Shaka to Marquette?

[Pakuni]

Why were we burned? With no President or AD, a new league with a new sports channel deal, and a situation where their successful coach was moved along, I don't blame Shaka at all for passing.  A lot is known now including that Wojo set a very low bar.

I think the sense of being burned comes not from Shaka turning down the job, but from giving every indication he would take it and then bailing at the last minute. How much of that is urban myth and how much reality, we'll probably never know.

[forgetful]

Never met Scholl, but I get the impression from his actions and also his presser, that putting his own man in as head coach is a very important part of this process. So, while Too Tanned Tommy may be in play with Strong, and shekels can't be ignored, Scholl will ultimately choose the coach without outside influence. To do otherwise would be the exact same ultimatum Woj was put into, hey?

Scholl originally wanted to keep Woj, his hand was to a good extent forced by donors. So, his MO is he will cave to donor/alumni demands.

After all, they are the ones footing the bill.

[Dr. Blackheart]

But all the reports indicated that Shaka said no because Mrs. Shaka vetoed the move, not because of the leadership situation or the TV deal.

Do you have intel that shows something different?

The Mrs. Shaka Veto is like The Letter. It becomes a nice figurative excuse. Yes, she is a very successful public policy lawyer, but MU was a shytshow.  Look at our choices back then: Guys running from other jobs, retreads, and Wojo.  Our choices will be much better this time, as is the job. No time to be butt hurt this round as MU is dealing from a position of strength.

[mr.MUskie]

Thank you. The Shaka and Wojo comparisons are laugh out loud stupid. Shaka has a final four at a basketball only school and a conference tournament championship of arguably the best basketball conference in the country. The ncaa success, or lack there of, at Texas isn't great but it's not littered with 20 point drubbings.

As I've said before, I still don't think it'll happen and think the Goodman thing was Shaka using Marquette as leverage. But it's definitely more of a possibility than I previously thought and would be an absolute home run for Marquette if Scholl can pull it off.

Has anyone talked to Shaka's wife?

[cheebs09]

Scholl originally wanted to keep Woj, his hand was to a good extent forced by donors. So, his MO is he will cave to donor/alumni demands.

After all, they are the ones footing the bill.

I don't know if that's true. If the assistant coach stuff is true, it sounds more like Scholl gave Wojo every chance to save his job but got to an impasse. Then, I'm guessing went to see if there were the funds to part ways.

I'm guessing it was in the best interest financially to keep Wojo but the process needed to change. It became clear Wojo wasn't willing to change the process.

[dgies9156]

Lordy, Lordy, here we go again. Almost makes one wish Wojo wasn't fired.

First off, who is assigned to watch FlightAware or FlightRadar24 for Shaka's jet? Not me.

Second, the big question with Shaka, were he to take the job, is how long he stays. If Ms. Shaka hates Milwaukee as much as it appears she does, Shaka will stay long enough to rehab himself and then head for a P5 school. I want that just about as much as I want another year without the NCAA.

I still like the idea of Becky Hammons. A great coach at San Antonio. Knows how to work with and communicate to star athletes and would get us an enormous amount of exposure. Obviously knows the game inside and out. Only question is whether she want to coach in college.

[tower912]

Lordy, Lordy, here we go again. Almost makes one wish Wojo wasn't fired.

I had forgotten how entertaining scoop can be.    This is great.   

[GooooMarquette]

I thought the AD and President was one of these reasons she vetoed. We are also only getting one side of the story on how that all went down.

I never saw anything like that. Most of what I saw indicated that she didn't want to move to the midwest.

[Dr. Blackheart]

I had forgotten how entertaining scoop can be.    This is great.

+1

[GOO]

And so Shaka week begins.

[Goose]

I would much rather have Shaka week than Moser week.

[cheebs09]

Second, the big question with Shaka, were he to take the job, is how long he stays. If Ms. Shaka hates Milwaukee as much as it appears she does, Shaka will stay long enough to rehab himself and then head for a P5 school. I want that just about as much as I want another year without the NCAA.

Obviously that's been the story of the #donedeal saga, but that's not to say that's the whole story. We don't have any idea what kind of commitments were made and reasons for backing out, if there was even a backing out. We've gotten one side of the story.

His wife went to Northwestern for a Masters Degree. So may not have an issue with being in the Midwest.

Honestly, there were a lot of questions about MU at the time. Someone with Shaka's profile might be shooting low at that time. No AD and a President that was quickly hired. Previous coach leaving because he didn't think the new conference could succeed (at least publicly that was the reason). I can't blame her for maybe playing Devil's Advocate or playing he bad guy if Shaka had some second thoughts.

[Sawsi]

My thoughts on Shaka to MU:

1. I was never angry that Shaka ended up not taking the MU job. There is no doubt I was big time disappointed that he left us at the alter, but I was not bitter towards the decision. I actually thought MU had a steal and were hiring a guy that was actually a better long term answer than Buzz, which seldom happens landing a better coach than when departing.

2. There is zero comparison between Wojo and Shaka as a coach. His pre Wojo resume blows any discussion out of the water. There are many on here that loved making the comparison every time Wojo was called out for lack of success. I would be wiling to say that every team Shaka had at Texas was a better product than what Wojo put on the court and provided far more entertainment value. I want wins in March as much as anyone and believe Shaka will get that done before his career is over. I cannot say that about Wojo.

3. Going back to point 1 to some degree, quite possibly the timing was not right. Following the Buzz success there would have been extremely expectations for Shaka to take that to the next level. To be honest, that might have been hard to do. Buzz provided enough success to keep excitement in the program and building off that would have been a tough task. Right now he would be starting basically from scratch and that might be a great thing for both parties.

4. Style of play means a lot to me and Shaka checks that box.

5. For the past 10+ years I have felt that a program like MU should find the perfect, young black coach and give him the keys to the program. Admittedly I am not up to speed like I was years ago but Shaka sure seems to check that box as well. I think MU would benefit from a black coach, the city of MKE could benefit and MU basketball fans would benefit from Shaka taking over.

6. I am 100% confident that recruiting would be a slam dunk for Shaka and we would own the local kids. In looking back at our best teams over the past twenty years there was always a good mix of local talent, regional and sometime national talent on the team. I have said many times I liked Wojo recruiting like he was at Duke and going national but that was a tough task. I think Shaka would own the MKE market and do exceptional in the other key midwest cities.

7. Someone mentioned yesterday on another post on how Izzo would have handled the Hauser situation and I want to follow up with my take on that. I have always believed that guys in a profession know their peers about 10000% better than I do. I believe that MU hired Shaka that fellow coaches would say it was a major step up for MU. Would even go as far as saying that other BE coaches would be disappointed in the hire.
For the record, I believe the same would be said if MU hired Pitino. Coaches know their business and they know who can really recruit, coach or both.

8. If Shaka is a true candidate I am over the moon happy he lost yesterday. It means it easier to leave his current job and MU can start talking to him today. Anyone that thinks that the loss last night is reason to not hire him truly is not thinking clearly. If he has a chance to end up here, I prefer it to start this week than in three weeks.

To sum it up, I would be an extremely happy fan if Shaka was introduced as the next MU coach.

Perfectly summed up.  Bring Shaka in!

[tower912]

And so Shaka week begins.

Shaka-nado, parts one through 4, in 3-D.    Will we see Tara Reid?

[Scoop Snoop]

Lordy, Lordy, here we go again. Almost makes one wish Wojo wasn't fired.

First off, who is assigned to watch FlightAware or FlightRadar24 for Shaka's jet? Not me.

Second, the big question with Shaka, were he to take the job, is how long he stays. If Ms. Shaka hates Milwaukee as much as it appears she does, Shaka will stay long enough to rehab himself and then head for a P5 school. I want that just about as much as I want another year without the NCAA.

I still like the idea of Becky Hammons. A great coach at San Antonio. Knows how to work with and communicate to star athletes and would get us an enormous amount of exposure. Obviously knows the game inside and out. Only question is whether she want to coach in college.

Agree. If he is hired at Marquette he will always be looking for the next gig. He was at his peak at VCU. I lived in Richmond for 28 years and remember the naive belief throughout Richmond that he would never leave. This was reinforced after he turned down the MU offer. Then, next year, the Texas offer was on the table.  A Richmond strip club made the news by offering free lap dances for Shaka and his staff (no puns please) if he turned down the Texas job.  No, I am NOT making this up! 

[buckchuckler]

Agree. If he is hired at Marquette he will always be looking for the next gig. He was at his peak at VCU. I lived in Richmond for 28 years and remember the naive belief throughout Richmond that he would never leave. This was reinforced after he turned down the MU offer. Then, next year, the Texas offer was on the table.  A Richmond strip club made the news by offering free lap dances for Shaka and his staff (no puns please) if he turned down the Texas job.  No, I am NOT making this up!

That probably made Mrs. Shaka's mind up that it was time to go to Texas.

[NickelDimer]

No, however I did see someone post the link.

The 100 year celebration stuck out to me.  Crean said a lot of things that made me believe he missed MU. He knew he f'd up and tried to strike gold while the iron was hot.   Does he have flaws, absolutely.  But Scholl made it clear he wants a coach with previous coaching experience. Crean did well here, and pushed Marquette for the greater cause then just basketball (still waiting for the soccer benefits)

My Intel isn't on a tweet (I don't have Twitter). My intel is on what i was told by someone I trust who is best friends with Scholl. 

There you have it.  My heads on a chopping block now with fellow scoopers.  Just sharing what I know.

This would be so underwhelming

[rocky_warrior]

Rocky and Hilltop must love all the speculation, opinion, and other comments hitting this board over the last few days. Hope you guys are getting paid somehow for this.

Hah, thanks willie.  Fri & Sat were Scoop's biggest ad revenue days ever.  Today is Shaka-ing up to be similar.

More Arbys!

(note: we don't pay ourselves, buy this keeps the server running for even longer...)

[TAMU, Knower of Ball]

But all the reports indicated that Shaka said no because Mrs. Shaka vetoed the move, not because of the leadership situation or the TV deal.

Do you have intel that shows something different?

The Mrs. Shaka thing,  while fun, is a Scoop myth.

[TAMU, Knower of Ball]

There's definitely a contingent that would love for Crean to be the pick. I think cooler heads prevail.

[JakeBarnes]

The Mrs. Shaka thing,  while fun, is a Scoop myth.

Right. I would imagine it was more of a "this is a really unstable situation" pass by Shaka.

[MU82]

The Mrs. Shaka thing,  while fun, is a Scoop myth.

Say it ain't so! "Mrs. Shaka hates the Domes, Robin Yount and Kopp's" is always so fun to say!

[GOO]

If it came down to Crean or Shaka, I'd go Crean, easy.

Moser v Crean, tougher choice, I'd go Moser with the higher risk of an implosion.

[79Warrior]

If it came down to Crean or Shaka, I'd go Crean, easy.

Moser v Crean, tougher choice, I'd go Moser with the higher risk of an implosion.

I highly doubt Shaka and Crean will be in the mix.

[Lennys Tap]

The Mrs. Shaka thing,  while fun, is a Scoop myth.

Like the Hauser letter, a'ina?