Wojo's Most Disappointing Year

[1SE]

To me this season has been the most disappointing. No excuse for Wojo not being able to put together the roster he wants, being too young, etc. Beyond that, I really thought, for the first time in his tenure, all the "pieces" were there. And I think that view was validated by a few of the quality wins we had this year. The talent was there. The coaching was not.

[willie warrior]

You should have one more:
All of the above

[Stretchdeltsig]

To me this season has been the most disappointing. No excuse for Wojo not being able to put together the roster he wants, being too young, etc. Beyond that, I really thought, for the first time in his tenure, all the "pieces" were there. And I think that view was validated by a few of the quality wins we had this year. The talent was there. The coaching was not.

Agree 100%. Wojo's a nice guy, but he isn't a very good coach. The proof is in in the lack of player development. He does not coach them up. Too often his recruits cannot compete. As a game coach he doesn't know how to control the tempo like Al did and other great coaches.

[dad's couch]

Congrats. You almost made it 3 days without one of these threads. I hope you put your free time to good use. Maybe volunteer at the local children's hospital. Pick up trash along the highways. Work towards world peace. You know something constructive instead of your borderline psychotic obsession.

[MU82]

Congrats. You almost made it 3 days without one of these threads. I hope you put your free time to good use. Maybe volunteer at the local children's hospital. Pick up trash along the highways. Work towards world peace. You know something constructive instead of your borderline psychotic obsession.

So I guess this means you're not gonna participate in the poll.

[🏀]

It’s 18-19 and it isn’t close.

Joey Hauser also died.

[Viper]

Congrats. You almost made it 3 days without one of these threads. I hope you put your free time to good use. Maybe volunteer at the local children's hospital. Pick up trash along the highways. Work towards world peace. You know something constructive instead of your borderline psychotic obsession.

harsh

[naginiF]

Where are the true Nojo options?

'1975-1976 - the season he was conceived and born'
'1980-1981 - the season he first picked up a basketball'
'1993-1994 - the season Coach K recruited him and set him on the path to be our coach'

The angry mob needs to be satisfied!

[Scoop Snoop]

It was difficult to choose only one year because from the 18'-19' collapse to the present are, in my opinion, connected. Going from Wojo being "completely surprised " by the Hausers leaving (and allegedly other players about to leave), 19'-20' having the #1 scorer in the country yet finishing 8-10 in conference, and all 3 seasons (starting with 18'-19') featuring a 1-6 losing streak, "disappointing" is a kind way of putting it. I voted for this season because it is the culmination of the post Hauser period. Pointedly, it was Wojo's chance to prove that he was more than a recruiter, that he could actually succeed with good players but without Markus and Hauser grade players. He failed to do that.

Now I am going to pick up trash along the road near my house and volunteer somewhere, having been chastised by sanctimonious dad. 

[4everwarriors]

You should have one more:
All of the above

Solid, dat's watt happens wen a chitty coach combines beeloe average recruitin', hey?

[Galway Eagle]

Yeah I voted this year.

Henry's year is upsetting just because we could've played slightly better crappy teams and made a postseason. It was just a BS foul on Billy Garrett that kept us out of 3rd and playing Belmont at the wrong time.

The 17-18 team was up there because that team could have made a fun run with their shooting. But of course we depauled ourselves again.

As disappointing as 18-19 was its hard to ignore the idea that we were already playing above our heads and came down to earth. I just wish earth was at least one game higher.

19-20 was about what I expected and again seemed to me like we were playing way above our pay grade. I feel like everybody saw a collapse coming.

This year though the bright spots are just three games. Two of which the teams aren't exactly as bright as looked preseason. It's awful basketball to watch. In a year I expected Wojo to return to 2017's no true ball hero and win by committee, instead we just look bad.

[CountryRoads]

2017-2018

Terrible miss of the tournament and the bizarre excitement about the NIT was highly concerning.

[The Hippie Satan of Hyperbole]

Yes.  We should not have been cheering on Marquette in the NIT.  We should have picketed the games and broke the windows at the Al.

[Silent Verbal]

Yes.  We should not have been cheering on Marquette in the NIT.  We should have picketed the games and broke the windows at the Al.

We had, without exaggeration, three of the best 3pt shooters in the country that season, two of whom had unlimited range.  If there's one thing I've learned from Scoop, it's that you need 68 teams for a 68 team tournament, and with those three guys on the roster, we couldn't even make a field of 68?  Yeah, I get that we were playing 3 on 5 on defense, but still, we should've at least made the Tournament.  That was an epic choke job, and yet so many on here simply pooh-poohed it, because...we lost JJJ and Fischer from the previous year, I guess?  The fact that we only went to the NIT that year should've been a big red flag.

This year is the same type of deal.  I didn't expect us to make a Final Four run, but there was enough talent on the roster to make a field of 68, and finish in the top half of the conference.  Not finish 9th and make no postseason at all, barring a miracle run in the BET.

[Galway Eagle]

We had, without exaggeration, three of the best 3pt shooters in the country that season, two of whom had unlimited range.  If there's one thing I've learned from Scoop, it's that you need 68 teams for a 68 team tournament, and with those three guys on the roster, we couldn't even make a field of 68?  Yeah, I get that we were playing 3 on 5 on defense, but still, we should've at least made the Tournament.  That was an epic choke job, and yet so many on here simply pooh-poohed it, because...we lost JJJ and Fischer from the previous year, I guess?  The fact that we only went to the NIT that year should've been a big red flag.

This year is the same type of deal.  I didn't expect us to make a Final Four run, but there was enough talent on the roster to make a field of 68, and finish in the top half of the conference.  Not finish 9th and make no postseason at all, barring a miracle run in the BET.

For the record had they been using NET (or just not lost @Depaul) they'd have been in. But RPI gave Providence the advantage.

[The Hippie Satan of Hyperbole]

I am not saying we shouldn't have been disappointed in only making the NIT.  But they may as well try to win it while they are there.  And yes, it was a fun little run.

[wadesworld]

We had, without exaggeration, three of the best 3pt shooters in the country that season, two of whom had unlimited range.  If there's one thing I've learned from Scoop, it's that you need 68 teams for a 68 team tournament, and with those three guys on the roster, we couldn't even make a field of 68?  Yeah, I get that we were playing 3 on 5 on defense, but still, we should've at least made the Tournament.  That was an epic choke job, and yet so many on here simply pooh-poohed it, because...we lost JJJ and Fischer from the previous year, I guess?  The fact that we only went to the NIT that year should've been a big red flag.

This year is the same type of deal.  I didn't expect us to make a Final Four run, but there was enough talent on the roster to make a field of 68, and finish in the top half of the conference.  Not finish 9th and make no postseason at all, barring a miracle run in the BET.

A 10 seed NCAA Tournament team lost 4 of their top 5 guys in minutes per game, plus the 8th and 9th highest minutes per game guys (both over 15 mpg), replaced them with three 3 star recruits, and it was an "epic choke job" to wind up in the NIT?

[Scoop Snoop]

Yes.  We should not have been cheering on Marquette in the NIT.  We should have picketed the games and broke the windows at the Al.

Well, it took someone a very long time after the end of the season to let off steam but somebody did drive a car through the doors of the Al and onto the court in November of '18.

[wadesworld]

Well, it took someone a very long time after the end of the season to let off steam but somebody did drive a car through the doors of the Al and onto the court in November of '18.

The video of that was incredible.

[Farley36]

The fact that there are so many legitimate options tells you all you need to know about our coach abs the state of our basketball program.

[cheebs09]

We had, without exaggeration, three of the best 3pt shooters in the country that season, two of whom had unlimited range.  If there's one thing I've learned from Scoop, it's that you need 68 teams for a 68 team tournament, and with those three guys on the roster, we couldn't even make a field of 68?  Yeah, I get that we were playing 3 on 5 on defense, but still, we should've at least made the Tournament.  That was an epic choke job, and yet so many on here simply pooh-poohed it, because...we lost JJJ and Fischer from the previous year, I guess?  The fact that we only went to the NIT that year should've been a big red flag.

This year is the same type of deal.  I didn't expect us to make a Final Four run, but there was enough talent on the roster to make a field of 68, and finish in the top half of the conference.  Not finish 9th and make no postseason at all, barring a miracle run in the BET.

If I remember that year correctly, it took Wojo way too long to play Rowsey and Howard together. The defense took a hit, but the offensive increase outweighed that.

If the tournament took the best 68 teams, that team would have made it. What you conveniently left out is there are 32 auto-bids, which at least 20 aren’t getting in any other way. Really, we needed to be a top 45 team, which we were close, but losing to DePaul and the computer numbers hurt.

[TAMU, Knower of Ball]

We had, without exaggeration, three of the best 3pt shooters in the country that season, two of whom had unlimited range.  If there's one thing I've learned from Scoop, it's that you need 68 teams for a 68 team tournament, and with those three guys on the roster, we couldn't even make a field of 68?  Yeah, I get that we were playing 3 on 5 on defense, but still, we should've at least made the Tournament.  That was an epic choke job, and yet so many on here simply pooh-poohed it, because...we lost JJJ and Fischer from the previous year, I guess?  The fact that we only went to the NIT that year should've been a big red flag.

This year is the same type of deal.  I didn't expect us to make a Final Four run, but there was enough talent on the roster to make a field of 68, and finish in the top half of the conference.  Not finish 9th and make no postseason at all, barring a miracle run in the BET.

We lost JJJ, Fischer, and Reinhardt to graduation in addition to Duane, Haanif, and Carter to transfer. That's a lot to replace and we replaced them with a bunch of sub - 150 freshmen. Preseason KenPom  picked us 49th, we finished 53rd. NIT that season really wasn't unexpected.

[MU82]

The fact that there are so many legitimate options tells you all you need to know about our coach abs the state of our basketball program.

Wojo's not as fit as he was as a player, so I don't know that I'd call him Coach Abs.

[TAMU, Knower of Ball]

If I remember that year correctly, it took Wojo way too long to play Rowsey and Howard together. The defense took a hit, but the offensive increase outweighed that.

That was the year before. The NIT year they played together from Day 1. There were 5 games where they didn't both start (2 where Rowdy didn't start, 3 where Howard didn't start). But other than the game where Howard was hurt (St. John's) the person who didn't start got 30+ minutes in 3 of the games and 25 minutes in the fourth game (opener against Mt. St. Marys)

[cheebs09]

That was the year before. The NIT year they played together from Day 1. There were 5 games where they didn't both start (2 where Rowdy didn't start, 3 where Howard didn't start). But other than the game where Howard was hurt (St. John's) the person who didn't start got 30+ minutes in 3 of the games and 25 minutes in the fourth game (opener against Mt. St. Marys)

Thanks for the correction. Well, that changes my view somewhat.

As stated above, the 2018-2019 team was playing above their head. The computer numbers indicated that team wasn’t at their ranking.

This year, when Carton was eligible, I thought we’d at a minimum be Team Bubble Watch. Seeing the Big East down so much this year, I think it makes it even more disappointing.