Vote for Buzz over Bo

[Aughnanure]

http://www.jsonline.com/sports/84358302.html?resul%20ts=y&oid=2&mr=1&cid=8500544&pid=84%20358302

Who has done the better coaching job this season?

Bo vs Buzz

[HoopsMalone]

Can't say either coach is bad.  Bo did win head to head, which should count.  However, Buzz is doing more with less against a much tougher schedule.

[dsfire]

The fact the question can even be raised is a credit to Buzz.  The Badgers were picked to finish something like 8th in the Big Ten this year, and are now competing for the title despite their best player being injured for most of the conference season.

[Aughnanure]

So far

Buzz Williams (47%)
Bo Ryan (53%)
Total Responses: 112

[The Pickle]

Can't say either coach is bad.  Bo did win head to head, which should count.  However, Buzz is doing more with less against a much tougher schedule.

I agree Buzz is doing more with less.  Thought for a minute I might disagree about toughness of schedule as Big Ten has MSU, Purdue, Ohio State...and that's all I could come up with, at which point I realized I was totally wrong.  For the record, I really wanted to include something about Indiana but couldn't think of anything clever.  Please feel free to help me out...

[MarquetteDano]

Once again I made the mistake of reading the Badger Board on this issue.  They are saying UW-Madison was picked 7th in conference yet will be up there in the Big Ten.  This is including Leuer injury.  Based on that, yes, Bo has done an excellent job as usual.

However, Buzz had a recruting class decimated due to Crean's departure, the three bigs he recruited are ALL injured, the expected point guard for the season has played 19 minutes.  Marquette has expected to finished 12th in the Big East.  Buzz has the shortest lineup in the BCS conferences.

It is close, I admit.  Yet the Badger posters ARE SHOCKED that the voting is so close?   

Wow.

[Daniel]

60/40 Buzz when I voted......!

[TallTitan34]

Well it's better than the poll during the NBA Finals which asked who had the better series, Dwyane Wade or Devin Harris?

[muwarrior69]

I just voted, 7:53 am central time: Buzz 52; Bo 48. 600+ votes.

[Hards Alumni]

I just voted, 7:53 am central time: Buzz 52; Bo 48. 600+ votes.

52 Buzz
48 Bo

690 votes 8:25am

[Tugg Speedman]

53% Buzz
47% Bo
692 votes

Consider how UW has multiple times more Alumni than MU, and Bo has been around for many years, and gets more wisconsin players, these results mean Buzz is winning in a rout!

[DJO's Pump Fake]

50 50 with 757 votes at 8:52 AM

[butchbadger]

Buzz is doing more with less against a much tougher schedule.

Much tougher? How about not near as tough?  Can't find an SOS where MU is higher.

Buzz has done a great job.  Having one great senior player helps a ton.  I either conference if you take care of business at home and against the bottom half of the conference you will succeed.

[94Warrior]

51-49 with the Grinch ahead at 10:43am.  981 votes.

[jmayer1]

Buzz is doing more with less against a much tougher schedule.

Much tougher? How about not near as tough?  Can't find an SOS where MU is higher.

Buzz has done a great job.  Having one great senior player helps a ton.  I either conference if you take care of business at home and against the bottom half of the conference you will succeed.

I'm not a mind-reader but I think they may have been referring to conference schedules, where MU's SOS is 37th, while UW's is 61st.  In addition, this gap will only get bigger as MU's 6 remaing opponents have an average RPI of 52.17 while UW's remaining 5 is 121.6

What's killing MU's SOS is the patsies they played in the non-conference.  Their 6 worst nc opponents' rpi's are 229, 234, 294, 315, 323, & 341 (289.33 avg).  In comparison, UW's 6 worst are 106, 146, 240, 261, 306, & 341 (233.33 avg).  

I understand the economics and such of playing buy teams, but my biggest complaint about MU's scheduling is that they need to seek out cupcake games that aren't such SOS killers (although that is sometime hard to predict year-to-year).   

Hopefully, if MU can take care of business in this last little stretch, they can bring their RPI up a bit.

[Coleman]

It makes me kind of uneasy that we are rallying to vote on this on a MU message board. Seems kind of contrived.

But I'm also pretty sure that Badger fans are probably doing the same thing.

[Coleman]

I'm not a mind-reader but I think they may have been referring to conference schedules, where MU's SOS is 37th, while UW's is 61st.

What's killing MU's SOS is the patsies they played in the non-conference.  Their 6 worst nc opponents' rpi's are 229, 234, 294, 315, 323, & 341 (289.33 avg).  In comparison, UW's 6 worst are 106, 146, 240, 261, 306, & 341 (233.33 avg).  

I understand the economics and such of playing buy teams, but my biggest complaint about MU's scheduling would that they need to seek out cupcake games that aren't such SOS killers (although that is sometime hard to predict year-to-year).

Right, you can't argue that UW didn't play cupcakes either. Their cupcakes just weren't the RPI killers that ours were. They actually played the game perfectly this year. Play easy enough teams that you can beat comfortably without destroying your RPI...and then cruise in a mediocre major conference. That's just luck though, there's no way to tell if a team is going to be a 200 or 275 RPI when you schedule the game two years ahead. And its impossible to determine how up or down your conference will be. Big 10 is down this year, and the non-conference schedule worked perfectly for the Badgers. Good for them I guess.

[MU B2002]

I'm not a mind-reader but I think they may have been referring to conference schedules, where MU's SOS is 37th, while UW's is 61st.

What's killing MU's SOS is the patsies they played in the non-conference.  Their 6 worst nc opponents' rpi's are 229, 234, 294, 315, 323, & 341 (289.33 avg).  In comparison, UW's 6 worst are 106, 146, 240, 261, 306, & 341 (233.33 avg). 

If only they would have known it was going to cost Buzz a poll victory on the MJS... 

[jmayer1]

If only they would have known it was going to cost Buzz a poll victory on the MJS... 

Haha, I don't care much about that poll, I was just pointing out something I though was interesting.

[MU B2002]

Haha, I don't care much about that poll, I was just pointing out something I though was interesting.

I know. Just poking fun at the poll in general.

[MarquetteDano]

. Big 10 is down this year, and the non-conference schedule worked perfectly for the Badgers. Good for them I guess.

I am not sure I agree with the Big Ten being down.  I think the Big East is a bit stronger this year but let's not make the Big Ten out to be a weak conference.  The PAC-10 and SEC are worse.

[LON]

I am not sure I agree with the Big Ten being down.  I think the Big East is a bit stronger this year but let's not make the Big Ten out to be a weak conference.  The PAC-10 and SEC are worse.

I thought the Big Ten was (supposed to be ) the class of the Power 6 conferences this year?

[MarquetteDano]

I thought the Big Ten was (supposed to be ) the class of the Power 6 conferences this year?

Not sure who said that but I would say they are a little worse than some expected.  However, using the term "down" indicates they are worse than the year before or one of the worst BCS conferences.  I think neither is true.  Big Ten is probably the fourth best conference this year, which is better than last year and certainly not the worst of the BCS.

[Coleman]

I never said the Big 10 was the worst conference. They are not as good this year as they have been in past years, and not as good as the Big East. They will probably get 5 teams in the NCAA tourney, where in past years they have gotten 7. Most of teams get to play the likes of Iowa, Indiana and Penn State twice. There is no way their conference SOS matches up to any of the Big East  Of course they are still a power conference. Its all relative. They are probably the 4th best BCS conference. But to me, that is down.

[chapman]

They definitely went "down" in reality if you compare to preseason expectations.  After all the talk of being the best conference, the super sophomores becoming juniors, every team but Iowa improved, etc. it's just not lived up to expectations as a conference.  You have some teams better than expected, and given that a lot of people had UW 6th or 7th, they're the obvious one.  Illinois might be a little better as well.  But there are way more teams that aren't as good as they were being hyped up to be.  MSU is still on top, but they're not even close to being the second best team as the preseason polls had indicated.  Michigan and Minnesota aren't top 15 teams, Nortwestern isn't going to the tournament, and Penn State obviously hasn't turned an NIT championship into anything positive.  Just seems like they have 1.5 teams exceeding expectations and 4.5 below expectations.  Impossible to say the strength of a few teams is what causes that to happen.