Devil's Advocate

[MU82]

I would be quite happy with either Ben Howland or Shaka Smart but just wanted to throw something out there for us to chew on ...

Howland had seasons of 11-17, 18-11, 14-18 and 19-14 at UCLA. That means 4 of his 10 seasons were what demanding fans might call "unsatisfactory." There were reasons for each: The first two were his first two seasons at the school, when he was establishing his program; the other two (which occurred in his last four seasons) included all kinds of injuries and distractions. Extenuating circumstances always must be factored in, but many of us were not thrilled to acknowledge the extenuating circumstances that contributed to Buzz's only mediocre season at Marquette.

Smart has had only outstanding records at VCU but his postseason production unarguably has been on the decline: Final Four in 2011, second-round loss by 2 to Indiana in 2012, second-round loss by 25 to Michigan in 2013, opening-round loss as 5-seed to SF Austin in 2014. Again, there undoubtedly were extenuating circumstances in the early exits these last three years, including horrible luck just a couple days ago. And again, how forgiving were we of bad luck for any of our previous coaches?

There have been few saviors in sports history. I'm hoping whomever we hire can be a great coach, but I'll try to go in with realistic expectations no matter who we hire.

[EnderWiggen]

Nobody was ready to show Buzz the door because of this one season. Further, if there are injuries, etc... we understand it will be a down year. All in all, i think everyone was very happy with Buzz' overall record while he was here and we understand that there will be down seasons.  (of course, we are still gonna complain about them   )

[SWARM!]

Nobody was ready to show Buzz the door because of this one season. Further, if there are injuries, etc... we understand it will be a down year. All in all, i think everyone was very happy with Buzz' overall record while he was here and we understand that there will be down seasons.  (of course, we are still gonna complain about them   )

Exactly right.  Don't over-analyze this.

[Tugg Speedman]

Exactly right.  Don't over-analyze this.

+1 this year's record was not the issue.  It was deeper than that

[willie warrior]

I would be quite happy with either Ben Howland or Shaka Smart but just wanted to throw something out there for us to chew on ...

Howland had seasons of 11-17, 18-11, 14-18 and 19-14 at UCLA. That means 4 of his 10 seasons were what demanding fans might call "unsatisfactory." There were reasons for each: The first two were his first two seasons at the school, when he was establishing his program; the other two (which occurred in his last four seasons) included all kinds of injuries and distractions. Extenuating circumstances always must be factored in, but many of us were not thrilled to acknowledge the extenuating circumstances that contributed to Buzz's only mediocre season at Marquette.

Smart has had only outstanding records at VCU but his postseason production unarguably has been on the decline: Final Four in 2011, second-round loss by 2 to Indiana in 2012, second-round loss by 25 to Michigan in 2013, opening-round loss as 5-seed to SF Austin in 2014. Again, there undoubtedly were extenuating circumstances in the early exits these last three years, including horrible luck just a couple days ago. And again, how forgiving were we of bad luck for any of our previous coaches?

There have been few saviors in sports history. I'm hoping whomever we hire can be a great coach, but I'll try to go in with realistic expectations no matter who we hire.

Still slurping on El Bozo.

[GooooMarquette]

Howland's first sub .500 year (his first season) was the result of trying to install his hard-nosed, defensive style of play with his predecessor's players. The other sub .500 record was when the pressure came to switch to a "showtime" style of ball even though he was used to coaching a defense-oriented game.

When he had his type of players playing his style of ball, he did extremely well.