Top of the Food Chain

[MU Buff]

I'd love to hear people's analysis on why they believe TJO would be an upgrade on Wojo.

If a change is made after this season I am fully on board with Otz. He's made adjustments and his teams have gotten better as the season progresses. He's played at different paces, slow his first year and this year at UNLV, fast his last two years at South Dakota St. This shows he's not stuck in his ways and changes things based on his personnel and to maximize his team's potential. He has four years of head coaching experience and has won two conference regular season championships, two conference tournament championships, and was the summit league coach of the year in 2018. It's a bonus that he lived in Wisconsin for the first 27 years of his life so he knows and has existing relationships in the area.

There's risk in any hire, but besides getting a coach who has won big in the NCAA tournament (which rarely happens for non-blue bloods), this guy checks a lot of boxes for me. If he's interested, I think he should be near the top of the wish list.

[Dr. Blackheart]

I just have a feeling with his Juco background and how he helped ISU rely on transfers, that MU isn't going to be interested.

Wojo has dined on transfers every year. If MU relies on coaches who don't recruit JUCOs, let's also take Tony Bennett, Porter Moser, and every BE coach except Jay Wright off the list. So, we are left with Chris Carrawell and Jon Scheyer.

[mu03eng]

They played an exciting brand of ball that was fun to watch.

Perhaps a quibble but this is a bit revisinist. Buzz's results were great to watch but the teams in-game style was ghastly. With the exception of DJO, watching them trying to hit a jump shot was a miserable experience. I hate the teams style under Buzz but at the end of the day if it gets result, I'm in.

[The Sultan]

Wojo has dined on transfers every year. If MU relies on coaches who don't recruit JUCOs, let's also take Tony Bennett, Porter Moser, and every BE coach except Jay Wright off the list. So, we are left with Chris Carrawell and Jon Scheyer.

I 100% agree with you.  As I said, I just have a feeling MU wouldn't be interested.

[mu03eng]

Wojo has dined on transfers every year. If MU relies on coaches who don't recruit JUCOs, let's also take Tony Bennett, Porter Moser, and every BE coach except Jay Wright off the list. So, we are left with Chris Carrawell and Jon Scheyer.

JUCOs aren't "banned" at MU, but some of the highly questionable JUCOs (academics and character) that Buzz brought in or went after would be not welcomed at MU these days.

[Golden Avalanche]

Perhaps a quibble but this is a bit revisinist. Buzz's results were great to watch but the teams in-game style was ghastly. With the exception of DJO, watching them trying to hit a jump shot was a miserable experience. I hate the teams style under Buzz but at the end of the day if it gets result, I'm in.

"bit revisionist" is mild. It's a downright lie.

Ghastly was the correct word to use describing style. Any MU fan saying Buzz' teams were exciting and fun to watch on the whole is one not worth their words.

[BM1090]

He's won championships as a HC? With a team that had just been D2?

Assuming you're talking about SDSU, they definitely were not recently D2 when he took over.

[1SE]

Assuming you're talking about SDSU, they definitely were not recently D2 when he took over.

Jeez I'm old - I knew they were D1 when he was there but since I remembered the move I figured it must have only been a few years earlier - but no, 2004!

[BM1090]

Jeez I'm old - I knew they were D1 when he was there but since I remembered the move I figured it must have only been a few years earlier - but no, 2004!

Regardless, he did an excellent job there.

[MDMU04]

"bit revisionist" is mild. It's a downright lie.

Ghastly was the correct word to use describing style. Any MU fan saying Buzz' teams were exciting and fun to watch on the whole is one not worth their words.

I'm pretty sure I thought winning 8 out of the 13 NCAA tournament games that were played during Buzz's 6 year tenure was somewhat exciting.

I don't really care if it's pretty, I'd just prefer they win when it really matters more often than we've seen - especially over the last two years.

[GoldenWarrior11]

Since 2013, here are the coaching changes that the Big East has had:

Butler - Brandon Miller left on medical leave in 2013, hired Chris Holtmann full-time in 2014 (left for OSU in 2017), hired LaVall Jordan (UW-Milwaukee) in 2017.
DePaul - Oliver Purnell resigned in 2015, hired Dave Leitao (Missouri assistant) in 2015.
Georgetown - Fired JTIII in 2017, hired Patrick Ewing (Charlotte Hornets) in 2017.
St. John's - Steve Lavin and school mutually parted ways in 2015, hiring Chris Mullin (Sacramento Kings advisor) in 2015; Mullin resigns in 2019, leading to the hire of Mike Anderson (Arkansas).
Xavier - Chris Mack leaves for Louisville in 2018, leading to hire of Travis Steele.

Miller, Holtmann and Steele were all hired as (then) assistants for the program.  Jordan, Leitao, Ewing and Mullin all had prior associations with the school, whether as an alum, assistant coach or head coach.  Wojo and Mike Anderson are the lone head coaches of the Big East (in this incarnation, 2013-present) that have had zero associations with the school. 

McDermott (Iowa State, Northern Iowa, ND State and Wayne State), Willard (Iona), Wright (Hofstra) and Cooley (Fairfield), arguably the top-4 programs in the BE this year, all had head coaching experience prior to arriving at their current stops, and all four had ties to their areas before being named head coach at their school.  Buzz, too, had prior HC experience (abeit one season at New Orleans), but little-to-no Midwestern ties.

IF our job were to open this Spring (and I have strong, strong doubts that it will), I feel we would need to prioritize head coaching experience with any new hire.  I know it often gets ridiculed around here, but - considering these factors - it does lend credence to the strong possibility that Wardle would be a strong candidate.  His status as an alum/former player, being a head coach at two different Midwestern schools (UWGB/Bradley), each program improving and making strides yearly, and level of success (won 20 games in five years as a head coach, and all five were at end of tenures, not beginning), it reveals a proven, upward trajectory not unlike many of the successful coaches our conference currently has.  Many will point to the lack of tournament success as a "barrier", but which head coach that Marquette has hired in history had proven, identifiable tournament success in March when they were hired as a head coach? 

[Billy Hoyle]

JUCOs aren't "banned" at MU, but some of the highly questionable JUCOs (academics and character) that Buzz brought in or went after would be not welcomed at MU these days.

exactly. JUCO's who can actually graduate in two (or three, in the case of Butler) are all good. It was the Crowders of the world who would never graduate and needed summer school every year just to get eligible that MU was fed up with.

At first, Crean could not recruit JUCO's, then when he recruited Marcus Jackson he had to graduate until he could bring in another one (Kinsella not counting as he was a 4-2-4 who started at Rice).

[mu03eng]

exactly. JUCO's who can actually graduate in two (or three, in the case of Butler) are all good. It was the Crowders of the world who would never graduate and needed summer school every year just to get eligible that MU was fed up with.

At first, Crean would not recruit JUCO's, then when he recruited Marcus Jackson he had to graduate until he could bring in another one (Kinsella not counting as he was a 4-2-4 who started at Rice).

100% correct. Some of the JUCO kids that Buzz was trying to force in academically was just bonkers. The Crowder experience worked out on the court but we are very, very, very lucky that no one took a closer look at that from a certain governing institution.

[Lennys Tap]

100% correct. Some of the JUCO kids that Buzz was trying to force in academically was just bonkers. The Crowder experience worked out on the court but we are very, very, very lucky that no one took a closer look at that from a certain governing institution.

??? The NCAA did look at it. And declared him, by their own rules, to be eligible. This revisionist history is silly.

[Billy Hoyle]

??? The NCAA did look at it. And declared him, by their own rules, to be eligible. This revisionist history is silly.

it's the school that declares him eligible, not the NCAA. That's only for freshmen and if you go JUCO you don't have to be cleared academically by the Eligibility Center.

[The Sultan]

it's the school that declares him eligible, not the NCAA. That's only for freshmen and if you go JUCO you don't have to be cleared academically by the Eligibility Center.

He had to graduate from an accredited institution with his associates degree.  He did that.  What else is there to look into?

[shoothoops]

MU just needs to find itself a Jay Wright. Easy peasy. (Teal)

18 completed seasons at Villanova.
14 NCAA's
6 out of 18 2nd weekend
3 of 18 first round exits
6 Big East Regular Season Titles
2 National Titles
Took him his 4th season to make NCAA's and has missed it once since.

[mu03eng]

He had to graduate from an accredited institution with his associates degree.  He did that.  What else is there to look into?

There were having accreditation issues at the time and the transcripts were a mess. Additionally, a lot of his credits were not transferable(mostly the ones from Georgia South Tech) to MU at the time though a lot of that was waived.......

An example of some of the mess that Howard Junior College has gotten itself into over the last two decades
https://www.insidehighered.com/news/2018/08/31/financial-sanctions-howard-university

[mu03eng]

??? The NCAA did look at it. And declared him, by their own rules, to be eligible. This revisionist history is silly.

Not revisionist, it is fact from a fully knowledgeable direct source contemporaneous to the events at the time. Buzz was pulling slimy stuff with JUCOs, including with Jae Crowder. Was it intended to be shady or was Buzz's whole "second chances" schtick real? Tough to say, but we were 100% doing a lot of academically questionable things with JUCO targets during the Buzz era.

[asdfasdf]

If you're Otzelberger, how much money would Marquette have to offer you to come here? He already makes 1.1 million. I think Wojo makes ~ 1.4 million. If Marquette gives Otzelberger the same salary as Wojo, would that extra $300,000 be enough to come here?

If you're Marquette, would you readily give Otzelberger the same salary as Wojo?

I'm just not sure the numbers will add up for MU to get Otzelberger, unless he's willing to keep the same salary he currently has at UNLV to move here.

[MU Buff]

If you're Otzelberger, how much money would Marquette have to offer you to come here? He already makes 1.1 million. I think Wojo makes ~ 1.4 million. If Marquette gives Otzelberger the same salary as Wojo, would that extra $300,000 be enough to come here?

If you're Marquette, would you readily give Otzelberger the same salary as Wojo?

I'm just not sure the numbers will add up for MU to get Otzelberger, unless he's willing to keep the same salary he currently has at UNLV to move here.

https://www.bizjournals.com/milwaukee/news/2019/05/07/marquette-signs-mens-basketball-coach.html

If you trust this article, he made $1.86 million in 2015. I would imagine it's higher now.

[asdfasdf]

https://www.bizjournals.com/milwaukee/news/2019/05/07/marquette-signs-mens-basketball-coach.html

If you trust this article, he made $1.86 million in 2015. I would imagine it's higher now.

Yikes, my mistake. Not sure why I thought it was 1.4 million. According to the form 990 submitted in 2019 Wojo made ~2.2 million the previous year.

https://projects.propublica.org/nonprofits/display_990/390806251/08_2019_prefixes_38-42%2F390806251_201806_990_2019083016611745

[muwarrior69]

Give it to Stan.

He knows the program, the culture, the players and the recruits.  I have a limited data set but he sounds like he can coach - actually teaching as opposed to the endless cliches we have been hearing.  Not an expert at all, but from what I have seen and heard, he looks like a real coach.

How many players actually came here because Wojo recruited them or did Stan actually recruit them?

[cheebs09]

They won't.  I have a feeling even if Wojo leaves, and TJO wants to come here, Marquette won't touch him.

With all the MU to ISU transfers, especially WI guys, I wonder if there was any tampering that would leave a sour taste. Real or perceived tampering.

[Frenns Liquor Depot]

With all the MU to ISU transfers, especially WI guys, I wonder if there was any tampering that would leave a sour taste. Real or perceived tampering.

I'm sure there was.  Also I'm pretty sure there is 'tampering' in most every transfer situations through back channels.