Taking count

[RubyWiscy]

Okay, in the last two weeks or so MU has:

Lost:
1 coaching staff - Crean, et al
2 top recruits - Williams & Tayler
1 roster player - Christopherson

Christopherson was gone even if Crean stayed

Williams was gone the second Crean left. Thus, Buzz wasted little effort trying to change his mind.

Tayler held enough potential to keep that it warrented a plane ride. Perhaps Buzz would have succeeded if Hurley wasn't "embarassed" by having one of his prize players suddently attending a school without a big name coach. (My interpretation, but with his comments, grandstanding and efforts to make MU look like the bad guy in this, you have to wonder. He completely excuses Crean's behavior, but bashes MU for playing by the rules.)

While both of the recruit losses hurt because they are highly regarded, they are both guards. An argument can be made that we have a lot of quality guards at the moment. Would MU have been hurt more by the loss of the big men in O'Tule and Eric Williams?


Gained:
1 new head coach - Williams
2 player commitments to stay - DJ & JM
3 recruts reaffirmed - '08 O'Tule & Fulce, '09 Williams
1 new '08 recruit - Butler
1 more scholarship to give

While Buzz was not a fan pleasing hire, he seems to have satisfied the current players on the roster and a majority of the recruits. Time will tell if he is really up to the task at MU.  However, he is now the coach and deserves a fair chance.

Replacing the lost recruits and player with at least one nice multi-demensional player, Butler, seems to be a good start. He has one more spot to offer. Let's see what he can do.


All-in-all a very disconcerting few weeks at MU. However, not a disaster by any means. How many players has Indiana lost since Crean, a highly reguarded coach, stepped in? Not really a fair comparison, but makes my point that things could be looking a lot worse at this point. Instead, I think things are starting to look up. Maybe MU can now start to attract some quality big men to go along with their great guards.

[sailwi]

We also lost a potential 09 recruit from Ohio that verballed to the former coach whose name we do not mention at IU, we may get a better player in the end but that is also part of the casualty list at this point.

[ChicosBailBonds]

Can I ask a question, I've seen it posted several times that Scott was gone even if Crean had stayed...where is this coming from?  I know people are saying he wasn't a Big East player...well he just signed with a Big 12 team, not exactly chopped liver either.

Did Scott say something or is someone in the know that SC was gone for sure regardless of what happened?  Just curious where this is coming from.

[MUCam]

All of SC's remarks seem to indicate that Crean's departure was the reason he has chosen to transfer out. I think he sticks around if Crean stays. Whether he would ever have played a significant role is up for speculation.

[mufan924]

granted i'm pretty anal about spelling, but there are some awful miscues in there

[bilsu]

1. There is no guarantee that Williams actually comes here, but as of now he is.
2. We were one over the limit so at least one player had to go. Crean was actively recruiting Holloway and a center prospect, so that isan indication that at least two players were going. I always thought that Hazel would leave, but in all of this there really was no mention of him transferring. There also was really no mention of Culliban transferring as this board often speculated. As they say where there is smoke there is fire. I think Mbakwe was going to transfer. That would be a reason why the red shirt was pulled. It also may have been Crean's attempt to convince him to stay, if Crean perceived that playing would make him happier. I think Christopherson liked Crean and may have stayed if he did, but he was never going to play any significant minutes here especially if Williams and Taylor showed up. I think Crean gave out one two many scholarships with the belief that James was not coming back and still had this in the back of his mind. I think he believed Mbakwe was leaving. I also think there was a much greater possibility of McNeal leaving if James left. I believe the three amigos now complete their career together. I think Crean was envisioning a team without Mbakwe, James and McNeal and felt his assistants including Buzz and his recruits would follow him to Indiana.

Crean's team vs Buzz's

Burke vs Burke
Matthews vs Matthews
Hayward vs Hayward
Aker vs Aker
O'Tule vs O'Tule
Hazel vs Hazel
Fulce vs Fulce
Culliban vs Culliban
Williams vs McNeal
Taylor vs James
Christoperson vs Butler
Holloway vs Mbakwe
Open vs Open

While the makeup of Crean's team is only a guess, I think Crean perceived this as a possiblity and knew next year would be very tough in a league that seems to be even stronger next year. Without James, McNeal and Mbakwe I do not think we win enough games in the Big East next year to make the NCAA's or maybe even the NIT. This would be another reason why Crean was willing to jump into the disaster at Indiana. If he loses at Indiana it will not be his fault, but if he losses at MU it would be. He left too quickly without giving MU a chance to counter which seems odd to me. Either he was panicking about next year's team or felt that the support under him was eroding. If support was eroding it would have eroded even more if we had a poor year without James, McNeal and Mbakwe. For him going to Indiana was a smart move, but he should have done it with more class. If my assumptions are correct, Crean leaving actually saved next year's season for MU. The question now becomes how does Buzz survive the season after the three amigos, which was going to be a problem for who ever the coach was.

[MarquetteDano]

Wow Bilsu, a major theory there.  Some of that may be true.  I would be surprised if all of it is.  Nonetheless, interesting theory.

[wadesworld]

Can I ask a question, I've seen it posted several times that Scott was gone even if Judas had stayed...where is this coming from?  I know people are saying he wasn't a Big East player...well he just signed with a Big 12 team, not exactly chopped liver either.

Did Scott say something or is someone in the know that SC was gone for sure regardless of what happened?  Just curious where this is coming from.

I was over at his place the day he signed with Iowa State and obviously this wasn't the only reason he transferred but he said he didn't enjoy being in the inner city as much as he thought he would.  We talked about how we both like it here but feel like there is a possibility that we would be happier somewhere else.  The way he talked about it that night made it seem like he would've left whether or not Judas was still here, but I'm not positive as I didn't really want to come out and just ask him anything he might not want to talk about.  So again, not sure if he would've been gone or not, but the way he talked about it it seemed like he might've been out either way.