Ed Morrow

[The Sultan]

Woj has to get better evaluating talent and be discriminating (can you say this word here?) with his scholarships. It does him no good to build internal team friction and animosity, particularly since it is obvious Woj is either incapable or unwilling to handle team disharmony. Poor strategy to get in bed with your superstar at the expense of other team members, hey?

I'm still not sure that's exactly what happened.  But I do think that under Wojo, MU has players who are unsatisfied with their roles.  I have no idea if this is what it's like at other schools, but it is disconcerting. 

[JakeBarnes]

I'm still not sure that's exactly what happened.  But I do think that under Wojo, MU has players who are unsatisfied with their roles.  I have no idea if this is what it's like at other schools, but it is disconcerting.

Simply have to look at Gtown this year. It happens everywhere. Iowa state had 2 kids midseason already.

https://www.google.com/amp/s/watchstadium.com/college-basketballs-2019-20-midseason-transfer-list-10-31-2019/amp/

[tower912]

40% of D1 players transfer.   

[Herman Cain]

Woj has to get better evaluating talent and be discriminating (can you say this word here?) with his scholarships. It does him no good to build internal team friction and animosity, particularly since it is obvious Woj is either incapable or unwilling to handle team disharmony. Poor strategy to get in bed with your superstar at the expense of other team members, hey?

You are pointing out what is essentially my primary grievance with respect to Wojo, poor roster management. Basketball is a team sport and if you build a bad foundation it is very hard to get a collaborative team success.

[Silent Verbal]

I'm sure most coaches make promises to incoming recruits, and Wojo is no different.  But to me, it's always been obvious what promises Wojo made to certain players, in a way that I didn't notice under Crean and Buzz.  Examples:

Henry:  You'll get to showcase your 3-point shot.

Markus:  Ultimate green light immediately as a freshman.

Rowsey:  Ultimate green light.

Carlino:  Look at our roster right now.  Come here and you can be the chuckiest chucker this side of Chucksville.

Joey:  Starter and big minutes from day one.

What promises, if any, were made to Morrow to keep him on the roster?  It seems like Wojo wrote a check he couldn't or didn't want to cash. 

[Silent Verbal]

40% of D1 players transfer.

What percentage of seniors quit two months before their college playing careers come to an end?

[rocket surgeon]

I'm still not sure that's exactly what happened.  But I do think that under Wojo, MU has players who are unsatisfied with their roles.  I have no idea if this is what it's like at other schools, but it is disconcerting.

if you have been watching, there have been multiple situations at other schools, player discipline, dismissals etc.  because it's hitting closer to home, people want to immediately blame wojo...see, it's happening again sort of thing...wojo is losing control, etc etc.  georgetown(2 dismissals and a transfer), arkansas(player dismissal), UAB(dismissal), oklahoma st.(3 dismissals) if this were happening here, we would probably see torches and pitch forks. 
as one person pointed out, ed may have some legit personal reasons for taking a "break"  maybe it's been verified somewhere that he has quit the team.  regardless, this schmit happens everywhere and is going to continue to happen. 

[MU82]

Woj has to get better evaluating talent and be discriminating (can you say this word here?) with his scholarships. It does him no good to build internal team friction and animosity, particularly since it is obvious Woj is either incapable or unwilling to handle team disharmony. Poor strategy to get in bed with your superstar at the expense of other team members, hey?

Once he got established, say 3 full years in, how many of his recruits can you say this about, Doc?

Right now, it looks like Froling is the only one for sure. Maybe Cain, Elliott, Morrow/Johnson? (Or maybe not?)

A coach needs to recruit depth, too. You recruit a guy like Carter or Froling or Anim or John and hope it pans out. In the first two cases, it didn't; in the third and fourth cases, the 3-stars became solid (IMHO) contributors on a 24-win, NCAA tourney team.

You have to keep recruiting stars. That's how you win. And stars almost always will be treated a little differently from others. If you don't think Laettner, Rose, Carmelo, AD, etc, etc, etc got preferential treatment, I have swampland you might be interested in. I'm quite certain that if he were still alive, Al would say he treated all his players "fairly but not equally."

I will agree that managing egos does not appear to be one of Wojo's strengths, and I will agree that matters. He needs to get better at it or find new work.

[rocket surgeon]

What percentage of seniors quit two months before their college playing careers come to an end?

it's probably pretty low, but it doesn't matter.  unfortunate we are losing a player, some playing time to give jj and theo a blow, fouls to give, etc, but life goes on

[lawdog77]

Woj has to get better evaluating talent and be discriminating (can you say this word here?) with his scholarships. It does him no good to build internal team friction and animosity, particularly since it is obvious Woj is either incapable or unwilling to handle team disharmony. Poor strategy to get in bed with your superstar at the expense of other team members, hey?

We all know you have  a vendetta against Markus, but if you think Ed taking a "leave of absence" has anything to do with Markus , I don't know what to tell you.

[rocket surgeon]

Woj has to get better evaluating talent and be discriminating (can you say this word here?) with his scholarships. It does him no good to build internal team friction and animosity, particularly since it is obvious Woj is either incapable or unwilling to handle team disharmony. Poor strategy to get in bed with your superstar at the expense of other team members, hey?

one of the things i think wojo must improve upon is his communication-he needs to set some ground rules

  #1) parents are to stfu and enjoy their nice free seats

  #2) be consistent and firm

  #3) grow a pair or 2

[wadesworld]

The only concerning transfers in Wojo's time at Marquette to me are the Hausers.  If a guy who isn't contributing wants to quit mid-season, oh well.  Not super concerning or telling about the state of the program, in my opinion.

Doesn't seem to be overly concerning to recruits, either.

[The Sultan]

if you have been watching, there have been multiple situations at other schools, player discipline, dismissals etc.  because it's hitting closer to home, people want to immediately blame wojo...see, it's happening again sort of thing...wojo is losing control, etc etc.  georgetown(2 dismissals and a transfer), arkansas(player dismissal), UAB(dismissal), oklahoma st.(3 dismissals) if this were happening here, we would probably see torches and pitch forks. 
as one person pointed out, ed may have some legit personal reasons for taking a "break"  maybe it's been verified somewhere that he has quit the team.  regardless, this schmit happens everywhere and is going to continue to happen. 

I understand that players transfer.  And most of the time it makes perfect sense.  They are either going to move down a level, or move up a level, to a place that fits their talents.
Or maybe they would like to be closer to home, dealing with a coaching change, etc.  What I am concerned about is last year we had two starters transfer because of their role.  Now we have a fifth year senior quit mid season because of his role.

These are not common type of occurances. 

[ATL MU Warrior]

I understand that players transfer.  And most of the time it makes perfect sense.  They are either going to move down a level, or move up a level, to a place that fits their talents.
Or maybe they would like to be closer to home, dealing with a coaching change, etc.  What I am concerned about is last year we had two starters transfer because of their role.  Now we have a fifth year senior quit mid season because of his role.

These are not common type of occurances.

5th year seniors also need to buy in to their situation as part of a team and not quit because their minutes are shrinking towards 0.

If they quit because of that, then good luck to you.

[MUfan12]

The only concerning transfers in Wojo's time at Marquette to me are the Hausers.  If a guy who isn't contributing wants to quit mid-season, oh well.  Not super concerning or telling about the state of the program, in my opinion.

This is where I'm at, too. Outside of those two (and Burton, but there were other factors) none of those guys stuck at a high-major level.

It's who they've taken in that has been more of an issue. Not that they're bad kids, but outside of Rowsey there has been little contribution. Hopefully Koby picks it up more consistently in the second half of the year.

[Cheeks]

I understand that players transfer.  And most of the time it makes perfect sense.  They are either going to move down a level, or move up a level, to a place that fits their talents.
Or maybe they would like to be closer to home, dealing with a coaching change, etc.  What I am concerned about is last year we had two starters transfer because of their role.  Now we have a fifth year senior quit mid season because of his role.

These are not common type of occurances.

The Hausers role was fine, they wanted to be featured more apparently but they got minutes, featured, etc.  That's a choice they made.

[skianth16]

Serious hypothetical question:

If Sam and Joey come back this year and Wojo still wanted to have two guards on the floor at all times, who would be the starting five right now??

The addition of a second guard in the starting lineup with a roster that included the Hausers was literally unworkable.
At the end of last season it was already accepted that Koby would be the second guard. The Hausers knew it, and they also saw Brendan ascending.

With willing suitors in UVA and MSU plus the year off for Sams hip to heal and Joey to mature, it was a no brainier for the Hausers to leave. Just like its a no brainier for Ed to leave with Jayce returning to his pre-injury form.

Apologies for the long post. There was a lot to address in that post. I'll try to respond in order here.

If Sam and Joey were still here, I see fewer minutes available for Koby. Sam and Joey would both be getting minutes over him, which means we'd probably have Markus running the point pretty often. Sacar would still be getting big minutes. He might rotate in and out of the starting lineup depending on defensive matchups, though. So your starters would be Markus, Sam, Theo, on a regular basis and then two of Joey, Sacar, and Brendan depending on the opponent. We wouldn't have Jayce or Symir, so next off the bench would probably be Koby. Jamal would be a good redshirt candidate.

And here's an important thing in all of this - winning fixes everything. The roster would be stacked if we still had the Hausers, and there's a real chance we'd be a top 10 or better team. That kind of season tends to result in far fewer issues over playing time. I think you're also giving way too much weight to the starting spot vs. getting meaningful minutes.

The idea that it's not possible to have a second guard in a lineup with the Hausers is ridiculous. Remember when we cracked the top 10 last year with Sacar in the starting lineup alongside both Hausers? That seemed to work out pretty well for a while. Coaches at this level can always find an optimal lineup, no matter what their roster looks like. I have no doubt that Wojo would have been able to find a few different looks here that worked well. Again, with that much talent on the roster, optimizing lineups is a good problem to have.

I doubt Brendan's improvement was viewed as a threat to either Hauser. Sam, certainly not. Maybe Joey, but Joey's role was pretty well set last year. If anything, Brendan's development could have helped limit all the minutes Sam had to play, which would be a good thing. Even now with all the playing time he's getting, Brendan isn't consistent enough. He can disappear in games. Look at the Xaiver game - we were dominating that game, and Brendan only had 2 points and a few boards with about 4 minutes to go. That kind of play wouldn't be enough to eat into the Hausers' playing time too much. He would probably have some games where he gets hot and earns 20+ minutes, but it would be sporadic, just like this year.

To say it makes sense for them to leave just because some other good schools wanted them doesn't make sense to me. MSU and UVa weren't willing suitors until the Hausers made their announcement. There wouldn't have been any suitors at all if the Hausers were happy here. The fact that they landed at top tier schools only shows what kind of talent we lost. Interest from other schools was not why they left.

And now we get to the worst take in the post. Read the next sentence very slowly, as if you're talking to a three year old, because that's how this needs to be said. It is never a no brainer to walk away from your collegiate career in the middle of your fifth season. That is a huge decision to make and may have some very large consequences. It's one thing to say you can understand the frustration he must be feeling, but to say that it's a no brainer, an easy decision, is crazy.

This will be the biggest decision Ed has ever made in his life. If he's truly walking away from basketball right now, you've got to think he's discussed this with family, with friends, maybe even with the coaches. And even if he pulled the trigger on this in the heat of the moment, it's probably something that's been weighing on his mind for a long time.

Minimizing the importance of this decision feels a lot like an attempt to try to take away potential blame from Wojo. Saying it's "literally" impossible to construct a roster containing two guys that have drawn interest from NBA scouts also feels a lot like you're trying to downplay how big of a loss the Hausers were in order to take blame away from Wojo. Acting like there are only 5 meaningful spots in the lineup also seems like you're trying to make the minute allocation and lineup decisions harder than they really are to take blame away from Wojo. Maybe I'm reading too much into this, but all in all, this feels like a poor defense of Wojo based on some pretty obtuse reasoning.

[skianth16]

40% of D1 players transfer.

It's not concerning to you to lose the Hausers last year and then have Ed leave in the middle of the season this year? Just par for the course D1 basketball stuff here?

[Cheeks]

With all due respect, winning doesn't fix everything...MU was winning a ton last year when Joey was having his pouting sessions.

[Pakuni]

This is where I'm at, too. Outside of those two (and Burton, but there were other factors) none of those guys stuck at a high-major level.

It's who they've taken in that has been more of an issue. Not that they're bad kids, but outside of Rowsey there has been little contribution. Hopefully Koby picks it up more consistently in the second half of the year.

Carlino and Reinhardt contributed quite a bit.

[MU82]

And here's an important thing in all of this - winning fixes everything.

We were one of the hottest teams in the nation last season, in the middle of a 20-2 run and ranked in the top 10, when Hausershima began to rear its ugly head.

Otherwise, I agree with most of your thorough post.

[Silkk the Shaka]

And now we get to the worst take in the post. Read the next sentence very slowly, as if you're talking to a three year old, because that's how this needs to be said. It is never a no brainer to walk away from your collegiate career in the middle of your fifth season. That is a huge decision to make and may have some very large consequences. It's one thing to say you can understand the frustration he must be feeling, but to say that it's a no brainer, an easy decision, is crazy.

This will be the biggest decision Ed has ever made in his life. If he's truly walking away from basketball right now, you've got to think he's discussed this with family, with friends, maybe even with the coaches. And even if he pulled the trigger on this in the heat of the moment, it's probably something that's been weighing on his mind for a long time.

Minimizing the importance of this decision feels a lot like an attempt to try to take away potential blame from Wojo. Saying it's "literally" impossible to construct a roster containing two guys that have drawn interest from NBA scouts also feels a lot like you're trying to downplay how big of a loss the Hausers were in order to take blame away from Wojo. Acting like there are only 5 meaningful spots in the lineup also seems like you're trying to make the minute allocation and lineup decisions harder than they really are to take blame away from Wojo. Maybe I'm reading too much into this, but all in all, this feels like a poor defense of Wojo based on some pretty obtuse reasoning.

Nailed it

[4everwarriors]

We all know you have  a vendetta against Markus, but if you think Ed taking a "leave of absence" has anything to do with Markus , I don't know what to tell you.

He's doing it once again with Mane who has been quoted as saying Woj wants him to come in and be the man from day 1. Wonder how Garcia is diggin' dat chit?
As for Howard, I have know "vendeta" against him. Hey, live and let live. He is a very talented shooter. On a better and more complete basketball team (and this is on Woj), Markus would not, nor would he have to, put up the shot volume that we see each and every game.

[skianth16]

We were one of the hottest teams in the nation last season, in the middle of a 20-2 run and ranked in the top 10, when Hausershima began to rear its ugly head.

Otherwise, I agree with most of your thorough post.

Fair point. Winning does fix some things for some people. For example, Ed may have been happier with his role if we were a top 10 team. Joey last year likely had some unreasonable expectations that couldn't be managed no matter what the coaching staff did. I'm sure when teenagers see their names on NBA draft sites that can be quite the ego boost, which may not always end well.

[PE8983]

If Ed quit solely due to playing time, then he quit on himself, and more importantly his team as well.  This is not an individual sport.  IMO, it's not a good look for him - I see it as character revealed.  I would certainly never advise my kids to take this route in the middle of a season in a team sport.  Also, I can't comprehend how you walk out on your teammates after all the work you put in for 3 years.