wojo extended for 5 years

[dad's couch]

Dixon was told to walk. That's why he didn't have to pay a buyout to Pittsburgh. And take a look at Bennett's record at VA, Jay Wright's record at Nova and Beilein's record at MI. Your and others would have fired them after year 4 or 5. So excuse me if I think you guys are idiots.

[dgies9156]

I have seen programs quite pleased with a NIT.  It is better than nothing at all. 

NO IT'S NOT!!!

The NIT lost its cache when the NCAA expanded to 48 and then 64 teams, a long time ago and when at-large teams could include conference teams other than the conference champion.

After the NCAA expanded, the NIT was toast. It's been on life support ever since.

Keep in mind that when we won the NIT in 1970, the NCAA was a 24-team tournament and the NIT competition may have been as good as the NCAA. In our year, competitors included Dr. J and Pistol Pete Maravich, both of whom were beaten by Marquette. Now,. it's an embarrassment even for mid-majors.

[Cheeks]

NO IT'S NOT!!!

The NIT lost its cache when the NCAA expanded to 48 and then 64 teams, a long time ago and when at-large teams could include conference teams other than the conference champion.

After the NCAA expanded, the NIT was toast. It's been on life support ever since.

Keep in mind that when we won the NIT in 1970, the NCAA was a 24-team tournament and the NIT competition may have been as good as the NCAA. In our year, competitors included Dr. J and Pistol Pete Maravich, both of whom were beaten by Marquette. Now,. it's an embarrassment even for mid-majors.

No, it actually isn’t an embarrassment.  In fact the current version of the NIT is better than the version from 20 years ago.  Back then they would take. 14-14 Iowa or Purdue team because of attendance.  At least now they take conference champions that lose in their conference tournament.  It helped us being in the NIT two years ago as it did Oregon.  It often gives younger teams a chance to play in one and done situations.  Disagree with you strongly.  No one is saying it is better than the NCAAs, absolutely no one.  But to say it is better to not go to any tournament than the NIT is mindboggling.

[Silent Verbal]

No, it actually isn’t an embarrassment.  In fact the current version of the NIT is better than the version from 20 years ago.  Back then they would take. 14-14 Iowa or Purdue team because of attendance.  At least now they take conference champions that lose in their conference tournament.  It helped us being in the NIT two years ago as it did Oregon.  It often gives younger teams a chance to play in one and done situations.  Disagree with you strongly.  No one is saying it is better than the NCAAs, absolutely no one.  But to say it is better to not go to any tournament than the NIT is mindboggling.

You keep asking, “If the NIT sucks, why do we hang a banner for it?”  Don’t ask me why they do it.  Personally, I’d be fine if it was taken down.

Also, how did being in the NIT help us?  We crapped the bed in our one and done situation this year.  Playing in the NIT two years ago couldn’t have mattered less as far as this past season went.

I don’t understand why you’re so adamant about defending the NIT.  It’s a strange hill to die on.

[Galway Eagle]

The list goes on and on?  Nope, it doesn’t.  In fact the list is very short.....that’s why.  Very short currently in today’s day and age of college basketball.  This just in the 1970’s called and they want their Ford Pinto back.

In our history we have made it 5 straight  or more in a row ONE time....under McGuire.  Now, if you wish to use a rolling approach, count it as six times....all the same coach....McGuire.

Crean never did it at any of his jobs
Majerus never even made it once at MU
Buzz never did it at any of his jobs
O’Neill never did it an ay of his jobs

Do I think we can?  Yes.  Do I expect it or believe it is the normal course of college hoops now...no.  The number of schools that currently have 6 or more straight NCAA appearances is....drum roll...is 7 schools.

Nova
Kansas
Duke
Gonzaga
UNC
Cincinnati
Michigan State

That’s it!!!!!!

Agree with your overall premise but we definitely had a streak of 8 straight recently 3 crean 5 Buzz

[dad's couch]

Just interested. How many teams have turned down a NIT invite over the past 10 years? Louisville players voted not to go a couple of years ago because they felt slighted at not making the tournament but went any way.

[Cheeks]

Agree with your overall premise but we definitely had a streak of 8 straight recently 3 crean 5 Buzz

You are correct...I will fix.

[dgies9156]

No, it actually isn’t an embarrassment.  In fact the current version of the NIT is better than the version from 20 years ago.  Back then they would take. 14-14 Iowa or Purdue team because of attendance.  At least now they take conference champions that lose in their conference tournament.  It helped us being in the NIT two years ago as it did Oregon.  It often gives younger teams a chance to play in one and done situations.  Disagree with you strongly.  No one is saying it is better than the NCAAs, absolutely no one.  But to say it is better to not go to any tournament than the NIT is mindboggling.

Brother Cheeks, love ya man, but I just don't see it.

Twenty years ago was 1999 and the NCAA was 64 teams, two less than it is now. The talent pool for the NIT was badly diluted. Other than a few bubble teams that got aced out from the NCAA tournament in an effort to be "sensitive" to low mid-majors, there's no one in the NIT that's even close to the top 48 in the NCAA tournament.

By your measure, the NCAA should bring back third place games in the regional tournaments, since any game is better than no game. Or why not have the NFL play the third-place game again for the same reason.

I get the 1940s to the 1970s, when the NIT was in many years better than the NCAA. But after the expansion to 64 teams, the NIT became the NOT INVITED TOURNAMENT.

Brother Cheeks, nothing personal and if you're ever around, we can have the first annual Scoop forensic challenge. Topic: Should Marquette ever again accept an NIT bid? I'll take the negative and the loser buys the Pabst!

[muguru]

The list goes on and on?  Nope, it doesn’t.  In fact the list is very short.....that’s why.  Very short currently in today’s day and age of college basketball.  This just in the 1970’s called and they want their Ford Pinto back.

In our history we have made it 5 straight  or more in a row ONE time....under McGuire.  Now, if you wish to use a rolling approach, count it as six times....all the same coach....McGuire.

Crean never did it at any of his jobs
Majerus never even made it once at MU
Buzz never did it at any of his jobs
O’Neill never did it an ay of his jobs

Do I think we can?  Yes.  Do I expect it or believe it is the normal course of college hoops now...no.  The number of schools that currently have 6 or more straight NCAA appearances is....drum roll...is 7 schools.

Nova
Kansas
Duke
Gonzaga
UNC
Cincinnati
Michigan State

That’s it!!!!!!

Honestly if you want the truth I just don't care as much as I used to Wojo's tenure has really sap the enjoyment and pleasure out of Marquette basketball for me.. and then I come to this board and there's "fan's" like you and so many others that just..repeatedly go on and on and on about how the MU program is a "nice program, but will never be elite". I get so tired of hearing it.

People around me have said " what's wrong with you, you used to eat, breathe and sleep Marquette basketball". I tell them the last 5 years is what happened to me..tired of the losing and the general malaise that seems to eminate from the program and a majority of fans.

Mediocrity has been injected into my veins the last 5 years..not by choice mind you..and I simply don't have the energy for it anymore..so Chicos..congratulations..you and your fellow people(the Wojo slurpers, the small time accepters, the small time thinkers)..you win...you and Wojo have sucked the life out of me..maybe it's for the best.

One final thought..I wonder if as a parent you have taught your kids to "dream big" or that they can be "whatever they want to be"..or if one of them says "Dad, I wanna be an astronaut when I grow up". If you encourage them or if you say " well, that's great, but that's not realistic..only xxx #of people ever become astronauts, so you  aren't likely to ever be one".

[Cheeks]

You keep asking, “If the NIT sucks, why do we hang a banner for it?”  Don’t ask me why they do it.  Personally, I’d be fine if it was taken down.

Also, how did being in the NIT help us?  We crapped the bed in our one and done situation this year.  Playing in the NIT two years ago couldn’t have mattered less as far as this past season went.

I don’t understand why you’re so adamant about defending the NIT.  It’s a strange hill to die on.

Because it got our guys playing more games together, which is usually a good thing...and was a nice springboard into this season....which then led to a good regular season.

I don’t understand why you ignore the fact the NIT is the postseason and if it wasn’t important we should rip it out of any accomplishments.  I further don’t understand people saying missing the postseason altogether is better than making the postseason.

[MU82]

One final thought..I wonder if as a parent you have taught your kids to "dream big" or that they can be "whatever they want to be"..or if one of them says "Dad, I wanna be an astronaut when I grow up". If you encourage them or if you say " well, that's great, but that's not realistic..only xxx #of people ever become astronauts, so you  aren't likely to ever be one".

Depends on how old the kid is and how realistic the expectation is.

When my 5-year-old daughter told me she wanted to be president of the United States, I said that was a great goal and it was something she could achieve through extremely hard work, dedication, good deeds, etc.

If she had told me at 20 it was still her goal, I'd have said, "That's an admirable goal, and I believe in you. Having said that, I do hope you'll have a backup plan because there have been only 44 presidents in the history of our country, and the odds are obviously incredibly long."

When my son was 5, he wanted to play in the NBA. I said that was a great goal and it was something he could achieve through extremely hard work and dedication.

If he had told me at 20 it was still his goal, I'd have said, "OK ... but you stopped playing competitive basketball after your sophomore year of high school. So maybe you need a new goal."

[Cheeks]

Brother Cheeks, love ya man, but I just don't see it.

Twenty years ago was 1999 and the NCAA was 64 teams, two less than it is now. The talent pool for the NIT was badly diluted. Other than a few bubble teams that got aced out from the NCAA tournament in an effort to be "sensitive" to low mid-majors, there's no one in the NIT that's even close to the top 48 in the NCAA tournament.

By your measure, the NCAA should bring back third place games in the regional tournaments, since any game is better than no game. Or why not have the NFL play the third-place game again for the same reason.

I get the 1940s to the 1970s, when the NIT was in many years better than the NCAA. But after the expansion to 64 teams, the NIT became the NOT INVITED TOURNAMENT.

Brother Cheeks, nothing personal and if you're ever around, we can have the first annual Scoop forensic challenge. Topic: Should Marquette ever again accept an NIT bid? I'll take the negative and the loser buys the Pabst!

Brother...I don’t agree in 3rd place games.

The Not Invited to the NCAA tournament doesn’t mean same as not worthy of any postseason.  We will have to disagree on the top 48.

I’ll go Lenny on you and use Ken Pom stats.  Texas, Clemson, TCU, NC State, Lipscomb, Nebraska, all finished top 48 and several of those schools finished well ahead of NCAA tournament teams.  Texas was good enough to beat North Carolina, Purdue, Kansas State, Oklahoma, Kansas, etc....problem is they were inconsistent but most NIT teams are more than capable of knocking off NCAA tournament teams and do so routinely during the season....it is their bad losses that often keep them out of the big dance.

Would be happy to buy you that Pabst.  Peace

[Galway Eagle]

Depends on how old the kid is and how realistic the expectation is.

When my 5-year-old daughter told me she wanted to be president of the United States, I said that was a great goal and it was something she could achieve through extremely hard work, dedication, good deeds, etc.

If she had told me at 20 it was still her goal, I'd have said, "That's an admirable goal, and I believe in you. Having said that, I do hope you'll have a backup plan because there have been only 44 presidents in the history of our country, and the odds are obviously incredibly long."

When my son was 5, he wanted to play in the NBA. I said that was a great goal and it was something he could achieve through extremely hard work and dedication.

If he had told me at 20 it was still his goal, I'd have said, "OK ... but you stopped playing competitive basketball after your sophomore year of high school. So maybe you need a new goal."

Off topic but gf teaches at bayvuew in Milwaukee and you'd be shocked how many kids who don't even play for their HS team are convinced they can make the NBA.

On topic: these are perfect analogies. It's ok for Guru to have dreams of us getting to Nova or Duke etc but when all the data including McGuire says it ain't happening then sometimes it's fine to have realistic expectations based on what we're looking at year to year.

[Cheeks]

Honestly if you want the truth I just don't care as much as I used to Wojo's tenure has really sap the enjoyment and pleasure out of Marquette basketball for me.. and then I come to this board and there's "fan's" like you and so many others that just..repeatedly go on and on and on about how the MU program is a "nice program, but will never be elite". I get so tired of hearing it.

People around me have said " what's wrong with you, you used to eat, breathe and sleep Marquette basketball". I tell them the last 5 years is what happened to me..tired of the losing and the general malaise that seems to eminate from the program and a majority of fans.

Mediocrity has been injected into my veins the last 5 years..not by choice mind you..and I simply don't have the energy for it anymore..so Chicos..congratulations..you and your fellow people(the Wojo slurpers, the small time accepters, the small time thinkers)..you win...you and Wojo have sucked the life out of me..maybe it's for the best.

One final thought..I wonder if as a parent you have taught your kids to "dream big" or that they can be "whatever they want to be"..or if one of them says "Dad, I wanna be an astronaut when I grow up". If you encourage them or if you say " well, that's great, but that's not realistic..only xxx #of people ever become astronauts, so you  aren't likely to ever be one".

I told my kids to dream big, but also be practical.  So if my son said he wanted to be a MLB player, I said you better practice everyday, and just in case you may also want to hit the books really hard.  Was I crushing his dreams or was I being a good parent?

No one sucked the life out of you for MU....we don’t run the program and neither do you.  Sorry that robots aren’t playing.  Sorry that we had some guys and a coach that allowed some really crappy things to happen and God forbid the university had to cleanup the mess....we are an institution of higher learning first, not a professional basketball program.....basketball does wonders for the school, but it is a sub brand and sub entity to the university.  If you feel MU cannot get there, then find a team where academics doesn't matter, criminality doesn’t matter and only results on the court do.  Cannot make it any easier for you.  In the meantime, I am going to enjoy watching MU play next year....should be a fun season watching college kids, human beings, represent the university to their best ability and hopefully achieve high results in the end.

I expect a NCAA berth next year.  What happens in the tournament, who knows.  I expect not to have to read about arrests, sexual assaults, etc, on the third largest newspaper front pages.  I think both are possible and not unrealistic.  Those are my expectations.  I don’t consider either of those results to be mediocre, either.

[Oregon Warrior]

Sounds very scientific.

I don’t understand the sarcasm. Do you and Cheeks honestly believe there’s only a minuscule percentage of the fan base that’s skeptical and/or frustrated with the resume of our head coach?

[Cheeks]

I don’t understand the sarcasm. Do you and Cheeks honestly believe there’s only a minuscule percentage of the fan base that’s skeptical and/or frustrated with the resume of our head coach?

What I don’t believe is your characterization and that of Research Report because it was so fundamentally flawed from an analytics perspective.  RR especially. 

If 10000 fans heard the news and 80% of the negative ones ended up on social media but only 10% of the positive ones while 100% of the neutral opinions didn’t bother, what would the outcome look like?  There is no way to know what the denominator is.  It wasn’t a poll, just anonymous people complaining.  That’s the problem with it.

If fans are pissed, show them who is boss and cancel your tickets.

[Pakuni]

I don’t understand the sarcasm. Do you and Cheeks honestly believe there’s only a minuscule percentage of the fan base that’s skeptical and/or frustrated with the resume of our head coach?

The sarcasm is merely to mock the stupidity of claiming that those who comment on Instagram posts are somehow representative of the Marquette fan base as a whole.
If you truly think that's the case, I'll note that the post has more than 1,750 "likes" vs 121 comments. So, we can only assume the fanbase approves of the extension by a more than 14-to-1 margin, right?

[Oregon Warrior]

The sarcasm is merely to mock the stupidity of claiming that those who comment on Instagram posts are somehow representative of the Marquette fan base as a whole.
If you truly think that's the case, I'll note that the post has more than 1,750 "likes" vs 121 comments. So, we can only assume the fanbase approves of the extension by a more than 14-to-1 margin, right?

Your internet tough guy routine is humorous, but you didn’t answer my question. Do you honestly believe there is only a small minority of the fan base that’s frustrated with Wojo and his current performance as our head coach?

[1SE]

Does anyone actually have any info on the terms of the deal or is this thread just going to be another Chico's "back and forth"?

[ATL MU Warrior]

Your internet tough guy routine is humorous, but you didn’t answer my question. Do you honestly believe there is only a small minority of the fan base that’s frustrated with Wojo and his current performance as our head coach?

Yes.

[Uncle Rico]

I did not know you were the guru of basketball contracts. So please expound you knowledge, while slurping your wojo kool aid.

Contracts for coaches in college athletics are largely meaningless.  Coaches leave contracts all the time for other jobs.  There are many instances of coaches signing extensions and then leaving shortly thereafter for another position.  If Wojo has success this year, he’ll be a hot commodity.  You don’t believe it and that’s fine.

On the Marquette side of things, they know without an extension, it puts the coaching staff at a disadvantage in recruiting.  I’d prefer him to have a strong 2020 recruiting class than not and if this helps, great.  Ultimately, it’s a big season for him and his staff.  Marquette still has the option to move on, this extension does not dismiss that option.  But I’m sure they prefer success and not having to make that choice and this extension helps all.

I find the reaction to this extension humorous as if this ties Marquette to Wojo for the length of it.  It doesn’t.  Last week, the Badgers athletic department rolled over the contracts of all their coaches for another year, a SOP.  A small, but vocal subset of fans were aghast at Gard getting an “extension”.  That made me chuckle as does the hand-wringing here

[4everwarriors]

Contracts no matta

[Class71]

I like Wojo as a person and as a represenative of the school. Unfortunately he does not cut it as a coach. As said before the administration is willing to accept mediocrity.  Time to move on as the program will continue to waffle sideways. He will not be a hot commodity so get use to more of the same.

[TAMU, Knower of Ball]

Your internet tough guy routine is humorous, but you didn’t answer my question. Do you honestly believe there is only a small minority of the fan base that’s frustrated with Wojo and his current performance as our head coach?

Frustrated? Sure. I would say more than a small minority of Duke fans, Kentucky fans, Villanova fans, Michigan fans, North Carolina fans, etc are all frustrated with the current performance of their head coaches. Some fans will always be frustrated with coaches, that's just how fans are. I would guess the only fanbase where it truly is a small minority right now is Virginia and that only changed recently.

But given the choice between fire and extend, which is where Marquette was, I would say only a small minority of Marquette fans would have picked the fire option.

[The Hippie Satan of Hyperbole]

Your internet tough guy routine is humorous, but you didn’t answer my question. Do you honestly believe there is only a small minority of the fan base that’s frustrated with Wojo and his current performance as our head coach?

Yes.

I think you're wrong.  Numerous classmates of mine who aren't on Scoop were texting me their disbelief yesterday.  It may be a minority of fans, but it isn't small.