Worst coached team in the conference. Period.

[NersEllenson]

So if you have an old pair of shoes with crap on them, you don't wipe off the crap?

Still waiting for some solutions..

Todd Bozeman

Brad Stevens

Brian Warldle (not proven winner, but still)

Really??  How is Butler doing this year?  Todd Bozeman - u r aware as to why he's been relegated to coaching at Morgan  State?  Brian Wardle?  I'm not even going to comment on that..

[VanderBabyBlue]

There's no denying the fact or defending what we've seen in the last few games. Just awful, clueless, gutless basketball.

We ARE and will continue to be the worst coached team in the Big East. There are teams with less talent behind us in the standings. But given our players, they would also display higher basketball IQ and more hustle than us.

This is also the worst defensive squad seen at Marquette since at least Mike Deane's last couple of teams — or since Dukiet's era at the very least. The proud, tough defensive identity of Marquette basketball built by O'Neill and Crean has been so totally wiped out by this current rube's "paint touches, free throws, just outscore them" idiocy that I'm left dreaming of the day when this Three Stooges reject from Texas takes his sweet tea and barnyard wisdom on to his next victim.

Get upset and sanctimonious, if you choose. Drink the blue and gold kool-aid and pretend the future is bright. But the Buzz honeymoon is over regardless of how this season progresses. Local media is onto him, and so are fans who've been around long enough to know better. The calls for new leadership will begin now with whispers and build consistently now that Crean's properly developed players are gone.

I'll stay a fan and await the inevitable. There will come a new day of proper, well-developed Marquette recruits from major high schools instead of a mishmash of kids not talented or not bright enough to play at a major program out of high school. There will come a day when the high school players we do get are developed properly and put in a position to succeed. There will come a day when this overdressed Boo Radley with a clipboard leads another program to insignificance.

"See, I'm not a monster. I'm just ahead of the curve."

This was a pretty strong sentence, but we both know Buzz isn't going anywhere soon.

[HoopsMalone]

Insane, knee jerk thread.  This is how you handle a little adversity as a fan?

Buzz is a good coach.  This is just not as good of a team as most expected mostly because Cadougan couldn't keep a recycling bin in front of him and Blue can't do anything.  No PG and no leadership on the floor.  

Disappointing game.  But fire Buzz?  People are onto him???  Onto what?  I am not surprised I guess, but come on...

I guess we will wait for the "new day" when we don't have a "mishmash" of what sounds like JUCOs.  Well, when you don't have a 2007 or 2008 class, you can't just wish for players.  I mean come on.  Read this in a few days and you will be laughing at yourself.


St. John's is clearly the better team this year.  A talented group of seniors went on the road and won a conference game tonight against an extremely inexperienced team.  Stop the press.  Good thing this isn't the "new day" yet.

[LAZER]

Todd Bozeman

Brad Stevens

Brian Warldle (not proven winner, but still)

Todd Bozeman...Nice! A guy that was banned from the NCAA for 8 years

[wyzgy]

try a zone once.  pt gardners big arse in the middle and surround him with  hustlin maniacs then switch back to man/man.  buzz is tryin to jam a square thru a rond hole.  he should know our players strengths and weaknesses by now.  play to them.  everyone isn't a good man-man playa, zone breakers, outside, inside, game situations.  he's too predictable.  swing swing paint touch, jam a bounce pass inside to be deflected and stolen...

[ATL MU Warrior]

try a zone once.  pt gardners big arse in the middle and surround him with  hustlin maniacs then switch back to man/man.  buzz is tryin to jam a square thru a rond hole.  he should know our players strengths and weaknesses by now.  play to them.  everyone isn't a good man-man playa, zone breakers, outside, inside, game situations.  he's too predictable.  swing swing paint touch, jam a bounce pass inside to be deflected and stolen...

We played a zone last night.  On the first trip down the court DJO let Hardy hit a three. 

Zone/Man/Whatever, our guards can't play perimiter D...and Junior is the popular target but I'm starting to honestly think he's a better defender than Buycks or DJO.  DJO's defense is horrendous. 

[dgies9156]

OK, I am as disappointed as anyone with this team this year. But firing Buzz is a dumb move and goes against the commitment Marquette made when they hired him. We're a Jesuit school, we should live up to our commitments.

That said, I think of what the Chicago Bears did when they found out Lovie Smith was the crappy coach that he is. They hired former head coaches for offensive and defensive coordinator positions and for the offensive line. Suddenly, the love train looks like a genius and the Bears make the NFC Championship (losing to God's team). Look at St. John's last night -- Gene Keady was over on the sideline as an assistant coach.

What Buzz needs his his version of Hank. Someone who can develop the strategy and coach the fundamentals. Hank bled Warrior blue and while he never should have been head coach, as Al's right-hand guy, he was a huge difference maker. And he was not alone in that role. See Guthridge, Bill, North Carolina Assistant to Smith, Dean.

Almost everybody has an off year. Crean did. O'Neill did. Well, Al didn't but he's an exception! Tune the staff up and let's go for that NCAA Championship in the next few years.

[Galway03]

  What a bunch of jerks or should that be fools ?

[Earl Tatum]

    SEAN MILLER

[Benny B]

Wow... there are all sorts of characters coming out of the woodwork this morning.

St. John's is a GOOD team.  Where were all of you when we lost to UCONN a few weeks back?

The season isn't nearly over, MU likely still controls its own NCAA destiny over the next five games, and some people want to throw in the towel and fire the coach.  Pathetic.

[StillAWarrior]

Again, please name a proven winner that will come to MU and coach.  When is the last time MU has hired a "proven winner?"

I don't agree that Buzz should go, but I'm so sick and tired of the "you can't say that unless you have a better alternative" crowd.  If that was the standard for whether or not a coach should be fired, most programs (especially "stepping stone" programs) would never fire a coach.  Sometimes the guy needs to go, even if you haven't identified his replacement yet.  I'm not saying that Buzz needs to go, but I think that "who will replace him" is a really stupid reason to keep someone around.

[AlienWarrior]

I don't know it all, but I would rather have Lavin and Keady than Buzz and co.

[StillAWarrior]

Losers have a way of always complaining but never offering solutions.  Still waiting for you to offer some solutions.  Step up and share with all of us what proven winner of a coach is salivating to come to Marquette.

Another post on the same theme.  Let me ask a hypothetical question:  if Buzz totally screws up the next two years (and I don't think he will), can you tell me who will be salivating to come to Marquette then?  Is your standard of whether a coach should be fired whether there is an identified "better" coach salivating to come?  There are hundreds -- probably thousands -- of coaches that are salivating for every single D-I opening...even more in a conference like ours.  Rest assured, there are coaches salivating to come to Marquette.  I can't name them for you, but they're out there.  If it turns out that someone decides that Buzz needs to go, someone at Marquette will need to try to figure out which of those guys is the right guy.  It's an inexact science, but it's a fact of life for programs like ours.

Even after the success that we had under Crean (love him or hate him, we did have some success) when a lot of us wanted to believe that Marquette was a destination job, we learned that the coaches we wanted weren't salivating to come to Milwaukee.  The same thing is almost certainly true now; will probably be true in the future if Buzz has a rough couple of years and gets fired; and will probably be true in the future if Buzz is very successful and moves on to another job.  As much as I wish it were otherwise, I think that is probably who we are:  a program that will hire relatively inexperienced coaches who are not widely known.

[radome]

I still think that the best coach is about 90% recruiter, 9% teacher and 1% strategist.  Buzz is probably the best recruiter since Al.

[NersEllenson]

I don't agree that Buzz should go, but I'm so sick and tired of the "you can't say that unless you have a better alternative" crowd.  If that was the standard for whether or not a coach should be fired, most programs (especially "stepping stone" programs) would never fire a coach.  Sometimes the guy needs to go, even if you haven't identified his replacement yet.  I'm not saying that Buzz needs to go, but I think that "who will replace him" is a really stupid reason to keep someone around.

What I think is even more stupid as that this debate is even being had.  Talk about stupid.  A guy in his 3rd year as a head coach, with 2 NCAA's and having a challenging 3rd year - having played more Top 25 teams than EVER in MU history - and we have this thread.  Stupid.

There is a reason the cliche - be careful what you wish for - exists.  History has shown MU to not be a destination job, and in our last go around we were told "no" by many young, relatively inexperienced coaches.  People really think we are going to get a veteran, proven, high level D1 coach?  Please.  Plus Buzz has done significantly better than all the hot young coaches at the time of his hire:  Bennett, Grant, Miller Davis.

[groove]

Well he is recruiting a lot of top 100 recruits. But it's like drafting in the NFL. There are 32 guys picked in the first round, not all of them turn out to be good, the key is being able to pick out the talented players from the posers. So far the jury is out on whether the top 100 recruits that Buzz snagged are actually going to be productive or sit on the bench. Just because a recruiting service tags a player as a top 100 recruit doesn't guarantee that the player actually ends up having top 100 talent.

[GGGG]

Plus Buzz has done significantly better than all the hot young coaches at the time of his hire:  Bennett, Grant, Miller Davis.

You sure about this?  In terms of win/loss percentage probably, but Buzz also inherited a team with a great deal of talent.  Bennett is a national coach of the year recipient.  Grant has turned Alabama around from nothing in his second year.  Sean Miller has Arizona on the top of the Pac Ten.  (If you mean Keno Davis by Davis, I don't think MU ever looked at him and he is a notch below the rest.)

I really doubt that if those three were in Buzz's shoes that the results would have been any worse.  So to say he has done "significantly" better is a little misleading.

[ZiggysFryBoy]

Todd Bozeman...Nice! A guy that was banned from the NCAA for 8 years

Sampson should be allow back in the NCAA soon....

[HoopsMalone]

Well he is recruiting a lot of top 100 recruits. But it's like drafting in the NFL. There are 32 guys picked in the first round, not all of them turn out to be good, the key is being able to pick out the talented players from the posers. So far the jury is out on whether the top 100 recruits that Buzz snagged are actually going to be productive or sit on the bench. Just because a recruiting service tags a player as a top 100 recruit doesn't guarantee that the player actually ends up having top 100 talent.

But you also have to give him credit for finding DJO, Butler, and Crowder.  Those guys are true Big East players.  Fulce is too to a certain extent.  And, to be honest, Buycks has been all right when he plays in his natural spot.

We all might be praising Buzz for developing two three star big men into Big East caliber players next season. 

To your point, though, the top 100 players have not yet lived up to their hype. 

[StillAWarrior]

What I think is even more stupid as that this debate is even being had.  Talk about stupid.  A guy in his 3rd year as a head coach, with 2 NCAA's and having a challenging 3rd year - having played more Top 25 teams than EVER in MU history - and we have this thread.  Stupid.

There is a reason the cliche - be careful what you wish for - exists.  History has shown MU to not be a destination job, and in our last go around we were told "no" by many young, relatively inexperienced coaches.  People really think we are going to get a veteran, proven, high level D1 coach?  Please.  Plus Buzz has done significantly better than all the hot young coaches at the time of his hire:  Bennett, Grant, Miller Davis.

In my personal opinion, it's premature to talk about replacing Buzz, so I agree that this is a stupid debate.  I'll admit I'm growing increasingly concerned, but in my opinion we shouldn't even begin having that discussion for at least another year (and hopefully it won't be necessary).

If you want to argue that it's too early to have this debate, then go for it.  It's when people argue, "you can't say he should go unless you tell me who would you replace him with" that I get annoyed.  That is not a reason to keep a coach.  And the rest of your post makes that point -- there may never be a desirable coach who is salivating to come to Marquette because it's not a destination job.

If Buzz totally crashes and burns over the next 2-3 seasons, will you argue, "but who's salivating to replace him?"  I suspect not.  So really, we're just talking about timing.  Some people on this board think he's already proved so deficient that he should be canned right now, even if they don't know who will step in (and a recent poll showed that this is a very small, but vocal minority).  Some people think it's too early to talk about getting rid of him, but presumably at some time in the future might want him canned even if there is nobody else salivating to come in.  It's a question of timing, and not a question of who will replace him.  Unless, of course, you truly believe that we can never replace a coach if there isn't a suitable candidate just itching to step in.

[ChicosBailBonds]

You sure about this?  In terms of win/loss percentage probably, but Buzz also inherited a team with a great deal of talent.  Bennett is a national coach of the year recipient.  Grant has turned Alabama around from nothing in his second year.  Sean Miller has Arizona on the top of the Pac Ten.  (If you mean Keno Davis by Davis, I don't think MU ever looked at him and he is a notch below the rest.)

I really doubt that if those three were in Buzz's shoes that the results would have been any worse.  So to say he has done "significantly" better is a little misleading.

+1   People don't compare apples to apples here very well, but you just did a nice job of calibrating it correctly.

[cheebs09]

Does it really matter what those guys do though? I thought we reached out to Miller and he didn't want to come here. I remember Grant said that he wasn't going to leave the South. Bennett did not want to come here either. I know Chicos has said that we could have waited a little bit to get a more proven coach. I honestly don't remember much of the coaching changes immediately after Buzz was hired, but who were some of the other coaches that had we waited would have been a good candidate?

[StillAWarrior]

But you also have to give him credit for finding DJO, Butler, and Crowder.  Those guys are true Big East players. 

To your point, though, the top 100 players have not yet lived up to their hype. 

I think this post helps make the point I was trying to make in my earlier posts in this thread...albeit in a roundabout way.

As I said, there are hundreds or thousands of coaches right now who would be salivating to coach at Marquette.  It's quite possible that most of us here haven't heard of any of them.  But who here had heard of Jae Crowder 18 months ago?  That's not meant as a slight to Jae -- he's my favorite player on this team.  The point is that there are a lot of talented people out there -- players and coaches -- that are more than capable of succeeding at this level.  Just because the coaches we've all heard of might not be lining up to coach at Marquette doesn't mean that the next great coach isn't one that is.  I'm still holding out hope that Marquette already found it's diamond in the rough and that Buzz is that guy.

[groove]

But you also have to give him credit for finding DJO, Butler, and Crowder.  Those guys are true Big East players.  Fulce is too to a certain extent.  And, to be honest, Buycks has been all right when he plays in his natural spot.

We all might be praising Buzz for developing two three star big men into Big East caliber players next season. 

To your point, though, the top 100 players have not yet lived up to their hype. 

Yes I do, good finds on his part.

[AnotherMUfan]

Does anyone know if DJO is hurt? why wasn't he playing point last game.. Is he a PG? Im confused with Buzz's line-ups i guess