Great Article about Buzz in SI

[Big East Warriors]

Luke Winn dives in with Buzz about the team, press conferences and how many ice cubes he likes in his Ice Tea. Really interesting article...

http://sportsillustrated.cnn.com/2008/writers/luke_winn/10/02/marquette/?eref=sircrc

[jce]

Nice article...Luke Winn is a native of Fort Atkinson BTW.

[🏀]

Five guard lineup? Yikes!

[ErickJD08]

My same reaction... Five guard sets??? Does he know that most the other teams in the big east have big guys on the floor at all times?  I am starting to get worried.  They better be working Burke's tail off.

[muhoosier260]

the diet pepsi jab was hilarious

[tower912]

Thanks to the Mbakwe transfer, a lineup with the three amigos, plus Lazar and Fulce is almost a certainty at times.    Plus, we ran 4 guards plus Lazar several times last year.   Not what anybody wants, but you have to play the cards that are dealt you. 

[Marquette84]

I'm just wondering if some of you actually read the entire paragraph--past the words "five-guard sets."

To see people, presumably serious, suggesting that the way to beat Harangody or Thabeet is to "work Burke's tail off" is amazing.  As if that is enough to propel MU's frontline into the the equal of the league leaders.

Newsflash:  There is No. Way. In. Hell. that Burke can catch up to the top bigs in the conference.  Therefore, the notion that we can "work his tail off" so that we can effectively play five on five against the teams with better bigs is pure folly, and would only serve to neutralize our backcourt advantage.

Because it appears people missed it, here's the rest of Buzz's statement:

"-- is one way to lengthen games, by upping the number of possessions and taking advantage of Marquette's quickness in a league filled with talented post players, such as Notre Dame's Luke Harangody and UConn's Hasheem Thabeet. Marquette ranked 118th in the nation (and sixth in the Big East) in adjusted tempo last year, at 68.1 possessions per game, and could likely move into the 70s next season. The faster the better, in Williams' opinion, because "as the game gets shorter, our size dilemma gets revealed."

If we are forced to play five-on-five/position-on-position against the league, we're in trouble.  A five guard offense is an intriguing idea that would create just as many mismatches for the other teams as it would for us, and it would create exactly the situation described above where we create more offense off of quickness than one-on-one moves by Burke or Otule.  Can you imagine Thabeet trying to guard Aacker one on one?  Or Harangody on Cubillan? 

Yes, this strategy is going to give up some easy baskets inside when the other teams are able to set up in a half court--but the five-guard strategy is also going to get you more steals, resulting in fewer posessions for the other team--and even if the other teams wind up going to the line it will reduce the number shots from the floor, reducing their point total.

[🏀]

You would have to steal the ball everytime or Harangody would kill us for over 60 points.

[Pardner]

TC went perimeter against UCONN last year (started Fitz, and dCube and Mo got good minutes, while the 4/5's had plenty of pine time).  I actually liked the TC move for its creativity.  Result, we got absolutely hammered, down 67-38 at one point.  UCONN shot 39 FT's

[ErickJD08]

I say work Burke's tail off because he is the only big body on our team that is not a freshmen.  We need someone who can just put in the effort and hold their own (meaning not laid down or foul every play) on the defensive end.  Five guard set is the dumbest idea I have ever heard.  Who is going to guard Luke?  Let me think of the game plan from ND's stand point.  Dump it inside to Luke for an easy bucket or FT's.  Either way, the game will slow down considerably.  Burke just needs to do what Barro did.  Barro was not amazing, but he was fine for how our team was built.  Burke just need to put in effort 25 minutes a game, mix in the freshmen and figure out something for the couple minutes where there could be gaps.  Last year, Burke could not play for more than 10 minutes.  If we can't look to him for more significant minutes, we don't have a shot against any good BE team (Georgetown, UConn, ND, Louisville). 

[jce]

Jeez people...you are getting all caught up on one minor part of the article.

The five guard line-up will likely only be used in certain situations to up the pace in games.  It'll be used with either a full-court or half-court press that backs into a zone of some sort.  Basically a change of pace.

You make it sound as if Buzz said that he's going to be starting five guards and play them all game.

[Murffieus]

A "five guard" offense isn't practical nor will it be effective in the BE. Rebounding, interior defense vs bigs, and an inside offensive game would all suffer.

Most teams would zone that alignment so we can't take advantage of mismatches on offense-----dubious idea that will be quickly discarded if implemented.

[OneMadWarrior]

Buzz seems crazy, but its the good kind of crazy. Buzz wants to play the way that I have thought they shoudl have played for years, the up temp style will tire out big men like thabeet and Harangody, and hopefully force them to play less minutes, that is why you push tempo. Gary Williams, Nolan Richardson, and Rick Pitino all have used this strategy at one time or another to make up for their lack of big man depth. If you press and make steal and deflections the ball won't even be able to get into the post for those guys to finish, besides Harangody was a fluke adn this year will prove it.

[77fan88warrior]

Buzz seems crazy, but its the good kind of crazy. Buzz wants to play the way that I have thought they shoudl have played for years, the up temp style will tire out big men like thabeet and Harangody, and hopefully force them to play less minutes, that is why you push tempo. Gary Williams, Nolan Richardson, and Rick Pitino all have used this strategy at one time or another to make up for their lack of big man depth. If you press and make steal and deflections the ball won't even be able to get into the post for those guys to finish, besides Harangody was a fluke adn this year will prove it.

Harangody was a fluke? I guess his freshman season was a fluke as well? I don't like the guy but he has a real nice offensive game.

[OneMadWarrior]

Coaches this year will discover how you beat the men, not to say I am a great coach by any means but that orge has abotu one move, drive to basket get fouled, grunt a lot, drool, make 20 free throws, play no defense, repeat, you exhaust him on the defensive end and he will not be as big a factor on the offensive end.

[Murffieus]

Buzz seems crazy, but its the good kind of crazy. Buzz wants to play the way that I have thought they shoudl have played for years, the up temp style will tire out big men like thabeet and Harangody, and hopefully force them to play less minutes, that is why you push tempo. Gary Williams, Nolan Richardson, and Rick Pitino all have used this strategy at one time or another to make up for their lack of big man depth. If you press and make steal and deflections the ball won't even be able to get into the post for those guys to finish, besides Harangody was a fluke adn this year will prove it.

Uptempo BB works at home where the crowd gets into it, but we're going to win most of those games anyway (or should).
However on the road or in the NCAA to rely on "uptempo BB" is a mistake.

I don't like the lack of confidence that Buzz seems to have in Burke and Otule. Crean ruined Burke by not building on the postup talents that he came to MU with------also Burke lost a lot of his agility by bulking up too much too quickly presummingly by overdoing the weightlifting. Even at this late date, Burke could be developed into being at least a serviceable postup.

[MUfan12]

It's certainly not a solution for long stretches of time, but we saw last year (when Crean finally stopped being stubborn) how pressure and speed can turn a game on its head (see at ND last yr).

Personally I love the idea of throwing off rythym with speed. I'd much rather see them do that when outsized then let entry pass after entry pass into the post, uncontested, ala Stanford.

[77fan88warrior]

I hope Buzz isn't as obsessive compulsive as Jeff Lewis from Flipping Out.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AhwTVJHaRKw

[downtown85]

What about Patrick Hazel?  Will he be able to help at the 5 for about 5-7 minutes a game?  Everyone seems to forget the poor guy.

[bma725]

What about Patrick Hazel?  Will he be able to help at the 5 for about 5-7 minutes a game?  Everyone seems to forget the poor guy.

Hazel shows a lot of effort, but I'm not sure how much of a difference it is with him in there.  He's listed at 6'7 220, so he'll also be too small to match up with the big guys that people are concerned about.

[ErickJD08]

Yeah, to play up tempo, you don't need 5 guards on the court.  All our players need to be in shape.  As far as Burke bulking up too much is not what I see.  I saw a fat boy last season that looked like he never touched the ball and was pretty clueless in the game.  I thought that's why we have this assistant coach who can develop big men.  Time for someone to earn their pay check.  A serviceable big man for MU this season will focus on defense.  Defense is mainly fundamentals and technique.  If our coaches can do that for Burke, MU will never have a good post player unless we get some 5 star that has all the tools already.

[Murffieus]

Well Otule isn't a five star-----he's a 3 star, but from what I've seen there is no reason why he can't be developed into a good postup-----that is provided that Buzz doesn't get all caught up with this guard stuff
and allow Otule's talent to wither.

The only way we will ever get a 5 star big recruit, is if they have the visibility of being a major part of the offense based on what MU's current bigs are contributing.

[THEGYMBAR]

Not to be a Buzz kill....but, Buzz is now a Head Coach on top Tier program. I think the time spent studying other coaches pressers should be a thing of the past. He has a great story, but, time for the present and future.

If Buzz wants to be big time he needs to focus an the now. Keeping his roots is awesome. I just hope that now the got here he knows what to do.

Great job recruiting so far, no argument. Being a top coach is much different than calling coaches every week. Forget the six ice cubes and focus on five star players.

[4everwarriors]

Aw schucks, we'll see if studying all the minusia will pay off. I agree his humble beginnings is now starting to wear thin. Yet, it's a refreshing change from the ever-present arrogance of the departed T-Cubed. How many days has Buzz now been the coach?

[RedWebster]

Not to be a Buzz kill....but, Buzz is now a Head Coach on top Tier program. I think the time spent studying other coaches pressers should be a thing of the past. He has a great story, but, time for the present and future.

If Buzz wants to be big time he needs to focus an the now. Keeping his roots is awesome. I just hope that now the got here he knows what to do.

Great job recruiting so far, no argument. Being a top coach is much different than calling coaches every week. Forget the six ice cubes and focus on five star players.

Unfortunately, gymbar, this kind of behavior was cited as a big reason we hired Williams. Letter writing, timing how long it took for a coach to thank his wife. Mentioning how many things he forgot to mention in his press conference. I find these stories increasingly disturbing.

Question for Chicos or anybody else familiar with these things...do we have somebody working with our coaches as far as public speaking? He obviously needs some work...which is rather unbelievable for a Big East basketball program.