Knock on Wood

[RideMyBuycks]

But in my, albeit brief, research I could not find a 30-win season for 'Quette. I realize it would take very strong finish, but it would be very cool to see.

4-0 down the stretch, 2-1 in the BE tourney and at least a Sweet 16 run would put us at 30.

3-1, 3-0 in tourney and then Sweet 16 would put us there too.

All in all, there are a few paths...hell, 35-5 would be cool, too.

[MerrittsMustache]

Most wins in a season: 28 (1970-71)
http://www.sports-reference.com/cbb/schools/marquette/

Click the 'W' to sort by wins.

[warriorchick]

Wow, I never knew Al was 8-18 in his first season at Marquette.

If Buzz racked up that kind of record his first year, I doubt he would have been back for a 2nd season.  Thank God they gave Al another chance.

[MU82]

Next time you have a few minutes and want to have some fun doing some clicking with your mouse, check out what Krzyzewski's record was in his first three years at Duke. (Which followed what could hardly be called an inspiring run at Army.) In this day and age, he never would have become Coach K. Not at Duke, anyway.

[MUMac]

Wow, I never knew Al was 8-18 in his first season at Marquette.

If Buzz racked up that kind of record his first year, I doubt he would have been back for a 2nd season.  Thank God they gave Al another chance.

Remember, Freshman were not eligible back then.  He would not have had any of his own recruits.  It wasn't until his 3rd year that he had his first true recruiting class - led by George Thompson.

[The Equalizer]

Wow, I never knew Al was 8-18 in his first season at Marquette.

If Buzz racked up that kind of record his first year, I doubt he would have been back for a 2nd season.  Thank God they gave Al another chance.

Not if the team he inherited was 6-21 the season before.

However, if anyone had taken the 25-10 team from 2008 -- with the amigos and Hayward returing for his first season in 2009 -- and then delivered an 8-18 season -- not only would he have been chased out of town, but Cottingham would have gone right along with him.  It would have taken a coaching disaster of Kennedy-esque proportions to start with that 2009 roster and get just 8 wins out of them.

[warriorchick]

Not if the team he inherited was 6-21 the season before.

However, if anyone had taken the 25-10 team from 2008 -- with the amigos and Hayward returing for his first season in 2009 -- and then delivered an 8-18 season -- not only would he have been chased out of town, but Cottingham would have gone right along with him.  It would have taken a coaching disaster of Kennedy-esque proportions to start with that 2009 roster and get just 8 wins out of them.

You have good points here, but as long as we are at it, let's have the discussion (theoretical as it is):

1.  If the W/L record pre-Buzz was 6-21, what would have been the minimum win/loss ratio that would have been acceptable to the Powers That Be?

2.  Given that the previous year's record was 25-10, what is the worst record Buzz could have had and still kept his job?

Let's assume for purposes of discussion that everything else during that year stayed the same (recruiting success, team attitude, Buzz's general likeability) except for things like ticket sales that would be directly affected by the team's record.

Whaddya think?

[The Equalizer]

You have good points here, but as long as we are at it, let's have the discussion (theoretical as it is):

1.  If the W/L record pre-Buzz was 6-21, what would have been the minimum win/loss ratio that would have been acceptable to the Powers That Be?

2.  Given that the previous year's record was 25-10, what is the worst record Buzz could have had and still kept his job?

Let's assume for purposes of discussion that everything else during that year stayed the same (recruiting success, team attitude, Buzz's general likeability) except for things like ticket sales that would be directly affected by the team's record.

Whaddya think?

If the record were 6-21 team, I would think that any new coach would have to start showing results by the 3rd year, with success in the 4th.  In a rebuilding situation, you probably know by then what direction the program is taking. We knew by Al's 3rd year, O'Neill's 3rd year, Crean's 3rd year that we were on the right track.  We knew by year three that Majeurs and Dukiet were not.  

If coming off the 25-10 year, thats a tough one because I don't think there's a hard number that is safe or that denotes the cutoff.  I think you have to make the tournament--or at least be safely in before James is injured.  Given we started with 8 cupcakes in non-conference, and had 4 extremely tough games to end the season,  we probably needed to be somewhere at least 17-10 or 18-9 range prior to Jame's injury.