Encouraging

[ATL MU Warrior]

Folks are spot in their evaluation of Cadougan. Past injury or no injury, I seen enough to feel comfortable saying that Buzz misses badly on him. Doesn't have point guard court IQ, quickness, stamina, or personality or moxie to be a starting BE lead guard. Oh, did I mention ZFFB could outshoot Jr.?
If Buzz could fix the point guard spot, it would change the entire season outlook for this team. BTW, Smith would not have been the answer either.

Listen, I agree he hasn't shown a whole lot yet, except for Duke.  He was great in that game.  Would love to see a few more of those and soon.

Writing him off completely and saying Buzz missed on him is just stupid at this stage of his career.  He's still trying to figure it out at this level, he's essentially a freshman still and coming back from a major injury.  It will take time.  

I do agree with you that Smith was not the answer at point.  

[NickelDimer]

Listen, I agree he hasn't shown a whole lot yet, except for Duke.  He was great in that game.  Would love to see a few more of those and soon.

Writing him off completely and saying Buzz missed on him is just stupid at this stage of his career.  He's still trying to figure it out at this level, he's essentially a freshman still and coming back from a major injury.  It will take time.  

I do agree with you that Smith was not the answer at point.  

So it's too early to close the book on JC, but not on Smith?  I don't think either are/were the answer to our PG woes.

[ATL MU Warrior]

So it's too early to close the book on JC, but not on Smith?  I don't think either are/were the answer to our PG woes.

Yes.  Smith is gone so I can bash him all I want

Smith didn't have nearly the PG skills that Junior has.  If (hopefully when) Junior can start to play consistently as well as he did versus Duke, we'll all be very happy.

[El Duderino]

Iif we go 17-16 and get an NIT invite, heads need to roll, within the NIT and MU. After all, "In Buzz we trust" He has his players and must be held accountable.

Why do we now have to look forward to an NIT invite with all the talent on the team?
Oh, I forgot, we are inexperienced, Buycks is playing out of position, DJO is in a slump, Gardner cannot play D, neither can Cadougan, Fulce has been injured, Crowder is playing out of position, yada, yada.
Every year we go through this bull crap. Time to start beating a respectable opponent and quit making excuses for Buzz.

Every year Marquette under Buzz they end up in the NIT?

After losing the big three, nearly all prognosticators predicted MU to struggle a lot last year and to not make the NCAA Tournament, yet we did make it and finished quite a bit higher in the Big East than pretty much anyone expected.

This year we have a team which returns a low number of players who contributed a lot of scoring and minutes, yet if the team fails to make the NCAA Tournament, you think Buzz should be fired? Are you nuts?

Thankfully someone as kneejerk as you are isn't running Marquette University. Crean failed to make the big dance every year, just as prior coaches at MU did. Should Crean have been fired the first time he ended up in the NIT?

As much as Marquette fans love the basketball program, some objectivity is needed. We aren't Kansas, North Carolina, Duke, or other long time traditional basketball powers that can at least get in the door of elite recruits every year and thus they almost always make the tournament.

Now if Buzz and this team lands in the NIT this year and then going forward, the NIT becomes more the norm than the NCAA Tournament, no question that Buzz should be on the hot seat.

Nothing Buzz has done though since becoming the head coach should lead people to believe that he's way in over his head like say Dukiet was. Buzz hasn't recruited poorly and last year he coached up a team to the NCAA Tournament that most thought prior to the season would be a bottom tier Big East team.

[brewcity77]

Every year Marquette under Buzz they end up in the NIT?

After losing the big three, nearly all prognosticators predicted MU to struggle a lot last year and to not make the NCAA Tournament, yet we did make it and finished quite a bit higher in the Big East than pretty much anyone expected.

This year we have a team which returns a low number of players who contributed a lot of scoring and minutes, yet if the team fails to make the NCAA Tournament, you think Buzz should be fired? Are you nuts?

Thankfully someone as kneejerk as you are isn't running Marquette University. Crean failed to make the big dance every year, just as prior coaches at MU did. Should Crean have been fired the first time he ended up in the NIT?

As much as Marquette fans love the basketball program, some objectivity is needed. We aren't Kansas, North Carolina, Duke, or other long time traditional basketball powers that can at least get in the door of elite recruits every year and thus they almost always make the tournament.

Now if Buzz and this team lands in the NIT this year and then going forward, the NIT becomes more the norm than the NCAA Tournament, no question that Buzz should be on the hot seat.

Nothing Buzz has done though since becoming the head coach should lead people to believe that he's way in over his head like say Dukiet was. Buzz hasn't recruited poorly and last year he coached up a team to the NCAA Tournament that most thought prior to the season would be a bottom tier Big East team.

+1

While I'll admit I'm also frustrated at the results this season and our inability to win the close games (hmm...sounds familiar) against quality opponents, it's hardly time to show anyone the door. We've got a truckload of talent, and even if this team ends up in the NIT, there's no reason that with continued high-level recruiting and the eventual development of some of the guys on the roster now into 4-year players that we can't be a perennial top 25 team with the occasional Elite 8 and Final Four runs. Buzz has done well on the whole, and even if this season disappoints and we only win 7-9 BEast games, there will be plenty of reason for optimism.

[El Duderino]

Listen, I agree he hasn't shown a whole lot yet, except for Duke.  He was great in that game.  Would love to see a few more of those and soon.

Writing him off completely and saying Buzz missed on him is just stupid at this stage of his career.  He's still trying to figure it out at this level, he's essentially a freshman still and coming back from a major injury.  It will take time.  

I do agree with you that Smith was not the answer at point.

I started the Cadougan talk in this thread and i wasn't saying that he has no shot to ever become a reliable and consistent PG who can give Buzz 30 or more quality minutes nearly every night.

All i was trying to say was that the fact is that so far at least, Cadougan in his development hasn't reached the level where he can be the man at PG, giving Buzz a reliable true PG which is so important in college basketball. Whether the injury to Junior last season is a big reason that his development is still lagging or he's simply not as good as his recruit rankings, either way, it has forced Buzz to have to start Buycks at PG instead and Buycks is more of a SG trying to play PG.

We've had four losses this year and none were an asss kicking, all were close to pretty close games. While the lack of a true PG certainly wasn't the only reason MU lost all four games, it has been a factor in why the offense gets erratic at times.

For example, in watching Wisconsin play MU and then last night vs the Gophers, Jordan Taylor was a huge factor in why UW won both games. His ability at PG to run the offense well, score, and create something decent when the shot clock is ticking down shows vividly the importance of good PG play in college ball.

[ATL MU Warrior]

I don't disagree with you at all.  I was responding to someone who has already decided that Junior is a complete bust.  About 15 whole games into his career.  Seems kind of idiotic to me.