Really Good Day for the Future of Marquette Basketball

[Vander Blue Man Group]

Not crap, but possibly role players.

When the 'he's not going to take transfers' accusation has previously been rolled out, the counter has been, 'well he never specifically said that.' Okay, fair enough. But what he has said about valuing loyalty to the program and it being reflected in their pay are things that have been said. The portal is a competitive space. Telling a talented player with the stats to back it up that he's going to make less than Josh Clark or Ian Miletcic since he's new isn't a sound strategy. Do I know that's going to happen? No. But the other half of the battle is Shaka deciding to drop that philosophy, because he has talked about it previously.

Seems pretty obvious to me that they don't intentionally drop this news prior to a Saturday game if the plan is to half-ass it.

[Small Orange Soda]

Seems pretty obvious to me that they don't intentionally drop this news prior to a Saturday game if the plan is to half-ass it.

I certainly hope so!

[1SE]

But he didn't just start his career as a D1 head men's basketball coach. Hence why I said the top 0.00001% of his profession. There are a lot of people paid to coach basketball in the world. Many who would love to be where Shaka is. He gets paid millions of dollars to do his job. He's objectively one of the best in the world at what he does. And objectively one of the more successful people in the world, regardless of profession.

10,000,000 people are paid to coach bball? Because that's what ur math sayz.

Even if there were, there are dozens (hundreds?) of people that WITH MUs RESOURCES could have assembled and coached a team to as many Ws as the team has THIS season. Tight be close (but still way wrong) to say the level.of results Shaka has produced this year are in the bottom 0.000001% of what a paid coach coaching a team with the resources available to to him could achieve.

Actually - who is it that does the season simulations here? It would.be interesting to know where this season is falling in the distribution.

[wadesworld]

To be fair, the vast majority of these people are not full-time basketball coaches. They're teachers who coach after school for a stipend or guys who coach part time while having another job on the side.

Shaka is clearly near the top of his profession, but I'm not sure his profession is the same profession as a freshman girls coach or AAU assistant.

Fair enough. Marquette has 11 staff members who I'd say are aspiring coaches that appear to be full time, paid positions. There are 365 D1 programs. Let's say there's an average of 5 positions, since low majors aren't having that many but still have plenty. That's 1,825 positions in D1. There are 300 D2 programs. Let's say there are 2 full time paid positions for each of those staffs? So another 600. Then there's D3 and NAIA. We'll say each of those has 1 paid position. 400 D3 programs, 215 NAIA programs. That's 3,040. That's not taking into account NBA positions, or basketball factory high schools. Plus all of the overseas colleges and pro leagues, or any women's coach in the world.

Apologies for it not being 0.00001% then. There are a massive number of people who are paid to coach basketball in this world, and Shaka has one of the highest paying and best jobs in his profession. He's clearly one of the very top in terms of professional success in both basketball coaches and humans in general.

[willie warrior]

I'm surprised there wasn't more chatter we on Scoop regarding the in-game reporting. I was elated to hear it as it's exactly what we all know is needed.

Nigel and Royce were awesome today but that report was the big win of the day.

We'll be back.

Sure hope we will be back. And very quick. There are some talented players here but look at the results so far. More talent is needed quickly. Why are Sheek, Militec and Nash Rambler redshirting while Shaka is playing other stuffs. They cannot be any less talented than some of the guys currently listened by Shaka. Hopefully the redshirt and new recruits can step right in and contribute. There is no evidence that Shaka Kahn will pivot. Hopefully he does as the leash has definitely been cut down to quarter size.

[Shooter McGavin]

Love that this has been acknowledged by Shaka and the administration.

To summarize, it sounds like everyone on scoop wants a minimum of two starters from the portal and I agree.  Some also want at least one more reserve through the portal.  I agree with this as well.  Sounds like many believe that the RGV model can still be maintained with select transfers yearly or as needed to fill holes going forward.  Sounds like MU is putting this out there early for agents and players to realize they are going to be serious this year about the portal which I think is a good move.

I am personally way more bullish on Marquette basketball at this time than I was last year at the same time.  This offseason with the proper moves should vault this team back into the top 25 (as many have stated previously) and we won't have to twist our minds into pretzels this offseason HOPING MU will be good. 

Cross your fingers that everyone involved with the program will follow through on this in the offseason. 

[muwarrior69]

Love that this has been acknowledged by Shaka and the administration.

To summarize, it sounds like everyone on scoop wants a minimum of two starters from the portal and I agree.  Some also want at least one more reserve through the portal.  I agree with this as well.  Sounds like many believe that the RGV model can still be maintained with select transfers yearly or as needed to fill holes going forward.  Sounds like MU is putting this out there early for agents and players to realize they are going to be serious this year about the portal which I think is a good move.

I am personally way more bullish on Marquette basketball at this time than I was last year at the same time.  This offseason with the proper moves should vault this team back into the top 25 (as many have stated previously) and we won't have to twist our minds into pretzels this offseason HOPING MU will be good. 

Cross your fingers that everyone involved with the program will follow through on this in the offseason. 

A good first step would be to hire a GM. That can happen now!

[muwarrior69]

Well, no. But we did go from Shaka dismissing Ben Steele's question about transfers a few months ago to the report today. Things change fast when you have the worst team in a generation.

...more like 2 generations.

[Biggie Clausen]

A good first step would be to hire a GM. That can happen now!

I'm all for Marquette modernizing the program in terms of using the portal more, but I don't know about this whole GM thing.  I mean, it's not like these teams are hiring Ron Wolf or Theo Epstein.  Rick Pitino's GM lasted for about half a season at St. John's.  In college sports, the head coach will always run the show.

[Pakuni]

Not remotely a curious call. Makes all the sense in world to announce it on a normal day.

Why on earth would they announce it on NMD? Now that would be a curious call.

"All the sense in the world?"
Explain further.

Why NMD? Because the broader Marquette community - not just us Scoop nerds - is more likely paying attention on NMD than a mid-afternoon road game on Valentine's Day against one of the conference's worst teams.
Newsmakers typically want to reach the largest audience possible, at least when it's news they're happy to share. They instead intentionally chose a time and date with a smaller audience.
It's not quite a Friday afternoon news dump, and I don't think they're trying to bury anything, but it feels either oddly random or targeted to a specific crowd. And that's curious to me.

[The Sultan]

So let me get this straight. We went from "We hired a University President and Athletic Director who will be yes men to Shaka's RGV, going so far as to make the Spirit Shop all RGV, market it everywhere, heck, make it the University'd unofficial motto," to, "Maybe it wasn't an ultimatum given to Shaka, but Shaka sees the writing on the wall that RGV is not acceptable and changes are needed, and the administration is getting word out there" in about a month. Do I have that correct?

I think it's pretty obvious that the athletic department and the university wrapped themselves around the RGV branding as a point of pride. And I also think its clear that the people who write the checks to support the program are not happy with the results of this year, so the AD and Shaka picked an opportune time to let it be known that Shaka is going to be looking at a bunch of ways to improve the talent.

I'm not sure why this is hard to believe.

[Mu8891]

Sultan - Right. What I was told about a week ago is that the big donors ( that will step up to pay guys like James and Parham ) told Broeker and Shaka that it ain't happening if Shaka continues this
Shyte. 

I think all of them ( SS, Broeker, Prez.
Tic Tok ) would LOVE to run RGV back.
Cuz they are so proud of sticking to their " principles " while producing the worst team, and possibly worst roster since Dukiet.

But, do this again next year and at least 2 of the above 3 "leaders " will be gone.

[muwarrior69]

I'm all for Marquette modernizing the program in terms of using the portal more, but I don't know about this whole GM thing.  I mean, it's not like these teams are hiring Ron Wolf or Theo Epstein.  Rick Pitino's GM lasted for about half a season at St. John's.  In college sports, the head coach will always run the show.

Sure the coach runs the team but the AD runs show or should run the show. If not then why have an AD. However, it is donors who have the last word.

[The Sultan]

Sultan - Right. What I was told about a week ago is that the big donors ( that will step up to pay guys like James and Parham ) told Broeker and Shaka that it ain't happening if Shaka continues this
Shyte. 

I think all of them ( SS, Broeker, Prez.
Tic Tok ) would LOVE to run RGV back.
Cuz they are so proud of sticking to their " principles " while producing the worst team, and possibly worst roster since Dukiet.

But, do this again next year and at least 2 of the above 3 "leaders " will be gone.

I don't think any of them would rather stick to their "principles" if it means going through this season again. I just think they were overly confident than their "principles" would produce results.

[HutchwasClutch]

James and Parham clearly look to be potentially first team all conference players next year already.  A big and a PG, two critical pieces for any program to advance deep in March. 

Stevens is very good and will have games occasionally where he's great as he keeps maturing. 

That's three excellent foundational pieces. 

Sheek and Egbouno if recruiting rankings are close to accurate, are good newcomers next year who can both contribute immediately.  A long athletic big and versatile combo player. 

Add just two good and experienced transfers with these 5 and suddenly this is a top 25 team. 

Things are definitely looking up.  Much work to do still. 

[JTJ3]

I don't think any of them would rather stick to their "principles" if it means going through this season again. I just think they were overly confident than their "principles" would produce results.

This.  Shaka miscalculated that internal development would be enough again this year.

But he knows it.  And he wants to win as much or more than any of us, dont think it really took any convincing for him to use the portal after this year.  The Big East is wide open next year and we have the resources to add multiple significant pieces to help the younger core.

[79Warrior]

I don't think any of them would rather stick to their "principles" if it means going through this season again. I just think they were overly confident than their "principles" would produce results.

Exactly. They tried and it did not work. Adjustments are coming. The assumption Mike and Shaka won't make changes is laughable. What they will stick to is the new fellas coming in must buy into the culture. Keep an eye on guys Shaka was in on in the past.

[The Sultan]

I don't think any of them would rather stick to their "principles" if it means going through this season again. I just think they were overly confident than their "principles" would produce results.

I also think they thought the typical MU fan cared more about RGV than they actually do. Most just like winning.

[Jay Bee]

#SmokeAndMirrors

Until he takes out a full-page ad in the JS apologizing for the offensiveness of RGV in the Spirit Shop, none of this talk means a thing.

[Tha Hound]

I'm certainly not going to give props to Shaka and the admin for trying to rectify the mess they've gotten us into. This was, outside of some incredible growth from the current roster next year, the only option on the table if those involved wanted to keep their jobs.

But it is good to at least have it confirmed that not only will they be using the portal, but that it's already been discussed mid-season which should allow them to properly scout and lay the groundwork for transfers.

Repeating myself, but from here we need at least two big east starter caliber transfers. A center being a non-negotiable and ideally a 3 then a 2 in order of importance IMO. 

Make that happen and I think we're set up very well for to compete again next year and we can begin to put this crap behind us. 

[wadesworld]

Exactly. They tried and it did not work. Adjustments are coming. The assumption Mike and Shaka won't make changes is laughable. What they will stick to is the new fellas coming in must buy into the culture. Keep an eye on guys Shaka was in on in the past.

Our best and brightest poster says those are the guys Shaka will NOT go after because he's a "grudge guy" and they spurned him and he'll never forget.

[panda]

Shaka announcing he is going to fix this roster

[jfp61]

Shaka announcing he is going to fix this roster

We just watched a bad Xavier team put up 1.331 PPP againist Marquette.

And people are being positive.

Gross

[Vander Blue Man Group]

"All the sense in the world?"
Explain further.

Why NMD? Because the broader Marquette community - not just us Scoop nerds - is more likely paying attention on NMD than a mid-afternoon road game on Valentine's Day against one of the conference's worst teams.
Newsmakers typically want to reach the largest audience possible, at least when it's news they're happy to share. They instead intentionally chose a time and date with a smaller audience.
It's not quite a Friday afternoon news dump, and I don't think they're trying to bury anything, but it feels either oddly random or targeted to a specific crowd. And that's curious to me.

I simply think they want NMD to be it's own "celebration".  Not a day to release some news that could overshadow it.  Same goes for senior day.

Announcing it yesterday vs. NMD is not going to make any difference in regard to it reaching the right audience (donors, prospective transfers, etc.). 

[Elonsmusk]

We just watched a bad Xavier team put up 1.331 PPP againist Marquette.

And people are being positive.

Gross

You've been a big Chase Ross fan over the years.  Any thoughts around his fall off defensively, and offensively this season?  His 91 O-Rating in Big East play, including his dud yesterday sure doesn't help a squad win. 

Shaka has had 1 year in the last 14, prior to this year where his teams weren't ranked Top 50 in Defense, and that was Year 1 at MU.  I look at this year as an outlier.