Wainwright piece by Katz

[Retire54]

Maybe buzz can get Howland and Tubby on his staff next year

http://espn.go.com/mens-college-basketball/blog/_/name/katz_andy/id/9106837/marquette-golden-eagles-wainwright-buzzing-again-college-basketball

[Chicos' Buzz Scandal Countdown]

Maybe buzz can get Howland and Tubby on his staff next year

http://espn.go.com/mens-college-basketball/blog/_/name/katz_andy/id/9106837/marquette-golden-eagles-wainwright-buzzing-again-college-basketball

why teal?

[Ellenson Guerrero]

Great article. Hopefully he comes back for a couple more years.

[tower912]

Having Wainwright there is good for Buzz.   Buzz can look at a guy who was a successful coach, who took a shot at the brass ring with a school and a program that wasn't a good fit for him.  Who got shat on by the big city and alums of his school when he didn't produce, even though he was doing everything that had made him successful before, even though the school wasn't doing the necessary groundwork to build the program and was (is) still living on past glories.    He can look and see a guy who messed with happy.   

[MURFC]

Nice blog post.  Amazing we have two former D1 coaches on the bench.  Hope w get them both back for next year.

[Hards Alumni]

Really nicely done.

[LAMUfan]

"Here lies a great practice coach"

Awesome quote, funny and accurate I'm sure

[Litehouse]

I'm sure it helps Chew also.  He can learn from 3 head coaches.

[Avenue Commons]

Wainwright coached high school ball (Highland Park, I think) in Chicagoland. I've met a lot of people who have known him for a long time and others who were around him at DePaul. I have never heard anyone say anything less than complimentary about him. If anything, the knock on him was that he was too nice and decent of a guy to be a high-level D1 coach.

[Tugg Speedman]

I like how Buzz surrounds himself with the wise old sages like Dale Layer, Louis Orr, Wainwright and Jeff Reynolds.  It suggests his ego is not that big.  These are not guys that take these jobs to be yes men or lackeys.

I remember the first season Buzz was coach and in a critical time-out Dale Layer was designing a play.  Buzz was watching like an assistant would.  Successful people recognize their limitations and are not afraid to seek out help for those limitations and learn from them. 

Didn't MU have another coach that had a wise sage on the staff to help with a limitation?  Wasn't that coach's name Al and his wise sage was a guy named Hank?

---------------

This is off topic but writing this post made me think of it.  When Buzz was suspended for one game he had Wainwright and Reynolds with D1 experience on the bench.  However, he close Autry as the head coach that day.  Classy move.  Maybe Autry gets a D1 job someday.  But, as of now, he is 1-0 as a head coach.

[BubbaWilliams]

I always liked Coach Wainright, but I never knew that about the prostate cancer. Makes me lose a lot of respect for DePaul. Seems like a great guy. I hope he stays because he finally seems appreciated.

[chr31ter]

I always liked Coach Wainright, but I never knew that about the prostate cancer. Makes me lose a lot of respect for DePaul. Seems like a great guy. I hope he stays because he finally seems appreciated.

To be fair, he was fired and THEN he found out he had prostate cancer.

And Jerry IS a great guy.  But he's where he's supposed to be now - an assistant.  He's not a good head coach.

[JWags85]

Two Wainwright stories.

First, when he was still at Depaul, I was walking home after a Happy Hour on a Thursday after work and ran into him standing/smoking outside of the athletic complex on Sheffield.  I was a bit tipsy so I thought what the hell and stopped to talk hoops.  He happily talked about Big East basketball and was highly complimentary of Marquette and Buzz.  Couldn't have been nicer.  Sure Depaul isn't a powerhouse, but it was still pretty cool to shoot the crap with a D-1 coach randomly on the street for awhile.

Second, was talking to a friend of a friend a little while after who had went to undergrad at UK and was in grad school at Depaul, working in the athletic department at both.  He mentioned how when you went to Calipari's office at UK, there was an XBOX and a PS3 in the waiting area, signed jerseys of UK alums in the NBA, etc..  Then Wainwright's office had stuffed animal mascots and basically "felt like the office of a long time small business owner".  Now I'm not saying either is better or worse, but clearly there was a relatable piece missing with Wainwright and he wasn't completely bought into the all out sell at all times that recruiting has become.

Either way, nice guy and I'm happy to have him on our bench

[MUMountin]

"Here lies a great practice coach"

Awesome quote, funny and accurate I'm sure

Nice story.  Maybe the DePaul position was the result of the Peter Principle--but it is refreshing to see someone regroup after some failure, recognize his strengths and weaknesses, and find a way to remain a successful contributor.  Says a lot about his humility and character.

[wardle2wade]

Really great piece by Katz.  I always heard praise about Wainwright, but was nice to get some insight.

[Coleman]

Didn't MU have another coach that had a wise sage on the staff to help with a limitation?  Wasn't that coach's name Al and his wise sage was a guy named Hank?

First thing I thought of when I read the story. Not saying Buzz is Al or Jerry is Hank, but you can see the parallels in the way it was described.

[MarquetteMAN]

Awesome article! thanks for sharing. I really like that Buzz values the advice of experienced coaches.

[muwarrior69]

Kind of sad that his family is spread all over the place. Hope he get to spend some time with them in the off season.