MU will be easy to coach the next few days

[TAMU, Knower of Ball]

Who are you referring to as "most?"

TLDR but I'll answer this. KenPom, Big East coaches, national talking heads, Sagarin, pretty much anyone who is not a scooper.

You're always talking about your love for KenPom. Last season they projected Marquette to finish 50th, they finished 53rd. Out of 351 that's pretty solid projection.

[Its DJOver]

I was at that game against Dayton (in some crappy arena in the western suburbs of Chicago). We looked a step slow, couldn't stop the Flyers on dribble penetration. I drove home with serious doubts about Buzz. But by the Georgetown game that January we looked like the best coached team I had seen at MU since the Al era and I was all in.

The difference between Buzz's November clunkers and Wojo's? Just my opinion, but Buzz ran brutal practices in October and November that often left the team with temporarily dead legs but paid dividends in February and March. In the Wojo era the team's improvement from November to March hasn't been nearly as dramatic. Hopefully that changes this year - we're counting on new players to play major roles (Joey, JC) and that takes time. But so far even with added muscle (Morrow, Theo with big minutes, Joey) we still look soft.

Agree that we have looked soft.  Regarding Ed and Theo IMO the big question is how do you respond?  You just got manhandeled inside, do you come back like Jae would and lay someone out, take control of the paint.  Or do you Teve it up, and start giving up and-ones.  Hope they respond well, and would even go as far to say that I hope Theo gets a T Saturday for taunting/intimidating someone after a block or hard foul.  Need to get that edge back.

[WhiteTrash]

TAMU

Wojo has zero chance of getting canned after this season, barring off court issues.

From my understanding this is false, MU is not sold on Wojo. Now
it would take a very poor season (i.e. 8 wins) which is highly unlikely, but he is not 100% safe no matter what. Even if MU misses the NIT; with good attendance guaranteed because of Fiserv, MU will let him continue another year to drive down the buyout.

[goldeneagle91114]

From my understanding this is false, MU is not sold on Wojo. Now
it would take a very poor season (i.e. 8 wins) which is highly unlikely, but he is not 100% safe no matter what. Even if MU misses the NIT; with good attendance guaranteed because of Fiserv, MU will let him continue another year to drive down the buyout.

Any idea what the current buyout is? Who was the big booster we pissed off when we hired wojo? maybe we need to go kiss his a$$ to see if he can help finance a coaching search.

[Marquette4life]

Just checked boxscore and Morrow played 4 minutes.  Heck, even Heldt played 8 minutes and had 3 fouls.

Morrow and Joey waaaayyy too slow

[Floorslapper]

TLDR but I'll answer this. KenPom, Big East coaches, national talking heads, Sagarin, pretty much anyone who is not a scooper.

You're always talking about your love for KenPom. Last season they projected Marquette to finish 50th, they finished 53rd. Out of 351 that's pretty solid projection.

Gotcha.  I do like Pomeroy.  What I don't like is that in Year 4 on the job the projection was 50th.  So, this year we started at 29.  Will see how that plays out.

[4everwarriors]

Archie told everyone how he was going to play Howard. He did that without a counter move from Wojo resulting in another embarassing loss. Just praying Archie's plan won't work ain't good enough. Next coach up, hey?

[TAMU, Knower of Ball]

Gotcha.  I do like Pomeroy.  What I don't like is that in Year 4 on the job the projection was 50th.  So, this year we started at 29.  Will see how that plays out.

That's a different argument and one I can understand.

[79Warrior]

TAMU

Wojo has zero chance of getting canned after this season, barring off court issues.

100% correct. Lovell loves him. A few members of BOT are unsure, but he will not get canned after this season barring a scandal.

[TAMU, Knower of Ball]

TAMU

Wojo has zero chance of getting canned after this season, barring off court issues.

This isn't true. If they lose every game from here on out he will be canned. I don't know where the cutoff line is but there is one.

It will be an interesting decision at the end of the season if it does end up being a disaster.  On paper, next year's team should be better than this season's. Do you give Wojo one more year to prove that he can do it? Or do you get a new coach and hand him an experienced roster to give him some buffer time to find his own recruits? Depends on how this year goes.

Fortunately, I don't believe it is a decision we will have to make. I don't see this season ending in disaster. It certainly could but that's why we play the games.

[GoldenEagle323]

This isn't true. If they lose every game from here on out he will be canned. I don't know where the cutoff line is but there is one.

It will be an interesting decision at the end of the season if it does end up being a disaster.  On paper, next year's team should be better than this season's. Do you give Wojo one more year to prove that he can do it? Or do you get a new coach and hand him an experienced roster to give him some buffer time to find his own recruits? Depends on how this year goes.

Fortunately, I don't believe it is a decision we will have to make. I don't see this season ending in disaster. It certainly could but that's why we play the games.

We say this every year

[TAMU, Knower of Ball]

We say this every year

No we don't. We said it year one, year two, and year four. And all three times we were correct. We were also correct year three when we said year four would be worse.

[lurch91]

We started a kid that has played 2  games in two years, one brother coming off hip surgery, and the other brother coming off ankle surgery. We played in a very hostile environment.

We always lose a game Scoop said we'd win, and we always win a game Scoop said we'd lose.

I hope Nova fires Jay Wright, so we can hire him to replace Wojo after last nights embarrassing games.....

[Galway Eagle]

We started a kid that has played 2  games in two years, one brother coming off hip surgery, and the other brother coming off ankle surgery. We played in a very hostile environment.

We always lose a game Scoop said we'd win, and we always win a game Scoop said we'd lose.

I hope Nova fires Jay Wright, so we can hire him to replace Wojo after last nights embarrassing games.....

To be fair those two coming off surgery were the only two that looked like they came to play last night

[TAMU, Knower of Ball]

Also to be fair,  I think the vast majority of people were picking us to lose at Indiana. We lost a game we were supposed to lose. It was a bigger beat down than we hoped for. In the end it's still an expected loss.

[Goose]

TAMU

Most on the prediction thread picked an MU win, so most either lied or expected an MU win. Wojo & Co. had a chance for last night to be their coming out party and they failed in every facet of the game.

[Aughnanure]

TAMU

Wojo has zero chance of getting canned after this season, barring off court issues.

True. But his seat has a 100% chance of getting very hot if we don’t meet some modicum of expectations.

I look to someone else who posted that Wojo has yet to exceed expectations. And that just bummed me outZ I like Wojo. I want Wojo to succeed. But everything is telling me he is just an average (if that) coach...and that isn’t good enough this survive long term at Marquette.

[TAMU, Knower of Ball]

TAMU

Most on the prediction thread picked an MU win, so most either lied or expected an MU win. Wojo & Co. had a chance for last night to be their coming out party and they failed in every facet of the game.

They were lying. Not maliciously, but day of heart will almost always overpower head. Take a look here:

https://www.muscoop.com/index.php?topic=56683.0

15/26 said that Marquette would lose at Indiana. And that includes one person who picked Marquette to lose one game (to Villanova) and said "Go bold or go home" Wasn't sure if that was a serious prediction or not.

Also, if you look at unbiased sources (KenPom, Sagarin, Vegas, non MU media) they all pegged us to lose.

[monkeyman34]

Who are you referring to as "most?"

Is MU Basketball now an organization that sets a low performance bar and mediocrity (at best) is tolerated, while spending through the roof to compete at the top echelon of CBB?

How does Archie get it done in Year 2 at IU and punk the F out of us in Year 5?

Buzz took the longstanding bottom shelf/whipping boy VaTech program and has it with more NCAA tourney berths than Wojo has achieved at MU.

I do admire your ability to be patient, and to have mediocre standards/expectations, and find every excuse under the sun to justify our coach's performance thus far - yet at some point enough is enough.

Seeing Wojo standing on the sidelines with his arms crossed, shellshocked, and once again having no answers, no counterpunches, and getting circles run around him by the opposing coach - seen that movie many times before.  Not to mention, no clear player rotation concepts, starting a freshman (Bailey), over an incumbent in the program (Cain), and CREATING the Hero Ball Markus, by repeatedly telling his he needs to shoot more, and has the ultimate green light.

x1000, I don't think I could have said it any better. This is EXACTLY how I feel as well

[Goose]

Aughnanure
Sadly, I believe Wojo has met my expectations every year, with exception to HE season. The talent level is not strong enough to compete with upper tier teams on a game to game basis. I believe the based on the talent level, you need a Bo Ryan type coach to make any noise.

As for hot seat, I have been around a long time Dukiet barely had a hot seat. If not for a group of former players Dukiet would have lasted longer. Granted that was a lifetime ago, but MU does not fire coaches easily. Every under performing employee in America would love to have an MU basketball coach type hot seat.

On an ironic side bar, Buzz had the hottest seat in my lifetime. IMO, the best coach since Al, was the only one that ever felt real heat.

[Otule's Glass Eye]

Cupcake games mean nothing. This was our first test. We have Kansas, Kansas State, Wisconsin, Buffalo and Tenn. as meaningful games. How many of those can we win?

With the way we looked last night getting blown out, I’d say 2 max. Wisconsin and Buffalo (maybe). I’m excited to play Kansas but also terrified they’ll lose by 40.

[Goose]

TAMU
On this week's Indiana prediction thread it 40-13 picking MU. I agree, most were lying. Problem is, many have been lying to themselves about overall state of the program for half a decade.

[Otule's Glass Eye]

Archie Miller literally told everyone what his plan was to beat MU, make Markus a non factor, and for the most part they did that. Wojo could’ve planned for that, but instead we have Markus playing hero ball killing rallies taking very contested shots when Sam and Joey both couldn’t miss at points, and Wojo probably told Markus to keep shooting even when he didn’t have an open shot all night. Wojo has to get in his face and tell him to find the hot hand instead of taking contested long 2s and 3s. Joey had made 3 shots in a row late in the first half and got it back to single digits and then Markus missed him wide open 2 times right after that and took absolutely horrible shots that barely hit rim or didn’t at all. Quickly back to a double digit deficit after that. Markus is very talented and we all know that but he needs to recognize that he needs to feed the hot hand. My patience is growing thin with Wojo and I like him. Year 5 with the most talented team he’s had and still playing terrible defense with what looks like no plan at all on offense. Every team usually has early season clunkers but Wojo has really never proven that his team adjusts and gets better over the course of a season like most well coached teams do.

[NickelDimer]

I’ve been saying this since halfway through year 3 and the question still remains; can Wojo coach? The fact that, (at best) that is still unanswered is an indictment

[JamilJaeJamailJrJuan]

Sure.  We also lost by 30+ at Florida the same year we went to the Elite 8.

I'm not saying we are doing that, but teams grown and develop throughout the year.  People need to stop writing off the season because of this.

I think its fair to be concerned.  I am definitely NOT writing off the season and I do think this team has the chance to be very good.

But so far, they've played poorly in against 2 cupcakes (despite the final scores not being close), and got ran out of the gym against an good but unranked high major. 

Morrow and Chartouny have been non-factors, and that is putting it lightly.  Markus has been poor 2/3 games, and Sam really struggled outside of a 5 minute span in the 1st half yesterday.

Again, I think this is a tournament team, but we're likely to get pounded again by Kansas next week, and hopefully can find a way to take care of business against Louisville.  Then its time to catch our breath and figure out a way to win out in the non-con with very tough home matchups against K State, Wisco and Buffalo.

Tall task as we look at it today.