys.  And then hopefully claw our way back up a few notches this year with some hypothetical HS players (possibly missing the NCAAs), to get back into "form" of making the NCAAs next year with the HS players that took a while to develop.

Yes, a bunch of speculation, but not altogether unimaginable.  Regardless, I'll take the option that got us to the NCAAs two years in which were highly unlikely with the "big 3" and lazar leaving.

[WellsstreetWanderer]

I guess it was a slow news day for college basketball and Gottlieb had to come up with something to write about

[cheebs09]

Cezar Guerrero just committed to Oklahoma State, Gottlieb's alma mater. We were recruiting him too. Nothing definitive of course, but may go in line with what has been said about those rumors of these Buzz rumors due to a recruiting battle. I believe Iwb was the one who brought that up here.

[El Duderino]

Survive? Sure. But we're one Mike Deane away from becoming DePaul. If we ended up with a coach that wasn't part of our system, we could easily end up losing the bulk of our next two recruiting classes, and would probably see around 30-40% of the current roster transferring out. And if it's a guy that can't recoup those losses immediately, how long is it before we're irrelevant?

Granted, the JUCOs wasn't the only way Buzz could keep us going to the NCAAs, but after Crean left, it would have been very easy and understandable for this team to go to one tourney and then miss out for 3-4 years until Buzz's recruits developed. Instead, he found a way to bring in players that could compete at this level to keep us afloat and making the Big Dance while those 3-4 years went by. And if recruiting ratings are anything to go by, we could be challenging for the top of our league in 1-3 years, and possibly another Final Four appearance.

Look at how many coaches come in and don't get close to that at other programs. Any one of those could have been us without Buzz. It amazes me how often we seem to take him for granted. He's not without his warts, but I think we're fortunate enough to have him. And as long as he continues to learn, grow, and develop as a coach (while his team does the same as players) there's no reason he can't lead us back to the upper echelons of college basketball. That's not something you can say about most coaching hires.

I agree with your post on pretty much all points. Unfortunately, history has shown with our two most recent coaches that had success in O'Neil and Crean that once they had success at Marquette, other schools fairly quickly started to at least sniff around about their availability.

So given that Marquette has many things going for it to be a quality job, but nothing really to make it viewed as a job outside of here locally where coaches should be expected to win every year, when our head coaches do have success as we want as fans, it's a near lock that success will always bring media speculation at least of other programs considering trying to lure away our head coach.

Then again, Marquette isn't alone in this. The are quite a few other major conference programs, not just mid-majors that will have to worry about potentially having other programs make a run at their coach, especially if that coach not only wins games, his program under him wasn't littered with ugly off the court stuff.

I don't think Buzz has accomplished enough yet to see him at the top of lists for jobs like say Arkansas, but he likely isn't completely off the lists either and if we make the NCAA Tournament the next year or two on top of his first three years, Buzz could easily shoot to being the top guy on those lists instead of say being the 3rd fallback option choice.

[willie warrior]

Gotlieb played in the Big 12/8/10, whatever they will be calling themselves. He has a bias.

Now, me I am objective--I love the Warriors!

[madtownwarrior]

it helps the douchebag to go to the final four when said douchebag hits the jackpot with the Dwyane Wade lottery...

it may be possible to get a coach who can get to the final four and not be a douchebag...

I hate it when douchebags take us to the Final Four.  I'm hoping the next coach we have will have drinks with all of us after the games at ( fill in bar name ). 

[ChicosBailBonds]

it helps the douchebag to go to the final four when said douchebag hits the jackpot with the Dwyane Wade lottery...

it may be possible to get a coach who can get to the final four and not be a douchebag...

Yup, and that same player still swears by the douchebag...go figure.  So they had a connection, he wanted to play for him and he did.  You make it sound like we drew his name out of a hat or he was the last kid standing at recess while picking teams for Smear the Queer. 

[ChicosBailBonds]

TulsaWorld article on Buzz being the guy for OU...in the author's opinion


http://www.tulsaworld.com/sportsextra/article.aspx?subjectid=202&articleid=20110315_202_B1_OKLAHO474752&allcom=1

[garekis]

More recent post from Sittler in which he backpedals a bit from yesterday's piece:

http://www.tulsaworld.com/sportsextra/blogs/blog.aspx?blogid=13

I agree with the commentators who maintain that, objectively, the Oklahoma and Arkansas positions are not better than the one Buzz currently has.  And, really, I don't think it's a close call.

Now, while this coaching carousel distraction has been mildly entertaining, let's refocus on the task at hand: beating Xavier.