Buzz saying "With how we constructed our roster"

[godzilla]

Just heard Buzz on Homer's postgame and Buzz said something to the effect that "with how we constructed our roster, we have to do blah blah blah to have a chance."  It sounded like he knew the team isn't properly put together but he was the guy that chose these players.  And O'tule's loss hurts, but the lack of good shooters on MU is a much bigger problem.

[Jacks DC]

Translation: "because I have not been able to land and retain an effective big man during my time here...we have very little margin for error."  When will people stop saying O'Tule?  It's Otule (no apostophe).  Does he look Irish to you?

[jesmu84]

to me, it sounds like buzz was saying he knows the strengths and weaknesses (every team has both) of his team. and he knows what they need to do, and not allow, to win. nothing about not constructing the roster correctly. i'm sure he constructed the roster as he wanted.

[🏀]

Translation: "because I have not been able to land and retain an effective big man during my time here...we have very little margin for error."  When will people stop saying O'Tule?  It's Otule (no apostophe).  Does he look Irish to you?

[GGGG]

Translation: "because I have not been able to land and retain an effective big man during my time here...we have very little margin for error."  When will people stop saying O'Tule?  It's Otule (no apostophe).  Does he look Irish to you?

Yes.  And Van der Blue looks Dutch.

[MU82]

to me, it sounds like buzz was saying he knows the strengths and weaknesses (every team has both) of his team. and he knows what they need to do, and not allow, to win. nothing about not constructing the roster correctly. i'm sure he constructed the roster as he wanted.

This is just silly talk. You're sure Buzz didn't want a roster more like that of Kentucky or North Carolina?

I like Buzz and I'm glad he's our coach, and he it's possible he has done the very best recruiting a Marquette coach can do. But let's not pretend that he'd rather go without better players.

When you are the architect and builder and interior designer all rolled into one, blaming a loss on how your roster was constructed just invites criticism.

[We R Final Four]

Translation: "because I have not been able to land and retain an effective big man during my time here...we have very little margin for error."  When will people stop saying O'Tule?  It's Otule (no apostophe).  Does he look Irish to you?

Bout as Irish as Shaq O'Neal or Jermaine O'Neal, or as Scottish as Jerel.

[avid1010]

I would hope that by playing small, but long, MU would be able to guard the 3 and not get beat of the dribble...i didn't see them getting killed in the post offensively.

[beercanindasky]

Translation: "because I have not been able to land and retain an effective big man during my time here...we have very little margin for error."  When will people stop saying O'Tule?  It's Otule (no apostophe).  Does he look Irish to you?

When will people stop using quotation marks when it's not actually a quote...but a translation

[bilsu]

Just heard Buzz on Homer's postgame and Buzz said something to the effect that "with how we constructed our roster, we have to do blah blah blah to have a chance."  It sounded like he knew the team isn't properly put together but he was the guy that chose these players.  And O'tule's loss hurts, but the lack of good shooters on MU is a much bigger problem.

I think there is a error in your statement. The players chose Marquette. There are many players Buzz tried to recruit that chosed to go elsewhere.
It occurred to me last night when observing that Crowder looked really undersized against Vandy how nice it would have been to have recruited one power forward that would have allowed Crowder to move to small forward and Blue to the bench. I do think Blue is better than last year, but he is too small to play against big athletic front lines and I am afraid Buzz will insist on starting him at small forward for the next two years. That will work fine against the lesser teams, but will be ineffective against high quality teams. Going a bit further there is another reason why the Otule injury really hurts. Otule gave us great size and more depth. However, I have to believe that Otule did not get hurt Wilson would be starting at small forward in Big East games instead of Blue. Wilson now has to play center, so we will be stuck (brutalized) using a small three guard lineup. The fact is that with a healthy Otule we were a very good team. Without him we are going to have a lot of problems. We will still beat undersized teams, but will look bad against big athletic ones.

[Warrior1969]

Please tell us how vander is better then last year?

[drbob]

You can have all the quality 6' 6"  switchables you want, but until we get a high quality pf  and a non project center this is what will happen against quality teams with size.  No  knock on  Buzz,  not saying  he is not trying to recruit these players,  but so far  unsuccessful.   Look at  the rosters of  Syracuse,   NC   , Kansas ,  quality  frontlines.   Jae  is a  three,  a good one but a three.   He  is outmuscled at the  4.    Go back and look at AL's  great teams.   QUALITY   SIZE     .

[PuertoRicanNightmare]

Please tell us how vander is better then last year?

He's definitely better, but you may be forgetting how badly he played last year especially during the Big East. Last years Vandy game was probably the last game before the bottom fell out on him.

[Marqus Howard]

You can have all the quality 6' 6"  switchables you want, but until we get a high quality pf  and a non project center this is what will happen against quality teams with size.  No  knock on  Buzz,  not saying  he is not trying to recruit these players,  but so far  unsuccessful.   Look at  the rosters of  Syracuse,   NC   , Kansas ,  quality  frontlines.   Jae  is a  three,  a good one but a three.   He  is outmuscled at the  4.    Go back and look at AL's  great teams.   QUALITY   SIZE     .

Steve Taylor might fit the bill for the high quality pf... don't hold your breath on getting a non project center though.

[mu_hilltopper]

Buzz speaks to this topic in the first 30 seconds. 

So .. which one of you guys is emailing Buzz?

http://www.youtube.com/v/uBoSMiIofzo?version=3&hl=en_US

[jesmu84]

to me, it sounds like buzz was saying he knows the strengths and weaknesses (every team has both) of his team. and he knows what they need to do, and not allow, to win. nothing about not constructing the roster correctly. i'm sure he constructed the roster as he wanted.

He may have spoken with better wording than I did, but that's exactly what I was trying to interpret his original statement as. Nothing to do with Otule or losing any players or anything of that nature. Basic strengths/weakness and strategy for being successful.

[brewcity77]

You can have all the quality 6' 6"  switchables you want, but until we get a high quality pf  and a non project center this is what will happen against quality teams with size.  No  knock on  Buzz,  not saying  he is not trying to recruit these players,  but so far  unsuccessful.   Look at  the rosters of  Syracuse,   NC   , Kansas ,  quality  frontlines.   Jae  is a  three,  a good one but a three.   He  is outmuscled at the  4.    Go back and look at AL's  great teams.   QUALITY   SIZE     .

Project centers are fine. A 2 or 3 star center can develop into a Josh Harrellson once they're a senior. But we have to get them to be upperclassmen, and we need depth. I think you legitimately need 3 guys that can play center so you can weather an injury. Three players Gardner's size or bigger. But you also need some guys that can play the 4. I'd say at least 2-3 of the "switchables" should be 6'7" to 6'9" so they are big enough to slide over to the 5 if need be, even if they're a natural 2/3.

[drbob]

Jerome Whitehead,  Larry McNeill,  Jim  Chones,  Bo  Ellis,  Mo  Lucas,  Bernard  Toone.  Screw  the project  bigs,   what the hell is wrong with quality.  No  surprise INdiana  is improved --  the reason    Zeller

[brewcity77]

Jerome Whitehead,  Larry McNeill,  Jim  Chones,  Bo  Ellis,  Mo  Lucas,  Bernard  Toone.  Screw  the project  bigs,   what the hell is wrong with quality.  No  surprise INdiana  is improved --  the reason    Zeller

Okay, tell me who then. Not 30 years ago but now. Buzz was in on guys like Quincy Miller and Mitch McGary but came up short. We thought we had Zach Auguste but had to take Durley when ZA went to Notre Dame. We're after guys like Kyle Anderson, Paul White, and Diamond Stone in the coming years but those are no guarantees.

Cody Zellers don't grow on trees. I'd love one or two, but until we start putting projects in the league, it's hard to get commits. That's one of the reasons Crean left. I'd say that the development of Otule and unexpected success of Gardner is a good start. But unless you have a magic pipeline, pining for the 70s is useless. Maybe we're better hoping for development of what we can get than expecting the ready to go answer to walk through the door.

[Benny B]

We need to institute a new rule:

"In order to post/reply to a thread on the subject of Marquette not recruiting 4 & 5-star centers, a Scooper must be registered for at least eighteen months and have no less than 250 posts that do not mention Marquette's lack of quality big men."

[Canadian Dimes]

Funny how this board goes from discussing how Buzz has finally brought in some size and that it is after a few years beginning to show dividends when chris otule was playing well and devante was doing a great job spelling him.

And that Aaron Durley referenced Buzz's ability to develop bigs and that Durleys High school coach said Durley was farther along at this point than Chris was.

Yet as soon as Chris gets hurt and we lose 2 games then...We need bigs, Buzz does a terrible job developing bigs, we have no bigs, and Buzz is making some BS excuse about how he constructed the roster. 

Pretty stupid actually.  Our best defensive player who happens to be 6'11" got hurt, we are not yet UNC where we just slide in a 4th year 6'11" big who is ready to go 30 and dominate.   With the absolute devoid of Bigs Buzz inherited, it is going to take a while to fill the pipeline.  Losing the most experienced big on the roster is the worst possible injury this program could sustain at this point in time. 

STFU!!!

[Blackhat]

When Buzz was hired I felt as his reputation came from recruiting he could do what Crean couldn't, in landing a consistent 6'8" + defensive and rebounding presence aka usually top 250 big man.  That's been frustrating to see us still struggling to land at least one of those guys.  It would go a long way in correcting the deficiencies we've seen the last few years on defense. 

[brewcity77]

Funny how this board goes from discussing how Buzz has finally brought in some size and that it is after a few years beginning to show dividends when chris otule was playing well and devante was doing a great job spelling him.

It's a process. When Buzz got here, we had Dwight Burke playing center. 6'6" Lazar was our next best "big". We've gotten better, but we still have a ways to go. We have 2.5 bigs (including Jamil) and have 2 more in the pipeline. We'll be a lot better off next year with 5 guys at 6'7"+. But this needs to be a start, not an end goal. I think we should be aiming at having 3 legit centers and another 3 swing 3-5 types that are 6'7"+ and can provide some muscle inside.

We're better off than we were when Buzz took the job, but anyone who thinks we'll start having 5-star bigs like Andre Drummond falling out of the sky is simply delusional.

[4everwarriors]

2 star bigs won't move the program forward.

[brewcity77]

2 star bigs won't move the program forward.

As freshmen, no. But plenty of 2 and 3-star big men can become very solid collegiate starters by their third and fourth year. Guys like Tyler Olander, Kris Faber, Terrence Jennings, Talib Zanna, Gary McGhee, Carlton Scott, Jack Cooley, God's Gift Achiuwa, Justin Burrell, Baye Moussa Keita, Festus Ezeli, Steve Tchiengang, Jarrid Famous, and Augustus Gilchrist were all 3-star recruits or less. There's no reason we can't get great post play from guys outside the top-100, but it will probably take until their second and third year before we start to see high-level production, and their fourth year before they become stars.