Philly.com article on Newbill

[Admiral Ackbar, S.J.]

Apologies if this was posted already.

http://www.philly.com/dailynews/sports/high_school/20100701_Newbill_cut_loose_by_Marquette.html

Said Newbill: "I was mad and hurt when this first happened. Now I'll just go forth with my career somewhere else. Back to the drawing board. I'll have to be careful about what school I pick."

a couple more quotes from DJ are in the story.

[Clam Crowder]

Anything with Laws name is a version we have already heard

[ChicosBailBonds]

http://www.brewtownbeat.com/2010/06/is-buzz-williams-creating-bad-buzz.html

[marqfan22]

If he didn't bother to do the essay, how was he going to do in the classroom?

[Hards Alumni]

http://www.brewtownbeat.com/2010/06/is-buzz-williams-creating-bad-buzz.html

Congrats Chicos, you have proven that you are the most adept person on the board at finding meaningless blogs that no one reads.

I could pay $10 a month and start my own site and form my own opinion, but that doesn't make it worth or more important than the next guy's opinion.

Just stop, its embarassing.

[ChicosBailBonds]

Anything with Laws name is a version we have already heard

Yes, but those are the first comments from DJ.

Very sad for the kid.  Just not right

[MerrittsMustache]

http://www.brewtownbeat.com/2010/06/is-buzz-williams-creating-bad-buzz.html

Worthless article. That blogger was very uniformed...even for a blogger. 

[Pakuni]

Yes, but those are the first comments from DJ.

Very sad for the kid.  Just not right

The kid who, five months after announcing his commitment to Marquette, hadn't bothered to fill out an application or complete a required essay?
DJ hardly is blameless in this mess and, while I'm sure he's a good kid, his actions here hardly portend well for his ability to meet the demands, academic and otherwise, he would face at Marquette.

Remind me, Chico's, were you as morally outraged when Damian Saunders got dumped in late August?

[groove]

The kid didn't even fill out an application. Did he think he was going to show up on the first day of classes and walk in? Something is not adding up.

[MUCam]

The kid who, five months after announcing his commitment to Marquette, hadn't bothered to fill out an application or complete a required essay?
DJ hardly is blameless in this mess and, while I'm sure he's a good kid, his actions here hardly portend well for his ability to meet the demands, academic and otherwise, he would face at Marquette.

Remind me, Chico's, were you as morally outraged when Damian Saunders got dumped in late August?

This is a complete spin job and red herring. Let's be real. The application did not hinder his acceptance. I don't defend Crean like Chicos does, but this really is sad. Buzz's "kids come first" mantra really seems to ring hollow. What a shame.

[Litehouse]

I still haven't seen anything in any of these articles that refutes IWBs account of events.  The kid had a conditional offer and is upset the conditions didn't work out for him.  If anything, I think the quotes indicate Newbill and his camp are taking it well and they're ready to move on at someplace like Drexel, LaSalle or Temple.  If Newbill really had the rug pulled out from under him and had no clue this would happen, I would think they'd be much more upset about the whole thing.

Regardless, I still think Buzz screwed this up by letting him sign the NLI with a conditional offer.  As we've seen here, the bad just far outweighs any good that can come from it.  Communicating isn't what you tell people, it's what they hear.  If Buzz and Newbill were on the same page with this, we wouldn't have all these stories coming out now.

[bilsu]

Damiun Saunders got dumped because he was arrested. He was denied admission to MU based on that. NLI is not binding until a player is actually admitted.

[Daniel]

Again, the sad news is that we will never know the complete story - but nontheless, we all have our opinions\
 tho none of us know the facts.  IWB's comments are as close as we are going to get to the facts.  MU is not going to be divulging additional information - they cannot.  So from MU's perspective, their tongues are tied - confidentiality etc.  On th eother hand, the kid and handlers can say whatever they want (and some or all might be true).  

What's also bad is some of us and all of our nemeses will take this to the bank that MU is bad, dirty, Buzz is a scroundrel.  But, as with all things, this too will pass.

[GGGG]

If he didn't bother to do the essay, how was he going to do in the classroom?

According to Newbill, he was told to take his time doing the essay by Monarch.  This very easilly could be interpreted as "don't return it too promptly, otherwise we may have to honor the NLI."

Yuck.

[GGGG]

 IWB's comments are as close as we are going to get to the facts.  

No...IWB's comments are as close as we are going to get to MU's side of the facts.

[Hards Alumni]

According to Newbill, he was told to take his time doing the essay by Monarch.  This very easilly could be interpreted as "don't return it too promptly, otherwise we may have to honor the NLI."

Yuck.

To be honest, this is sort of what I believe as well.

"Take your time filling everything out, bring it with you the day that you start school."

[StillAWarrior]

I still haven't seen anything in any of these articles that refutes IWBs account of events.  The kid had a conditional offer and is upset the conditions didn't work out for him.  If anything, I think the quotes indicate Newbill and his camp are taking it well and they're ready to move on at someplace like Drexel, LaSalle or Temple.  If Newbill really had the rug pulled out from under him and had no clue this would happen, I would think they'd be much more upset about the whole thing.

Regardless, I still think Buzz screwed this up by letting him sign the NLI with a conditional offer.  As we've seen here, the bad just far outweighs any good that can come from it.  Communicating isn't what you tell people, it's what they hear.  If Buzz and Newbill were on the same page with this, we wouldn't have all these stories coming out now.

I agree with both paragraphs.

I think that it is possible to read both sides of the story and conclude that they're saying a lot of things that are consistent.  The one piece that doesn't seem to fit together is that the IWB version claims that DJ was told all along that there might not be a roster spot available in 2010-2011, and in at least one post Forster (I think) said that DJ said MU never mentioned prep school to him.  I don't see how both of these can be true.  I hope Forster shows DJ the info that IWB posted and asks directly:  "Are you saying this is a lie?"  Will he answer, "Yes, that's what I'm saying."  Or will he say, "well, I thought.."  If it's the former, we may never know the truth (because Buzz really can't say).  If it's the latter, that would suggest to me that IWB's version is pretty close.

[HoopsMalone]

These are pretty fair articles, I think, to both Buzz and Newbill.  

This is the very last thing Buzz can do, in my opinion, and put it in the category of things he had to do during his coaching transition.  This is only year three and he is making up for an empty roster when he showed up.  There is something to that.  You are going to have to take a lot of players when the 2007 and 2008 classes are bare, mostly due to a coaching change.  Crean had to do the same thing in Indiana to fill up a roster, but didn't have the luxury of NBA players like Buzz did so it was a tougher transition down there.

This is it for Buzz on getting second chances.  Rookie coach mistakes, but he really needs to learn how he is coming across.  Maybe he was not as clear to Newbill as he needed to be about the prep route and maybe he was not as clear to Maymon about running the offense for him as he needed to be.  

Buzz can learn.  All the players are his now, and he has basically had the chance to develop a team now.  All the classes can have 2-4 players now, and Buzz does not have to take risks as much as he had to these past to years to fill up a roster.

[muvanwilder]

This is the other key part in the article from DJ...

"I hadn't talked with them in a long time," Newbill said. "Just once or twice since I signed. Then coach Monarch called me maybe 2 weeks ago, talking about the essay and telling me to make sure I took my time to do it right, because it was going to be important. It was going to be why I wanted to go there. How I'd better myself. That kind of stuff.

The fact that DJ says he only heard from MU once or twice since he signed.  I believe it's been nearly 5 months.  That in my opinion further supports what IWB said.  Hasn't  Buzz said that he talks to his players/recruits several times a week? 

[Pakuni]

Damiun Saunders got dumped because he was arrested. He was denied admission to MU based on that. NLI is not binding until a player is actually admitted.

No, he wasn't. He was denied admission because, at the last minute, someone decided his grades weren'tr up to snuff. Apparently no one was aware of his grades until late August when MU was in a pinch with not enough scholies for kids who had committed.
Merely a coincidence, no doubt.

"It really didn't," Crean said when asked if Saunders' arrest played any role in his not being admitted to MU. "I was unhappy with it, and I was probably even more unhappy because we were blindsided by it.

"I never really felt, after hearing the different facts in the story, that he really did anything that wrong, except choose to be with the wrong people at the wrong place at the wrong time. To my knowledge, it's already been taken care of. This was totally an academic issue."

http://www.insidewisconsinsports.com/ME2/dirmod.asp?sid=&nm=All+Modules&type=news&mod=News&mid=9A02E3B96F2A415ABC72CB5F516B4C10&tier=3&nid=63AF775CA3C542DA934155D08C37692C

[StillAWarrior]

According to Newbill, he was told to take his time doing the essay to make sure I took my time to do [the essay] right, because it was going to be important

This very easilly could be interpreted as "don't return it too promptly, otherwise we may have to honor the NLI."

Yuck.

If you're going to refer to the article, be sure to get it right.  Your reference sounds much worse than what DJ actually said.  I don't think Monarch telling DJ to make sure to do a good job on the essay should necessarily be interpreted as a "yuck" inducing comment.

I do think it's interesting that Monarch told DJ that the essay was going to be important.

[HoopsMalone]

I do think it's interesting that Monarch told DJ that the essay was going to be important.

Ya really.  I mean, you want the kids to do a good job, but those essays can't mean much.  Especially for the basketball players.  If you have the test scores and GPA, just turn in something with basically no typos.  There is not much an 17 or 18 year old kid can really say in an essay.  For the general admissions, I highly doubt they give much weight to them if you have a strong GPA and ACT, aside from the few toss-up admissions they get. 

[Brewtown Andy]

The fact that DJ says he only heard from MU once or twice since he signed.  I believe it's been nearly 5 months.  That in my opinion further supports what IWB said.  Hasn't  Buzz said that he talks to his players/recruits several times a week? 

5 months since he committed, almost 3 since he signed.  IIRC, coaches are allowed unlimited contact with signed players.

[GGGG]

If you're going to refer to the article, be sure to get it right.  Your reference sounds much worse than what DJ actually said.  I don't think Monarch telling DJ to make sure to do a good job on the essay should necessarily be interpreted as a "yuck" inducing comment.

I said "his was told to take his time doing the essay."  The quote was "make sure I took my time to do the essay."

How are those in any way different???

[dw3dw3dw3]

Doesn't anyone think there are more characters involved here? Its sad the DJ was at the center of it, but isn't one of his coaches the advisor for a highly ranked 2011 recruit?  It is very plausible that this deal was done, full well knowing DJ was probably going prep (maybe not to DJ exactly, but to his advisor), for the opportunity that the next player may put MU in his top 5. I'm sure someone related is involved with Rakeem Christmas as well.

I mean...according to this link he's the 30th ranked recruit is Southeastern PA! Where does that put him nationally? Top 500? There is more to this deal then we just offered this kid as a backup plan.
http://prizerecruits.com/profiles/blogs/top-100-basketball-recruits-in