Has Buzz lost control?

[3Mer]

       After sacrificing his redshirt year for Crean, Mbakwe transfers rather than play for Buzz
   +   Acker is off-again/on-again before Buzz even coaches his first game
+    Maymon quits just weeks after convincing his best friend to commit to MU
      WTF???

[RJax55]

      After sacrificing his redshirt year for Crean, Mbakwe transfers rather than play for Buzz
   +   Acker is off-again/on-again before Buzz even coaches his first game
+    Maymon quits just weeks after convincing his best friend to commit to MU
      WTF???

Acker left the team this summer... Buzz had already coached the team for one season.

Mbakwe had long-standing issues with transfers (see his high school career).

The full Maymon story has yet to come out.

[NavinRJohnson]

      After sacrificing his redshirt year for Crean, Mbakwe transfers rather than play for Buzz
   +   Acker is off-again/on-again before Buzz even coaches his first game
+    Maymon quits just weeks after convincing his best friend to commit to MU
      WTF???

Wow. You wanna talk about trying to connect three unconnectable dots. Other than the fact that Mbakwe and Maymon came in with somewhat flaky reputations, those situations could not be more different.

Mbakwe - what makes you say he sacrificed that year for Crean? Maybe he sacrificed it for himself. The coach who recruited him left, and rumors of him transferring swirrled for a very long time. His departure surprises you?

Acker - There were about 420 reasons for his departure. His return would seem to be counter to your argument.

Maymon - Who knows why he quit, but is anyone really surprised by it?

[Jam Chowder]

Uninformed + Overreaction + Inflammatory + Far-reaching = TROLL

[warthog-driver]

Acker - There were about 420 reasons for his departure. His return would seem to be counter to your argument.

Would this be a reference to a certain Proposition in CA?

[westcoastwarrior]

"420 reasons".....that is funny!

[Big Papi]

Buzz has not lost control but there are other dots that can be connected and no matter how this plays out, they should make every MU fan at least a little bit worried. 

Oh and those dots would be Roseboro, Clark and Maymon.  Clark and Maymon falling into the category of there were higher risks involved in their recruitments that were known ahead of time.  Roeseboro and Maymon could and the key word is "could", fall into a category of coaches said one thing to recruits during recruitment and their comments were totally different than actual reality, for whatever reasons. 

Should be an interesting next couple of days, months and year. 

[bilsu]

I do not think Buzz has lost control. He has very high values and will not put up with people who cross it. Part of his values is that he will never publically say what happen. At this point, I believe without any inside knowlege that Buzz told Embakwe not to come back based on some line Embakwe crossed shortly before the start of the year. This is pure speculation on my part, but it makes sense to me. Embakwe did ???. Buzz said ??? is not acceptable. Buzz tells Embakwe to leave quietly and promises not to say anything about ???.

[Milkshakes]

What concerns me most about this situation is that it really starts to make me question Buzz.  No matter what the deal is here there is a pattern of bad judgment that is starting to be clear.  All the way back to New Orleans, Acker, Roseboro, Clark and now Maymon.  All different and all excusable or unforeseeable on there own.  However, taken together it is not a pretty picture.  Is Buzz able to judge the character of his players?  Is he able to stand by his commitments and mentor these young men to do the same?   His intensity has an upside but I fear it also might impede his ability to evaluate and guide these young guys through what is admittedly a very tough period for them.

[NavinRJohnson]

What concerns me most about this situation is that it really starts to make me question Buzz.  No matter what the deal is here there is a pattern of bad judgment that is starting to be clear.

Its the reason he was hired. He was a guy who was going to be willing to take some chances the previous guy would not, something that was valued by people in high places at MU. MU knew exactly what they were getting, and its a chance they were obviously willing to take. If this thing goes wrong, its on them, not Buzz. 

[Pakuni]

Its the reason he was hired. He was a guy who was going to be willing to take some chances the previous guy would not, something that was valued by people in high places at MU. MU knew exactly what they were getting, and its a chance they were obviously willing to take. If this thing goes wrong, its on them, not Buzz. 

Tom Crean didn't take chances?
James Matthews, Carlton Christian, Trevor Mbakwe and Niv Berkowitz, not to mention some kid named Wade, may beg to differ.

[PuertoRicanNightmare]

Actually, the fact that he's not kowtowing to players and their parents makes me believe he's more in control that I thought he was.

This could be a GOOD thing for Buzz.

[3Mer]

The pundits don't see The Current State of Marquette Basketball as a "good thing" for Buzz:

http://bleacherreport.com/articles/309018-the-current-state-of-marquette-basketball

[NavinRJohnson]

Tom Crean didn't take chances?
James Matthews, Carlton Christian, Trevor Mbakwe and Niv Berkowitz, not to mention some kid named Wade, may beg to differ.

Ok, so he took chances on bad players hoping they could play (with the obvious exception of Wade). How many chances did he take in the last 4-5 years? After he got burned by the guys you mention, how many chances did he take? He recruited well enough for MU to be a consistent Top 30 team. Right or wrong, Buzz was hired because of his willingness to push the recruiting envelope a bit and go after guys like Jimmy Butler, Buycks, Clark, Maymon, etc. Crean would not have gone near those guys. Maybe he is the smart one, and I'm not sayin, I'm just sayin, that's a big reason Buzz got the job.

[bma725]

Ok, so he took chances on bad players hoping they could play (with the obvious exception of Wade). How many chances did he take in the last 4-5 years? After he got burned by the guys you mention, how many chances did he take? He recruited well enough for MU to be a consistent Top 30 team. Right or wrong, Buzz was hired because of his willingness to push the recruiting envelope a bit and go after guys like Jimmy Butler, Buycks, Clark, Maymon, etc. Crean would not have gone near those guys. Maybe he is the smart one, and I'm not sayin, I'm just sayin, that's a big reason Buzz got the job.

Ummm...all of those guys were within the last 5 classes of Crean's tenure.

Mbakwe in 2007, Niv Berkowitz 2004, Manchild and Christian 2003.

Also, FYI, Crean was going after Monterale Clark, both when Clark was in high school and when Clark was at prep school.  Clark even talked about it when he committed to MU.

[NavinRJohnson]

The pundits don't see The Current State of Marquette Basketball as a "good thing" for Buzz:

http://bleacherreport.com/articles/309018-the-current-state-of-marquette-basketball

The pundits? Some Sophomore at MU qualifies as a pundit? Not sure what makes that any more punditry than anything that has been written here in the past 12 hours.

[Badgerhater]

Wow, just only a few weeks ago, Buzz was a coaching savant in total control of everything....having scooped Bucky for Blue and beat Xavier and Michigan.

Now to some is he the reincarnation of Bob Dukiet.

Get Gripping is needed.

[nyg]

The pundits don't see The Current State of Marquette Basketball as a "good thing" for Buzz:

http://bleacherreport.com/articles/309018-the-current-state-of-marquette-basketball

 I hope JM quit for some reason besides being guareented playing time by Buzz.  Don't want this to get ugly in the media, there will be many writers with different takes on this.

[NavinRJohnson]

Ummm...all of those guys were within the last 5 classes of Crean's tenure.

Mbakwe in 2007, Niv Berkowitz 2004, Manchild and Christian 2003.

Right, so when I used  a timeline of 4-5 years, that was accurate, and when I asked...After he got burned by the guys you mention, how many chances did he take? The answer would be 1, Mbakwe. Right? Right.

[RawdogDX]

Right, so when I used  a timeline of 4-5 years, that was accurate, and when I asked...After he got burned by the guys you mention, how many chances did he take? The answer would be 1, Mbakwe. Right? Right.

I'm confused.  You think that the reason mu needed a guy like buzz was so that he'd 'take risks' on a player like Maymon.  This implies that you think Crean would have refused maymon. 

No way.  There are few coaches in america that would have said no to maymon if he was interested.

[NavinRJohnson]

I'm confused.  You think that the reason mu needed a guy like buzz was so that he'd 'take risks' on a player like Maymon.  This implies that you think Crean would have refused maymon. 

No way.  There are few coaches in america that would have said no to maymon if he was interested.

Not necessarily Maymon specifically (The risk in his case was not necessarily ability, but personality, attitude, etc.), but JUCo's, academic risks...riskier guys in general. I don't necessarily think MU needed that, but people with a say in who got hired did, and it is probably the biggest reason Buzz got the job.

[Tom Crean's Tanning Bed]

The pundits? Some Sophomore at MU qualifies as a pundit? Not sure what makes that any more punditry than anything that has been written here in the past 12 hours.

Absolutely agreed. 

While I know Bleacher Report has some quality writers (who are there genuinely trying to build a professional portfolio so they can take the next step in their media careers), any dope can go on there and play the role of "pundit". 

I remember a few weeks ago some "expert" claimed that the Brewers had closed a deal for Zach Greineke, and several news outlets in town ran with it.  We're not talking exactly reliable source reporting/opinion on Bleacher Report.

[ChicosBailBonds]

I'm confused.  You think that the reason mu needed a guy like buzz was so that he'd 'take risks' on a player like Maymon.  This implies that you think Crean would have refused maymon. 

No way.  There are few coaches in america that would have said no to maymon if he was interested.

I think Buzz is very much in control and I'd rather have a coach that calls the shots than the players or parents.  I hope that is the case.

On the comment about Maymon and Crean....I don't think that's accurate.  Bo Ryan and Tom Crean showed very little interest in him outside of courtesy calls, etc.  There were reasons for that.  Risk & reward and neither saw the reward worth the risk.  Buzz did, which is fine.  If it worked out, then Buzz would be hailed = reward.  If it doesn't, then the risk comes into play = current situation.

[muwarrior69]

I too think Buzz is in control. Either Maymon was over rated or he is an underachiever. Over the last 10 games I kept asking myself, this kid was the best in Wisconsin? He sure was'nt playing like it. If Buzz takes him back, which I don't think he will, that would be his first big mistake. Time for Buzz to move on and find players that want to play for him..... and from what I've seen so far, he will.

[bma725]

Right, so when I used  a timeline of 4-5 years, that was accurate, and when I asked...After he got burned by the guys you mention, how many chances did he take? The answer would be 1, Mbakwe. Right? Right.

Not really, it just depends on how you define risk.  Blackledge was as big of a risk academically as Christian or Mbakwe or Berkowitz...even to the point of having to sit a portion of his junior year for academic reasons.  Crean was recruiting Monterale Clark even after he knew about the 3 HS in Milwaukee, and the Prep School in Georgia and the fact that he had to go to a JUCO.  Heck he even tried getting him to visit IU when he took that job.

The difference is not that he didn't take risks, it's that he tried to limit the risks to 1 a year.