Buzz's "Honesty" Starting to Bug Me

[romey]

mufanatic you hit the nail on the head.  Our society is too soft.

Trophies for everyone on the team!
great job everyone, you were fantastic today!
Let's not keep score because the losing team will feel bad.

This is how sports begins at the youth level all the way up so that "great" is so watered down, it means nothing.  How about if we make athletes "earn" recognition and not hand out rewards and accolades so they don't feel bad?

Buzz is old school in that respect and I love it.

[strotty]

“Chris [Otule] probably had the worst practice he’s ever had since he knew basketball was a game on Monday.”

--Buzz at the Centenary preview press conference   

[The Lens]

"Freeport Warrior is an unbelieveable, phenomenal, great, super message board poster.  He reminds me a lot of Dywane and Steve and Travis.  It's like Tony La Russa, Barry Alvarez, Mike Maddux and Mike McCarthy used to tell me, if you have a great and outstanding poster like Freeport Warrior, you do it."

"PS I married a Harbaugh"

- Extracted from a a recent Tom Crean Press Conference

[warthog-driver]

"Freeport Warrior is an unbelieveable, phenomenal, great, super message board poster.  He reminds me a lot of Dywane and Steve and Travis.  It's like Tony La Russa, Barry Alvarez, Mike Maddux and Mike McCarthy used to tell me, if you have a great and outstanding poster like Freeport Warrior, you do it."

"PS I married a Harbaugh"

- Extracted from a a recent Tom Crean Press Conference

Hilarious though sad in that it is pretty spot on capturing the essence of II,II

[Lennys Tap]

"Freeport Warrior is an unbelieveable, phenomenal, great, super message board poster.  He reminds me a lot of Dywane and Steve and Travis.  It's like Tony La Russa, Barry Alvarez, Mike Maddux and Mike McCarthy used to tell me, if you have a great and outstanding poster like Freeport Warrior, you do it."

"PS I married a Harbaugh"

- Extracted from a a recent Tom Crean Press Conference

Post of the day/month/year. Hilarious. And dead on accurate.

[Freeport Warrior]

"Freeport Warrior is an unbelieveable, phenomenal, great, super message board poster.  He reminds me a lot of Dywane and Steve and Travis.  It's like Tony La Russa, Barry Alvarez, Mike Maddux and Mike McCarthy used to tell me, if you have a great and outstanding poster like Freeport Warrior, you do it."

"PS I married a Harbaugh"

- Extracted from a a recent Tom Crean Press Conference

Thanks for the kind words.
Just got back from my kid's game and he cobbled together a nice little double-double. Some guy came up to me and my son after the game and said "he's gonna be a helluva player." I said (in front of him), "he did a good job, but he's never going to be a great player," then I kicked him in ass and told him to make me a turkey pot pie. Man, the honesty felt great. I don't want him to grow up to be soft, or get a big head.  He's got girls and buddies to do that.

[Lennys Tap]

Thanks for the kind words.
Just got back from my kid's game and he cobbled together a nice little double-double. Some guy came up to me and my son after the game and said "he's gonna be a helluva player." I said (in front of him), "he did a good job, but he's never going to be a great player," then I kicked him in ass and told him to make me a turkey pot pie. Man, the honesty felt great. I don't want him to grow up to be soft, or get a big head.  He's got girls and buddies to do that.

Buzz isn't Jimmy Butler's Dad and I assume your son isn't a 21 year old man. Slight difference, no?

[Freeport Warrior]

Buzz isn't Jimmy Butler's Dad and I assume your son isn't a 21 year old man. Slight difference, no?

Agreed. Probably could have all been a shade of teal.

[pillardean]

Great Performance against an awful team=decent/good player
Buzz knows that.

Now, a great performance against a good/great team=great player.

If that were to happen consistently then "great" may be appropriate.

Buzz is just saying it how it is.  The kids get that, they understand that right now, first game of the year, they aren't great--that doesn't mean without hard work, improvement and consistency they won't achieve great.

[77ncaachamps]

Do you find Al McGuire's past comments to be too "honest"?

I agree with the previous post that the iconic coaches are the ones who are the toughest on their players, honesty included.

[Canned Goods n Ammo]

Let's just be honest.. as long as Buzz is winning, his honesty will be considered "refreshing".

If they start losing and/or having transfers, people will say that Buzz is too public with his comments.

He won this week, so I'll say I like it.

[wadesworld]

Not only did you forget the word "really" before "he's a good player," which makes a big difference, but you also cut the quote off early.  The entire quote was "Jimmy is not a great player, he is a really good player who works really hard."  You are trying to spin his words to fit your argument and it's just not there.  To me, the entire quite is saying that Jimmy is a really good player (talent), and then if you add in the fact that he works really hard, he IS actually a great player overall, but it isn't just pure talent.

Buzz IS brutally honest sometimes (I like it though), but this was definitely not a case of that.  He was giving Jimmy a very good compliment.

[Lennys Tap]

Let's just be honest.. as long as Buzz is winning, his honesty will be considered "refreshing".

If they start losing and/or having transfers, people will say that Buzz is too public with his comments.

He won this week, so I'll say I like it.

Not everybody is a wind sock whose opinions regarding honesty and integrity change depending on the score of our most recent game.

[Canned Goods n Ammo]

Not everybody is a wind sock whose opinions regarding honesty and integrity change depending on the score of our most recent game.

Oh come on, as a fan-base, that's the way things work.

"When I was losing, they called me nuts. When I was winning they called me eccentric."
-Al

[Daniel]

Buzz has a great relationship with the players.  I am certain that he tells his players exactly when he feels they needs to do to improve, and I am certain he vriefs them on what his tack will be in on-air interviews.  I hope he tells them something like, yeah - look - I'm going to downnplay our efforts, tell hjow much work we all need to do, call out individuals who need work etc. and they might be fine with that.

On the outside looking in, other students, etc. hear this stuff adn may have certain opinions of the players, or feel some pathos for them, or feel embarrased for them.  Who knows?  But I at least hope Buzz is breifing the team on his on-air strategies.

[Lennys Tap]

Oh come on, as a fan-base, that's the way things work.

"When I was losing, they called me nuts. When I was winning they called me eccentric."
-Al

I'm not saying winning isn't important. If Buzz doesn't win enough he'll be fired (and justifyibly so) just like anybody else. That won't mean, though, that he was wrong to stress honesty and accountabilty - starting with himself and including his staff and players. Maybe you and others in the fanbase will rip him for that but it's unfair to suggest that all MU fans will.

[Canned Goods n Ammo]

I'm not saying winning isn't important. If Buzz doesn't win enough he'll be fired (and justifyibly so) just like anybody else. That won't mean, though, that he was wrong to stress honesty and accountabilty - starting with himself and including his staff and players. Maybe you and others in the fanbase will rip him for that but it's unfair to suggest that all MU fans will.

You're right. Nobody is going to rip buzz for stressing honesty and accountability, but his style of doing so in public interviews will certainly be called into question (if he loses).

I like Buzz's honesty in interviews, but it's not the norm for major coaches (even the honest ones).

If Buzz wins, the perception will be that his interview style is charming and unique.

If he loses, the perception will be that his interview style is harsh and unneeded.

And just to be clear, I'm talking about his interview style (original post), not his overall ethics and integrity.

[Dr. Blackheart]

You're right. Nobody is going to rip buzz for stressing honesty and accountability, but his style of doing so in public interviews will certainly be called into question (if he loses).

I like Buzz's honesty in interviews, but it's not the norm for major coaches (even the honest ones).

If Buzz wins, the perception will be that his interview style is charming and unique.

If he loses, the perception will be that his interview style is harsh and unneeded.

And just to be clear, I'm talking about his interview style (original post), not his overall ethics and integrity.

Do you prefer Majerus pulling out his schlong in practice?   

http://sportsillustrated.cnn.com/2008/writers/the_bonus/01/17/majerus/index.html

[warthog-driver]

As far as the players yelling at the coach, some coaches handled it quite differently than others.  Al McGuire, the legendary head coach (and color commentator), actually encouraged players to yell at him.  This was undoubtedly due to his upbringing as a tough Irish New Yorker who felt if you had a problem with him, let’s settle it - by rolling up the ol’ sleeves and getting it on.  The story, people who knew Al swear it’s not apocryphal, about the time Al challenged one of his players to a fight under the bleachers and the two of them duked it out.  After it ended, Al had no hard feelings, respected the kid and was ready to get on with whatever was next up on the practice plan (except Al never had a practice plan, just coached by gut feel).  That day, his gut told him the best way to get his message across was to fight his own player.  How can anyone argue with that logic?

http://www.jackfertig.com/wordpress/?cat=43

[warthog-driver]

Al McGuire might've been going out a loser, but he wasn't leaving without a fight.

At halftime McGuire stormed into the Civic Auditorium locker room. He grabbed his stubborn sharpshooter Bernard Toone, shoved him against a wall, stuck a finger in his face and threatened his life. Then McGuire, the son of an Irish immigrant who grew out of his father's New York bar and into one of the game's finest coaches at Marquette, the technical foul machine who once knelt before officials at DePaul and begged them to take his car, his house, his job, but not this game, the 48-year-old man who announced in the middle of that 1977 campaign that he was calling it quits after the season, slapped Toone hard.

Across the face.

What happened next? Depends on who tells the story. Omahan Mark Lavin, a freshman walk-on for Marquette that year, recalls a few bodies crashing into a table, teammates stepping in to break it up.

What happened next? Everyone agrees. Marquette took the court for the second half of its first-round tussle with Cincinnati and turned a three-point deficit into a 15-point win. Sixteen days later, the Warriors were national champions.

"That was the beginning," Lavin said. "You don't know what sparks a team, what keeps the fire going during the entire tournament. But I have to believe there's something inside that carries you through each game. It started here in Omaha."

[Canned Goods n Ammo]

As far as the players yelling at the coach, some coaches handled it quite differently than others.  Al McGuire, the legendary head coach (and color commentator), actually encouraged players to yell at him.  This was undoubtedly due to his upbringing as a tough Irish New Yorker who felt if you had a problem with him, let’s settle it - by rolling up the ol’ sleeves and getting it on.  The story, people who knew Al swear it’s not apocryphal, about the time Al challenged one of his players to a fight under the bleachers and the two of them duked it out.  After it ended, Al had no hard feelings, respected the kid and was ready to get on with whatever was next up on the practice plan (except Al never had a practice plan, just coached by gut feel).  That day, his gut told him the best way to get his message across was to fight his own player.  How can anyone argue with that logic?

http://www.jackfertig.com/wordpress/?cat=43

Great example.

Al won, so nobody really questions his methods.

If he had lost, everybody would have been all over him.

[Marquette84]

You're right. Nobody is going to rip buzz for stressing honesty and accountability, but his style of doing so in public interviews will certainly be called into question (if he loses).

I like Buzz's honesty in interviews, but it's not the norm for major coaches (even the honest ones).

If Buzz wins, the perception will be that his interview style is charming and unique.

If he loses, the perception will be that his interview style is harsh and unneeded.

And just to be clear, I'm talking about his interview style (original post), not his overall ethics and integrity.

Buzz is no more or less "honest" than any other coach in the business today.

His "honesty" is an attempt to lower expectations--no more, no less.  He's not more "honest" when he says that MU should be picked last or that our players aren't really that good.  He's lowering expectations to buy himself time.  It's coach-speak.  Its just different coach-speak than we are used to.

The biggest question is given the expectations people are voicing over the next two or three years, will he still be given credit for being "honest".  Consider:

We sign tarik and we are the best team in the best conference in the country for the next 3-4 years...that translates into competing for Final fours every single year.

Buzz Williams is building a program that has the potential to compete for Big East and National championships,

I cannot fathom Buzz claiming at Black's signing that we'll compete for final fours "every single year" he is with the team. 

My guess is that next year's pre-season we'll hear some variation of "'Riq and 'Der were both great HS players but they're not great college players and the only thing they'll compete for is getting off the bench. They'll have to learn to be as good as 'Zar or David. Until then, we're not even at the level we were last year."

We'll see if the love for Buzz's "honesty" holds if we're not competing for Big East championships and Final Fours within the next couple of years. 

[Nukem2]

84, Buzz is who he is and thats how he presents himself.  As he has said, he is humble to have the job and hopes he can meet expectations.  If MU does poorly over the next few seasons, I suspect he'll be the first to admit that.  I don't think he is trying to lower expectations.  He's just telling it like it is.

[avid1010]

Yeah, I think he should take pay attention to Skiles, and go more in that direction.

[4everwarriors]

Yeah, I think he should take pay attention to Skiles, and go more in that direction.

Buzz doesn't seem like the type to have a bunch of illegitimate kids around.